Jose emerged from his third-period math class among the
stream of students flooding out of the classroom. His mind was on Call
of Duty when he spotted his girlfriend Rosa coming down the narrow
white corridor of their high school. She ran up to him and gave him a
hug. Before she could get a word out, Jose said, "guess what
babe?" "Big JC Accepted my friend request to play on my team in
Call of Duty."
Rosa grinned and said, "wow, ¡hola to you too." "No, but
that's great for you. I'm glad he accepted your invitation."
"Well, I better get to biology."
Jose grinned back and
said, "yeah and I've got history."
They went their separate ways. As Rosa approached
the end of the hall where her classroom stood on the right and a door leading
to an alley stood across the hall on the left, two large muscular men in gray
suits with steel gray hair entered the alley door. They approached
Rosa and one bent down and whispered something to her. She got a
very concerned look on her face and the men each took an arm and led
her outside. Once they were outside, the men ushered Rosa into a black
Lincoln Town Car with tinted windows.
As soon as they were inside, the car sped
away. John, a tall lanky senior with collar-length black hair
wearing faded blue jeans and a black leather jacket and
his friend, Zach, a slightly shorter blond boy wearing jeans and
a blue jacket and red arms with a circular red dragon logo on the back, had
been standing at the end of the hall near the exit door watching the
events transpire. They ran outside after the men and as the car sped away
John said, “I can't see the plate from this angle.”
Zach took off running
with his iPhone in his hand attempting to get a picture of the license plate,
but the car moved too quickly down the street and out of sight around a
corner. As the boys returned inside, John said to Zach, "we've got
to find out what just went down. That was my boy, Jose's girlfriend, Rosa,
they just took off with." "Jose may not know it yet, but I've
got his back now that we're Call of Duty partners." Zach
said, "and you know I've always got your back, bro!"
Zach folded his arms across his chest and arched an eyebrow knowingly. John Snarkily stared at his own shoes.
In that moment Jose racked his brain and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "You're JC! You're BIG JC801! The top Call of Duty player in North America! Man you're amazing! I can't believe that I've been going to school with an internet legend!"
“He wouldn’t be a legend if it weren’t for his outstanding backup he gets from me.” Zach retorted.
John looked at his brother and asked, “Did you get any good pictures of the license plate?
“No, they are blurry as hell.” Zach said as he whipped out his iPhone.
Jose looked up and down the long hallway of Andrew Taylor High School, His whole world spinning back to his primary problem. Suddenly the panic hit him afresh. "What am I going to do!" he said with both hands grasping his forehead.
"What are WE going to do, you mean.” John said to Jose as he put his hands on his shoulders more to keep him from bouncing off the walls than to comfort him.
“Ya we are in this together now.” said Zach.
Jose looked at the two brothers calming himself, “Okay… What are WE going to do then.”
John looked at his brothers iPhone and said, I think perhaps we should go to our uncle Mac’s place, he might be able to sharpen these photos a bit. He will know how we should proceed. He taught us everything we know about computers and the internet.”
The two brothers picked up their backpacks and headed out of the school door.
“You mean skip class?” Jose said nervously.
“Ya you do want to know what happened to your girl don’t you.” Zach said.
Jose looked down the hall at the door to the history classroom door. Jose said, “Mr. Brown Never take attendance anyway.” and he followed the brothers out the door.
