Hector (5 page)

It wasn’t just the fighting. There were a lot of other reasons
why Abel was his hero, so hearing him say he was disappointed in Hector was all
it took to get his ass scrambling. He needed to figure out a way to get into a
good school, even if it meant waiting until the winter session since it was way
too late for fall.

The day he’d gone down to East Side U, he did so for one
reason—to see about trying out for their coveted chess team. He thought he
could just go down there, show the instructors his skills, and just like that
he’d be in. Unfortunately, that’s not how it worked, and with the fall semester
already well underway, there was no other way he could think of getting into
that particular school. So it was back to the drawing board because Hector was
determined to get in one way or another.

Then something came up. In high school, Hector had refused to
join what he referred to as the “nerd fest”—the chess club. Chess was another
thing Abel had gotten him into. Abel played for fun and was pretty good, but he
quickly realized Hector wasn’t just good but he had an exceptional gift for the
game. Next thing he knew, they were on a bus to Santa Monica to play with the
hard-core chess players at the chess park on the beach.

That’s where he’d met Sam, a retired, cranky-as-shit Army vet and
chess grandmaster with many championship titles under his belt. Abel had taught
Hector the basics. Hector had tossed in his own spin on the game, stepping it
up so much he impressed the hell out of Abel. But Sam, Sam was why he was here
today, why he thought he had so much as a prayer at winning a knockout tournament
that would get him on the US under-20 chess team—a team that would be playing for
a spot in the Junior World Olympiad later this year. Sam had trained him and
taught him everything he knew about mastering the game. Most importantly, Sam
thought Hector had this.

Even with all the smaller events he’d won over the years and the
online tournaments he’d taken first place in over and over, Hector never
thought he’d be playing in major knockout event like this. But having played
and won in the World Olympiad more than once himself, Sam recommended Hector be
entered in a chance to make a team that would be trying out for it. A week
later, Hector was invited.

At first, Hector was hesitant. Then Sam mentioned some of the
team players for East Side University chess team were already on the US under-20
team and the trainers for the school team would be at today’s event: trainers
that Sam said would no doubt notice Hector even if he didn’t win. Getting
noticed by them this way might get him invited on the school team. This was his
chance at early admission to the spring semester. Hector wanted nothing more
than for Abel to take back how disappointed he’d been with him about not taking
school more seriously. He hadn’t even told Abel about today. He was hoping to
surprise him.

Getting out of his truck in the quickly filling parking lot, Hector
looked around for Sam. Sam was meeting Hector there and had told him to get
there early. This was Hector’s biggest tournament ever. Sam had been pushing
him for years to enter some. When he was younger, he’d been in a few, but then
puberty hit, and once Hector discovered girls, forget about it. He already knew
from his brother and some of the other guys at the gym that girls had a thing
for boxers. And did
they
ever!
Somehow he knew saying he was a chess player and won lots of
tournaments wouldn’t have quite the same effect on girls as it did when he
mentioned winning a bout.

Add to that, physically, because of all the training he did at
the gym, he was bigger and had a lot more muscle to flaunt than most boys his
age, starting very early on. So the attention he received from the female
population at his school won out every time Sam mentioned a new tournament.
Sitting and playing chess for hours on a Saturday was up there on his list of
things he liked doing. But once the options were that or steaming up the
windows of his truck for hours on a Saturday instead, the latter won hands down
every time. He knew it annoyed the hell out of the old man, but certainly Sam had
to understand that for any guy, but especially one like Hector in his prime,
the choice was a no-brainer.

Hector didn’t see Sam’s old Volkswagen van anywhere. It was hard
to miss. Although, ironically, Sam had it custom painted to look Army
camouflage, it stood out like the eyesore that it was everywhere he went.

Doing a double take, Hector stared at the guy getting out of a beat-up
car two spaces over. “Walter?”

Walter turned to him, at first expressionless, then he smiled.
“Hey, we meet again.”

“Yeah,” Hector reached out for Walter’s guy handshake, trying to push
away that still-lingering guilt that hadn’t completely disappeared even after
making amends with Walter, “under better circumstances this time.”

Walter chuckled. “I know. My face ain’t being kicked into the ground
this time.”

Hector smiled and motioned to the beat-up car Walter had just gotten
out of. “And I see you got some wheels now too.”

“Yeah, well,” Walter shrugged, “when it’s running anyway.”

Thoughts about Walter’s car were pushed back by thoughts of the
beating Walter took. “You all healed up now, though? Were your ribs okay? I
remember you were hurting bad.”

Walter pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Not broken
but I did have hairline fracture. By the next day, it hurt to even breathe, and
I ended up in the emergency room. One had the fracture; the others were just
bruised real
bad
.”

Hector winced. “Ouch, I’ve been punched in the ribs before but
never bad enough to have anything fractured.”

“Yeah,” Walter nodded. “It was no fun, let me tell you. I was
down for days.”

It still pissed Hector off that those pussies had ganged up and
beat on him like that, especially since he was already down. “So those guys
ever bother you again?”

“Nah.”
Walter shook his head. “That
school is so damn big. I don’t know if they’re avoiding me or I just haven’t
run into them again.”

“Well, that’s good.” They moved off to the side of the crowds
walking toward the auditorium. Walter seemed to be taking in the crowd or
looking for someone as they stood there for a moment without saying anything. Hector
remembered another thing he had always wondered about. Although he had an idea
of what had happened, he still wanted to know. He may never get another chance
to ask.

“So what happened to you, man? End of school year, you disappeared.
Did you move?”

Walter’s eyes met his for a moment, but then he shook his head and
continued to glance around. After a few awkward silent moments, he finally
spoke. “I just decided to get my GED and get out. I hated high school.”

Knowing Walter was a top student the entire four years, Hector
knew he didn’t mean he hated the academics part of high school like most kids. Hector
knew exactly what Walter hated about school. He hated what Hector and his
friends had put him through all those years. Even though he had the incredible
urge to apologize once more, he decided he wouldn’t go there again, so he
nodded and let it go.

“I was still able to get into East Side, and . . .,” he turned
his head, and Hector turned to see what had distracted Walter: a passing car that
parked nearby. Two girls got out of the car—a blonde and a redhead.

Walter’s shoulders went limp, and he backed up and leaned his
elbow against a brand-new Mustang behind him that still had the dealership
plates on. His demeanor went from awkwardly shy and quiet like he normally
acted to this weird smug guy leaning on his own brand-new Mustang, almost as if
he were trying to show off. As the girls got closer, he looked around with the
goofiest expression on his face. “Yeah, I’ve been working out a few times a
week.”

Hector turned to the girls, wondering if maybe he was talking to them.
When he realized he wasn’t, because the girls weren’t even looking at him, he
turned back to Walter. “Huh?”

When the girls got even closer, Walter very obviously sucked in
his big gut and lifted a flabby arm. In a somewhat strained voice, he spoke
again. “Yeah, I bench about thirty pounds on a bad day, about fifty the rest of
the time.”

“Hey, Walter,” the redhead in a ponytail said, “new car?”

Seeing the ridiculous expression go even stupider, Hector finally
figured out what Walter was doing. It was obvious he was about to lie about the
car being his when the alarm on the car went off, startling Walter, whose elbow
slipped off the car, and he nearly fell.

The blond girl squealed as the sudden blaring alarm startled her as
well, and then both girls laughed and continued walking but not before the
redhead glanced in Hector’s direction for just a split second. That’s when he
realized who she was—Charlie—the same girl that was there the day Hector saved
Walter’s ass, the one Walter had been so upset about not being able to make a
connection
with.

Never having been or even hung around with any girls but those with
dark features, he was caught by her big deep blue eyes just as he had been that
first day he saw her. But just like that day, it was only for a moment because
she turned away too quickly. Hector turned to a now-back-to-awkward-and-frowning
Walter. “What the hell was that about?”

Walter rolled his eyes, kicking a bottle cap on the floor.
“Nothing you’d know about.” He kicked the bottle cap even harder. “Crap on a
stick! Just like last time and all the other times, it never fails. I always
end up making an ass out of myself instead of impressing her.”

Hector couldn’t help laughing as they both started toward the
doors of the auditorium where the event was taking place. “What exactly was
supposed to impress her: you sucking your gut in or the fact that you could
bench fifty pounds?” He laughed even more now. “Because let me tell you fifty
pounds ain’t shit. For a guy your size, you might want to up that to more than
two hundred.”

Walter turned to him, incredulous.
“Over two
hundred?
Are you
crazy!
”

“Nope,” Hector said, looking around again for Sam then back at
Walter. “And it wouldn’t kill you to actually get your ass in a gym if you
really want to impress this girl.” He reached over and patted Walter’s soft
middle. “Getting in shape would probably help your little dilemma, you know.
Girls appreciate the effort we put into getting our bodies nice and hard.”
Hector lifted his arm and flexed with a smirk. “And they show their
appreciation in real nice ways.”

Walter rolled his eyes, flinging his backpack over his shoulder
as they reached the auditorium doors and walked in ahead of Hector. “Yeah,
that’s easy for guys like you to say.”

With Sam nowhere in sight, Hector decided he may as well go in also.
“Wait up. Are you here for the tournament too?”

Walter stopped, turning to look at Hector wide-eyed. “You’re in
the tournament?” He shook his head, frowning when Hector nodded. “You play
chess well enough to be invited to one of these things?”

Hector shrugged. “I’m here, right?”

Walter shrugged, imitating Hector. “Oh, yeah, of course, because
it’s not enough that you look like this.” He lifted a finger up and down in
front of Hector. “And that the girls in high school went crazy for the badass boxer
from 5
^th
Street, but you’re smart too?” Walter dropped his head back,
looking almost disgusted.

Hector laughed. “You’ve always known I wasn’t stupid. We had a
lot of the same AP classes together, remember?”

“Yeah, but to play chess at this level—” Walter stopped suddenly
and raised a bushy eyebrow. “You do know this is a speed tournament, right?
Thirty minute games and that there’s players here that flew in from all over
the world—places like the Soviet Union and Romania—just to get on this team?”

Sam had explained some of that vaguely to Hector, but being here
now and having it spelled out for him was starting to make him nervous. Not
wanting to let Walter in on his teetering nerves, he played it off by shrugging
again. “Yeah, I know,” he said as the self-doubt sunk in fast.

Charlie and her friend walked by them and Walter’s shoulders went
all limp again as the goofball smile once again made an appearance. He bobbed
his head up and down then actually bit his bottom lip and held his teeth there
as he continued bobbing his head. Charlie smiled at him while the blonde looked
away, and Hector could only assume she was trying not to laugh. “The team is
sitting over there,” Charlie said, pointing toward a group by the back door.

She glanced at Hector again, giving him another glimpse of those
dramatically blue eyes, but like all the other times, she quickly looked away,
and she and her friend kept walking.

After a few seconds of staring at the back of her head and that intensely
scarlet ponytail, Hector brought his attention back to Walter, who was still
doing the slumped shoulder thing and bobbing his head. “
Why
are you doing that?”

Walter looked at him and stopped. “It’s called muted confidence.
Read about it. I’m giving her the impression that I’m cool, confident, and just,
you know,
chillin
’.” He started bobbing his head
again.

Hector couldn’t help laughing again. “You’re giving her the impression
that you’re a moron. You look like an idiot. What’s with the biting your lip
shit?”

“It’s sexy!”

“No, it isn’t.” Hector laughed even more but made an effort to
not ridicule Walter. The guilt of having done that to him for years was
something he was still dealing with. He cleared his throat and stopped laughing,
especially since he saw Walter’s expression go all serious as he gazed in her
direction.

“So her name is really Charlie?”

“Yeah, but not like a guy. It’s Charlee spelled with a double e
at the end.” Walter took a deep breath. “Charlee Brennan. Isn’t she beautiful?”