by M.A.
I can hear naïve little Jennifer faking a cough. Her ability to become ill on the first day of school is amazing. Just listen to the sneeze followed by the cough then as her finale a sweet little look in her eyes that just breaks your heart, oh how I know that look, it doesn't even affect me much anymore. It was almost exactly the same every year. Both of my parents are in Jennifer and my room fawning over her and deciding whether or not she could go to school. I walk in the bedroom without anybody noticing and I just watch in amazement, they're falling for it again! I can tell , there are three things my parents do that assures Jennifer that they're wrapped around her little eight year old finger. Here come the sympathetic eyes, my mom giving my dad a look that makes him confused about the situation, and my dad after a while gives in, he always rolls his eyes and sighs when that happens. Then they leave, pick up the phone and start dialing the school number to tell them Jennifer won't be in today.
I can no longer let her go on with this charade. I try to fight the urge to tattle but it over powers me when I see Jennifer's devious little grin. "She's faking!" I yelled.
My parents turn around and start to walk towards the room. I cover my mouth and felt my eyes pop up. My parents go into the room and at the same time give me a glare, as to say you'd better be right. My parents are no fans of monkey business. My mom bent down against the bed to look her in the eyes.
She said "Are you pretending again?" in a very sweet, dainty, non threatening tone. Jennifer remained motionless and thunderstruck, no emotion was on her face unless you count the much anticipated, irritated look she always gives me when she's upset with me. My mom asked her a second time but this time she was a little more aggressive. Jennifer just sat there and kept looking at me. I looked at my dad because, I must admit she was getting to me, he looked aggravated and annoyed. He must have reached his boiling point because he declared she was going to school no matter what.
Fortunately for Jennifer my parents had to go to work, so they didn't have time to lecture her about the effect of not going to school. They made Jennifer get ready for school at a speed I didn't even think was possible. But they got it done. We all had to run into the car so Jennifer and I wouldn't miss the bus. My dad drove as fast as he could. We arrived right in the knick of time because the bus was loading. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
The bus wasn't a school bus it was a city bus, the school bus doesn't go past our apartment. After a two minute search for two seats next to each other we sat down. It's a thirty minute drive from our apartment to our school. The neighborhood we live in is full of undocumented immigrants, just like us. It isn't as bad as people think it is. There aren't many gunshots at night and not many people resort to stealing things. They are all hard working people. The only thing that's bad about it is that the school in our district is atrocious, so we make the thirty minute trek to bank on a dream that someday my dad's sweat and toil will pay off if we try hard enough at school.
"Jennifer, why do you try to get out of going to school?" I said.
"It's no fun and it's not important to me." She responded.
"Did you know that some kids don't even get the option to go to school?"
"Lucky them! They get to play."
"Jennifer, they would kill for the chance to go to a school like ours."
"It's not that great!" She said with a smug attitude.
"They don't even have the luxury of air conditioning."
I went on about how kids in third world countries have nothing to their names, and she can go buy anything she wants. How long do you have to be in America before you get spoiled? Our stop was coming near and we were getting ready to get off the bus.
"Now do you understand why I didn't want you to miss school?" I said.
"Yes" she responded.
We got off the bus and started to walk the rest of the way to school. We had about an hour until school started. We have to arrive at school early because we never know when the bus is coming.
