INDICA ♔ ON MY BLOCK [OSCAR DIAZ]

TWO

    Ximena laid on her bed, her eyes straight up towards the ceiling as she heard the muffled sounds of metal clinging. The girl could hear Jamal in the garage from her room as he began to get ready to leave with Oscar and Cesar.

They were really going to do it, they were going to disturb someone's grave for Cuchillos.

I have to go, Ximena thought to herself. No, you can't, you can't make yourself an accomplice. But, you also can't let them go alone, especially trusting Oscar. What if they all get caught? And are mistaken as grave robbers? You have to go, just to supervise.

Ximena quickly sprung out of bed, stripping her current clothes for skinny black jeans followed by a blacked out hoodie. She slipped on dark shoes, ones that she wouldn't mind getting dirty and pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

Ximena slowly opened the door to the garage, watching as Jamal practically emptied his father's tool box into a random duffel bag.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, stepping closer into the room.

"I'm overpacking," Jamal explained, "You never know what you'll need in these types of situations." The boy looked up from what he was currently doing, at his friend, beginning to take in her new appearance. He began to noice the attire, "Wait, why are you dressed like that?"

Ximena couldn't help but to let her lips twisted up into a smile at Jamal's reaction as he shook his head. "No, fuck no. Definitely not. You're not coming."

"Why not?" Ximena whined.

"You were just against this whole idea twenty minutes ago!" Jamal reminded.

"Well, I changed my mind," Ximena lied, nonconvincingly.

"You're only doing this because you want to keep an eye on Oscar," the teenager rolled his eyes, earning a scoff from the brunette.

She continued to play dumb, playfully placing her arms over her chest, "I am not."

"You are to, and I am not letting you mess anything up," Jamal put his foot down, not letting up.

The girl gave him a daring look and her eyebrow twitched. "Fine," she gritted through her teeth before storming out of the garage.

    "Freeze!" Jamal slowly turned around to see his father dressed in his nighttime rope, Ximena by his side.

His father had a stern look on his face as he pointed to his son while Ximena looked pleased with herself.

"Put that shovel down," Mr. Turner demanded, "you are not going to dig another hole, especially when you're still in one."

"You snitched?" Jamal hissed towards Ximena, who just smirked in response.

"You never paid off the money to the coach for the damage that you did to that field," Mr. Turner continued his lecture, "But, your debt has been wiped away."

Jamal let out a sigh of relief as he smiled, "Fantastic!"

"With my check book!" His father yelled, beginning to step towards him, "You know, I was going to let it slide but not that I see you back to digging-"

Ximena placed her hand over her mouth as she began to giggle as Jamal's scared reaction.

"I'm just-" the teenager stuttered, trying his best to come with an excuse, "helping Cesar with some yard work."

"You're going to pay me back," Mr. Turner raised his finger, "but seriously, son, I'm concerned that you have a disorder, a compulsion for digging that you can't control. And perhaps you'd stop digging outside if you start digging inside and figure out why you can't stop."

Ximena's acting skills came into play as she exhaled deeply, shaking her head, "Ugh, I couldn't have explained it better myself. You know, I tried to tell him the same thing."

"You shut up!" Jamal gestured to her, making her giggle even more, as he turned to his father, "Dad, I can't stop because my life might be on the line. I dug those holes to find the RollerWorld money, and I found it, laundered it and then lost it trying to save Cesar and bring down the Prophets. And now? Some scary, sexy old lady with a knife fetish wants us to find some veterano who supposedly died thirty years ago. And to make sure he's not still dead, we're digging up his grave."

Mr. Turner's eyes slowly trailed from his son back to Ximena, searching her expressions for a reasonable answer. The girl held back her laughter before simply shrugging, "I have no idea what he's talking about, sir."

Jamal's eyes focused on the girl, muttering under his breath as he stared at her, "You little pendej-"

"You know what, Jamal? I believe you."

"You do?" Both Ximena and Jamal questioned.

Mr. Turner nodded his head, taking another step closer, "I believe that you believe what you're saying but RollerWorld is a myth, there's no knife lady and Bigfoot is a fairy tale!"

"I didn't say anything about Bigfoot!" Jamal argued back.

"But what is real? Is debt. You're gonna pay it off by putting in time at the joint. You better get some sleep because first thing in the morning we're gonna talk about your new work schedule. And just like that shovel, it's gonna be heavy."

Jamal's mouth remained wide open with shock as he watched his father exit the room. Ximena began to snicker, carefully placing one foot in front of the other as she circled around the boy.

"Wow," she dryly laughed, "work at the joint, huh? I guess you should've just taken me along when I asked you to the first time."

"I'm going to get you back for this," The boy narrowed his eyes at her, his nostrils flaring in anger.

Ximena grabbed the shovel that was hanging on the wall behind Jamal, "I doubt it. Now come on, we're already late."