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who didn’t get ripped off by the big coffee companies. But I bet those people were still real poor because if they weren’t, why would they spend all day picking coffee beans for rich Americans who spend so much money on one cup of coffee that they could have bought five breakfast burritos instead?
    Anyway, Harvey is from Nicaragua so when he came here they put him in ESL class because he had a real big accent and nobody could understand him for about a year and after that they realized he was some kind of genius so they switched him to Advanced Placement where he has been kicking Anglo ass ever since.
    Harvey is short and round and everybody calls him Gordito but he has a mustache and a girlfriend who has been engaged to him for two whole years. I’m tall and skinny and I have about three hairs on my chin and the longest I ever had a girlfriend was for one week. I met Angela when I was working as a bagger at Kmart over at White Sands Mall and she worked at Chick-fil-A. I probably wouldn’t have even met her except we got off work at the same time and we both liked that bourbon chicken from the Chinese takeout. The first couple times I saw her, I didn’t say anything because she wastoo pretty to talk to. But the third time I saw her, she brought her bourbon chicken over and sat down at the same little table where I was sitting and said, “Hi, I’m Angela,” and after that she was my girlfriend.
    A couple days later, we were walking around the mall after work and Angela said she was cold, so I bought her a leather jacket. The next day, she said she didn’t want to miss my calls, so I bought her a cell phone. Then I didn’t see her at work for a couple days, so my cousin Graciela who is in the same class with Angela drove me over to Tularosa where Angela lives. When I knocked on the door, this big buff
güero
answered the door and told me to get lost and leave his girlfriend alone or he would mess me up good. I said what about all the stuff I bought her and he said, “That’s your loss, sucker.” He poked his finger in my chest, too, right in front of
mi prima.
I got so mad I drove like a maniac all the way home and I drove into a irrigation ditch and hit a little tree and broke it. Graciela had to go to the hospital but she was all right and she didn’t sue me or anything because she’s family and she felt sorry for me because it took me about six months to pay for that stupid tree. And now I have to walk or skateboard everyplace because Papi took my car away and gave me a bicycle which I wouldn’t ride if you paid me because then everybody would see that I’m a loser.
    Harvey Castro rides a bike. He rides it every single day, even when it rains, but he never looks sweaty and his hair doesn’t move. He has this kind of long hair that he combsstraight back from his forehead and it never moves. I think it looks wack like those old TV game show guys but all the girls think Harvey is cute. That’s what they always say. “Ooh, Harvey is so cute.” And if the guys make fun of Harvey for being cute, he just laughs and says, “Do you want my autograph now while you can still afford it?”
    No matter what anybody says to Harvey, he won’t fight. He’s too smart to fight. In fact, he was going to be the valedictorian of his class when he graduates. I don’t even know if I’m going to graduate or not. It depends. But Harvey already has a scholarship to go to the University of New Mexico. He got invited to go to a bunch of other colleges, even some rich ones like Harvard, but he says he doesn’t want to go too far away in case his parents need him for something.
    Harvey should be the valedictorian because he has a 5.0 GPA on account of all his extra credits for taking college classes and being president of the student council and all kinds of community service stuff that he didn’t even have to do. The only time I ever did community service was when I got caught shoplifting. But last week, the principal at