Page 5

Mr. Lopez spoke, prompted by my exchange with Zack. “Yes, guys, I forgot to mention. White goes first. If you want it to be fair, you can rock paper scissors to decide.”

But the guy I sat across from was already a gentleman. He knew the rules and chose to give up his advantage.

There was a slight problem: I hadn’t played chess in a long time, but I hoped it would come back to me.

So I moved a pawn in front of the queen two spaces forward before opening my soda can.

Without hesitation, Zack moved his black pawn directly across from mine so that they were, in essence, face to face.

I was impressed that he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. That meant I was probably in trouble strategy-wise.

But I didn’t care. I’d only ever played for fun and there was only one time I won against my grandpa.

“Dr. Pepper, eh? That’s in my top ten drinks.”

I snickered. “You have a top ten?”

“Yeah, but I can’t tell you what’s number one in here.”

“Why?” When he flashed me a slight smirk, I knew he had to be talking about alcohol.

And I felt comfortable enough to tease him.

“I suppose it’s something disgusting,” I said, remembering the “Suicides” Ava and I used to make at the one convenience store in Nopal every summer.

A Suicide was nothing more than taking your plastic cup and pushing it against every single tab so that, at the end, you had a 32-ounce cup that had a little Coke, a splash of Sprite, some Dr. Pepper, Fanta, Hi-C, Mountain Dew Baja Blast, and whatever other drinks they had.

But there was enough sugar that we never cared.

“Nope.”

“So you’re not drinking Diet Pepsi with Red Hots?”

Laughing, he said, “That actually doesn’t sound half bad.”

“You’re right.”

“Except for the diet part.”

Still grinning, I scoured the board, trying to figure out what to do next. I decided to slide my bishop out three spaces so that it was on the same line as my pawn. No strategy, just getting my pieces out there so we could engage in battle.

I grew a little braver, now that the ice had been broken and we’d established a friendly banter.

A couple of the other kids were talking a little but the room was mostly silent.

Too much concentration, I supposed, but just being in that atmosphere made me feel smarter.

“So where are you from?” After unwrapping my sandwich, I took a bite.

He looked up from the board for a second. “I went to school here in Dalton. What about you?”

I feared telling him, because I knew how other kids felt about outcast Nopal. Already, I knew we were labeled as “those” kids. But he’d find out eventually anyway if we wound up doing this together every week. “Nopal.”

Fortunately, Zack nodded, giving me another easy smile. “Yeah? I’ve been there once or twice. Mom likes to go to the roadside markets there. A couple years ago we got cantaloupe, watermelon, and roasted chilies.”

How could I not like this guy? “Yeah, we do grow good stuff.”

“They grow mostly wheat here. My mom always says we live in Colorado’s breadbasket .”

“I think I’ve heard that before.” I took another bite of my sandwich as Zack unwrapped what appeared to be one filled with ham.

“Just think. We could be eating bread made out of wheat grown just south of here.” When he opened up a bag of Fritos, he added, “And these could have been made out of Colorado corn. Mom’s right. We grow food for the whole state here.”

Then he made a move on the board, leaving me to contemplate my next one.

It was hard to concentrate, though, because I quickly learned I’d rather just talk to him.

I’d never had this easy a conversation with a boy before.

Well, not since elementary school when we were five and basically unaware of sex.

“Have you lived in Dalton all your life?”

“Yeah. But it won’t be my permanent home.”

“Really?” I’d had that thought myself.

“Unless you want to farm, there’s not a lot here.”

This news shocked me—Dalton had always seemed to be the place.

As I made a move on the board, I said, “But Dalton’s big.

” Not compared to Denver or Colorado Springs or even Pueblo, but Dalton was the biggest city around.

It was where we did everything we couldn’t do in Nopal.

My brain began remembering the route the school bus took into town every morning.

“After school’s over, you could teach at the college or work as a mechanic or—there are all kinds of cool stores. Clothes, Walmart, the supermarket—”

“I have bigger plans.”

I was intrigued. As I fished a potato chip out of a clear sandwich bag, I asked, “What are they?”

“I don’t know exactly what yet, but I’m not gonna live my life here.

” He quickly made a move on the board again, making me feel like I was certainly up against a genius.

“My mom’s got the best job around, and there’s no way I’ll work there.

” He could read my confused look as I examined the board. “She works for DOC.”

Ah…DOC. I knew what that meant. The Department of Corrections.

Years earlier, DOC had expanded into the eastern plains, supposedly to give more jobs to the depressed economies in that part of Colorado, but most folks had grumbled about it.

Why wasn’t agriculture enough? I’d heard a lot of bad things about Corrections but hadn’t understood most of it.

“She makes good money but hates it. She’s miserable. I don’t want to work a job that makes me hate my life.”

“Yeah. That makes sense.” The thought also made me a little sad.

“So I don’t know for sure what I’m gonna do, but it’s not gonna be here. I’m not a farmer, and I don’t want to be a prison guard.” As I finally moved another piece, Zack said, “What about you?”

Did I really want to bare my soul to this guy?

Why not? We seemed to have an easy friendship forming. I’d already forgotten that he was kind of cute in a strange way, because his heart seemed to be like mine. “I’m not exactly sure yet, but I thought about acting or modeling or something like that.”

Making another move on the board, Zack then said, “You have a good face for it.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, so I just said, “Thanks,” trying not to blush or read too much into it. Fortunately, he didn’t elaborate or mention it again.

Our easy conversation continued, moving on to the topics of the classes we were taking and what we liked and didn’t like about them, our favorite TV shows, what we thought about high school in general, and more.

By the end of the half hour, we’d finished our lunches and our game, with Zack winning—but not without me putting his king in check once.

So at least I felt like I’d held my ground, even though I ultimately lost. It wasn’t a loss to be ashamed of.

After putting the games away, Mr. Lopez said, “Good job, everyone. We had one group who even played more than one game. If you haven’t finished, you can record where your pieces are on one of our game sheets and resume your game next week if you want—but there’s no obligation to do so.

” Soon, all the games were put away and Mr. Lopez closed the cabinet door.

“I hope to see all of you again next week. And bring a friend. I keep hoping the Chess Club will grow, so we can have tournaments, do something bigger. That’s my dream, guys.

Make it happen.” Mr. Lopez had a huge grin on his face as he ushered us through the door.

As the five of us kids walked through the library, Mr. Lopez somewhere behind us, we made our way into the hallway.

It had felt almost like I’d been in another world and now I was returning to reality.

The bell rang, announcing that we had five minutes to get to our first afternoon class, but before I could get away, Zack said, “Hey, I wanted to introduce you to my friend. Dani, this is Braden. Me and him have been best bros pretty much forever.” Braden nodded his head, giving me a shy smile.

“We’re probably going to leave this burg together. ”

“Yeah, probably.”

“We’ve been planning our escape for a long time and now we just have a few years left.”

Geez. And I’d just gotten here. Dalton didn’t seem so bad to me. “Try living in Nopal.”

Zack shrugged and then pointed at me with his thumb. “She’s good people. She reminds me of you and me. She’s one of us.”

I forced a smile but the whole time I was thinking, Wait’ll you meet my friend Ava.

That’ll change your mind. And, as if on cue, I heard Ava’s voice behind me.

“There you are!” As she approached, she gave a dismissive look toward my two new friends.

“Have you gotten this foolishness out of your system? We really need to get to class.”

I could tell by the look in her eyes that she wasn’t happy with me at all, but I didn’t care. I quickly introduced them to each other before Ava whisked me away, but I grinned back at Zack and Braden, tickled pink that I’d managed to do something without her…something that felt like a success.

And even though Ava mentioned later that she thought Braden was a little cute, she never came to Chess Club.

After months of trying to get me to stop going, she finally gave up.

But the weekly half hour spent with my new friend Zack was the beginning of the end of my toxic friendship with Ava, and I think she must have known on some level that she was losing her hold on me.

But Ava was no quitter.