Worlds Divided | j. baker

fifty eight

At the end of the car ride, which was evident by how they've been off of the freeway for a while, Alondra start looking out of the window to observe the neighborhoods. "Get your greasy forehead off the window. You're getting it dirty."

"I'm people-watching, pendejo."  Alondra didn't move, until Antonio lowered her window and then locked it so she couldn't put it back.  "I can't believe this bullshit."  She mumbled.

Suddenly feeling exposed with people now being able to see her, Alondra went back to laying across the back seat with her pillow and blanket.  It was basically her last position, so she went back onto her phone to send all of her friends snapchats.  "Are we almost there?  I wanna see mom."

"We're like 15 minutes from Calvillo, take a nap."

With no response, Alondra picked her phone back up and started spam-sending random pictures to everyone, but mainly Jordan and Serenity because they were sending some back too. From what Alondra knew from their routine FaceTime calls, her mom wouldn't be off work for another hour or two, so while she was a little bit upset about that, at least she could unpack and be done with everything before she got home. The 15 minutes practically flew by with the constant Snapchats and like five conversations Alondra was in, so when the car came to a stop and she heard the gear shift move, she shot up from her position and looked out the window.

"Oh, this is nice." Alondra dragged out, opening the door slowly so she wouldn't topple out of the backseat of the car. "No mames, mom has a garden here too?" Out of eagerness to see her family's home, Alondra started grabbing as much as she could and began walking to the front door of the house. Like many houses in the neighborhood, there wasn't a driveway, but their house had a fence that blocked off their small front lawn and front walkway from the sidewalk. However, since no one was home, that gate was locked, so Alondra had to standby with her stuff for her brothers to let her in.

Marcos and Antonio didn't take long to get her stuff out of their truck, so moments later, Antonio opened the gate with his key and then the front door. "Where's my room at?"

"You're not even inside the house yet." Marcos chuckled from behind her. "It's upstairs."

As the three were walking through the front door, Alondra groaned. "I have to go upstairs? But that's so far."

"You're an athlete, live with it."

Out of mock offense, kind of, Alondra's jaw dropped at her brother's words, but once the three were fully in the house, she wasn't able to respond because under a banner that spelled out "Welcome Back Alo" was her mom.  Without missing a beat, Alondra dropped everything she was holding, paying no mind to whether or not anything was fragile, and ran over to finally hug her. "What are you doing here?" Alondra currently had tears of joy and the hold on Teresa only tightened as if she was scared of losing her again.

"I live here, mija."  Teresa responded, turning ever so slightly to kiss her only daughter's temple.  Moments later, Antonio and Marcos were feeling left out and joined the two, forming one big family group hug in the middle of the family room.  "Te extrañamos muchísimo, sirenita."

"Creo que los extrañé más."  Alondra cried, trying to hug everyone despite only having two arms.

Pulling away from the hug, Teresa gently held Alondra's face and ran her thumbs under her eyes to wipe away all of the tears that had cascaded down.  "Come, I made all of your favorites while you were gone, it's in the kitchen.  Mijos, ponlo sus cosas en su habitación."

× × ×

Over the next few days, Alondra was practically going on tours with her family showing her everything, and she even met more family members that Marcos and Antonio hadn't seen for over a decade.  Apparently the three had taken the Christmas week off, so the four were all able to do anything and everything Alondra wanted.  Aguascalientes, despite the name, wasn't really close to any beaches or anything like Los Angeles was, but Alondra didn't mind in the slightest because of how her and her friends went like once a week.  With everything her family was showing her, she felt like she was part of a tourist group, especially when walking around and taking pictures of everything.

Also, apparently her grandparents owned a ranch, which is exactly where they were meant to go for Christmas.  But until then, she was maxxing out the storage on her phone and disposable cameras.  "Do you think these will all fit on my wall in my room?"  Alondra asked, simply holding up the little black and green cameras she had used.

"Maybe on a flash drive."  Marcos suggested.  "They'll last longer too because they won't degrade or rip."

"You could've just stopped at flash drive." Antonio said from the couch. The three were all sitting around, waiting for Teresa to finish breakfast before they left the house for their family ranch. "You've never been on a horse, verdad?"

Alondra, from her spot on the floor where she was completely sprawled out like a starfish, shook her head.  "The only time I ever saw a horse was when we went to fairs and they had pony rides for kids."

"You don't remember naming some of the horses when you were younger?"

"You let me name a horse?  As a child?"

"Three of them; Sprinkle, Peach, and Cheese."  Teresa called out from the kitchen, making Antonio and Marcos guffaw at the memory of her on the phone after each horse was born.  "You were only 2, mija.  That's probably why you don't remember."

"Dumbass."  Antonio laughed and then let out a high pitched yell when Marcos punched him.  "Ama, Marcos me golpeó!"

While Teresa scowled them from the kitchen, Alondra stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out why she would name a horse Cheese, before texting the new information to Jordan.  Ever since she's gotten to Mexico, the two have been going back and forth about their vacations.  Send pictures when you meet them was all he had to say before he added, dont ride them too hard ;)

Alondra just squinted at the text before she started typing, her nails hitting the screen and signaling to her brothers that she was in the middle of something.  Choke. <3

Yall ive never been to mexico so i was relying on tiktok and google maps for this 😭😭 literally based their house on some random house that i tapped on in aguascalientes on

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