Chapter 40

2 p.m. Tuesday

Lupe Fuentes looked terrified when she walked into the guidance counselor's office. She saw a well-dressed Latina woman sitting at the desk – definitely not the 22-year-old woman the school district had hired directly out of college at the first of the year.

"Come in, Lupe," Anita Lopez said with a smile. "I think you already know Andy and Elizabeth."

Lupe saw Andy sitting along the wall and relaxed. She gave him a small wave and he smiled back at her. The girl from the car this morning was sitting beside Andy. She also smiled at Lupe.

"What's going on?" she asked. Anita noticed the young woman directed the question to Andy Drayton.

"This is Mrs. Lopez from the school board," Andy said in a gentle voice that was far different than the harsh tones he had used when describing the events he'd witnessed. "She's going to ask you some questions."

"Is this about the scholarship?" Lupe asked hopefully.

"No," Andy said with a sad smile. "I'm afraid it's about what's happening here at the school."

Lupe's face fell and she glanced from Andy to Anita to Elizabeth. In her neighborhood, you didn't snitch – regardless of the circumstances.

"You told?" she asked.

"I had to," Andy said. "After you left this morning, I got into an argument with the principal. I suspect he has made some unflattering accusations about me so I had to defend myself. Now, Mrs. Lopez would like you to tell her what you've told me."

Anita Lopez hadn't been happy when Andy explained his idea to get Lupe to open up. But she also thought she understood the unspoken rules of the inner city.

"Are you in trouble?" Lupe asked, clearly upset that she had caused Andy problems.

"I don't think so," Andy said. "I just need you to tell Mrs. Lopez what you've already told me. Will you do that for me?"

Lupe looked at Andy for a moment and then nodded.

"I'll do it," she said. "For you."

"Thanks, Lupe," Andy said with a soft smile. "We've asked Elizabeth along to act as your advocate. Do you understand what that is?"

"Like my representative," Lupe stated. "Am I in trouble, too?"

"No, Miss Fuentes," Anita cut in. "You're absolutely not in trouble. Andy has already given me a synopsis of what he's witnessed and so has Elizabeth. I just need some information from you to tie everything together. Is that OK?"

"I guess," Lupe said in a small voice.

"Why don't you sit down?" Anita said. She moved from behind the desk and sat down opposite Lupe. Elizabeth pulled her chair to sit beside the girl. Andy had been instructed to move outside of Lupe's line of sight so no one could claim he influenced her answers. Her eyes followed him as he moved to a chair on the opposite wall, going so far to turn around in her seat to make sure he stayed in the room.

"Now, I need a little background on what led up to yesterday," Anita said softly. "Can you tell me anything that's happened to you personally or that you've witnessed? I don't want you to tell me anything you heard someone else say. Is that OK?"

"You want direct evidence and not hearsay," Lupe said. "I understand."

"Oh," Anita said, clearly shocked at the depth of the girl's knowledge. "That is exactly what I want."

"Whatever Andy told you is the truth," Lupe said. "He wouldn't lie to you."

"No one thinks he's lied," Anita said. "But, I need a second source before I can proceed. Elizabeth has told me what she witnessed this morning but I'm interested in the things that led up to Andy having to stand up for you yesterday."

"Oh," Lupe said with a slight nod. "I guess everything started right after Christmas. One of the girls from my building was mad at me so she told everyone that I am ... a virgin."

"Is that true, Sweetheart?" Anita asked.

"I don't see... ," Elizabeth cut in.

"I'm not ashamed of it," Lupe said. She turned to look at Andy for a moment. "Someday, when the time is right, I'll find the right man. Until then, I'm not going to lie and claim I am anything different than I am. Yes, I am a virgin. I plan to remain one until I graduate from Clairborne Benedict Preparatory School for Girls."

"Good for you," Anita said. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. I think most girls regret that they didn't wait."

"Particularly when they find themselves pregnant at 14," Lupe said with a firm nod. "Can I continue?"

"Absolutely," Anita said.

"Once the news got around school, that's when the Jacks started to make fun of me," Lupe continued. "It was only verbal harassment at that point. They called me Cherry Girl and the Virgin of Guadalupe. That's my full name, Guadalupe Maria Fuentes. It's was mostly stupid stuff so I ignored them.

"It got progressively worse as the year wore on. It went from stupid nicknames to threats in early spring. Dequan – that's the Jacks' leader, Dequan Thomas – he told me several times that he was going to take my virginity from me. It finally escalated last week on the school bus home.

"You have to understand how it is on the bus. It goes to the high school first, so the older kids sit in the back of the bus. The Jacks push and shove people out of their way until they're the first ones on at the middle school. They sit in the first three rows. The girls that get on have to run the gauntlet – that is, they have to walk down the aisle and the boys on the bus grope them or taunt them. I always stayed in the middle of two – uh, fat girls. They protected me by pushing up close to me. They didn't mind the attention, I guess."

"What happened Friday?" Anita asked.

"The girls had to stay after school," Lupe said. "They got caught smoking weed behind the school so they had after school detention for a week."

"A week of after school detention for being caught with drugs on campus?" Anita asked incredulously.

"It's weed," Lupe said nonchalantly. "If they got caught with H or meth, it would have been a week or two out of school. It really depends on who it is. If one of the Debs got nailed with weed, she'd be suspended for a semester or something. If it's me, I'd probably get the same punishment as a white kid. If it's one of the Latinos, it's usually a week after school for weed or a week out of school for anything stronger. With the nig-, the African-Americans, the teachers just look the other way."

"They look the other way?" Anita asked, her eyes wide.

"They're scared," Lupe said. "Last year, one of the teachers called the cops on a kid selling crack. That night, someone shot up his car. The blacks can do any damned thing they want in this school – or on the school bus. It's no secret that there are about 40 black kids already in a gang or trying their hardest to get into a gang. If you don't know about it, you've not been paying attention. Word got around about the threats they've made so even the bus driver is terrified."

"What happened to you on the bus Friday?" Anita said in a soft voice.

"I had to walk the gauntlet," Lupe said, looking at the older woman as if the rest should be obvious.

"I'm sorry, Dear, I don't know what that entails," Anita admitted.

Lupe sighed and turned to look at Andy again. He gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"Like I said, the first few rows are the gangbanger wannabes from my neighborhood," Lupe said. "As I passed the first row, a boy tried to touch my backside but I slapped his hand away. The kid in the second row had pulled the girl ahead of me onto his lap so nothing happened there. Daquan Thomas was in the third row. He stood up to block the aisle and put both of his hands on my breasts. He told me I had 'nice tits and a tight ass to go with my virgin pussy and he planned to enjoy all three.' I pushed him away but he only laughed and did it again. He told me that Monday he was going to sit in the back and I would join him if I knew what was good for me.

"Until Andy mentioned the possible scholarship and a ride to and from school, I was going to pretend to be sick while I tried to figure a way out things."

"Did anyone see Daquan assault you?" Anita inquired.

"Everyone saw it!" Lupe spat. "I was the last kid to get on the bus. Everyone else was already seated and looking forward when he did it."

"Did the bus driver see it?" Anita asked.

"He's too fuc-, freakin' blind to drive if he didn't!" Lupe answered. "I wasn't 10 feet from him and Daquan made no effort to be quiet. The bus driver knew or he should have known."

Anita nodded gravely.

"Have you witnessed any sexual acts on the bus previously?" Anita said.

"I just told you that every girl has to walk the gauntlet every day," Lupe hissed. "That means I've seen unwanted sexual attention paid to females every single day since September."

"I understand that," Anita said softly.

"I think Lupe needs a break," Andy said, standing up. "I'm going into the teacher's lounge to get her a soft drink. Mrs. Lopez, would you accompany me so no one in there says something that might hurt my tender feelings."

Anita looked the distraught girl for a second before standing and walking out of the room with Andy.

"You're asking her to violate one of the most sacred tenants of her culture," Andy said.

"Mr. Drayton, you might not have noticed but Miss Fuentes and I share a skin color," Anita pointed out.

"I'm not talking about her ethnic heritage," Andy rebutted. "I'm speaking of her socio-economic culture. It's a sin beyond redemption to snitch. In her neighborhood, you learn that before you learn to tie your shoes. It's ingrained in every single action of every single day. 'Don't snitch.'"

"And how do you expect me to get a statement from her?" Anita inquired, peeved at being lectured by a teenage boy.

"You're doing fine but you can't push," Andy said, ignoring the woman's tone. "I know you might be on a timetable or something but Lupe needs to tell her story in her own way. If you continue to ask pointed, specific questions, she's going to shut you down. This isn't a courtroom. You're allowed to lead her. It's OK to ask open-ended questions and let her ramble until she gets to the point you want made. I'm just urging you to take it easy on her. She's the victim in this and you're making her feel like she's the one doing something wrong by telling on others. OK?"

Anita continued to stare at him.

"I know these people, Mrs. Lopez," Andy said. "I'm one of these people. If you ask her why she didn't go to a teacher, she's going to tell you that a teacher wouldn't do anything. If you ask her about specific instances, she's going to deny seeing it or hedge on her answer. Let her tell her story in her own way and you'll get what you need. I promise. She just needs to work up to the events you want to know about. It was easier with the events that involved her. What you're looking for is just something she witnessed. In our world, witnesses who testify wind up really, really dead."