Playing for Keeps Read Free Page B

to try and shoot you a note. Maybe she got to it.”
    Alicia sat down at the kitchen table and logged on. Sure enough, there was an e-mail waiting for her from Valeria:
Hi Alicia: Hopefully by now your mom has told you all about my crazy dream of getting Amigas Inc. over to Texas to help me plan my party! And hopefully, you are all on board. I would LOVE if you came. I know the deadline is tight…
    Alicia stopped reading and looked up at her mother. “Tight deadline?” she asked. “How tight?”
    Marisol shrugged. “I think you’ve done quinces in less time, but Ranya does want it to happen at the end of spring break, so you have two weeks.”
    The color momentarily drained from Alicia’s face. She took a deep breath. They could do this. Her mother was right. They’d had less time in the past and made it work. Turning back to her e-mail, she continued to read:
So I wanted to give you a heads-up in advance about my taste. Black is my color of choice; I don’t do frills and am allergic to the color pink. My iPod is filled with tunes by local Austin indie artists like Roger Velasquez. I have a bangin’ collection of vintage graphic novels from the eighties. As for food, I think its gross to eat anything that was once a living thing. I’m into line dancing but only as an observer. I have no dance skills whatsoever. I love to skateboard and my happiest times are cruising down the half-pipe at the Austin County skate park. Our homestead, Castillo Ranch, is my favorite place in the world. Oh, and I usually like to get right to the point. Hope this is some help. See you soon. Valeria.
    Although Ranya had described her daughter as being painfully shy, Alicia thought she was impressive. From her writing it seemed as though she had the confidence to know exactly what she wanted and, more to the point, exactly what she didn’t. This was going to make for one very interesting party.
    Half an hour later, Gaz arrived at the Cruz home. He kissed Alicia on the forehead, then hugged Maribelle and Alicia’s mom. Alicia loved the easy interaction he had with her family. She knew girls whose parents disapproved of the guys they were dating. They could only see each other at school or when they managed to sneak a few moments at a movie or a house party. With Gaz, there were no such problems. She could see him whenever she wanted—no sneaking around necessary.
    Sometimes, in fact, Alicia was pretty sure her parents liked Gaz more than they liked her! Well, not more, but close.
    Her parents didn’t always approve of the things she liked. But she could tell that when her parents looked at Gaz, they saw what she saw—a smart, handsome guy, who was proud of his Latino heritage and had the potential to do anything he set his mind to.
    Still, Alicia was her daddy’s girl. So even if he liked Gaz, Enrique took great pleasure in grilling the younger man about his future whenever he came over to the house. Gaz, for his part, was respectful and formal, going along with the gentle ribbing. While Gaz called Alicia’s mom by her first name, he called her father Señor Cruz.
    Now, over plates of ceviche, Alicia’s father played twenty questions with Gaz.
    â€œWhat’s your toughest class this year?”
    â€œDefinitely statistics,” Gaz replied as he tucked in heartily to his meal.
    â€œWhat about algebra two?” Alicia’s father asked. “Don’t you need that to get into a good college?”
    Alicia put a hand on her father’s. “Gaz took algebra two last year, Papi . He was the only freshman in the class. His math skills are off the hook. You know that.”
    Enrique raised an eyebrow. “Off the hook, huh? What are you pulling in statistics?”
    Gaz helped himself to a pile of plátanos . “A minus. It’s a really hard class.”
    â€œDo you think you can pull it up to an A by the final?” Mr. Cruz asked, taking