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doubled over in asthmatic laughter. Finally he said, "No, Milk Duds aren't good for you, but I like them." After he controlled his laughter, he remarked, "And I like you."
    "Get out of here, homeboy." Marisa was suddenly shy as a pony.
    "But I do. Right now I'm missing a chess club meeting because of you."
    Marisa was touched. "You're missing chess club for me? That's so sweet."
    He pulled on her arm saying, "Come on."
    They headed for the gym, where boys were playing basketball in street clothes—their pants precariously low on their hips. They hurried through the gym, where their classmates cast momentary glances at them, then dropped their interest immediately.
    "Where we going?" Marisa asked as they walked quickly down a hallway.
    "You'll see."
    Soon Marisa stood in a darkened room where ancient weights lay dusty and forgotten. The boxing bag was deflated, and the wrestling mat was cracked. Football helmets lay like skulls against the wall.
    "They don't use this part of the gym anymore," Rene explained.
    "Then what are we doing here?" Marisa asked. She wondered if Rene had brought her there to wrap his skinny arms around her thick middle, and possibly bury his face into her neck. But she was wrong about his intentions. Rene wanted to exercise his masculinity in a different way.
    He lay on a bench, spit into his palms, and said, "Pile it on."
    "Get out of here!"
    "Come on, Marisa," he begged. "I want to get strong. I wouldn't lift weights in the presence of anyone but you."
    He's so cute,
she thought tenderly. She handed him a bar with weights on each end. He accepted the burden with a grunt.
    "It's heavy. What do we have here—fifty pounds?"
    Marisa didn't have the heart to tell him that he was lifting the equivalent of two soup cans tied on the ends of a broomstick.
    "It's dark in here. I can't read the numbers. But, yeah, it's about fifty pounds, maybe more."
    He did a set of ten lifts, got up smacking his hands, and announced, "I want to get me swolles, some muscle."
    Marisa picked up the pen that had rolled from his shirt pocket.
    "Every day I want to come here and pump iron!" Rene flexed his left, then right, biceps. "I want to be like the Terminator."
    "If you want me to help you, then give me a kiss." Marisa couldn't believe she had said that!
    His arms became as limp as wet noodles. "A kiss?" he asked weakly as he lowered his head. He
gazed down at the weights on the ground. "How about one more set first?"
    He did two more sets, grunting through clenched teeth. They returned to the main quad of the campus just as the bell began to ring. Lunchtime was over, along with Marisa's opportunity to push her boy against the wall and force a kiss out of him. But she did blurt out, "Rene, you got to do something about your socks."
    "They're clean."
    "Nah, homeboy, your clothes ain't tight." She felt pity for the guy. "You can't wear white socks like you do."
    Rene peeked at the lower extremities of his high-water pants.
    "Your socks gotta match your pants."
    "My mom never says anything." He offered his baffled face to her.
    Marisa propped her hands on her hips and wiggled her bottom. "Big boy, do I look like your mama?"
    Rene smiled as he tugged on his pants legs, trying to hide the blazing whiteness of his socks. "No, you look like..." He began his asthmatic laughter. "You look—
honk
—like—
honk—
my
—honk, honk—
my hot mama!"
    They put their first kiss on hold.
    ***
    It was early evening when Alicia called.
    "Marisa, it's me."
    Marisa closed her bedroom door to block out the sound of the mixer going at high speed in the kitchen. "What's going on?"
    Silence.
    "Are you mad at me?" Marisa asked.
    Alicia didn't answer the question. "How come you're at that new school? You think you're better than us?" Her voice sounded forced and unnatural, as if she had been practicing the lines of a bad play and couldn't get them right.
    "I never said I was better than you." Marisa was hurt. She raised a fingernail to her mouth