Chapter Text
August 2003
Hortense looks around the guest bedroom of his grandma’s house, sad. He doesn’t want to move away from Texas. His entire family lives in the tiny town. He’d miss his grandparents. But, his dad got bumped up to being a regional manager and needs to live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, so he can travel to the different branches. At least that’s what his parents told him. Hortense is worried about moving to Minneapolis. Is it really as cold as he’s told?
“Hey, Hortense,” Eugene says. “Why are you so tense?”
“I don’t want to move,” he sighs, looking at his older brother.
“Don’t worry, Buddy,” he says, crouching down a bit. “You’re only eight.”
“What if I don’t make friends?” He’s never told anyone, but he doesn’t really have any friends now. Who says he’ll make any friends in Minnesota?
“You will,” Eugene says, putting a hand on his little brother’s shoulder.
“But the people out there are different,” Hortense says. And no one really likes me here besides family .
“Does it make you feel better to say I’m scared to?” he says. Hortense lets out a snort. “What? I am. I can be scared of things. I’m starting at a brand new high school as a sophomore. That can be terrifying.”
“Eugene, Hortense!” their grandma calls out. “It’s time to go!”
Hortense looks down. Eugene can’t help but feel bad for his little brother. He gives Hortense’s shoulder a squeeze.
“Hey, at least we didn’t have to drive with mom and dad up to Minnesota.”
“Planes are scary,” Hortense says.
“Don’t worry,” Eugene says, pulling his brother into his side. “I have your back, Hortense. Always.”
“My boys!” Joanna Mitchell says, pulling her sons into a hug. Hortense makes a face as his head ends up between his mom’s and brother’s stomachs.
“Mom, it’s barely been a week,” Eugene complains. Joanna glares at her oldest and her husband, Darren, grabs the boys’ suitcases.
“How was the trip?” he asks.
“It wasn’t as scary as I thought,” Hortense says.
“That’s good, champ,” Darren says, ruffling his youngest’s hair.
“Let’s go see our new home,” Joanna says. The boys follow their parents to the car. Darren puts the suitcases in the trunk as the boys get in the backseat. Hortense was looking out the window as they drive away from the airport.
Minneapolis is huge. Well, it feels like it is to Hortense. He’s barely been to a big city before. There are so many buildings and people. How is he going to manage living here?
“Stupid traffic,” Darren mutters.
“That’s what you get for moving us to Minneapolis,” Eugene says, tapping his dad’s shoulder.
The drive is long but also not. They are used to 20 minute drives to get groceries, but it felt long because of the traffic. The Mitchells arrive at a two story house. It’s surrounded by other houses and there are a lot of kids playing in the other yards.
“Let’s go, buddy,” Eugene says, nudging Hortense’s shoulder. Hortense gets out of the car and Eugene and him grab their bags from the back. His parents are talking about the neighbors and how some of them have kids around Hortense’s age.
Hortense glances over at the house. There are three boys. They are messing around with each other. Hortense almost sighs. He always wished that he had some sort of friendship. He starts to play with his fingers as he turns away from the boys and makes his way towards the brand new house.
“Rooms are upstairs,” Joanna says, once they get inside. “Your names’ are on your doors.”
Joanna loves to decorate. If she wasn’t a real estate agent, she definitely would go into interior design. She decorated the boys’ doors a little, just to give them a piece of home. She wants to make this as close to their old home as possible, so her sons can adjust well.
Hortense walks into his room. His mom already has furniture and it’s painted the color he wanted. Some of his things are up, like his science fair trophies and academic awards. Hortense puts his suitcase down on his bed. He starts to unpack. He can’t help but wonder what his new school is going to be like. He hopes that there will be more opportunities for academics here.
He gets all of his stuff put away. His mom put most of his stuff away. All he truly has is the stuff he kept at his grandparents for the week that his parents were in Minnesota which was basically clothes and a book.
He hears the doorbell and looks at his bedroom door. He gets up, going to the edge of the stairs. He’s able to sit where he can see the front door, but no one can see him. He sees a couple with two kids; a boy and a girl.
“I see your boys are home,” the woman says to his mom.
“They are. I’ll call them down,” Joanna says. “Hortense! Eugene!”
Hortense looks down the hallway to see his brother take out his headphone as he walks down the hall. He grabs his mP3 player and pauses the music. Hortense looks up at him. Eugene silently gestures for him to stand up and follow him down.
Hortense stands a little behind his brother as he looks at the family in front of them.
“This is Sylvia and Felix,” Joanna says, pointing to the adults. “And these are their kids…”
“Julieta,” the girl says. “I’m seven!”
“Mateo,” the boy says.
“He’s nine,” Sylvia says.
“I’m Eugene,” his older brother says, putting his hand out. “This is Hortense.”
“I heard you are eight,” Sylvia says.
“We have another son,” Felix says. “He’s eight too. He has his friends over right now.”
“You want to go play?” Julieta asks. Hortense blinks. She wants him to go play with her? He nods. Hortense finds himself being dragged by the girl.
“Watch them?” Joanna asks Eugene, who nods.
Hortense finds him outside with the two. Mateo gets his scooter and Julieta grabs a soccer ball.
“Do you play?” she asks. Hortense shakes his head no. “You’re quiet. That’s okay. I’m told I’m loud so I can talk enough for both of us. I can teach you.”
Julieta drops the ball on the ground and shows Hortense how to kick the ball. It’s actually not too hard. He’s never really been into the whole sport thing, but he gets the hang of it. Julieta and him pass the ball to each other.
“I’m sorry for you,” Julieta says.
“Why?” Hortense asks, giving her a confused look.
“My brother’s grade doesn’t have the nicest people,” she says. “They are meanies.”
“Oh,” Hortense sighs. Great.
“But my brother is nice,” she says. “His friends are too.”
“Julieta, who’s this?” Hortense looks over to the group of guys coming over. One of them looks like Julieta with dark hair and tan skin. Then to his left is a guy who is a bit taller with blonde hair. On his right is a guy with dark hair that is the same height.
“This is Hortense!” Julieta says. She points to each boy. “That’s my brother, Carlos. That’s Kendall and James.”
Hortense waves awkwardly.
“You’re the new neighbor?” Carlos asks. Hortense nods “Awesome!”
“Are you in 3rd grade?” Kendall asks. Hortense nods. “Maybe we’ll be in the same class.”
“Hortense!” Eugene calls. “Mom said it’s time to come inside.”
Hortense says a quick bye, as he’s walking away he kind of hears them talking.
“He’s quiet,” Kendall says.
“He’s nice,” Julieta says.
“His name is kind of weird,” James says.
“James!”
“What? It is.”
“Please be nice to him,” Julieta says. “I think he’s nice.”
Hortense gets inside. He must have been outside for a while since Julieta’s parents have left. He follows Eugene to the dining room. He sets the table as his parents bring out the food. They sit down for the first family dinner of theirs in a week.
“So, what do you think of the Garcias?” Joanna asks as Darren starts to make everyone’s plates.
“Julieta seems nice,” he says. “I just met Carlos.”
“At least you seem to be making friends,” Darren says with a smile. “That way you won’t be alone when school starts.”
“I wish we had more than two weeks until school,” Eugene sighs. Hortense nods in agreement and he loves learning. He’s just not excited for the whole social thing. Why must he converse with people?
“You two are amazing,” their mom says. “Everybody will want to be your friend.”
Hortense and Eugene look at each other. They aren’t too sure if they believe that. They decide to just go with what their mother said. They start to dig into the food and conversation is mostly about what Minnesota is like.
“So, does Midtown have a hockey team?” Eugene asks.
“They do,” Joanna says.
“You know, Hortense, so does your school,” Darren says. He just nods. Hortense is not really a sport guy.
“Is there a science club?” he asks.
“There isn’t,” Joanna sighs. “Not much interest.”
Hortense sighs. He was really hoping for the opportunity to do science stuff. His last school didn’t have a science club. He has heard of them and he was hoping going to a bigger school meant there would be one. He hopes there will at least be a science fair. Even his last school had one. He would always win. Most kids didn’t care, but he did. He wished he had some sort of competition so his wins really meant something.
Dinner is done and he finds himself sitting in his room, staring at the pages of his book. He really hopes that things go well. Minnesota nice is real, right?