It was a sunny day when me and my cousin were at my grandparent's house. I was seven at the time and my older cousin, Saul, was ten. We knew at that age what it was like to visit our grandparents in Chicago along with all the good and bad things about visiting them. A grandma that loved us to death and would hug and kiss us, leaving her lipstick on our cheeks. A grandpa that was a handyman and loved to watch soccer. A kitchen filled with the smell of fresh Mexican food grandma was cooking up. A kids room with a tv and toys. A tv that only had news channels and one cartoon station which was PBS kids; however, we wouldn’t watch it since we weren’t kids anymore - remember, we were seven and ten years old, not one and two years old.

A grandma that wasn’t afraid to throw the chancla at us with freakishly good accuracy and speed- and if you don’t know what a chancla is, that’s a good thing. It’s every Mexican grandma and mom’s favorite weapon to use on kids whenever they do something dumb, which was often for me and my cuz. It can also be translated in English to a sandal or flip flop, but back to the story. The kitchen was always filled with food, but never the food we were in the mood for. And the worst thing of all: a whole lotta time with nothing to do to stop us from being bored, as always. But we decided to play hide and go seek.

I got to hide first since I was the youngest but we didn’t play much until our grandma shut us down and went on her rant, saying things like, “you guys can’t sit still for more than five minutes”, and “there could be spiders”, and “I don’t want you guys moving my stuff”, and “you always end up breaking or losing something”, but finally it was over and I asked “What can we do? There’s nothing to do!” She told us to go play outside, as she got us a soccer ball. My cousin and I looked at each other, with shocked expressions “ you got us a soccer ball that’s lit” we ran outside and started playing I quickly yelled “ I call being Chicharito” and we began to play. Little did we know what we were about to get ourselves into in our small game of penalty kicks. I shot first and obviously, it went in since I was channeling my inner Chicharito. It was my cousins turn and it went so fast I didn’t even react. “Dang that was so fast.” “ I know that’s what happens when you’re a beast” we kept shooting penalty kicks until we were like the next goal wins. It was my turn to shoot first since I was younger and I just missed. “Ha I’m about to win this since you folded” “ it was the wind” “what wind cuh it’s a sunny beautiful day” shut up and shoot you won’t make it, either way, chicken” ah yeah bet” he went back to shoot and this was even faster than his first shot it went past me and hit the window. We didn't even have time to trash talk to each other before we both looked at the window we just broke. What are we gonna do? I don’t know. “Bro, I can’t get hit with the chancla again I just got it earlier for shooting my sister in the eye with a nerf gun do you know what getting hit by a chancla does to you its scary bro I don’t even get how grandma hit me with it I was already in the other room.” “I know okay let’s put the garbage dumpster in front of it so she can’t see it.” “What if she notices?” “Wait what’s the girl neighbors name the one that lives next door and is 13 isn’t it Asia?” “I thought it was Clair.” “Crap those names are nothing alike.” “Why do you even care about that?” “We could blame it on her and say she broke it.” “Oh okay, good idea I’m down.” “Hurry let’s just go inside and figure this out.” We ran inside and went into the closet in the kid's room to have an emergency meeting. My cousin said, “okay we have to get our story straight so it’s not suspicious ok?” “Ok, what are we gonna say?” “Alright, we are gonna say that we were playing soccer and then Asia came it and started playing with us.” “Wait I thought her name was Clair?” “That’s not important just listen we’ll just say her name was Allison okay?” “Deal.” “Back to the story remember we were both on defense and she shot it and broke the window and it wasn’t us.” “Okay cool beans.” “Then hopefully we are chilling.” “Litty.” As soon as we are concluding our emergency meeting our grandma walks in and asks us why we came back inside we look At each other and I start to say “because Allison bro…” when Saul cut me off and said, “broborrowed the soccer ball she borrowed the soccer ball.” My grandma said, “okay cool what a nice young lady right?” “Yeah” we responded and then she said, “I thought her name was Jada” as she walked away. My cousin hit me and said “ bro what where you doing you almost got us popped you where about to tell her we broke the window” “yeah cause we did” “Alex she didn’t notice we are good we just can’t say anything about it and hopefully they won’t notice” “ no way! Ok cool beans” We survived that day but five years later we were not as fortunate. This was when My grandparents were selling their house to move to Texas I was twelve and my cousin was fifteen. We had survived those years and sometimes I would even forget that we even broke a window until I went outside to check. But like I was saying my Grandparents were moving and looking all around the house to check its conditions. At first, I didn't really think much of it but then I remembered crap we broke the window what if they find it. I saw my cousin later that week and I said “Saul we gotta talk” “Okay what's up” “you know how our grandparents are moving to Texas right.” “Yeah, why?” “Well, basically they have been looking at the conditions of the house and what if they find the window?” “Oh tuna fish I completely forgot about that.” What are we gonna say?” “ You know it's been so long what's the worst thing that will happen to us.” “what if they throw the chancla and make us pay for it” “You know what Yolo lets just tell the truth if they find it” “ Okay but you have to say it” Okay deal”The next week we were going to my Grandma's house when my mom asks “Your Grandma says she has a broken window do you guys have any idea what happened” me and my cousin looked at each other and i elbowed him and told him “YOu said you were gonna say it” “Okay fine what happened was me and Alex where playing soccer one day and broke it.” my mom asked “when did this happen” I said “five years ago” my mom looked at us through the window and started laughing “that window has been broken for five years? “ Yeah”  seeing that she was laughing we didn't know how to respond so we told her how we even made up this whole story and we all had a big laugh. All those years living in fear and all we had to do was tell them the story.