It was Halloween, and I dressed up as a sexy pirate. While Ruby was lecturing Olivia on why we don't trick or treat in Freeridge, and Monse and Cesar went somewhere to talk, Jamal was trying to tell us we needed to go to Brentwood.

"What's your obsession with Brentwood?" I said, "It's where all the boujee rich white kids are."

"It's also one step closer to finding Rollerworld."

I rolled my eyes, "Jamal, there is no money! Let it go!"

"That's not what Abuelita says."

I rubbed my head. Jamal might be delusional, but he doesn't give up when he's committed to something.

 "Fine! But we're getting the full-sized candy bars first."

"YES!" Jamal said, "Brentwood? Anyone else?"

"But it's super far and we'd have to take public transpo which sucks!" Ruby said.

"It's really not that bad," I said, "I can get Izabel to drive us."

I was about to pull out my phone when Jamal stopped me, "No need. I got us a ride."

"Who?!"

Ruby's Abuela was the one who drove us. She was actually pretty cool. 

We split up into groups of three. Me, Jamal, Monse, and Ruby, Cesar, and Olivia. 

"This is really getting old!" Monse said, "We're skipping all the big houses with crazy decorations and you wanna hit up... Tootsie Rolls!"

"Yeah, Jamal, you promised we'd get the full-sized candy bars!"

"We will!" Jamal said impatiently.

We started at a house with self-service tootsie rolls, but Jamal rang the doorbell anyway.

"Buckets equal self-service!" Monse said.

The door was answered, "Trick or treat!"

Monse and I forced a smile.

"Baby, bucket equals self-service!" 

"Oh my god!" Jamal said, "Did you-did you dance on Soul train?"

"What do you know about Soul Train?" The woman said, astonished.

"It was only the dopest dance show ever. My mama loved it. My mama's mama loved it!"

Monse and I were trying to get Jamal to keep it moving, but he insisted on keeping the conversation, and somehow, we even got into the woman's house.

"Oh, baby, you look just like Adriana Lima!" she said to me, "You got her eyes and stature."

"Thank you!" I got that a lot. I personally didn't think I looked THAT much like her and definitely was nowhere near as pretty as her. 

The woman's name was Rosé, and apparently, she was big in the '80s, but I never heard of her. Jamal seemed to know a LOT about her, though. So much that it seemed stalker-ish.

Monse and I kept on giving each other looks. I forgot she had no idea why we were in Brentwood in the first place. It wasn't until Rosé said Rollerworld that she found it. 

Rosé left for a minute to go get her chili when Jamal started taking pictures of everything in sight.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" I whisper-yelled, "Stop that!"

"That's why we came to Brentwood? So you could dateline this shit?!" Monse said, "Jamal, we're leaving now, or I'm gonna kill you."

"Me too," I said.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," we turned around and Rosé had a gun pointed at us.

We were so fucked.

_____________________________________________________

The three of us put our hands up.

"You casing my place?" she said, "You think I'm a fool? I saw you taking pictures., and you're asking way too many questions"

"Listen, it's not what it looks like," I gulped, "We didn't mean to cause any trouble, and Jamal here, he- he's -

"Girl, don't speak for him," she said sharply, causing me to nod vigorously, "You better come correct, boy."

I grew up around guns. Hell, my dad owned three of them. But I never had one pointed at me.

"Is the Rollerworld Hiest real?" Jamal said, "Are the rumors true? Is the money still out there?"

"You want the skinny on Rollerworld?" Rosé said, "What's in it for me?"

Next thing I know, we're cooking for the woman. Filling her wine glass and cutting onions and grating cheese for her. Well, Jamal was sobbing because of how much he had to cut. 

Rosé showed us a photo book and three guys in particular who founded the Santos.

"You dated a Santos?" Monse said, "What was that like?"

"Isn't that a little personal?" Jamal said.

"You have no room to talk," I said. 

Rosé laughed, "I don't mind. Come over here, baby. Have a seat.  You too."

"Can I ask you a question?" Monse said, "Did you ever feel unsafe dating a guy in that life?"

"No, Frankie kept me outta all that," she said, "It's what a good man does. He was the love of my life. But he couldn't escape who he was, he was a Santo. And if you're gonna be with a Santo, then you gotta take the good with the bad 'cause it could be gone. Just like that."

I sighed, "Well, nothing's ever perfect, is it?"

"Got that right, baby," she said, "When Frankie got locked up, Ricky made sure I got this. It was his high school championship ring."

It was a beautiful silver-class ring. Jamal moved back to Lil Ricky, but Rosé insisted he wasn't involved in it.

We ended up leaving a little later and as we tried to find Olivia, Cesar, and Ruby, they came running towards us.

"What the hell?" I said just as eggs got thrown at us.

We all started screaming and ran.

"THIS WAS LINEN, ASSHOLES!!" I yelled while booking it. I had egg yolks and shells all over my nice linen shirt and in my pirate hat.

"You guys, this is all my fault," Olivia said, "I let that asshole get the best of me."

What a surprise, a bunch of rich white guys in Brentwood are douchebags. 

"Don't worry," Ruby said, "We just gotta get home. Jamal, call a Lyft."

"My dad said Lyft was only for emergencies."

"Seriously?!" Ruby said, "What exactly constitutes an emergency?" 

"It's ok. I'll call Izabel," I said before Cesar grabbed my wrist.

"Don't call a Lyft and don't call Izabel," Cesar said, "It's handled. It's handled."

We went back to the house and watched as Oscar pulled up and made all the guys shit themselves. It was pretty satisfying to watch them cry.  And in return, we got a bunch of candy and juice.

After I got out of the shower, I got a text from Jamal.

Thanks for coming with me and being the only person to listen to me. Means a lot.

I smiled.

Yea, no problem. But if you ever pull something like that again without telling me, I'll give you a reason to need a sling. 

Rollerworld might still not even be real, and all this investigation might be for nothing, but I had to say, I was intrigued to find out.