"Damn, Mex, can't your parents take down that sign already?" Barbara-Ann asked annoyedly as she spotted the large blue and white TRUMP 2016 picket stamped in her friend's front lawn. It had been there for the past year and a half, ever since that clown started his bid to lead their country.

Mexico sighed loudly. "I wish they would. It's just a huge embarrassment. No one even likes him around here! All our neighbours hate us."

"Can't you just, like, get rid of it?"

"My mom would absolutely lose it..."

"Yah, but you could tell them someone else did it."

Mexico shrugged. Despite Trump's policies being (in a way) directed at her, she didn't seem to care that much about her parents political convictions, and wasn't particularly eager to do anything about it. Ann just wished she would tear the stupid thing down.

Barbara-Ann watched with some annoyance as Mexico aimed a loose kick at the sign before walking up the path to their front door. She unlocked the house slowly, inviting Barbara-Ann in behind her. They both kicked off their shoes and dropped their bags and coats, then ambled through to the kitchen.

"Hi Mrs Johnson, hi Mr Johnson." Barbara-Ann greeted kindly, to be met by a glare from the mother and a jovial wave from the father. Barbara liked Mexico's father as much as she hated her mother - he had no real political convictions, was a funny guy and cooked really well for a white person. Her mother, on the other hand... well, she was racist, homophobic, xenophobic and a huge Trump fan, and that was enough to hate anyone.

It was nice knowing that this woman had to wake up everyday knowing that she had a daughter called Mexico, when her idol's plans were to exterminate and beat down Mexico. It was enough to make Barbara-Ann laugh every time she thought of it.

Mexico once told Ann that her parents had had a huge fight when Kellyanne had started carrying a picture of the Donald in her wallet, taking out the one of her husband.

It was the biggest row they had ever had at home, because in general - and apart from the blazing discrimination a person of colour would experience in their household - they had a pretty perfect life.

"You girls have a nice day?" Mike Johnson asked nicely and Mexico nodded, pouring herself a glass of Coke, offering some to Barbara, who shook her head but lightened once she saw the bottle of Sunny D besides it.

"We got lab partners today." Mexico said and Barbara nodded listlessly, avoiding eye contact with Kellyanne Johnson who appeared to be attempting to stare her down. "I'm with Jeikeh."

"Yeah, lucky you, I got Vlad." Barbara-Ann added.

"Jeikeh's a nice boy." Kellyanne said with a slight sneer, which made Barbara-Ann scowl and rapidly leave the room, deciding this conversation was both too boring and too ridiculous for someone like her. She went back out into the hall and grabbed their bags, but paused a minute at the foot of the stairs to listen.

She snickered as she heard Mexico's mom call her daughter - "Hey, Meg, can I have a word with you?" Every time she heard Kellyanne call Mexico Meg she had to bite the inside of her cheek really hard in order not to burst out laughing.

Mexico sighed, giving her mother a warning glare, defying her to dare say anything racist in front of her best friend.

"You know I don't approve of you hanging out with her so much!" Kelly-Anne Johnson hissed at her daughter as Barbara-Ann made her way slowly upstairs, lugging both their backpacks.

"Don't even go there." Mexico snapped back angrily.

"Meg, there's so many lovely girls in your class, why are you still going around with her all the time?"

"Because she's my friend, mom, and I don't give a fuck about what she looks like because I'm not superficial and racist."

Her mother's lips tightened but she remained silent, giving Mexico a look as the girl scurried upstairs after her friend.

"I actually can't believe how awful my mom is sometimes." Mexico shook her head in disbelief. "It's insane. I'm sorry if she said anything mean to you, by the way. You know how she is."

"It's okay, I get it." Ann laughed it off surprisingly easily - however her feelings were understandable as Mexico's mother had almost called the N-word countless times. "Anyway, about this shit with Jock and Bluebell-Rose..."

"Bluebell-Rose is just a bitch." Mexico huffed. "Jock's not that bad, he just follows her in everything. It's like he doesn't even have a brain of his own sometimes."

"Don't worry about any of it. They're just bullshitting you. No one actually gives a fuck..."

"I know." Mexico sighed audibly. "On one hand, I don't want to be bothered about it but on the other hand I can't help but be annoyed - that people would turn on me so quickly. Like it's not a big fucking deal, people. It's normal!"

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with being a virgin." Barbara-Ann rolled her eyes - she had a habit of doing that often, and was told off constantly by teachers for being "disrespectful". "You're only 17, anyway! And I'm pretty sure most of the people who criticise you are also virgins."

"Like Smith."

"Pencil?"

"Yeah."

"He's such a fucking perv." Barbara shivered. "Did you see him trying to get it on with the volleyball coach the other day?"

"He gives me the creeps, but I feel like he's not that bad. Apart from being a huge pervert."

"He's not bad at class." Barbara shrugged. "I wish I'd gotten him instead of Vlad. He's fucking weird."

"I know! Like, have you ever even seen him smile?" Mexico rolled her eyes.

"No!" Ann grabbed a pillow and shoved her face into it, making muffled sounds of distress and rage. "I can't believe he's my lab partner. I'll have to, like, go to his house and shit."

"Maybe you guys will fall in love!"

"No thanks." Barbara-Ann refutes the suggestion rapidly, shaking her shoulders, like the idea was so repulsive to her she had to shake it off as if she were Taylor Swift and the idea, a hater.

"Well, you never know, he might have like a secret super cool life or something."

"Come on, we all know his life consists of nothing but reading his fucking scripts and learning his parts."

"You're right." Mexico laughed. These girls clearly had a problem with being bullied but didn't seem to have much against poking fun cruelly at someone else. Then again, Vlad was pretty much the joke of their entire year so...

Barbara-Ann leant across Mexico to grab a packet of crisps out of her bag, but Mexico snatched from her, grabbing them passionately as if the crisps were a pussy and her hand were a horny Donald.

"Hey, thief!" Ann exclaimed. "Those are mine."

"Not anymore, sucker." Mexico held the crisps out to Barbara after having taken a huge handful, which she was slowly cramming into her mouth, crumbs raining down the front of her top. After having finished them, she got up and shook her shirt onto the ground, leaving a small pile of dirt behind her. She then paused to look out of the window at her average suburban view. "Wouldn't it be cool if there was like, a hot boy living in the house next door, and we could be friends? And we'd like communicate through the windows and stuff."

"What, like Taylor Swift in that stupid video where they hold up the signs?"

"Yes!" Mexico fell back onto the bed, looking up at her painted ceiling. "Wouldn't that be beautiful?"

"Incredibly so." Barbara-Ann replied drily.

The two girls worked on their English homework for the next two hours - Barbara was significantly better as she was in Honours class whereas Mexico took normal English. They were studying the same novels but at different levels - the first book was The Great Gatsby.

"I want to have a romance like Daisy and Tom." Mexico said dreamily, and Barbara-Ann narrowed her eyes at her incredulously.

"You do realise they have a relationship built on adultery and lies, right?"

"Yeah, but it's still cool. Like, they're so rich and careless..."

Barbara-Ann shook her head. Sometimes she wondered if her friend was just straight up crazy. Always talking about boys and fantasizing, yet it was true that she'd never so much as kissed someone. Nothing really matched or made sense.

"Anyway, I think we're done for today." Mexico said, snapping the book shut. "You're going home now, right?"

"Yeah, I will."

"Thanks, anyway. You were really helpful."

Barbara-Ann smiled nonchalantly. "It's no problem."

They headed back downstairs together as Mexico reiterated her wishes of having a hot neighbour, and Barbara-Ann discreetly rolled her eyes.

She rapidly but politely denied Kellyanne's offer to stay for dinner. With a grin directed at Mexico, Barbara told her that her mother was preparing some Cajun chicken and stewed rice.

Kellyanne pulled a not-so-subtle face of disgust and hurried back into the kitchen, where Mexico's father was in the process of preparing their meal. He'd managed to fry the eggs properly without breaking the yolk this time, she observed.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Babs." Mexico leant in to hug her friend tightly. "Excuse the casual racism."

"It's cool. Tell your mom we cool."

Mexico laughed as Barbara-Ann stepped outside of the house, waving

"Dinner's ready, sweetheart!" Mike called from the kitchen, emerging a few moments later.

"Get off!" Mexico exclaimed as her dad put an arm around her shoulder, trying to give her a kiss.

"Soon the wall will go up..." he joked feebly. Barbara-Ann visibly rolled her eyes. "Between us and Mexico."

"Yeah, awesome." Barbara-Ann replied, her eyes laughing as she glanced at Mexico. "Bye, Mr Johnson. Thanks for having me." She ignored Kellyanne as she tramped off down their neat garden path and slowly down the road, the light of her phone shining as she switched it on to call her own mum.

"I don't like her much." Kellyanne commented.

"She's a perfectly nice girl." Mike said firmly. "And she's good friends with Mexico, honey."

"I know, she just..." Mrs Johnson shook herself like a wet dog and walked back into the dining room, where dinner was set out.

Mexico sat stonily down with her parents to dinner, having heard her mother's comments. She reached for the bowl of melted cheese and grabbed a handful of nachos (for a "true" American family they ate a lot of foreign food...), but her dad stopped her.

With a smirk, he delivered the punchline to his action - "That's na-cho cheese!" 

A/N - Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let's get this book to 500 reads! :) 

What do you think of the characters so far? Got any favourites? 

Next update coming Wednesday!