ISABELLA HAD been nominated for the store duty, mainly because she spoke fluent Spanish, while Johnny and Robby waited outside.

She had tried her best to ignore what had happened yesterday, sleeping it off in the vehicle and trying to motivate herself for the new day ahead. As she expected, Johnny and Robby had been treating her differently; even if they weren't aware, their tones of voices were softer. It didn't help that every time she took a breath, they'd ask her if she was okay.

"Gracias," Isabella smiled, as she packed all of the things she needed into a plastic bag and left the small store.

Isabella walked outside the store, meeting with Robby who had been attempting to look at a map on his phone with only one bar of WIFI. She glanced at Johnny, who was attempting to communicate with a random man on the road.

Robby glanced at from his phone, "Got everything?"

"Yeah," She nodded, holding up the bag slightly, "Any luck with the map?"

"I think I got it matched up to my phone," Robby explained, "We only have a few miles to go. Looks like a lot of bars and restaurants."

Isabella nodded, before glancing at Johnny and the random man, who was now shouting at him. Johnny chuckled in confusion, after offering the guy some money, before wandering back to the two teenagers.

"I think that guy wants money," He said, his mouth filled with the sandwich he was eating for breakfast. He frowned, "What?"

Robby explained, "If Hector is so dangerous, I don't think we should be throwing his name around."

"Exactly," Isabella added, "My mom didn't tell us about him for a reason."

"Well, we gotta shake the tree to get the apples." Johnny replied.

Robby shrugged, "Or we could just climb the tree ourselves."

"What does that mean?" Johnny questioned, "What tree?"

Robby sighed in disbelief, "The apple tree, you just said that—"

"Fuck!" Isabella interrupted, as she watched their vehicle get towed away by a van. She started sprinting after it, followed by the two boys, as she caught up with the random man that Johnny was talking to earlier.

Isabella panted, "What the hell? That's our van!"

"Estabas en una zona de remolque," The man exclaimed helplessly, "Le dije al hombre!"

Robby caught up to her, before asking curiously, "What's he saying?"

"He said that we parked in a tow zone," Isabella explained, watching as Johnny threw his breakfast sandwich at the tow truck. She rolled her eyes, before talking to the man in frustration, "El hombre no habla ingles. ¡Ese es nuestro maldito auto!"

"Lo lamento." The man apologised, "Lo lamento!"

"Ask him if we can get it back," Johnny said, before looking at the man, "Dinero!"

"Johnny, no." Isabella stressed, "¿Dónde podemos recuperarlo?"

"Sí. The, uh, impound lot." The man replied, "Cuatro-mil pesos. Cuatro-mil."

"Shit," Isabella stressed, brushing her hair out of her face with her hand, as she kicked a few rocks on the street, "Sin dinero!"

The man walked away, "No puedo ayudarte. No puedo ayudarte."

"Whoa," Robby frowned curiously, "What's going on?"

Isabella sighed, "He said we need 4,000 pesos to get the fucking van back."

"What?" Johnny scoffed in disbelief, "That's, like, a million dollars."

Robby corrected, "It's $200. But still, we only have about half of that."

"We're not gonna be able to find Miguel without the van." Johnny replied, as the three began walking along the street.

Isabella pointed at a market stall, surrounded by people placing bets. She noticed a jar of red peppers in the centre of the table; two men either fighting the urge not to drink the glass of milk in front of them. Isabella said, "Look at that bald man."

"What?" Robby glanced between Isabella and the market that she was pointing to, "I don't think now's the best time to be distracted."

"Wait," Isabella stopped walking, staring at the market across the street. She explained, "That's a Red Savina. That shit burns right through you. I saw a video on YouTube."

Johnny saw the large amounts of money that was being gambled, "This is our best chance to get the van back."

Isabella nodded bravely, "If you see me about to vomit, just cover my mouth—"

"No, I'll do it." Robby reassured, "Like you said, it's our best chance. I know I can win."

It had taken a while for Robby to eat the red peppers in the jar; his face was red and sweaty, unlike the bald man on the other end of the table who looked to be doing just fine. They had betted every single bit of money they had left, meaning that if Robby lost, they'd be stuck in Mexico, homeless, for a while.

"Míralo sudando como un cerdo," The bald man opposite him scoffed, remarking to Robby's struggle. Deep down, Isabella knew that Robby wouldn't be able to handle El Dragon.

The hottest pepper, El Dragon, was placed in a jar and given to the two. Isabella glanced inside of her shopping bag, noticing the red sour sweets she had brought for the journey. While the crowd was distracted by the peppers in the jar and the two contestants preparing themselves, Isabella secretly nudged Robby's shoulder.

Robby looked up at her from his seat, before his eyes travelled down to the sweet in her fisted hand. He nodded, approving of the unspoken plan.

"You've got this, Robby." Isabella encouraged, holding onto his hand, where she secretly slipped the sweet into his— nobody noticed.

Robby pretended to look scared, and it was hard for Isabella not to laugh at his acting skills when eating the 'chilli'. He chewed on the sweet, closing his eyes tightly as if the strawberry flavour was killing him. Robby opened his mouth widely, showing off that he had eaten it which made the crowd gasp.

The bald man didn't have the same luck, or the same strawberry sweet. His face turned red, his eyes widening, as he chugged down the glass of milk in front of them.

Johnny cheered, "Yes!"

Isabella quickly scraped up the money on the table, before anyone could possibly suspect their cheat.

a/n:
google translate is probably not accurate xoxo