Cheeto and David had made their way back from lunch at this time. David was tired and wanted to go home for a while but Cheeto was trying to convince him to go to the kid's center. But it was too early for the kids to be there yet. The Center would just be opening to the volunteers to set up for the day. Cheeto liked to get there at that time to help with the set up. One thing about Cheeto was he always was up to lend a hand. He didn't have much to offer other than time, and he was extremely generous with it.

David declined and agreed to stop by later when the kids started to come in. It was the only way to let Cheeto ease off the subject. Besides, David wanted to stop by and make sure J. and his boys were not back at the park. He also wanted to see if Allen was back and how he was doing.

David arrived at the Center around two thirty, just as the kids were starting to arrive. He signed in and was greeted by one of the volunteers that remembered him.

"Hi David! Cheeto is in the computer lab with some of the kids," said the volunteer in a bubbly way, just as David remembered her.

David walked to the computer lab. Some of the kids greeting him as if he'd been coming to the Center for years now. He walked into a small room that consisted of three old computers that still used hard disks. Cheeto was in there playing a computer game with them.

"Chale (Damnit)! This game sucks," said Cheeto having not succeeded at a portion of the game.

"Ha-ha! No it doesn't. It's not hard. You just don't know how to pay it!" excitedly said a little girl Cheeto was playing with. Other kids echoed similar sentiments to Cheeto as they stood and watched, waiting for their turn, cheering each other on.

"Try it again, try it again!" their soft voices encouraging Cheeto.

"Nah, ya me mori tres veces (I died three times already)!" said Cheeto in disgust at his own performance.

"You didn't die! You drowned," said the little girl as if the latter was a less severe fate.

"It's the same thing," said Cheeto laughing at the inherent irony of the girl's statement.

The little girl smiled and squirmed, trying to refute Cheetos claim.

"No, because one you go bye-bye and you are buried," she said motioning with her hands goodbye, "and the other one you go 'glup,glup,glup'" she gestured pinching her nose and mimicking a sinking motion.

"Oh bueno (Well). Pues asi si (if you put it that way)," humored Cheeto as he was wrestled for his seat by the other kids.

"My turn, my turn!" they yelled.

"Shit hommie take it easy! Why don't you let hommeboy here give it a try?" said Cheeto noticing David standing in the doorway.

"Uhhh you said a bad word! I'm gonna tell Claudia!" said one of the kids.

"Don't be a snitch," said Cheeto.

"Here, I'll give you a dollar," said Cheeto handing the kid the money discreetly.

"You're bribing kids now?" said David smiling at the sight.

"No, pues no quiero que me reganen (I don't want to get yelled at)," replied Cheeto.

"You're scared of Claudia?" teased David.

"No, no. Pero cuando se enoja da miedo (But when she's mad she's scary)," replied Cheeto as they headed out.

"So where is she? I thought she needed help or something," asked David in regards to the fundraiser.

"She'll be here in a bit. She's got class or something today. So she comes later. Tomorrow she's got class in the evening so she leaves early but gets here early too," said Cheeto well aware of Claudias schedule.

"You memorized her schedule or something?" asked David.

"Pshh, uno que pone attension (Just paying attention)," said Cheeto.

"Yeah, well it's creepy. Don't let her know you are stalking her," said David.

"Aye tu (Oh You)! Stalking her. Her schedule is out on the front desk," Cheeto protested.

"Still creepy dude," reiterated David.

"Whatever, lets go out to the yard. See what the kids are up to," said Cheeto.

By now David knew this was the favorite part of the day for Cheeto and that is why he always urged David to come out with him. Today David was interested as well.

The scene was now familiar and as a result more structured to David. He was familiar with the different groups that made up the playground and recognized some of the faces. There was the dancing and singing trope. They were performing kids and artistic kids, as Cheeto had informed David. Next was a group of card games and comic books. They'd migrate from the one lone, picnic wooded bench to the grass where they played the latest Japanese card battle game and mock battles from their favorite comic books.

There were the active kids who were divided into two groups. The first were the field players. The ones who played soccer, football and baseball on the grass field. They would rotate between the games since the field was not large enough to comfortably accommodate more than one type of game. Even then the patch of grass was not big enough to play any of the games on a regulation size court. The second group was of course the court players where Allen and his jocks played.

Because of the size of the yard and number of kids, there was a lot of mixing and migrating from group to group, inside and outside the Center. The kids were young enough were curiosity still prevailed over discriminating others for the groups they participated in. Still groups were made and it seemed natural they would progress with time. For now, it was a rich tapestry of options available to the children to explore and engage in. And that was the way volunteers like Claudia wanted to keep it for as long as they could. Especially since some of the older kids started to show signs of excluding and selective grouping.

Sammy was one of the few outliers. Typically his level of innocence was acceptable for the younger children. Most of the girls and the artist were more forgiving and understanding. Some of the cards and comic kids were initially encouraging and accepting until the complexity of the games and Sammy's slow learning caused frustration and delays in the games. Also Sammy's bad treatment of precious cards and comics lead to conflicts. Still he was free to play in some of the mock battles but Sammy was not fond of fighting so he stayed away from this.

His poor hand eye coordination and his inability to run for extended periods of time also limited his exposure to the field games. He was welcome and encouraged by some of the kids to participate but Sammy couldn't stick long enough before he became too tired, bored, or lost in the multitude of capable players. He also avoided the groups once the games got too competitive. Same reasons applied to the court games with Allen and his group, who would not have him. So Sammy would roam from group to group but was always lost in the crowd. And although few actively shunned him, fewer missed him.

Sammy was encouraged to join, but once he resisted, the excuse to let him slip was always the same "It's not his thing."

David now familiar with the structure felt less overwhelmed. There were still upwards of forty kids running around with only a hand full of volunteers. So no amount of time can make anyone see the task less daunting. David again noticed that the jocks were in their spot but did not notice Allen. Just as Cheeto had told him, Allen had not shown up the last couple of days. So David approached the group to investigate the issue further.

"Hey guys, what's up?" asked David of the jocks.

"Hey Mr. D," said one of the kids. The Mr. made David feel old and authoritative which was not particularly pleasing.

"So I see you guys are short one. Where's Allen?"

"I don't know. Probably shooting somewhere," said one of the kids.

"What do you mean 'shooting'," asked David unaware if that was slang for something.

"You know 'shooting'," said the same kid gesturing free-throws.

"Oh. You don't know where?" David continued.

"I'm not his babysitter. I don't keep tabs on him like that," said the kid like a ten year old would.

"So you haven't seen him then?" continued to prod David.

"I mean, I seen him in school. We hang out, but I don't know where he's at right now," said the kid.

"What's up with the questions? What? He owe you money too?" said the kid.

"No. Wait he owes someone money?" asked David surprised that a kid Allen's age would owe anyone money.

The kids sudden widening eyes hinted at the laps of information.

"I don't know about that. You'll have to ask him that," said the kid as he turned away from David.

"Wait you just said..." tried to follow up David with the kid when Cheeto came over.

"Hoye carbon, ven a ayudarme (Hey dumbass, come help me). Llego Claudia con un monton de cosas (Claudia got here with a bunch of stuff)," said Cheeto pulling David away.

"What? OK. I'll be back," said David towards the kid as he left with Cheeto.

Sammy saw both David and Cheeto and decided to tag along as well.

"Hey little man," said David to Sammy surprising both of them since it came out naturally.

The three guys went out to greet Claudia who was by her car getting out supplies and donations she had collected from her College to support the Kids Center. This was all done through her own efforts. The Center did not ask her to seek donation or supplies but she did. She had been able to procure old, and new books, games, and today someone donated a computer for the lab. It was newer than the current ones and came with a printer, monito and speakers. This was the reason she needed help. The monitor was a big, heavy 17" with a wide back. She also had text books in boxes that needed to be brought in.

"Hi!" she said joyfully greeting the guys.

"Look at these strong guys coming out to help me!" said Claudia greeting the guys, giving particular attention to Sammy who was first to greet her, running and jumping on her.

"Oh my god Cheeto. I asked to get help bringing this stuff in and you bring Sammy and David? Look at his hand," she said.

"Que (What)?! There just boxes. He's not crippled. Que las carge en la espalda como burro (He can carry them on his back like a donkey)," joked Cheeto picking up some of the boxes.

"It's OK, you don't have to carry this stuff in. I don't want you to hurt yourself," said Claudia to David.

"Nah, It's fine. He's right. They're just boxes," said David.

"Oh, so you're going to carry them on your back like a burro (donkey)?" she joked.

"No, not that part," replied David.