A/N: Just saw season three and WOW! SO MANY IDEAS AND MAKES ME WANNA WRITE EVEN MORE

"Here, I got you this."

Jacky said as she carried baby Luis into my room, dropping off some shoes. Its New Years Eve. We went to Jacky's families house to spend some time there, and well, we got home early because Rubys and his family invited me and the crew, to celebrate. I did a few touch ups before I left. I touched the cross necklace I had.

"Just smile." I told myself as I forced a smile. I've been forcing myself to smile, so the gang won't get worried. I put on my heels and took one last look in the mirror. It's been a month, since Olivia died, since Ruby got shot, since I lost myself. When Ruby got shot, part of me broke. I wiped my tear away. I walked out of my room and saw baby Luis. "Hola!" I cooed. I picked him up from his seat.

"So I bought brownies so you can take over there." Willy said as he stood in the kitchen.

"Thanks." I faked a smile.

"Hey." I looked up. "If you want to talk-"

"Theres nothing to talk about. Im fine." I lied. "Im fine!" I laughed with Luis.

"Its tough, with Ruby and with Celia-"

"Im fine Willy." I told him. I gave him Luis and picked up the brownies. "I have to go, ill see you in a few." I kissed Luis and Willy on the cheek. I walked out and went to Rubys. Monse came pulling up. "Wheres Cesar?"

"He didn't feel like he should be here." We walked up to the porch and saw a pregnant white girl. I frowned. We just looked at each other and walked in.

"Happy new year!" We said. Mario was here, now i get it. 

"Yall know there's a pregnant white girl on your porch?" Monse said. The family turned to Mario. Mario laughs. Oh no.

"Suprise?" Mario brought in his baby mama and we waited for Jamal.

"Hi princesa." Ruby said as he walks up to me.

"Hola mi amor." We kissed. The twins said ew and ran away. "How are you?"

"High? Im low." I laughed.

"Wait, are you high?" I whispered to him.

"No baby, im so low." He definitely was. I rolled my eyes with a smile. I kissed his cheek.

"Ah! Valeria!" Mrs Martinez runs up to me and hugs me.

"I brought brownies." I told her.

"Oh good!" She takes the tray away and Jamal came and then we started dinner.

"I call sitting to my beautiful girlfriend!" Ruby announced. He ran to me, pulling my chair and pushing me in. Even high, he's still a gentleman. Marios baby mama was slurping her big gulp from 711. We all just looked at her with disgust. She saw that we were staring and then stopped.

"I am so sorry for your recent loss. My heart goes out to all of you." She told us. She isn't that bad. "And as a beneficiary of white privilege, these kinds of tragedies are like, foreign to me. So on behalf of my people, i am sorry for keeping your people down." Anddd nevermind, i take back what i said. My mouth dropped.

"Is she for real?" Monse leans in to me, whispering.

"I hope so." Ruby looks back. Monse frowns.

"Um, okay, um, thank you, Amber. We appreciate that." Mrs Martinez said as she was trying not to attack her.

"Mama, this all looks amazing."Amber said, we all gasped. Did she really said mama? Mario coughs.

"Jamal, can you pass the bread?"

"What bread? I dont have any bread." Jamal jumps. I looked at him.

"I know you dont, but can you pass it?" Jamal looks at the basket of bread and passes to Mario.

"I have no secrets!" Jamal said to Jasmine.

"I do!" Amber said. "And i feel like i should clear my conscience since we're about to come into the new year, and, uh, im about to be the mother to a 'whitina'." I choked on my water. A what now?

"a what?" Abueltia gasps.

"A white latina." Jasmine tells her.

"So there were not a lot of POC in my high school, which is really such a shame, because there's a lot yo learn when you just break down those cultural barriers." I just sat there, losing brain cells, just by listening to her talk. "Anyway, i cant believe this is a part of my personal history, but-"

"Babe, right now is probably not the best time-" ruby put is hand over Marios mouth.

"Continue." He said.

"Gracias." She leans in. I cant even. It was the most whitest gracias i have ever heard. "So, I had this friend and he was latino. Or Hispanic. Which on is it?" She looks at Mario. I looked down at my plate. Why me. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Its all the same, right, babe?" She laughs. My eyes widen, my head snaps at her. The same?! "Anyway, we called him, 'Ockie.' And I thought it was just short for octopus, because he had an extra finger, but it wasn't about the finger. It was because every tome a teacher took roll, he'd go, 'aqui!'" I placed my hand over my chest. Abueltia and Mrs Martinez gasped. "The finger was just a coincidence. Is that effed-up?" Oh yes, amber, yes. Its very effed up. You literally took the words out of my mouth.

"Mario?" Mrs Martinez wasnt too happy. Matio hummed. "Can you help me in the kitchen, please?" Oh no. We all sat back, waiting. Ruby and Jasmine left. Ruby later comes and sits next to me.

"Have I told you look hot?" He smiles.

"No you haven't lover boy." I patted his chest.

"If i could, i would take you right here." My eyes widen, my cheeks turned red. I choked on my pasta.

"Ruby!"

"And i will-"

"Okay!" I sat up as the door bell rang. "Keep it in your pants." I sat next to Monse on the couch. Jasmine comes and sits in front of Amber.

"Ah!" She laughs. "So tell me, what does it feel like? Like you have an alien in your belly?" They both laughed. "Actually, I dont care how it feels. Ive been working this family a long time. So dont think your little baby trap is gonna get you in tighter than me."amber pulls herself up, close to Jasmin.

"Listen, puta." My mouth dropped. What is going on?! "Dont come at me. I got a brick in my bag." I just turned away. I got a text from Willy.

Willy: all good?

Val: Yeah

I turned off my phone. Jamal, Monse and I went to Ruby, whos got the munchies.

"Ruby?" I said. He responded with a hum.

"We can see through your brave front. Its okay if you're not okay. We're here for you. Just tell us what you need. Do you need anything?"

"Some whipped cream." He laughs. We all looked at each other. I shook my head.

"I got you bro." Jamal said. "Imma get that whip-whip." I chuckled.

"Todos!" Rubys dad yelled out. "Its almost midnight!" I grabbed Rubys arm as we head to the living room.

"Lets go!" we all cheered.

"I wanna say something really quick before the new year rings in." Ruby said as he holds my hand.

"You got 30 seconds." His dad lifted him to the table in the middle.

"I know you're worried that im just fronting and putting on a good face, but im not. No, im not a victim. Im a survivor." We all cheered. "And i dont want to live the rest of my life in fear or with regret, cause its a choice. And everyday we can choose to focus on out gifts instead of our misfortunes. We can choose to..to turn our worst tragedies into our greatest blessings, and we can choose to love instead of hate. By the way, shout out to whoever brought that pie." We all laughed. I clapped my hands and put them on my lips. "Tonight, i want to look to my future and not my past. Tonight, i want to make every second count cause tonight Im alive and okay." We all cheered again.

9!

I helped Ruby down from the table.

8!

Ruby stares at me as I counted down.

7!

I looked back at him, happy to see him smiling.

6!

He holds my hand.

5!

I got closer to him.

4!

He grabs my other hand.

3!
We couldn't look away from each other.

2!

We were inches away.

1!

i gave him a kiss. My new years kiss. I turned around and hugged Monse. We all popped our poppers. We shouted happy new year. Jamal hugged me from the back. I clapped my hands and turned around. Wheres Ruby? I looked around, I couldn't find him. I ran out of the house, Monse and Jamal followed. I saw him hugging Cesar. We gathered around Olivias shrine.

"Olivia...ill never forget your kindness." Cesar said.

"Your encouragement and support." Jamal added.

"Your beautiful heart." Ruby gasps. I held his hand.

"Your unconditional friendship." Monse said.

"And the light you showed us when things went bad." I cried. Ruby pulls out a gift from his jacket. He placed it on the shrine. "You should unwrap it." I told him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Ruby gives the present to Jamal, who begins to open it. He laughs. It was a spanish-english dictionary. I laughed with the others.

"What? Whats so funny?" Ruby was so confused.

"Oh my gosh Ruby." Monse shakes her head.

"What?"

"Thats a terrible birthday gift." She told him.

"Why? Whats so terrible about trying to better someones skill set?"

"Im with Ruby. The girl was many things, definitely not a linguist." Jamal backed up.

"Yeah, she once called horchata-"

"Horacha." Monse laughs. "Wasnt just once."

"I miss her." Ruby said. We all huddled up and hugged. We backed up.

"Guys, ive been hiding something." Jamal told us.

"Me too." Cesar also said. "Ive got nowhere to go."

"You said that your brother was-"

"No, i lied." He looks at Monse. "Im... dead to him."

"But not to me." Monse holds Cesars hand."We'll figure it out. I promise." They both kissed. I kinda figured that they were already together, i wasnt dumb. Jamal and Ruby were just shook. "Oh right. This happened. We've been hiding this too."

"I been knew." I shrugged off.

"We dont care. We kissed you first." Jamal and Ruby high fived. "Plus, Cesar kissed Val first." I rolled my eyes.

"That was 4th grade." I chuckled.

"Anyways. As i was saying before y'all interrupted me-" jamal started.

"Well, ive been high...all night." Ruby said.

"Oh, we know, amor." I patted his chest, giving him a kiss.

"Are you kidding me!" Jamal screamed. He walked away. "Are you.. kidding...me?!" He grabs his head. We all turned to him. "Im literally trying to tell you guys something! Something important! Something monumental! Something that could probably-" he turns to us. "No, scratch that. Positively will...positively change your lives!" We all just looked at him, like he was crazy. "And yall keep interrupting me...like some dumb comedy run! What is wrong with you people?!"

"Okay! Tell us." Ruby said. Jamal fixed his jacket and tie.

"No. Im done."

"We'll shut up." Monse told him.

"You don't deserve to know." He looks at me. "Only Val deserves to know." Me? Why?

"Please." Cesar said.

"Fine. I found the rollerworld money." My eyes popped out of my head. We went to Jamals place, sitting us on his bed, he opened his closet door. "You know what? I dont know why im being so quick on the draw. I think an apologys in order. Besides Val, you believed in me." The crew looked at me.

"What? Stuff like that is real." I said.

"For what?"

"For what? For all of my mistreatment. Im tired of being an afterthought. For once, if like to be a 'before thought'. Or just a thought. Not one of you, besides Val, has ever said you're sorry for the shit you've said to me."

"We're sorry." Ruby groaned.

"Can we see the money now?"

"Seriously? Thats all you got?"

"What do you want us to say?"

"How about jamal was right?" Everyone started to mouth the words. "No, you cant just move your mouths. You gotta say it."

"Jamal was right." Everyone said.

"Jamal is not the biggest, fakest liar ever."

"Jamal is not the biggest, fakest liar ever."

"Jamal is the real glue...of our crew." They all looked at me.

"Say it." I said. They all groaned.

"Jamal is the real glue of our crew."

"Jamals big mouth is not as big.. as Jamals big-"

"Im not gonna say that." Monse said as She rolled her eyes.

"Big intuition." He points at his head.

"Look, we get it. Youre the man."

"Thank you. We can proceed. So now, ladies and gentlemen... without further ado, i present you with..." he pulled out some clothes and screamed.the moneys gone!"