Chapter Text
He felt a light slap against the back of his head, his loose brown curls then caught up in a gentle ruffling. Jesse looked up from the acoustic guitar that was taking up his entire lap. His father was standing over him with a slight frown on his face, which just brought a pout to the boy's lips.
"Jess, you have your fingers too low, its throwing off your playing."
"Papa.. its hard. Mah arms're too short." His chubby child's face scrunched up in frustration, his brown eyes watering slightly.
His father's frown turned into a soft sympathetic smile as he knelt down next to the boy who was a bit small for his seven years but sharp as a tack. The hand in his hair became more soothing, brushing the hair away from Jesse's forehead. "Don't worry you'll grown into it." His father's hands then carefully pulled the boy's hair back and tied it in a short ponytail.
"Can'na watch mah vids now?" His chest puffed up and his father laughed softly, nodding to the brown haired boy.
That was enough for him and the small boy excitedly bounced up to his feet, while still being careful with the guitar he'd been practicing with. He put it back in its case before running up the mud brick steps to his upstairs room. With a grin on his face he flopped heavily onto his bed, grabbing his remote while doing so and pressing the play button.
The fuzzy screen on his tv flickered a little before an old western appeared on the screen and the boy was caught up in the movie, completely enthralled by the cowboys on the screen and mouthing the lines along with the actor. He knew all the lines by heart, he'd watched this particular movie hundreds of times, and yet he couldn't get enough of it. Maybe it was the fact that there were houses in it that were similar to his adobe styled house, or maybe he just loved the drawl of the character's voices. Either way he'd never gotten bored with them, content to watch them until he dozed off.
"Jesse! Its time for dinner!" The boy jolted awake and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before he hopped out of bed and headed downstairs towards the kitchen where his mother had called to him. "Ay... go wash your hands first." She pointed right back out of the room, her other hand on her hip. "You know better than to come to the table with unwashed hands."
"Si Mama." He scurried back out before he was scolded any further and quickly went to wash his hands.
Both of his parents were sitting at the table when he returned. Jesse plopped into his chair, his plate already piled with food and waiting for him. A glass of milk sitting next to it while his parents were already eating and discussing things that he didn't understand so he ignored them to shovel spicy rice into his mouth. He paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth when he realized that his mother was asking him a question.
"Jesse, did Mrs. Ramirez say it was okay for you to spend the night with Refugio?" His brown eyes considered his mother silently for a moment before nodding enthusiastically.
"Yep! Gonna watch vids wit' Cuco all niiiiight." His mother shook her head a little before sighing and looking over at her husband.
"This was your idea you know." The words sounded long suffering, yet still affectionate and were rewarded with a light chuckle and a shrug.