My family and I went to Dominion High School in Sterling to listen to an informative presentation about the program AOS, Academy of Science. My case manager wanted me to find out what it’s all about and think about applying for it. My mom’s Spanish interpreter was there waiting for us. The interpreter greeted us and accompanied us to the auditorium. The presentation started. The interpreter started speaking rapidly in Spanish to my mom. She was keeping pace with the presenter.

There was a white woman in front of us; she was wearing earrings around the whole perimeter of each ear. Her ponytailed hair was a fire truck red with black stripes. She had raccoon eyes, too much eyeliner; her hot pink eye shadow was a huge exaggeration. Her face was powdered so much that her complexion reminded me of white chalk. The offensive odor of cigarette smoke lingered out of her.

About twenty minutes later, the gringa turned around with an ugly scowl on her face, “Can you shut up or go sit somewhere else?” It was obvious that she was annoyed by my mom and her interpreter speaking Spanish; she wasn’t mad because of the noise they were making. She’d been talking loudly to the man next to her during the whole time.

My mom, who has a great and widely known reputation for defending herself, retorted, “She’s my translator, she won’t be quiet. If you want you can move somewhere else.” The woman scowled even worse and turned around. She gathered her belongings and moved to another seat. After she had settled herself, she looked at my mother and glared at her. My mom just faked like she was intently watching the presenter.

I stared at the woman, when she saw me staring she turned around quickly. It must have been that she knew that she could get in trouble for making a minor feel bad. Too bad for that racist, she picked a bad spot to move to; five minutes later a kid next to her started whining to his mom that the lady next to him looked like an evil witch. I raised my hand to my mouth and concealed my grin.