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Jean kicked his shoes off and did a belly dive onto the bed. "Sweet relief, I hate planes,"
"They suck, big time," Jean's mom Christine said, laying down on her bed.
"So whats the plan for tomorrow?" Jean asked closing his eyes, feeling jet lagged from the plane.
"Well let's see... I was thinking I could go see the old church and if you want you could go with me or you could go into down and do one of those tours, does that sound fun?" Christine said. Jean nodded.
"Yeah sure I'll do the tours while you see that creepy old church," He said getting sleepy already. Jean's mom was an journalist, she wrote about all kinds of things but the reason they came to Mexico was for her to write about an old supposedly haunted church.
"Good plan Jean-bo. Now go to sleep," Christine said. Jean stuck his arm up in a thumbs up.
"Already halfway on it," He said, nodding off.
————
"Jeanboy, wake up," His mother shook him awake.
"whas goin' on," He said sleepily. Christine ruffled his hair.
"Get up lazy," She said chuckling. She was fully ready with her camera over her neck and her notepad in her hand.
"I'm up I'm up!" Jean said getting out of the bed. He quickly threw on his clothes, ready for the day.
"Okay, before we go, here is some money. Don't talk to strangers okay? And only drink bottled water," She said handing him a fistful of cash.
"I'm 18 not five, mom," Jean said rolling his eyes.
"Well still. Behave and don't go too far out," She said.
They exited the motel they were staying at and walked to the town square. It was a beautiful and bustling town, people everywhere you turned.
"Okay, the tour guide booth is over there. I'm gonna take a taxi to the church. Bye Jeanie I love you" She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and a ruffle to his hair.
Jean walked to the tour guide booth a bit nervous because 1, he didn't speak Spanish. 2, he was in foreign country for the first time.
A guy around maybe 18 was behind the booth. He was pale for a Mexican. And he had freckles dotting his face. He was also really really cute. He started talking to Jean rapidly in Spanish.
"Oh I- uh I don't speak Spanish.. Uh no habla Espanol," Jean said, his pronunciation really bad.
"Well you are just in luck. I speak English, If you had gotten my brother for the tour, I'm afraid you wouldn't have been so lucky," The guy said. He had a Mexican accent, Jean thought it was cute.
"O-oh yeah," Jean said sheepishly.
"So what tour do you want to do?" He asked, "I'm Marco by the way, I'll be your tour guide today,"
"Um whatever's available really," Jean laughed.
"Okay well we have a tour of the Dia De Los Muertos graveyards right now, would you like to take it?" Marco asked writing something down.
"Dia De Los what?" Jean asked embarrassed. He knew he was butchering it completely.
"Dia De Los Muertos. Day of the Dead," He replied, "It's fine if your Spanish is bad I don't care. Some people would make fun of you. Not me though," Marco laughed.
Jean smiled nervously.
"Come on, onto the bus," Marco said leading him to it. Jean got inside, it was hot and there were a lot of people in it.
"I'm Jean by the way," He put his hand out for Marco to shake it.
"Welcome to our little town, Jean," Marco said smiling. Jean really liked the way Marco said his name. "So what brings you here?"
"My moms doing an article about the church here," Jean said. Marco nodded.
"Ohh. That old thing. Rumor has it that an evil devil worshiping witch lived there before it was turned into a church. And a lot of bad things happen there," Marco said. You could tell he was skeptical about these things.
"Like what?" Jean asked, he figured this sort of information would be good for his mom.
"Like there has been a lot of deaths. Once there was a supposed exorcism," Marco whispered.
"Oh wow. Sounds like it's a fun place," Jean said sarcastically. Marco laughed.
"You're a funny American," He said. Jean blushed. "We're at the graveyard look out the window,"
Jean turned his head to look. It was a huge graveyard and there were many people. Some of the headstones were decorated and had gifts, some of them didn't. Jean assumed the ones without were people without any living relatives.
"Why are there food on the headstones?" He asked Marco.
"They're gifts to our loved ones who've passed," Marco said. There was a strange look on his face.
"It's beautiful. To be honest, I've never heard of this holiday till today," Jean admitted. Marco laughed.
"Yeah it's a traditionally Mexican holiday. And even then in some places not even Mexicans celebrate it!" He said.
"The only Mexican holiday I know is Cinco De Mayo," Jean said.
"Yeah that's a well known holiday but a lot of us don't celebrate it. It's more of an American thing," Marco said poking fun at him.
"Is day of the dead today?" Jean asked looking back to the graveyard.
"It's actually the day after tomorrow," Marco said. "It's a very busy holiday. People close down their stores for the day,"
The bus came to a stop back where he first got on.
"Oh I guess that concludes your tour," Marco said smiling.
"Oh okay," Jean got of the bus before turning back to Marco, "Actually wait, do you maybe wanna go get like tacos or something?"
Marco looked hesitant, "Yeah actually, That'd be fun,"