Part I: What it takes to pave a path
Jose Montoya* is the kind of kid that can walk into a room, and you just know. You know he’s going to give you some kind of hell just by the way he struts—sly and cool, no hint of effort on his part. He makes a plain uniform look cool with his clean red Vans, his white shell necklace, and his hair spiked into a faux-hawk that looks like he woke up that way.
Jose Montoya is the leader of my first class of the day—a class dominated by fearless boys, who will do anything to en
