Rico's Pool Hall
- Rico's Pool Hall is a place that stirs up some serious emotions for Manny's parents. Dad loves it since he gets to play pool and drink all day, and Mom hates it since, well, dad plays pool and drinks all day.
- It's the day after Manny and Nardo picked chili peppers, and Mom has just snatched Dad from a game at the pool hall. The whole family is in the car except for Nardo: Mom, Dad, Magda, Manny, and his little sister, Pedi. When Manny touches the hot metal of the car door and curses, Mom slaps his mouth as punishment. Manny's not happy about it, but he figures at least his dad is too drunk to get angry, too.
- Dad doesn't stay calm for long, and when they get home, he gets seriously steamed about their neighbors, the Garcias. Two of the sons, Bobby and Stinky, messed up Dad's croquet set awhile back, and now Dad is angry with them for life.
- So Dad yells at Bobby and Stinky from the car. And the grumbling doesn't stop there—he and Mom get into a tiff about welfare next.
- Basically, Dad doesn't want to get welfare because he's afraid the government will get too nosy about his family and personal life. Mom, on the other hand, just wants to make sure her kids have food to eat every day. So they get into a huge fight, and Manny heads out of the house.
- There's no escaping the craziness today, though, because when Manny reaches the Big Lawn in his neighborhood he finds two seriously unwelcome sights: a frothy-mouthed dog, and three of the Garcia brothers (Bobby, Stinky, and Little Tommy). The Garcia brothers are riled up, so they tease Manny big time, with Stinky in particular scaring the pants off of our main man.
- All three brothers start messing with Manny, pushing him around so that he falls to the ground. They're being super rough, plus they're getting on Manny for the fact that his sister, Magda, won't date any of them.
- All of a sudden, though, the brothers leave, which is pretty weird. Manny heads back home.
- He finds Mom cleaning and watching daytime television (her favorite), but Dad is getting super annoyed at how much Mom is swooning over one of the actors. Once Dad's had enough, he heads back out to drive to Rico's for some more pool. Unfortunately, though, the car won't start.
- So he walks away in a huff while the Garcia brothers throw gravel at him. They really are the worst.