Love Story

Lionel Kelly is black and Beatriz Chacon is Latina. But like the plot of a real-world "West Side Story," the two 14-year-olds fall in love in an atmosphere of violence, decaying education and racial tension. In "Young Love, Old Divisions," Erika Hayasaki of the Los Angeles Times shares the story of their courtship and reminds us just how precious high school students are. The descriptions in Hayasaki's writing are beautiful: "As any 14-year-old boy would, he first noticed how cute she was. Her smooth skin, pink as seashells. Black hair dyed the color of applesauce, curls sprayed stiff, twisted into a long ponytail." What a vivid image.
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jeff13may13,0,6259192.story?page=1&track=tottext