A/N: okay so I've decided from now on I'm just gonna have to deal if these chapters are longer than the first chapter of this fic. A lot of times the first chapter is the longest, but I don't wanna limit how much I write in the following chapters like I've been doing just because I don't want them to be that much longer than the first chapter.

Anyways, have fun reading!

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THE BOONDOCKS, MacBook airs, Google Chrome, Smart Boards, Goldfish, Welch's fruit snacks, Tastycake, Google Drive

West Torrance Road

Tuesday, September 15th

7:30am

Amanda's POV:

Sigh. I was currently boarding the bus, having to deal with Mr. Uncle Ruckus's nonsense. Huey, Riley, Caesar, and Cindy all just called him, 'Ruckus', but I went with Jazmine's more formal name to be polite. Still, he was everything but polite.

"Mhm, ain't it a shame?" He asks me as I take my first step onto the bus stairs. "Yo daddy gave you some beautiful, blue eyes, long, light brown hair, and a nice, pointy nose, but yo mama being dark and Black and all made you darker than them Freeman niggas. I don't care if it's by a single shade, you still darker than them… and that's what's a shame, mulatto. But I know that the White part of ya that makes ya a mulatto is keeping you pure and angelic enough to overpower the dark, evil part of ya. So get on this bus, now, and have a nice day. I hope ya good half lets you get good grades, but not as good as those precious White chilluns. They deserve to have a better education than you."

I shake my head at his long ass comment—something I've already done about 200 times since yesterday. It's funny how I was already starting all these new habits based on my new friends' already existing behaviors. Like Cindy and Riley loved to have roast sessions, and would sometimes even make it a battle for how well one of them dissed random kids vs. how well the other dissed random kids. Jazmine was super naïve, that was obvious, but based off of the few explicit things she did know, if she really needed something from Huey, her first thought was, 'grab the crotch'. Then there was Huey—the silent, not-shy revolutionary who always told the truth when called upon to speak. And finally Caesar, who, like Huey, was a revolutionary, but was also more upbeat, outgoing, and could never shut up about Brooklyn. But it was kinda cute how he was always so determined to educate everyone on and represent his hometown. Oh! And how could I forget Kai? He was so chill, nice, and understanding… and there was just something about him that made you trust him immediately.

It's also pretty funny how much I know about this group of people after only one full day of talking to them.

Overall, at the very least, I can say I'm more than satisfied with my new friend group. They're all funny, smart, attractive, and nice (yes, even Huey!) and I'm glad to have met them because my first few days at school were just plain sad and boring.

I look around the rest of the bus at the random, White kids (who probably have no interest in me) as I take my seat. But then one bold one comes to the back of the bus. As he approaches me, I realize he wasn't White after all, but, rather, Asian. I recognize him from yesterday and try to remember his name. He was cool, I know that, and he's not afraid to display it. He has nothing but swag as he sits down and flashes a smile, which allows me to view his big dimples even better.

"Uhh, hi," I greet him with a small, gentle smile.

"Heyyy, what's cookin', good lookin'?" He flirts a bit. I furrow my eyebrows together in hopes that memories from when I've seen this dude before now will come back. Then click!

"Wait, didn't I see you yesterday? Like… you came on the bus yesterday, then I saw you in school, too. You got on the bus at Cindy's stop, though… right?" I question him.

"Tis correct, madam," he says in a British accent and quickly flashes yet another smile. "I slept over at my boy Jake Campbell's house last night, though. Aye, Jake, raise a hand to this pretty young thang!" He screams across the bus, and a naturally tannish White boy raises his hand.

"Oh, alright," I briefly respond.

"Yeah… we're throwing a party soon, so, y'know, we gotta get everything all together, y'know? I mean, I DJ, and I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself, so we were tryna figure out what songs would be best to play for me to mix, and he was tryna get together an invite list, and y'know, all that crap. We were thinking 'bout just inviting the school but that's too much. We don't wanna have to be responsible for a bunch of drunk and horny 14 year olds, y'know?" this boy explains.

"I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you that all I heard were a bunch of, 'y'knows'. But I think I get the gist of what you're saying. Big party—got it," I reply.

"Oh, hah, yeah… I say, 'y'know' a lot when I'm nervous… y'know?" he adds the second one jokingly. Since he's sitting in the seat across from me, I move across the isle to sit next to him. He backs up a little, but it looks like he backed up because me being closer to him made him more nervous—he didn't back up to make more space for me on the seat. Because of this, I lean into him more and prepare myself to say one of the corniest, classic movie lines ever created.

"Do I make you… nervous?" I ask him, trying to keep a straight face on. However, I fail immediately and break into laughter. He gulps and looks at me in fear, then amazement, and finally a smile begins to creep onto his face.

"More like do you make me horny. Like yooo, that was off the chain! You are one crazy chica, umm… what's your name?"

"Shaking my head, I'm off the chain? I'm Amanda Charleston, and you are..?"

"Hiro. Hiro Otomo. Only the freshest and wildest kid you'll ever meet in your life. Hey, so, who are you friends with anyways?" Hiro asks. I look up to make better eye contact with him, and as I shift my position, I get a glance out the window, only to see Jazmine, Huey, and Riley meeting up at the corner with Caesar. Riley was obviously complaining based on how he was tilting his head back and forth and making all of these over exaggeratory hand motions. Granddad probably got mad at him for drinking all the orange juice again, or watching TV too late at night, or something of that sort. Huey was just nodding, obviously half-listening, while Jazmine was squeezing Huey's hand and looking into his eyes, very noticeably in love with this man with an afro. As they caught up with Caesar, he gave Huey and Riley dap, then hugged Jazmine, calling her, "Jazzy Fresh". Him and Jazmine had some kind of brother, sister relationship that no one questioned—mainly because everyone in our group, and probably some others outside of it, knew that Jazmine has had her eyes on Huey since she first met him at age 10, and Caesar was hopelessly lovesick over Cindy for the past two years or so.

They gather together, forming a straight line to board the bus.

"Well, my friends are actually right there," I point at them for Hiro.

"What?! No way, Joséna!" he makes a feminine version of the name 'José'. "The Freeman bros and Ceez are my boys!" I examine Hiro's face, looking him up and down as if to make sure he's telling the truth. He breaks under the pressure. "Well, I mean, Riley more than anyone. But I talked to all of them and was their host on the first day of school. The girls are cool, too, and I kinda sorta know Cindy from being her neighbor and all."

"Now that's more believable. Anyways, we should probably move a row back, and to the left side of the bus. No doubt Huey and Jazmine will sit in the row right behind us, on the right side, and Cindy, Caesar, and Riley will sit in the very back row." I get up to move across the isle and back one row, but then feel a tug on my hand.

"Keep moving, Aman-man," Hiro already makes a nickname for me, "I'm just using you for extra support. And inspiration and all that good stuff."

"Well how 'bout I inspire you to make a new nickname for me that doesn't sound like you're an Amazon woman who's seeing a man for the first time," I sneak diss him, similar to what Cindy would do to Riley or Caesar.

"Okay, maybe, 'aman-man' sounds a little too much like, 'a man, man', but… what else am I supposed to call you? Amton? Sounds like a city. Manda? Too overused. Sweet cheeks? That's just a pervy name a fuckboy would call you. Legit I got nothing… oh my lord wait I lied! Ima call you, 'AC'. Is that all guch with you?"

"Yeah, it's the most 'gucci' thing you listed," I respond with a laugh.

"Nah, you gotta say, 'guch', not 'gucci'," Hiro instructs. "It sounds wayyy cooler, and you know it too."

"What sounds way cooler?" I hear a high, feminine voice question. I look up to see the one and only Jazmine Dubois.

"Hey, Jazzy!" I greet her, and she sits down in the row across from us. Hiro switches seats with me so that I can better talk to Jazmine.

"Huey, Caesar, and Riley are going through their daily argument with Mr. Uncle Ruckus right now," Jazmine debriefs us on the situation.

"Oh, what?! Riley told me about their arguments with this fool, and Lord knows if I wasn't as rich as I am and with as much status in Woodcrest that I'd have a daily argument with Ruckus, too, but I've never seen Huey, Riley, and Ceez's confrontations with Ruckus play out live! Move over, girl! I gotta see this." Hiro looks at me as if I'm crazy for not moving, so I calmly explain to him why I'm not moving whatsoever.

"We just moved, dude," I say.

"And? I wanna see the argument…bitch."

"Who you callin' a bitch? Chigga, you gon' have to move this bitch to see that shit take place," I speak at him like Cindy and Riley combined would, followed by slowly breathing in and out to get my heart rate down again.

"I knew I could push your buttons just right, AC," Hiro comments on my behavior. He then lifts me up, slides over, and places me on his lap. "Now, since I don't think I broke any of your rules, I suggest we all three look over to the front of the bus to see what's happening." Jazmine, who had her mouth open in shock because of the events that just took place, looks in the same direction as us.

In the front of the bus I see Huey yelling at Mr. Uncle Ruckus as he condescendingly replies, but I can't really make out what they're saying. Hiro notices me squinting my eyes, so he signals Jake Campbell, who yells, "Shut up!" to everyone on the bus. Finally, I can hear the conflict take place, as well as every other nosy person on this bus—or, in other words, everyone on this bus.

"Now I'm not gonna repeat myself again, coons: I need y'all darkies to give me 5 reasons why I should even let your dark, evil selves onto this bus with these light, angelic White chillun." For a moment, the boys look amongst themselves. Caesar is the first out of the three to speak up.

"Riley, you wanna start this roast off?" Ceez asks.

"You already know, my nig," Riley says with a mischievous smile. "Boi! For starters, you're darker than all three of us combined, and wanna claim you White and got revitiligo and some shit. Fuck outta here with that, Ruckus."

Caesar takes the next number out of five on Mr. Uncle Ruckus's list. "So you're also pretty dumb for thinking that."

"Which also means that we're smarter than you. We've been going to school with Whites for years, and they tolerate us more than they'll ever tolerate your ass. You constantly kiss up to them, but they just take us as is because we bring our Black culture along with us. Lastly, I just had to hear my Granddad yell at Riley, and I don't want to hear another old, Black man, who thinks that everything in the world is wrong except for them, yell at me," Huey answers the last three components of Mr. Uncle Ruckus's original question.

Mr. Uncle Ruckus looks down and Riley shoves his arm out of the way so that he can truly board the bus. He charmingly smirks at some White girls, who both whisper and scream several inappropriate things, on his way to the back of the bus. When Mr. Uncle Ruckus looks up again, his face shows a bit of sadness. When the two remaining boys in the front of the bus see this change in facial expression, Caesar's eyebrows, which had been raised, lower and his eyes widen a bit. However, Huey's scowl remains. I get chills from how cold he seems.

Forgetting I was sitting on Hiro's lap, I'm quite surprised when I hear someone ask me, "AC, you aiight?" I nod my head at him in hopes that he'll just blow it off, which he does.

Both Caesar and Riley begin to walk to the back of the bus to where we're currently sitting. On the way back, similar to Riley, Caesar was on the more flirtatious side, while Huey kept his signature scowl on his face. Still, Huey was known and recognized for being the most attractive boy, and really overall person, at Wuncler Hills Academy at only a week into school. Jazmine had told me sometime between all of our talking on the bus yesterday morning that Huey held this title at their last school, as well, which was significantly bigger than WHA. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if Huey kept this title at WHA all year long.

Since they like to save the middle seat for Cindy, Riley sits on the far right of the long, back row seat and Caesar sits on the far left. Meanwhile, Huey takes his window seat next to Jazmine.

"Y'all fucking?" were the first words to come out of Riley's mouth all morning that were directed towards me.

"Now, dude… do you really want me to go off on you this early?"

"You finna go off on me? Pssshhh, you basically just like Mariah over here, how you gon' roast Young Reezy?" He questions me cockily.

"Lies you tell from the book of lies…" Hiro murmurs under his breath, already being exposed to my rough and gritty side just a few minutes ago.

"I can safely say that I'm the perfect mix of Jazmine and Cindy. Hiro over here just saw my Cindy side not too long ago, and I don't think you wanna see it either," I whisper-yell at him through my closed teeth, doing my best to intimidate him.

"Aiight, girl… damn! I'll make sure not to mess witchu again," Riley begins, "for now," he adds with a grin.

I smile in triumph for getting Riley to give up in defeat. Even if it was just a little defeat, it was still an accomplishment for me. Across the isle, I hear Jazmine softly talking to Huey.

"You don't have to tell me you feel bad for making Mr. Uncle Ruckus get sad. You don't have to confess that it takes a lot to make him sad, and you're amazed that you could even do it. You don't have to argue with me and say that you didn't mean to be that cold, so drop the case. I'm not going to drop it… I just want to hold you, okay?" Jazmine's words and effect on Huey amaze me. I think I was beginning to understand their best friendship, and why they haven't gotten together already.

Their friendship was so perfect, so why would they want to lose it all through a romantic relationship? Or would they lose it at all? As I ponder, I see Huey given in to Jazmine, without even a sigh, as she brings her legs up onto the seat and leans over to rest on his left shoulder and hold her arms/hands on his right shoulder. He puts his hand around her waist, and all I can think is, "goals." I'm sure that everyone in my friend group has seen Huey and Jazmine's physical closeness before, but I don't know if everyone has seen their mental closeness in the way I just did.

The bus comes to a stop again, and Cindy and some other White kids get on. Cindy comes to the back of the bus, claiming the seat that I thought she would. Similar to Caesar and Riley, when the boys on the bus extended their hands towards her or flirted with her, she smiled back. Unlike the boys, she wouldn't engage with them anymore than that. I applauded Cindy for standing firm and not just giving the ass to any boy.

"Aww, look at these two!" Cindy refers to Huey and Jazmine. But despite this comment, they don't change their position at all. Rather, Jazmine leans into him more. Cindy looks for her next target to talk about, and turns to Caesar. "Damn, Caesar! Back at it again with the white vans!" Cindy brings up the vine trend. "Aww, and look at my wittle Weezy over here. You're a good gangsta, yes you are, yes you are," Cindy pet talks Riley. "Oh, and lastly Amanda and Hiro. Hiro, wuz good? You already fucked A-Charles over here and slept over at her house, too? And A-Charles, you look mighty comfortable on this chigga's lap," Cindy analyzes the scene.

"…None of the above happened," Hiro says uncomfortably. He slides over to the left, towards the window, so I'm no longer sitting on his lap. I'm a little bothered by this change, but I don't know why. After all, I just met him a matter of minutes ago.

"Aye, so Cindy, I'm throwing a party soon," Hiro starts a more normal conversation with her.

"Forreal?"

"Yeah, and all y'all better come and not wear anything as tacky as this uniform!" He exclaims.

"Now… boy. Did you really think I was gonna wear this plaid skort and blue shirt? And have my hair in a ponytail? And did you really think that I was gonna let anyone out the house looking like this? I mean, Jazzy has a sloppy bun and is wearing a navy skort and a yellow shirt, A-Charles over here has a high, ballet bun and is wearing a khaki skort and white shirt. All of you boys are wearing fuckin' khakis and navy blue shirts again…" She shakes her head, "like I was even gonna tolerate these uniforms as an option of what to wear to a party!" Cindy rants. Hiro, Riley, Caesar, and I laugh at her outburst.

I feel the bus come to a stop. "Aiight, y'all… let's get going!" Cindy exclaims. We all get up, Huey and Jazmine moving the slowest, as we head towards the front of the bus to get off of it.

We all head into school together, Kai being the only member missing from the squad. Well, I guess we could have another member or two, being that Hiro only joined today and we're only a week into school. But it's weird to think about that. Huey, Riley, Caesar, Cindy, and Jazmine have all been such close friends for so long that too many people joining them would probably change their friendships, if not completely mess them up.

I hope I don't become the reason their friend group gets messed up—shoot, I hope that their friend group doesn't get messed up at all. Still, switching schools alone is a big change for anyone and will definitely make an impact on friend groups, no matter how strong they are.

I turn right in the hallway, along with everyone else, and spot Kai in the distance.

"Kai!" I exclaim, running towards him and leaping into a hug.

A bit taken back because of me not giving him a warning, he responds, flustered, with, "Hey, Amanda. What's up?" He hugs me back and I stay in his arms for a moment or two more before backing up to have a normal conversation with him.

"Nothing much, just wish you were on our bus," I remark as the rest of the crew gathers around us.

"Hey, I don't think that Black Bill the bus driver would appreciate his favorite kid leaving his bus," Kai replies with a smile.

"Black Bill the bus driver?" Riley questions.

"Favorite kid?" Cindy asks, adding onto Riley.

"Well, I mean, it's me, Amber, Ciara, Mariana, Adrianna, and some other kids of color on there. And I'm by far the most well behaved of us all, so, yes—favorite kid. And dude told us his name was Bill, and he's Black, so we call him Black man Bill or Black Bill the bus driver," Kai explains.

Huey just shakes his head while the rest of us laugh our heads off.

"So, what class do y'all have first period?" Kai asks us.

"Well, we all got assembly first, really," Hiro answers.

"Oh, yeah, they're gonna be talking to us about electives and study halls and shit," Cindy recalls.

"After that, Huey, Riley, and I have Spanish!" Jazmine says excitedly.

"Ima be in Forensics with Cindy," Caesar tells Kai.

"And I… gotta check," Hiro says, walking off to his locker.

"Same, and we should probably all go get our books," I agree.

Since Hiro's locker is in the front of the school, in the North wing, we break off from him. The rest of us take The Walk, which is one of the connecting North to South wing hallways, so that we can head to our lockers. At the end of The Walk, Caesar, Huey, and Jazmine break off from Riley, Cindy, Kai, and I because their lockers are on the West side of the South wing, and ours are on the East side of the South wing. Then there's one, last, final break off where Cindy and I head to our lockers, which are closer to the classrooms, and Riley and Kai head off to theirs, which are closer to the field house and locker rooms at the very back of the school.

As I'm unlocking my locker, Cindy speaks up. "So, what do you think of those two girls?" She tilts her head to the right, and I look over to where Kai and Riley are. They're currently socializing with two Latina girls.

"Don't know, haven't talked to them yet," I say as I close my locker—books in hand.

"Well, ain't now a perfect time to start?" Cindy says with a mischievous smirk. I follow her lead, a grin appearing on my face as well. We walk over to them, both doing a bit of a sexy walk. Cindy secures her arm firmly around Riley's, while I simply stand next to Kai.

"Now Reezy, you never told me you already had some blonde bimbo as a girlfriend," the first girl starts, looking like a freakin' caramel drop. I don't know how she thought she was cute, or how Riley thought she was cute. It was all a mystery to me.

"Bitch, who you calling a blonde bimbo? Me and Reezy go way back, and if you think Ima just let some random hoe come into the picture all calling me names and shit, you best get to stepping," Cindy fires back at her.

Riley looks down at Cindy, then back at the hoe. Then, the second girl speaks up. "Adrianna, don't…" she warns the first girl.

"Don't what, Mariana? I don't know how Riley's tryna get with me when there's other girls involved. I heard some rumors but this just confirms it's true. Like, how you finna holla at me in the first place? I shoulda stuck with my gut and knew I was too good for you," the girl I now know is named Adrianna goes off. Funny that she mentions how rumors are already forming in the second week of school.

"Adri, chilllll," Riley tries to calm her down.

"Is she always this angry?" I whisper-question Kai.

"Don't know, just met her yesterday. Only talked to her in homeroom. She's been flirting with Riley ever since," he whisper-describes back to me. I nod my head in acknowledgement, then tune back into the conversation.

"Look, Adrianna, I still wanna explore the option of us, aiight?" Riley pleads.

Adrianna rolls her eyes at him. "Okay, but only cuz there's no other men at this school." She removes Cindy's arm from Riley, pulls him over, and then places her hand on his chest. Soon after, Caesar, Jazmine, and Huey come over.

"Riley, I'm going to say one thing before we go to assembly: don't make me have to look for your ass after school to go home," Huey says, and Adrianna eyes him up and down.

"Well ain't this something," she murmurs under her breath. "Your brother is the realest man I've ever seen in my life," she tells Riley. "Too bad… We could've had something, but now that I see this…"

"Hmm, too bad he's already tied down by someone else…" Riley fires back at her. Riley's comment was more of a genuine joke, however, I think Adrianna was dead serious and would take Huey for a boyfriend if that were an option.

"Now let's go to assembly," Caesar says, and we all follow him to the auditorium. I remember Cindy and Caesar talking during lunch yesterday about how they ventured around the school together to figure out where everything was. So, naturally, Caesar would be a trustworthy leader to follow. There're three sets of double doors to enter the auditorium—on the far left, far right, and in the center. The center doors are open, students piling into them, while some teachers are standing outside the other two sets of double doors.

"10th grade over here!" a tenth grade advisor yells, spotting both Kai and Riley. "Wilson-Patterson! Freeman! Over here now!" he continues to yell. "You too, Adrianna Lopez! And Mariana Rodriguez!"

"He ain't Miss Becker—my actual advisor—so I don't see how he's finna tell me what to do and where to go," Riley complains. "That nigga needa chill," he mutters, lazily dragging himself over to the 10th grade seating section of the auditorium. Kai, Adrianna, and Mariana follow him over there, all sitting in alphabetic order as instructed to do so by the advisors.

The auditorium was set up like the following: 9th grade was in the front left, 11th grade behind them in the back left, then 10th grade in the front right side, and us 12th graders behind them in the back right.

Again, because we had to sit in alphabetical order, I was close to Jazmine, but not next to her. In between us there was a boy. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was probably only two inches shorter than Huey, who was 6'3". He had a short hair cut and looked more preppy than any girl in this school. Actually, make that in the world.

"Hello marvelous, I'm Ryan Dinkley," he greets me.

"Hi, I'm Amanda Charleston," I return the favor. He then turns to the right to give his salutations to Jazzy.

"Why hello darling, I'm Ryan Dinkley," he introduces himself to her.

"Why hello," Jazmine replies with a laugh. "I'm Jazmine Dubois."

"So you must be Tommy's daughter, correct? Well, Tom, but I think Tommy sounds like a better name for him. I believe I met you on the first day of school—with some of your not so accepting friends. Still, your father's been quite the ally for the LGBT community—even if he is straight!

"Yes, Tom Dubois is my father! And I've been part of the overall Gay-Straight alliance all my life. So I apologize for my friends, but I'm sure that once you talk to them more, they won't be as bad as when we initially met… Well, I can't guarantee that for Cindy and Riley. But everyone else I'm sure you'll like!" Jazmine goes into full conversation with this kid. I tune them out, and instead look around the room to see where everyone else is seated.

I look to my left, and see Jake Campbell. Earlier today, all I saw was that he was a White boy with naturally tan skin. But now, I see that he also has butterscotch brown eyes, dark, brown hair, a pointy nose that rounded at the tip, soft, pink lips with a medium-sized width, big eyes, long, perfect eyelashes, and even perfecter eyebrows. I look over past him, and see Ceez sitting next to Jake. Oh yeah! I forgot that Caesar is his last name, and Michael is actually his first.

"Ceez! I didn't realize you were right there," I call out.

"Oh, hey Amanda! I'm assuming Jazzy Fresh is close to you too, huh?" He guesses.

"Yep, you got that right! Only two seats away from me—just like you," I reply. I realize that Jake shifted in his seat, and decide to act on it. "Sorry for talking over you. You're Jake Campbell, right?"

"Yeah," he flashes a smile, "I saw you on the bus this morning… now, don't get too cozy with Hiro, alright?" he laughs at his own comment.

"Alright," I laugh back. I continue looking around the room to see where Cindy, Hiro, Huey, Kai, and Riley are. When I look back, Huey has a Latina girl and White boy on his right side, and some Black girl on his left side. The two girls are talking to him, but Huey just looks entirely uninterested. I look even further back, and see Cindy trying to ignore someone who's clearly a fuckboy. And when I look even further back, I spot Hiro looking down at his lap, obviously bored. When I look ahead, I see Kai sitting in between a Black girl and a White nerd. He's talking to the Black girl, though, and since he's only two rows ahead of me, I hear him call her Ciara. However, I can't spot Riley—not even his cornrows.

Man, I wonder how he's doing…

Wuncler Hills Academy

8:00am

Riley's POV:

"Naw, girl, I promise you we're not fucking," I tell Amber Franklin for the 10th time in the past five minutes. "Just cuz I stood up for C-Murph doesn't mean we're a thing. It means that she's my bestest friend in the whole wide world." Amber flips her straightened hair over her shoulder for the 100th time today, and looks at me with her light brown eyes, which truly pop out and contrast from her dark chocolate skin.

"Nigga, you promised me the same thing many times now. But then what is this I'm hearing 'round school then? Huh?" Amber questions me.

"Rumors, bitch! Nothing more, nothing less. 'Sides, I'm messing 'round with Adrianna Lopez now," I say with a smirk.

"Forreal? Well, if you ever need a side chick, then…" she takes her hand and sticks it deep in my left pocket. She digs around with it, purposely rubbing my dick. She then takes her hand back out my left pocket, and sticks it in the right pocket of my khakis. I feel her grab my phone, then drop it, rub my dick once more, then go back up to grab the phone again. She hits the home button, then swipes right—only to realize that I have a password. "I'm assuming you're going to tell me your password," Amber looks at me, attempting to strike fear in my eyes.

"Or, I could just login for you cuz I don't need hoes to know my password," I remark. I take my phone from her, enter in my password, and then hand it back.

"Who you callin' a hoe? Nigga—" Amber begins to rant, but she's cut off by Vice Principal Reagan.

"Good morning students of Wuncler Hills Academy! Welcome to your first, official assembly," Reagan says hella dryly. "I am your leader, your Vice President—Robert Leeron Reagan. I will now have our assistant—"

"What do you mean by, 'our'?" I hear someone call out from behind me. Bet you ten bucks that the nigga who said that was my bro, McHater. However, the voice I heard wasn't exactly his, it sounded like Huey's voice, but a little higher. And after puberty, trust me—Huey had gotten a significantly deeper voice. Like if Huey had said it, he had to have used another voice so that he wouldn't get in trouble. But that's so unlike him… why would he ever not claim his revolutionary words? I turn around, only to see Mr. McFall—Caesar's advisor—telling some White boy not to call out.

"Moving on," Vice Principal Reagan blows the whole thing off. "I now ask Ms. Felkinheiner to take stage."

"Aww, not this bitch again," I complain under my breath.

"Hello students," she begins, already irking my soul on account of her annoying voice. "I'm here today to talk to you about electives. Does anyone know what electives are?" She looks around the big room, waiting for someone to raise their hand so that she can call on them. "Yes, Miss Dubois," she calls on Jazmine. Of course Mariah would sign herself up for some shit like this.

"Electives are a course that you can take for a semester, and in most schools, you have to sign up for at least one academic elective, but there's also some art and music electives that are more fun that you can take," Mariah says all with a smile.

"Exactly. And at Wuncler Hills Academy, we also have boards and clubs—such as Student Council, Debate Club, Frisbee, and more. Right now, in these next few minutes, you'll be receiving your school-provided laptops and signing up for these courses. You'll all have received an email in your new, school-provided email accounts. There is a post-it note on each and every one of your laptops that has your school login, including your email username and password," Felkinheiner describes. "Freshmen have orange laptop cases, sophomores have black laptop cases, juniors have green laptop cases, and seniors have blue laptop cases," she finishes.

I feel Amber tug my hand, and look at her confused. She gives me a laptop, and tells me to pass it down the isle. I do this a few times, and soon enough, I see a small sticker that says, "rfreeman" and my graduating year.

"Aye this is lit!" I exclaim as I open my new, black MacBook Air laptop. I notice the sticky note and see that my school email username is simply: rfreeman . I open Google chrome and set it as my default browser. Then, I start to log into my email. I look over to Amber's laptop and see that her username is: afranklin . I soon learn that everyone's usernames are set up just the way that they're written on people's stickers—their first initial followed by their last name. I take my phone back from Amber, who I'm sure has already done hella snooping on my social media and texts, and open my photo library. I begin to send a pic of myself to my school account so that I can set it as my profile and be flexin' and shit, but then I hear someone clear their voice into the microphone. I look up to see Felkinheiner, who, once again, has killed my whole vibe.

"Now let me be clear, students. These are school owned laptops. They will be yours will you attend Wuncler Hills Academy, but if any damage is done to them or you would like to keep them after your departure from WHA, then you will be paying for it. Ever wondered what that random contract your parent or legal guardian had you sign, say, two weeks ago was? Well, it was a contract for these laptops. All of them were handed it with your signatures and your parent or legal guardian's signatures, so there is nothing you can do about them now," Felkinheiner explains. As she continues to talk, I curse Granddad under my breath. "Now, children… you will have the remaining three minutes of assembly to answer the survey we sent out. You will be put into one of your top three electives and boards and clubs by next period so long as you all fill this out now. And since there are now laptops left to hand out, I expect that you all are currently filling this out." Yeah, this bitch was definitely tripping. But then, suddenly, she turns her head directly towards me—having spotted me out of the crowd of students—and narrows her eyes. "So, I suspect there will be no problems with filling out this survey whatsoever. I would absolutely hate to have to take out the failure of the system on one student." I gulp, but still try to look at her fiercely. The profile pic could wait, cuz this thug right here ain't tryna get sent to Hasan's office again, even if he is the coolest principle to ever live. "You can expect results from the survey in your emails soon," she finishes off. Reagan and her switch places so that he can dismiss us from assembly.

"Why thank you Ms. Felkinheiner. And as soon as our genius IT guys are done with this electives process, half will be fired and the other half will be sent underground to our temporary tech office since other parts of this school are still being added on. Now, all of you students may go. Out of here, I said!" Reagan yells.

"Well, damn," I say, shaking my head.

"You're gonna be saying, 'damn' even more and shaking your head a whole lot once you see the magic that I've done on your phone," Amber says, winking at me and switching as she walks away.

Man, I don't understand why or how girls think I won't notice if they put an extra pep in their step. Like, I can see when you're switching, and when you're tryna look hella sexy while walking. And I feel flattered that you're going the extra mile for me to try and make something as basic and simple as walking look hot, but forreal? I mean, I've seen just about every girl but Jazmine do it! And I'm sure that she's even done it when she's alone with McHater!

But, I digress.

Well, more like my thoughts do.

I snap out of it, and try to get in the line of sophomores so that I'm not the last one in here with Reagan. Since I'm in the middle of the third row, and I had been waiting in my seat, just pondering, for about a minute, I barely make it out as the seventh to last student filing out of the auditorium.

Books and laptop in hand, I head back out the center double doors of the room. I walk down the big hallway for a hot sec, then turn right to go down the connecting, slimmer East/West hallway. I make a left this time, and another left, then take my seat in the Spanish classroom.

"¡Hola Señora Vargas!" I greet her, having already met her yesterday and last week.

"¡Hola Reezy Joven!" She says jokingly with a smile, translating, 'Young Reezy' to Spanish. "¿Como estás?"

"Estoy bien, pero también estoy cansado," I confess, saying that I'm good but also tired.

It's a wonder how I got into advanced, honors, 12th grade Spanish… well, actually, not really. I think I just told myself that to keep up my rep. I mean, I'm fluent in Spanish, and have been for quite some time now. Just cuz I might act like I didn't know Spanish in front of Adrianna doesn't mean that I don't know the language—it means that I'm tryna get her to volunteer to teach me the language so we can have one of dem sexy tutor relationships people always have in books and TV and shit.

I sit down in a desk in the front of the classroom—one of my only classes where I don't care about sitting in the front. Since I'm in the far left of the classroom, near the windows and away from the door, Jazmine, then Huey, sit to the right of me. I lean back in my seat and take it all in.

New school, new friends, new teachers… new diet, like shit, and nigga was hungry up in this bitch! I could not wait until our break period so that I could have some snacks. But, in the meantime, I'm gonna sit back, relax, and flex my Spanish knowledge on all these fools.

Mrs. Roth's Classroom

Wuncler Hills Academy

9:05am

Huey's POV:

I was currently in AP Calculus. Since I don't have math class on Thursdays, I've only had two classes so far—on Friday, and yesterday, or Monday. And because none of my close friends were in this class, I hadn't really socialized at all. I just took notes and tuned out what I already knew—so, in other words, class was boring and I really only had to listen to five minutes of Mrs. Roth's teaching.

Today, however, was different.

I wasn't tuning out as much as usual, but not because I was confused on what Mrs. Roth was essentially re-teaching me. Rather because an Asian girl with a light complexion sat next to me and engaged in conversation with me. Maybe it was because usually the first class I sat in the very front of the classroom, and yesterday I sat in the very back, but today I sat in the middle. Maybe it was because I came into class just on time today instead of coming in early. Maybe it was for a number of other reasons. But whatever those reasons were, I was glad that she started a conversation with me.

"Hi, I'm Ginger Zee," she greets me.

"Huey Freeman," I simply state my name as a form of response. She makes a face that reads 'I've heard a lot about you even though this is only our second week of school'. I know this facial expression very well because quite a few people have made it once I introduce myself these past few days.

"I should've known," she says with a smile. I nod my head, then turn back to the front of the classroom. I see what Mrs. Roth is displaying on the Smart Board, realize I already know that material, and then turn back to face Ginger once more.

"So…" I utter, not knowing how to start nor continue a real conversation with a person that just came out of the stranger zone. I tilt my head slightly from side to side, my signature scowl never leaving my face.

"I'm Taiwanese," Ginger says in a casual manner.

"Let me guess: by this time in your average conversation with the average White kid that you've probably been surrounded by your whole life, they've asked you where you're really from since they know your race is Asian and you were born in America. Because you're so used to receiving this question, you felt inclined to tell me what your answer to this question would be," I guess out loud.

"Umm… one question… how did you get all that from one phrase?" Ginger questions me.

"I was simply analyzing what you said. Digging deeper is what I do—I wouldn't be one of those random kids who asks you a degrading, stereotypical, microagression-filled question like that," I reply swiftly.

"Oh, well, umm, thanks then." She was clearly flustered when responding, and I could see a blush rise in her cheeks. After years of seeing Jazmine blush, it's almost like I had a radar for those emotional, reddish pinkish expositions in cheeks.

"It's nothing," I assure her. I allow one of my dimples to show, but don't go into full smirk. She blushes even more. Her eyes twinkle upon locking with my own eyes. Note to self: don't make any sweet gestures to girls at school or else they'll start to fall in love with you.

I go back to tuning everything out, deciding to patiently wait until the bell rings so that I can go to the cafeteria for break. It was very Riley of me to think the following, but I'm hella hungry up in this bitch right now.

Break (Snack)

10:00am

Cathy M. Moore Cafeteria

Wuncler Hills Academy

Jazmine's POV:

I was currently walking into the cafeteria for some snacks. Cindy was by my side, going off about the way Riley's new girlfriend Adrianna treated her this morning. Cindy's intentions didn't seem like the best to begin with, but I think that Adrianna's response and overall actions negatively overpowered Cindy's original intentions. I had spent the first few minutes of break at my locker, and for these past two minutes, Cindy had been complaining to me.

"So, this hoe was all like, 'you never told me you already had some blonde bimbo as a girlfriend', tryna talk to Riley and ignore me and shit and act like I wasn't there, and she wasn't expecting me to say anything back neither! So I came at her ass and gave her what she deserved. Her friend told her to stop and e'rything but she still persisted!" Cindy exclaims.

"Wait… she thought you and Riley were dating? Why would she think that?" I ask her.

"Girl, I don't know, man. She said there was rumors 'bout us and all that kinda crap. Like I really just don't understand! This isn't my first confrontation with hoes and this only our second week of school!"

"Hold on, like, didn't you and Riley just make up that dating stuff to get those boys to leave us alone and stuff? Maybe stuff spread. I mean, this school is significantly smaller than our last—I wouldn't be surprised if rumors spread quicker," I examine the evidence Cindy gave me. She looks at me still angry, then her facial expression slowly changes.

"Aw shit…" she sighs in realization, shaking her head and looking down at her feet.

"Come on, it won't be that bad," I assure her. I think of something that'll cheer her up. "I mean, your sneakers are super cool today!" A smile creeps up on her face, slowly but surely.

"Yeah, you checked them out? They're the new releases!" She excitedly describes.

"You already know who it is!" Riley cries out, meeting up with us in the cafeteria. I follow behind Cindy while Caesar and Huey follow behind Riley. Riley wraps his hands around Cindy, grinning wildly all while doing so. "C-Murph always got the freshest kicks!" Cindy raises her hands so that they're cupping Riley's face as the two of them continue to compliment each other.

Wow, I think. And Cindy wonders why people say they're dating.

Caesar, Huey, and I all take a seat on one side of the cafeteria table. They were all set up like tables at picnics with benches on either side. Then there were a few circular tables, where teachers that were on lunch duty usually sat, and there were regular chairs that you had to push in.

"You two done?" Caesar asks. They both look at him, then back at each other, and then finally sit down next to each other—all in unison. Cindy still leaning on Riley's shoulder, and Riley's right arm around her waist. Their position reminds me of how Huey and I were sitting on the bus earlier today.

"Y'all know where Amanda and Kai are?" Cindy inquires.

"Amanda said she wanted to meet up with Hiro after math class," I tell her.

"And Kai stayed behind in English to talk to Mr. Murphy about being paired with Adrianna for an upcoming project. That nigga told me he didn't know if he'd be able to take it—and shit, I don't blame him for that," Riley says.

"Speak of the devil," Cindy mutters. "Adri hoe at 10 o'clock," she utters a bit more loudly. Caesar, Huey, and I all turn around to see Adrianna entering the cafeteria with Mariana right behind her. She doesn't look like she has any intentions for coming in her besides seeing who was getting snack.

"Well, I'm going to go get snack. I know what you all want, just give me your ID tags," Huey says. We had all gotten our pictures taken on the first day of school, and somehow, Mr. Wuncler Sr. had gotten all of our IDs made and handed back yesterday during homeroom. Each ID tag had our school picture, first and last name, en graduating year and school ID in smaller numbers, and a barcode on the back for scanning. There was a pin pad at every school entrance that also had a scanner attached to the pad. So when entering school in the morning, a student can either scan his or her ID or enter in the school pin, which was all the even numbers followed by an asterix. We also got to use our ID tags for buying food out of the cafeteria since there was money loaded onto them by our parents/guardians, which is exactly why Huey was asking for them now. We all slid them over to Huey, who proceeded to get into the cafeteria line, grabbing all our favorite snacks as he went through the crowd.

Focusing back on the matter at hand, Riley glances at Cindy. Suddenly, Adrianna makes a sharp turn of her head. "Yo, White girl, move! She's looking over here and you and I both know that while she's cute, I can't take her nonsense again!" Riley hurriedly says.

Cindy lowers her head into Riley's lap so that unless you look on the other side of the table, it would appear as though her whole body isn't there. Still, just because she physically gave in doesn't mean that Cindy won't fire back at him.

"Well, actually, I don't think and sure as hell don't know she's cute. I know she's very average looking. And it's not nonsense, it's just straight up bullshit, Reezy," Cindy remarks. I turn around and see Adrianna take two steps forward.

"Hey, Adri!" Riley greets her casually. She waves back, then eyes him, Ceez, and I up and down. It seems as though her only intention was to see whether or not Riley was messing around with other girls.

"Yeah, aiight… I'll see you later," Adrianna says, obviously not paying attention to Riley's comment on account of her being too focused on what the rest of us were doing.

Just as she and Mariana exit the cafeteria, Huey comes back to the table.

"Alright, so I have rainbow goldfish for Jazmine," Huey starts, sliding me the packaged snack and my ID tag. "Fruit snacks for Caesar," he slides the Welch's pack and Ceez's ID tag to him. "A Rice Krispie treat for Cindy, a pack of Tastycake donuts for Riley, and corn chips for me," he slides Cindy and Riley their snacks and ID tags just as he did mine and Caesar's.

"Aye, my man Big Hue always knows what's up!" Caesar gives Huey some dap.

"Yeah, but I also know that we only have ten minutes left of break. So y'all all better eat because we still need to go to our lockers and get to class on time," Huey looks to his brother, "And yes, Riley—that includes you."

"Oh, here you go again with that annoying shit," Riley mutters. "And you wonder why Cin' and I call you McHater."

"Similar to how you and Cindy also wonder why people think you're dating," Huey addresses the elephant in the room. "We four all know that you're planning on messing around with Adrianna, but the rest of school obviously doesn't know that, and your lies and covers for each other last week—in math class and after history—both didn't do anything but blur your vision here at WHA."

And once again, Huey speaks nothing but the truth.

Cindy raises her head up from Riley's lap to defend herself. Sitting up straight, she responds with, "So what if they think the rumors are true? You guys all know the real truth, and that's all that matters. So chilllll, everything's just fine."

"Anyways," Caesar breaks the silence, "what electives did you guys get?"

"I forgot all about those!" I blurt out, pulling out my phone to check my email. Turns out they shared a document as a whole through Google Drive so that each student could easily figure out what electives and board/club they got into, as well as see what other students are with them in that elective.

"I didn't check either," Cindy says.

"Me neither," Riley adds on.

"Don't think Caesar and I did, then, either," Huey agrees.

I go through the list, reading them all for each of my friends. "Caesar, Riley, and Cindy, you're all together in World History with Miss Lorelli on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Then Caesar, you alone are in Freestyle Nation with Mrs. Martin as your choice of a club, which happens every Tuesday afternoon. You're also in Student-Teacher service with Miss Lorelli, which is off-campus. So, you'll be seeing a lot of her today!" I move onto Cindy. "Riley and Cindy, you're both in Rap Love with Miss Tiffany, which was your choice of club. Then Cindy, you also have a Yoga elective with Miss Becker. Oh, and Amanda will be there with you!" Moving onto Riley, "I pretty much covered you, Riley, except for that your second elective will be Creative Coding with Mr. Utz. Kai is also taking this course, so don't worry—you'll have a friend." I hear Riley cursing and probably calling me, 'Mariah' under his breath for my, 'don't worry' comment, but I just couldn't help myself with that one! Anyways, I move onto Huey and myself. "Huey, you have astronomy with Dr. Wang as your first elective, then you have Claymation with me! Uh, which is taught by Mrs. Joy. And you're going to be part of Debate Club!" He nods in response, and shows a bit of a smirk to me. But only for a brief moment. "Then I'm also in Beginner's French with Amanda, so Madam Johnson is teaching that. And Frisbee Club! Yippee! With Coach Smith and Kai and Amanda!"

"Well, this is all lit," Caesar is the first to reflect upon what I just said. "Thanks for reading it to us, Jazzy Fresh."

"No, why thank you, Ceez," I smile at him. "But we better be heading to our next class. Come on, Huey! We have English right now with Mr. Murphy! And you know it's an honors course, so that means that we can't even be on time, we have to be early!"

As I drag him off, he utters, "Where you got your standards and morals from, I'll never know. But this is school, Jazmine… it'll be just fine if we're a moment late. Besides, we've been early to English every other day."

"Whatever, Freeman. All I know is that we're quickly stopping by our lockers to grab our books, then heading to Mr. Murphy's room ASAP. I will be sitting next to you all of class, so I'm requiring you to pinch my hand if I start to fall asleep. I know the class is only 45 minutes, but Mr. Murphy can be boring and you know it, too!" I rant my list of demands.

"Will do, Jazmine," is Huey's only response. I smile in victory.

Maybe this new school isn't so bad after all…

4th Period

11:05

Parking Lot of Wuncler Hills Academy

Caesar's POV:

"Alright, guys and gals… does anyone know what a student teacher does?" Miss Lorelli asks us. No one raises their hand, and she smiles. This action makes me quite nervous. Whenever no one raises their hand, then teachers smile, that means that the teacher will call on someone randomly. "Okay… hmm… Michael Caesar? Would you like to guess what a student teacher is?" Now what did I say…

"I just go by Caesar," I politely correct her. "And a student teacher at this school is anyone in the elective. So, since it's off-campus, I'd assume that we're going to underprivileged schools in the area to teach the little kids basic reading, math, writing, social studies or history—whatever they call it there, and then maybe a foreign language. So basically I'm guessing that we're teaching younger kids what we've learned over the years."

"Yes, that's exactly right! So, the purpose of this elective, and the reason why I fought so hard to make it an elective, is that I believe that it's very important to learn about the world and see what other people have to go through and their living circumstances. Also, I wanted to see what other people in the WHA community would be interested in doing this kind of thing, and try to encourage students to get involved in service," Miss Lorelli explains. I'm glad that there were some socially aware teachers around here. I was glad I had all of my electives with Miss Lorelli. I mean, looking ahead into the school year, it'll be nice and a great relief to go from American History with Mr. Murphy's racist ass self to World History or Student Teacher Service with Miss Lorelli. "So now, students, let's board the van!" The van could fit 11 people, so there were only ten kids in this elective plus Miss Lorelli. And, one student had to sit in the passenger seat at the very front of the van. Because I was the last one to get on, Miss Lorelli had me sit next to her in the passenger seat. "Remind me tomorrow that I owe you five bucks for guessing what this elective is all about," she whispers to me, leaning over into my left ear.

Yeah, Miss Lorelli was about to be my favorite teacher in this jawn.

Lunch

12:00pm

Cathy M. Moore Cafeteria

Kai's POV:

Amanda, Hiro, Huey, Jazmine, Caesar, and I were coming out of the cafeteria line right now. We had all just checked out with our food. Huey had a salad, Caesar had a Reuben sandwich, Amanda had a calzone, Jazmine had a slice of white pizza, Hiro had a shrimp tempura sushi roll, and I had a Philly style cheese steak.

I have to admit, even if the students and teachers of this school were horrible, the cooks were the best you could ever have. We had endless options of food, and everything tasted amazing.

Jazmine points at a table in the distance. Looking ahead, I see Cindy and Riley already arguing only five minutes into lunch. I could clearly tell that it was arguing and not a diss contest because of the various hand motions they were making and how they would talk with their mouths full. Cindy and Riley both valued sharing their opinion more than what their appearance was or may be.

Since Cindy and Riley are both sitting in the middle of the table on opposite sides of the bench, I take a seat on the left of Riley, and Huey sits next to me. Hiro sits on the right side of Riley. Then Caesar sits on the left side of Cindy so that he's directly across from Hiro. Amanda sits on the direct right side of Cindy so that she's facing me, and Jazmine sits on the right of Amanda so that she's across from Huey.

Cindy and Riley continue to go at it as if the rest of us aren't even there. Soon enough, however, they try to bring us into their argument to get support.

"So all I'm saying is that there has to be some slow zombies, right Kai?" Riley asks me.

"And all I'm saying is that there's no zombies to begin with, so Reezy is stupid," Cindy testifies. I agree with Cindy's realistic opinion on the existence of zombies, but when talking theoretically, I still wanna hear what Riley has to offer.

"I have to side with Cindy on the real world opinion, but what do you got, Riley?" I state my thoughts out loud.

"So I'm saying, like, if there were zombies, theatrically speaking," Riley starts.

"Theoretically," Huey corrects.

"Whatever, nigga," Riley cuts back in. "Theoretically speaking, if there were zombies, zombies are dead people come back to life, right? Okay, so all y'all are still with me here?" He clarifies, and all of us nod our heads. "So, obviously, there are some people with mental disorders and some people who are just stupid and slow. So if zombies are dead people come back to life, then why wouldn't people with mental disorders and people that are just plain stupid come back to life? Y'know what I mean?" Riley finishes.

Even Huey had to nod his head in consideration of the thought. As dumb as it may seem, there was still some legitness about all of this.

"Anyways, look—" Cindy changes the topic of the conversation, "I'm more concerned about how Reagan's full name actually ended up being 666. Like, I mean, I was just joking when I said that before—I wasn't expecting him to actually have 666 in his name!" She exclaims. Then, she turns to Huey. "Your thoughts on this, McHater?" Cindy asks him, knowing that he'll have the best insight on this out of all of us.

"Well, for starters, his name was a mix between Robert E. Lee, who was a Confederate leader during the Civil War, and Robert Wilson Reagan. I mean, 'Leeron'? I wouldn't be surprised if he changed his name in the middle of his life because the Reagan here is at least in his 60's and definitely was growing up at the same time as the excuse of a president Reagan," Huey spits his knowledge.

"You really think so?" Jazmine asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Now, Mariah—we both know that either way, you woulda believed McHater's ass," Riley speaks up through is full mouth. Despite him currently chewing a double cheeseburger, he had to interject the conversation. I was already becoming good friends with Riley, but I didn't understand all of his actions. I mean, some things he did only verified his pride, but other things he did, especially when he thought no one was looking, made me see him in a different light.

'Whatever you say, Riley," Jazmine remarks, then takes another bite of her pizza.

"So, how were everyone's first few classes?" Amanda inquires.

"Oh, they were so good!" Jazmine immediately lights up. "I had every class except for math with Huey, because you guys all know I can't even find the square root of four, but besides that I'm in pretty good honors or advanced classes," Jazmine goes on and on.

"Miss Lorelli is by far my favorite teacher," Caesar volunteers. "Like Riley and Cindy, you're gonna love her in our World History elective." They both look at each other, then back at Caesar. "No, I'm dead serious, y'all. Miss Lorelli even lives up to my Brooklyn standards, fam."

"Well those standards aren't that high…"Cindy murmurs under her breath.

"Aiight, okay, nigga! You 'on't have to tell me twice—I get it, man," Riley says with some over exaggeratory hand motions. He also squints his eyes in slight disgust.

"Well, Ima take two more bites of my turkey burger then head to the library for Study Hall," Cindy informs us all.

"Aye, hol' up Cin'!" Riley stops her. "Ima come with," he adds.

They both finish up their burgers, then leave the cafeteria in a pair—just like how they came in. Now I know that the two of them have been best friends since Riley was 8 and Cindy was 10, but you have to wonder if they've ever considered being anything more than friends. I mean, with all the compliments and flirts they've gotten over the years, at one point in time they probably thought, 'why don't I just date him/her instead of swerving all these requests for dating?'

And I think the pressure would only get worse here at school. I mean, before I even met Riley at our lockers, I knew that he, Caesar, and Huey were supposedly the sexiest guys in school and that something was going on between Riley and Cindy and also Huey and Jazmine.

Being in their friend group now, I can see that Caesar is actually the one who wants something to happen between him and Cindy, and that Huey and Jazmine were made for each other but won't get together. While Huey is a very knowledgeable person, you could easily tell that dude didn't know a damn thing about love.

Snapping back into reality, I see Huey and Jazmine and then Hiro and Caesar walking off in twos. Which just leaves Amanda and I. Amanda was pretty cool, and also pretty good looking. But I suppose that everyone in my friend group was also attractive and cool. Still, I had only talked to her today and yesterday, and it seemed like she was trusting me with a lot of stuff. I didn't know what to think about it, all I knew is that I wasn't going to repeat anything she confided in me, or do any wrong onto her.

"You up for another talk?" She asks me. I smile softly.

"Anytime," I reply swiftly, and we head off to a part of the library to talk in private.

Last Period

2:15pm

Miss Lorelli's Room

Wuncler Hills Academy

Debate Club

Huey's POV:

"How dumb can you be?! Ignorance is not happiness, therefore getting rid of all the books in the world and not learning about history isn't going to help at all. What will help is you getting an education!" I scream at some random kids in the room, who were all arguing that not learning about history would be the best option for the future.

"We're not dumb—this would be the best for the future," one of them argues back.

"Future? What do you know about the future? The future would turn your present upside down, tear asunder your illusions, and sent the sanctuary of your own ignorance crashing down around you. Now ask yourself, are you ready to see the future?" I slightly edit my vision speech from years before.

In a manner similar to last week, at the end of class when the bell rings, Eric Mazzarelli comes up to me to comment on my behavior and comments in class once more. "Yo, Freeman, once again, that was some gangsta shit!" he exclaims.

I nod my head in acknowledgement, then turn around the corner. I hear someone's footsteps closing in on me. They're not light like Cindy's or Jazmine's, but they're not as heavy as Caesar's or Riley's, so I'm not exactly sure what to expect. Still, I don't want to turn around and then be caught off guard. I wait for the person to pass me, but once I realize that they've slowed down to walk next to me, I turn to see who they are.

The first thing that I notice is that they're shorter than me. After all, most people were. I was 6'3" plus my afro, which really put my height at 6'7". Jazmine was 5'9", Cindy was a bit shorter at 5'7", and Ceez and Riley were both 6'1". So, I was very used to being the tallest. The boy that was walking next to me looked to be 6'0".

He had light brown hair, deep brown eyes, a pointy nose, thin lips, and average sized ears. I soon realized that this is the person I sat next to this morning in assembly, and that he also had a younger sister that sat to the right of Riley this morning in assembly.

"Thanks for what you said in there, Huey. Growing up around people like that my whole life—it's hard trying to constantly debate with them," he says. Oh yeah—this guy would definitely get along with Cindy. "I'm Matt Grogan by the way," he adds.

"Well, you already know my name, so no need to reintroduce myself. But living in Woodcrest these past seven years, I think I can empathize with you a lot," I say nonchalantly.

"Well, anyways, I gotta go find my sister Sarah to take her home. So I'll see you next Tuesday in Debate Club and during assembly," he departs, and we turn opposite directions. I go to find my crew so that we can take the bus home.

I see Jazmine at our lockers, and she's clutching her knee, so I approach her a bit faster than I was originally pacing myself.

"Jazmine, what happened?" I question her.

"Oh, nothing Huey," she tries to blow me off. She takes her hand off of her knee, but winces at this action. After this, she gives in. "So, I may or may not have hurt my leg when I fell when I was trying to grab a frisbee a few minutes ago."

I go to her locker, then grab her backpack. "Did you put all of your books in here already?" I ask her. She nods her head. I put her backpack on my left shoulder, and my own backpack on my right shoulder. Then, I grab her by the waist and legs.

"Where are you taking me?" she asks, leaning her head into my chest.

"To the bus, and then home to where I can get you some first aid stuff. It's easier than going to the school nurse," I briefly explain.

"Plus you can take care of me then," Jazmine adds on. I smile for only a moment, then turn back to my signature scowl. Jazmine was really something else.

3:00pm

Deep Woods Lane

Woodcrest, Maryland

Cindy's POV:

"Aye, Cin'… if you need anything, do call me. Aiight, girl?" Riley assures me of his support. Lord knows I was probably going to be back at the Freeman's house again tonight so that I could take Riley to the basketball court. The basketball court—the only one in Woodcrest—was my and Riley's spot, just like Huey and Jazmine had their spot under the tree on top of the hill.

I had been thinking about Miss Tiffany's lesson in my Sex-Ed (aka Life Skills) class yesterday, and so far, there had been examples of when I or the people around me have been aggressive, passive, or passive aggressive. And all three behaviors were about to happen real quick once I had to confront my dad.

I had forgotten my key at home, in my room, so I had to ring the doorbell of my home.

My dad answers the door, then looks me up and down.

I just pray that my little brother, Corbin, is home from school already.

"Well, well, well, Cynthia… you forgot your key at home again? Just like your mother, always leaving shit behind… I just hope you won't get into the whore business like her. But the road you're going down, being friends with all those poor Whites and colored folks, I wouldn't be too surprised," he condescendingly looks down upon me—both psychically and with his words.

"Nice to see you, too…" I murmur under my breath.

"What was that, dear Cynthia?" he questions me. He tightly and forcefully grabs my arm when I try to pass him. Because of this action and what I know he's done in the past, I coward down.

"I said I know, father," I respond, looking down at the ground. He strikes me heavily across my left cheek.

"Well if you know, then why won't you do something about it?" he asks me, successfully intimidating me. Just then, I hear a small, high pitched, kind of masculine voice.

"Dad! Leave her alone!" Corbin yells. I thank God for my little bro everyday.

My devilish father releases me, then stares Corbin down. He knows that if Corbin dare speak up and tell authorities, he's losing all of his money and his reputation.

Then my father goes upstairs, leaving us two alone.

"Cindy, I swear—just give me the okay," Corbin pleads, "I want to get you some help!"

"I don't want people to know, Corby. The only help I need is Riley's… you got my keys?" I ask him. He throws my navy blue keychain and I catch it in my hands.

"I'll be back later, okay?" I confirm with him. I head to the door and open it, but then hear Corbin call something out.

"You might wanna take this," he advises me, extending his hand. I look down to see a light blue scarf entwined in his fingers. I take it from him, smile, and then close the door behind me. I walk a few blocks down, wrapping the scarf around my face all the while so that my newly formed bruise will be hidden.

I turn on Timid Deer Lane, then knock on the front door of the Freemen Residence. Mr. Freeman answers.

"Why, hello, Cutie Pie," he greets me. "Was it cold at your house or something? Haha," he adds, laughing a bit at my attire.

"Something like that," I blow it off. "Is Riley upstairs?" I ask.

"Either that or that ungrateful ass nigga is busting his ass on my toilet again, all fucking up my plumbing bill!" Granddad turns his head towards the staircase so that Riley can hear his screams.

"Chill, Granddad!" Riley calls back. "Just let Cindy come upstairs!"

"Alright, now… but if I hear any sensual noises from your room, I'll be coming up there and whooping your ass, boy!" Granddad continues to yell. Then he leans over to whisper into my ear. "I'm more concerned about Riley's ass than you. But get up there, now, Cutie Pie." I laugh at Granddad and head up the stairs.

Years later, Riley and Huey still shared a room. The only thing that had really changed was that Riley was just a little bit more tidy than he was at age eight. But besides that, nothing really had changed.

I open up the door to face Riley. Huey was nowhere to be seen, so it was safe to assume that he was still helping Jazmine at her house about her slightly injured knee.

"Close the door and take that scarf off, girl," He orders me. I follow his first command, but not the second. Then, I go over to his bed to sit next to him. He looks at me like I'm crazy, laughing a bit as he swipes my scarf off of my face.

His smile soon falters, and his eyes widen when he discovers my fresh bruise.

"Cin'…" is all that comes out his mouth.

I cry in his arms, and he holds me tight…

…I cry in his arms, and he holds me tight.

A/N: okay so this got serious at the end! I've created kind of deep backgrounds for everyone (and written them down on paper and stuck the papers in a folder so I don't forget or lose them!) but Cindy by far has either one of the deepest backgrounds, if not the deepest. And because of how serious it is, I wanted to introduce her home issues first. Everyone else's will be out there shortly, but I need continuous drama and sadness and happiness and all that good stuff.

Anyways, I'm just glad I got this out there!

I was home sick yesterday and today, so I have hella homework to catch up on and missed two tests, but I got to write and didn't have a lot of Writer's Block, so that's great!

I'll try to get some other stuff out there soon, but no promises. I hate to disappoint lol.