A/N: This is my first time posting a story on here, I just want to see how this works out, if it goes as planned, I'll keep writing. Anyway, with the exception of a few characters, all the characters from Arthur belong to Marc Brown. Enjoy.

"Ay man, pass the ball!" yelled Buster

I passed the ball to Buster and he shot it right into the basket and we won.

"OOOOOHHHH! We got you!" I shouted in excitement.

"Ha, we won!" yelled Buster "You owe each of us 20 bucks, man."

The other team reluctantly gave us our money.

"This ain't over yet, so don't be feeling yourself too much" said Shawn as he walked away.

"Ha, whatever man" Buster said as he counted the money.

"Yo Bust you did yo thing today man!" I said

"Couldn't have done it without you, Arthur." He said as he gave me dap.

Me and Buster sometimes earned money by playing ball against other cats in the neighborhood. On Saturdays, we may play one or two games and usually earn around $40. The most we ever made in one game alone was $110, and the most from two games were $150, but rarely does that happen.

"Yo man, we have our usual $40" Buster said smoothly.

"And as usual, we split it." I said.

"You my number one G, Arthur, if I gets mines, you gets yours."

And with that, he gave me my cut.

"Hey, we should go to Micky D's, what you say?"

"That'll be cool-" Then I stopped for a second, I looked at my watch and realized I was gonna be in trouble.

"Aww man, I gotta go Bust, I forget I was supposed to do something for my mom."

"That's cool, I don't want you to get in trouble. Peace." He said as he gave me dap.

"See ya!" And then I ran off.

I ran all the way down the street and the people I passed look at me as if I done stole something.

"What's up with that kid?"

"Hoodlum!"

"That little roughneck must have been stealing."

I heard some of them say as I sped pass them.

Typical adult behavior, always thinking every little kid is up to no good, when it was really the grown folks that were causing all the chaos in our neighborhood. Ok, I'm exaggerating; there were bad kids and teens who contribute to the craziness at times.

But, I ain't even worried about that now, I gotta deal with my mom when I get home, she was gonna be real mad, and when she got mad, Dad gets major piss, I didn't need to deal with all that. I got near a back alley, which was a shortcut to my building. I didn't always like going that way because junkies, gangs, and homeless people tend to lurk back there. They will jump you for whatever you got, just so they can get their fix or whatever. My friend George almost got jumped by Binky and his stupid gang once in an alley but, luckily got outta there unharmed.

I glanced at the alley, and it looked pretty safe…for now.

I ran all the way down there and get near the fence. I climbed up the fence, flipped over to the other side, and then climbed down. I was almost at my building. When I got inside, I saw the last person I ever wanted to deal with…Binky Barnes…