All Eyes On Me | All American

Chapter 2 (Revised)

             "I can't believe we're really doing this." I muttered, watching as a girl hike up her designer purse, that I probably couldn't pronounce even if somebody told me. "And here I was thinking I was doing something with my outfit."

"Tell me about it." Spencer looks down at his outfit. "These outfits would have hit different in Crenshaw, but we're definitely not impressing nobody here."

"The next bus comes in thirty minutes." I inform. "It's not too late to go back home."

"As much as I want to. . ." He throws an arm around me, pulling me to cross the street. "We have to at least give this place and these people a try before bailing."

Mom didn't transfer us out of Crenshaw and into Beverly until Friday, after school was over, giving us time to be with our friends before we switched schools. It's not like we're moving to Beverly, but between traveling to Beverly, football practice, and traveling back to Crenshaw — we're barely going to have time to do our homework let alone hang out with our friends. School usually feels like it dragging on, but last week it felt like I was sitting in first period one minute then walking home the next. Friday came faster than I had hoped.

Earning the boys' respect was tough; it took a long time for them to accept that I wasn't going anywhere and even longer to respect me on the field. The first few weeks of freshman year were especially rough. The boys ran plays designed to injure me; Spencer and Chris wanted to step in, but I wouldn't let them. I had to prove that I was just as strong and capable as any of them, that I deserved my place on the field. Only then would I gain their respect.

Once, hey ran this one play that had five of them jump on me. The weight of them winded me and as I laid on the ground trying to catch my breath, one of them had the nerve to ask if I had, "a little dirt in my skirt." They were real assholes back then. After that I decided to stop playing nice and went after every single one of them who jumped on me. And that was the last time they ever dared pulled a stunt like that.

And now having to transfer to Beverly, and potentially go through that again, just doesn't seem worth it.

On Saturday, Chris and Spencer tagged along to my last shift at the Boys and Girls club; there was no way I could go to school in Beverly, go to football practice, and make it back to Crenshaw before they closed. Though I couldn't worked there anymore, I did promise to volunteer on weekends but that didn't stop the kids from clinging onto my legs and pleading with me to stay. While they didn't care if Chris or Spencer ever came back, still trying to run Chris pockets one last time.

"Now, remember," Billy claps his hands together, "the both of you are here on an academic permit, which can be revoked if you don't maintain your GPA. But I've seen y'all records, that shouldn't be an issue exceptional grade average, above-grade-level testing. Neither of you should miss a day at play." He turns to Spencer and says, "no fights or it's over. One and done."

Spencer nods his head. "I just did what I needed to get by."

"I know you did." Billy says as he walks away from us. "See ya at practice!"

"Ight, schedules out." Spencer says, we stand side-by-side in the hallway comparing our schedules. "We don't have any morning classes together, but after lunch we have all the same classes. Think you can hang in there until we get to lunch?"

"No!" I dramatically place my hand over my chest. "How will I ever live without my other half?"

Spencer sucks his teeth. "Okay, smart-ass."

The school screamed rich, the exterior, the interior, and definitely these students wearing designer clothes, accessories, shoes. Just like Crenshaw knows when somebody's an outsider, they knew I was an outsider; maybe because I stuck out like sore thumbs. Partly because of my clothes and because I could count on one hand how many black girls I've seen so far. Yeah, this school is for a certain type of people — I do not belong in that category of people. But I walked down the hallway with my head high as I head to my first class.