A New Me

-6-

F L A S H B A C K:

"Mommy, look at me,"  six-year-old me had exclaimed, giggling as I strutted into the kitchen in her heels. Mom laughed at me as I posed in every ridiculous way before I asked her my question. "Hey, Mommy am I your best friend?"

Mom raised her eyebrows at me. "Baby of course you are. Why are you asking that though?"

"Well there's this one girl named Jackie and she said at recess everyone was her best friend except me," I replied, my lip pouting a bit.

"Now why would she say that?"

"Well, she said she thought I was weird and she called me poor!"

"Well that's dumb," Dad's voice boomed as he entered the kitchen, before picking me up in the air while I giggled.

"Y'know what baby?  We aren't poor or weird. Don't let it get to you hun okay? She's just jealous because she doesn't know what an amazing girl you are," Mom stated before the both of them enveloped me in a hug. 

"We love you Ni you know that right?" Dad asked and I nodded.

"You, Charlie, Mommy, Danielle, and Grandma and Grandpa and everyone!" I exclaimed.

Waking up with tear-stained cheeks as I remembered my parents, I wiped them away before hugging myself as I remembered them. The dreams where I had those memories were rare and I tried so hard to remember them but to me, it felt like they were slipping away. I was scared. Scared I would forget them so badly. The thought of that made my eyes water. I hear the knock on my door.

"You can come in!" I shouted, my voice raspy as I wiped away any trace of tears and headed towards the bathroom where I started to brush my teeth to get the morning breath out of my mouth.

"Aniyah we need to talk," Jada asks me, sitting on my unmade bed while I nervously brushed. What did I do now? I had been trying to stay out of Charles and his family's way for the most part and I certainly didn't make any more attempts in leaving. 

"It's nothing bad, don't worry. But I want to ask you if you had found a job or something like that?"

I shook my head no as I spit out the mint paste and turned off the water. "Not yet."

"I've thought and prayed about you for the past few days and it seems that I have a proposition for you. One of the members of the church is a well-known businessman who's recently opened up a non-profit in South Bronx, known to be a well... interesting neighborhood. He started it to help those living there and he needs someone to manage it since he also has his own business to take care of."

"And you think I'd be good," I say, pointing a finger at myself. Who did she think I was? "Girl I only got a high school diploma. I didn't even go to college and you want me to manage a whole non-profit."

"Aniyah we both know that you graduated as a salutatorian in high school and you are a pretty smart woman. Besides, it pays well and it's a good cause. Those kids would be blessed having someone who understood where they came from," Jada states. I exit out the bathroom and instead focus more on making my bed which she gets up from. 

"Look, he wants to meet you this Wednesday at the building where the non-profit is. At least, go and see if it fits you. For me," Jada pleads. 

I let out a long breath of air. "Fine. But don't be surprised if I don't get the job."

Jada runs over to my side of the bed and squeezes me into a hug. "I'll be praying for you to get it. Now, I gotta go and do some cleaning around here."

She exits the room as I fluff the last pillow. Why did I always do this to myself?

And that's the end of chapter 6. Sorry if it's a bit short but I promise chapter 7 is going to be better! 

Will Aniyah get the job?

Also, search the South Bronx area on Google. You'll realize soon why I picked it.

Click the star and comment and see you in the next chapter!