ROOMMATES.

|THE BEGINNING|PART ONE

AJ & AASIR|

MAY 19, 2000|

Little AJ gripped his brother's hand as the lady led them throughout the place. They walked down a long hallway until rooms started to appear on each side. Heads peeked out the doorways as the three headed towards the room in which the boys would be staying. AJ made sure that Aasir was okay before pulling him into the room that Mrs. Jones went into. Inside, there were ten beds, eight of which, were occupied by other kids.

"Okay babies. This is your room. AJ, this is your bed." She pointed to a neatly made bed with blue sheets already on it and a thick, black cover folded at the edge of the bed. "And Aasir, your bed is over there. I'm going to go get lunch ready. Everyone you know the rules: Stay in the room until I ring the bell." She pointed to a bed that was the exact replica of AJ's new bed. The only problem, was that it was on the other side of the room.

AJ noticed this, and before Mrs. Jones left, he walked over to her with Aasir in tow. Aasir noticed the bed situation also and hoped that AJ was going to do something about it. Aasir would have done it himself, because he wasn't exactly shy, but he was too scared for some reason. So instead, he let AJ take control.

"Wait Mrs. Jones." AJ squeaked out in his tiny voice. Mrs. Jones halted in her steps and kneeled down to be eye level with the four year old.

"Yes honey?"

"Can my brudda' sleep wit' me?" She hesitated before answering. She knew since it was their first night that they would be nervous; especially sleeping on opposite sides of the room.

"Sure sweetheart. Now go put your bags in your dresser with your name on it." She smiled as AJ nodded his head with a bigger smile on his face. Mrs. Jones left and AJ and Aasir made their way to AJ's bed.

Aasir sat on the bed and played with his fingers as AJ shoved his Spidermam backpack in the dresser next to his bed. It wasn't hard since there was barely anything in it. Aasir held is Superman backpack out for AJ to grab and without a second thought, he grabbed it, putting it next to his.

After closing the dresser drawer, AJ felt a tap on his shoulder. He and Aasir looked up to see a little girl in a pink dress smiling at them. The two froze in their place; they didn't know what to do.

"Hi." The little girl waved. AJ looked back at Aasir. Aasir shrugged and waved at the girl. AJ kept his little hand at his side. "Are y'all twins?" She cocked her head to the side, realizing that they were in fact twins. They had the same chocolate skin, the same brown eyes, the same nose, the same lips, and the same nappy but soft hair on their head. Everything about them was identical. Aasir nodded.

Another little girl with a green dress on came up to AJ and touched his face. Aasir hopped off the bed and grabbed her hand. "Keep ya' hands off my brudda'." Aasir didn't like when people touched his brother and vice versa. That action alone caused everyone in the room to screw their face up.

"You think you special 'cause y'all twins or sum'?" An older boy asked. Besides him and the two little girls, everyone else decided against speaking to the new boys. If Jerod, the older boy, didn't like you, they didn't like you. The little kids all looked up to him because he was what they thought to be 'cool'. He was always cursing, being disrespectful and doing whatever he wanted. Jerod didn't care who you were or how old you were, you were getting the same treatment as everyone else. That's one of the main reasons why he was sent here.

"Yea Roddy. They think they special." The little girl in the pink dress cosigned. She gave Aasir and AJ the stink face and walked off towards her bed. Jerod continued to talk, but AJ and Aasir had long tuned him out. That was something they learned to do while living with their dad. He was always trying to pick fights with them and when he started talking mess, they would tune him out. When he was yelling, they tuned him out. Sometimes even when he was just making conversation, which was rare, they tuned him out.

Jerod ceased talking when he noticed that they weren't paying attention. AJ and Aasir sat on the bed with blank facial expressions. This made Jerod mad. He hated to be ignored and for these two little ass boys to try and play him? Nah. That wasnt gone fly. He went over to them and punched them both hard in their chest. AJ and Aasir went flying backwards and tumbled off the bed onto the floor. Jerod and the rest of the kids laughed at their pain.

AJ gripped his small chest and took deep breaths, but it didn't seem like any air was coming into his lungs. Aasir also gripped his chest, but his breath came back faster. He looked at his brother struggling to breathe. Just as Aasir got up and rushed to his brother's side despite the pain in his own chest, AJ sat up and nodded his head and coughed a bit.

Aasir helped AJ up as a ringing bell sounded throughout the house. Everyone rushed out into the hall, but AJ and Aasir took their time became the faster they moved, the more pain they felt.

JUNE 1, 2003|

"Are y'all alright?" AJ looked up from his plate of mashed potatoes and at the boy who was whispering, Taji. Taji had seen what Jerod did to AJ and his brother a few minutes ago and he felt bad.

AJ looked at him quizzically before returning to his mashed potatoes. He didn't understand why Taji was talking to him. AJ had heard that anyone caught talking to him or Aasir would "pay". Whatever that meant. AJ didn't want to associate with anybody in here anyway. And as always Aasir was right with him. If you didn't like them, they didn't like you and that was that. No questions asked, no answers received.

Taji nodded and went back to his own plate. He figured that if AJ didn't answer him then Aasir wouldn't either. He learned a lot about the twins by just watching them, the main thing being they did everything together. Ate, slept, walked, played and ignored you together. Taji wanted to befriend them because he knew what they were going through. He too, had a rough time with Jerod when he first got here. He was all too familiar with the constant belittling words and harsh beatings. But eventually, Jerod left him alone to instead go for the new kids, like the twins. Taji knew that he had to show them that he was on their side to be their friend and he would do anything. He was tired of being alone in this place.

Later that day, AJ and Aasir sat on the many swings on the playground. They weren't swinging, just talking to each other. In a quick second, they were both on the ground, receiving blows to the head and body.

Jerod had recruited some more older kids and convinced them to beat up AJ and Aasir, just for the fun of it. All the other children gathered around to watch the beating, but no one dared to do anything. They just screamed and laughed while some looked on with sad faces. This was a constant thing now. New kids come in and Jerod becomes their bully. And every single time, Mrs. Jones would forgive him because he's "troubled".

"Jerod I think that's enough." An older girl spoke out. Jerod ignored her and continued to throw punches at AJ's head. He didnt know why, but AJ pissed him off the most. It was just something about how he always mean mugged people and acted like he was better than everybody just because he had some weak ass twin.

Taji was over in the woods peeing when he heard a loud commotion and saw the other kids running towards the swings. He knew something bad was happening so he quickly finished peeing and zipped his shorts up. Running to the scene, Taji's anger built up, just like every other time he saw Jerod beating someone up. Once there, Taji didn't hesitate to jump onto Jerod's back and beat him in the back of his head with his fists. Jerod couldn't lie, this little boy's hits hurt, but he couldn't let anyone know that. He quickly yanked Taji off his back and began beating the six year old boy. It didn't take long for Jerod to knock him out. He threw Taji's body next to the twins' motionless ones.

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Thisis my firststory, hopeyouenjoyedit!

QUICKREMINDERS|

-I'mnotaprofessional

-I'monlyhuman; Imakemistakes

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