"Ma look. the tuition is only 12k, if we save up we can for sure get me in. Ey, I am top of mah class too so I could jus get a scholarship." I chased my mom around our small home, I was begging her to go to this college for so long now that everything to say was memorized in my head. I finally grabbed my mom's shoulders and spun her around gently. "I promise I won't waste your time." She held my cheek and I closed my eyes as the warmth of her hands spread across my face. "Oh I know boy, we still broke tho." She removed her hand and headed to the kitchen counter. I jumped up on the dining room table and sighed, interlocking my hands before she shooed me off the table.
I stared up at my bedroom ceiling, tracing the designs with my eyes before looking down. My dusty padded jeans laid on the floor, and my room reeked of naturalistic smells of flowers and greens. I dropped my arms before moving to my side, the quieted sounds of birds flapping and calling reminded me of me and my mom. I was the birds, calling and calling and calling. And my mom was the bird whom was called. The bikes and laughter of people outside my window filled the air. I got up and shut it.
I'll never forget those bike rides I had with Yanny. She was picture perfect to me. She might not have had it all good, but she was like an older sister you look up to. Instead she was a cousin. We were riding down the sidewalk as Yanny, who was pedaling pretty fast compared to me, was trying to teach me how to wheelie. I was tipping and sliding. Bessie Angeline peeked out her rundown home window (which me and Yanny used to call the Witch House and Bessie Angeline is therefore the witch) and yelled a whole bunch of worried exclaims. "You kids slow down!" "Be careful now!" "Slow it!". Me and Yanny never really listened though, she always worried about us kids now that I think back on it. We steered around the curb and merged onto Perry Lane, our least favorite. There was this boy, Perry Sickles, (Who we nicknamed the street after, the real street name is Autumns Road) we always thought he was weird. That odd little walk he had, and his extra cheerfulness. Nobody was happy 'round here, everyone was busy worrying about money so it was different. Up down, Up down, with a bit of a lean to the side was how he walked. Yanny had developed me into not liking him, I never thought of why since I was a clueless 9 year old following behind an influence.
"Yanny and Jacobi Dee!" He said, coming towards us with his rhythmic walking. I remember I could hear Yanny audibly sigh, and I turned towards her to see an ending of a eye roll. I faced towards him and greeted him back. We sat in an awkward and boring silence, before Yanny irritatingly appointed it. "Okay boy, we needs to go back home. Bye, I guess." She said to me then him, before tugging my shirt and yanking my bike into a wobbly pace until I steadied myself and rode close next to her. We didn't talk along the way back, which wasn't common with me and her, since we talked to each other an awful lot. "Yanny?" I said to her and she didn't bother turning towards me. "What?" She said, and by the tone of her voice, I knew that was my signal. The road was still, not a lot of cars were passing on this heavily known traffic filled street, Harwell Ave. We knew we were on Harwell because we pulled towards that ol' Catholic School, which is also a use for when we know its time to start looking left and right more often.
Harwell Is not based off a real catholic school nor is this photo in any relation to it, this is fiction and found on pinterest but for the sake of the story, pretend it is Harwell*
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*Harwell Catholic School, an old photo of it from the 80's.* NOT ACTUALLY HARWELL REMEMBER IT IS FICTION THIS IS A ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL
