white-passing- jamal turner

three

We were trying to get Cesar out of the gang, and all he did when we told him was laugh because he thought we were joking.

"You can't get out!" Cesar said, "Once you're jumped in, you're in. Unless, you get jumped out, and that's not an option."

"Why not?"

"Because they beat you until you die," Cesar said.

"Yeah. We don't want that," I said, "But uh, Ruby has another option."

Ruby started talking about the three M's. Money, murder, and manipulation.

"Clearly murder's off the table," Monse said, "Too much irony in that."

"There's no way we can hustle up enough cash with a car wash to make it worth Oscar's while," Ruby said.

"Unless-

"Jamal, I said don't say it!" I said, knowing he was going to talk about Rollerworld.

"Getting a lot of cash isn't outside the realm of possibility," Jamal ignored me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Rollerworld!" The three of us said, nonplussed.

"It's real and 50k is still out there. Those dudes that robbed Rollerworld got locked away but the money was never recovered."

"In the EIGHTIES!!" Ruby said.

"And the rumor's still rampant! What about the Goonies? Some of the kids didn't believe it either until they found the treasure. And they weren't even-"

"Brown!" Monse said, "We're brown."

"Only white kids find treasure," I said, "It's also a movie!"

"You're white-passing," Jamal said.

"You know how much I hate when you call me that!" I practically yelled, "I'm the only first gen child here, and I know Spanish better than all of you."

Ruby's Abuela, Marisola, came in looking for something.

"Baby Jesus!" she said, "He's missing. I put him in here before I started to move into my room."

"Dude," Ruby said to Jamal, "You're holding it."

Sure enough, he was holding baby Jesus. 

"No, this is toddler Jesus. Babies don't stand and this isn't a diaper, these are booty shorts."

Marisola reached for the baby and Jamal gave it to her.

"Sit down, focus, and don't call AJ white-passing," Ruby said, "We have to pitch the final M. Manipulation: Cogent, well-articulated arguments."

"So, that's it?" Cesar said, "You're gonna get me out of the gang with cogent, well-articulated arguments?"

 "Yes."

"Not gonna happen. Good talk."

Welp, that failed. 

Cesar may have given up, but that didn't mean we did. We continued to discuss it at school.

"Cesar's reaction was a wake-up call," Ruby said, "The plan isn't fully formed. We need more time to let our ideas marinate before we take action."

"Marinate? No. We got to cook now," Monse said, "The longer we wait the deeper Cesar's in. Right now, he's got no responsibilities. We got to get him out before he puts in work."

"Who's putting in work?" we heard from behind us. Cesar, "You still with that?"

"No," we all lied.

Cesar put his arm around Jamal, knowing he'd instantly crack, and he did.