Tay's Story

Chapter 1 : Worst Day Ever

My Mother always told me that I was born a King.
"King! Get ready for school!" My mother yelled as I laid in my bed, snuggled up tight to my pillow case less pillow. I reluctantly get up and get dressed. "I don't need stupid school. The only reason I'm going is so you don't get arrested for Truancy. Again!" I yelled at my mother down the hall. Not a word spoken back from her. "That's what I thought" I yelled again.

My momma calls me King but my real name is Tay. Short for Tayvionen, but most people can't pronounce it so I just go by Tay. Tay McCrae is a name well known around my hood. There's not one kid on my street that'll try to come at me. Not even the teenagers will try me and I'm only 11. They straight up know I'll get my lick in whatever fight I can. I'm not scared of anybody and I never will be.

I'm 11 years old and I know exactly how I came into this world. My momma was 16, walking home from school, alone. She got jumped by some local gang members. It was retaliation for her boyfriend, at the time, betraying their trust and snitching to the police. The gang leader called off his men from beating her to a complete pulp after he could tell that my mother had multiple broken bones. In those woods right beside her neighborhood she almost died at the hand of my own father. She said he called them off from killing her and that he was her knight in shining armor. She began seeing him for a short period of time and then she got pregnant with me. I was only 8 when my Auntie Tisha told me this. My Grandma still lives in that neighborhood where my momma got beat, Bagsdale. My Grandfather still buys dope from the man that ordered the beating on my momma and made me. My Father, Louis Sterling, also known as "Studsy".

You would think, being told that story at such a young age and growing up seeing and knowing the things that I do, that I would hate Studsy. But I don't, I want to be just like him. He's got the best life, all the "hunnies" he can handle when he wants them. He's got straight bands! Cash all the time! And he ALWAYS gets what he wants. No matter what. I will always be a man that always gets what he wants.

Stylonda McCrae, also known as my mother, loads all 3 of her kids up in her car to go to school. Me, my 9 year old sister, Tazariah Dean, and my 5 year old little brother, Tazyeon Pace. She speeds out of our neighborhood, Sweet Hill, and zooms down the highway to Ashley Smite Elementary School. She's really pissed off because she actually had to get out of bed this morning. We normally walk to our bus stop and ride the bus to school, but I got kicked off of the bus for good last week. Some jit moved up from South Florida thinking he could run the school. So when we crossed paths I jumped him. I won too, he couldn't even defend himself when I jumped across the bus seat, superman style. 

We quickly made it to the mile long parent pick up line. Moving just one car at a time really seemed to make my mother even more mad than she already was. As the line comes back to a halt, she whips her head over at me in the front seat. "I'm about tired of this Tay! You just can't help but be bad at school! Now I'm gonna have to find more money for my.... Uhh... my stuff, because I have to bring your badass to school." "She is really going to start this early in the morning!?" I think to myself. I sat up in my seat, basically standing across the center console, because I was already not buckled up, and I got real up close in her face. So close that my nose was just a smidge away from touching hers. "Stuff!? Your Stuff?! Why won't you go ahead and tell us what stuff you're talking about!? You think I don't know? You think I'm stupid? Bitch we all know the stuff you're talking about is that cocaine you be hiding in your purse! Oh and by the way MOM wipe your nose!" She pushes me out of her face and turns towards the steering wheel, not another word comes out of her mouth. "You better think twice next time you put your hands on me" I say to her. Our car makes it to the smiley faced teachers, opening doors at student drop off. "Man, all these people smiling like we got something to be happy about" I think to myself. "Good Morning T's!!!" Mrs. Monroe says as she opens the front and back car doors. Her nose wriggles up, as the smell of weed hits her nose, when all of us jump out. "Sorry, mom was burning down on a fresh J this morning." I said to Mrs. Monroe. "Tay... come on now!" Mrs. Monroe yells as I look back at her grinning, walking to class.