Tay's Story

Chapter 6: First Day on the Job

I was shaking. My entire body shivered as my father placed small baggies full of "sugar" into mine & Tyben's backpacks. I hoped that Studsy wouldn't see me shaking, because you know, thugs don't get scared. I wasn't scared though, I was just nervous. Is what I kept telling myself over and over again. Surely thugs get nervous sometimes.

Studsy glared at us, after zipping our backpacks up for us and we both stood there staring back. "You get caught, I'll kill you both." He said. He giggled, shrugged his shoulders and then went and grabbed a pair of pants off of the floor and put them on over his dirty boxers. The green eyed woman, sat on the couch, hugging her knees at her chest and I couldn't help but think about what she had gone through over the night. It made me think about Tazariah and Desmond. But Studsy wasn't like that. There's no way he was. He wasn't a junkie. I never saw him do drugs. Not like Desmond, and that green eyed woman was an adult. Not a child like Zari.

Studsy told us to get in the car and Tyben and I went and loaded up in the Coup. I have to admit I was stoked, to be able to finally get to ride in my dad's car. I had dreamed about riding to school with my dad, for as long as I could remember. That dream didn't consist of having a backpack full of "imported sugar", but I guess I could manage that part. On the way to school, Tyben told me which kids would be getting the product and how he has been successfully selling to them. Which basically meant going to the bathroom at the same time as the other kids.

The first kid that Studsy had me selling to was Joshua Hargrove. A boy I had grown up with my entire life, and that I had also been in fights with multiple times. Joshua was the definition of a crack baby. You can look at the kid and tell his momma was doing some sort of drugs while she was pregnant with him. The kid wasn't right in the head. Studsy told me that Joshua already knew what the product was and that was okay because that means he would be more loyal, because he "grew up in the industry." I guess that made me feel a little better, because now I knew that Tyben and I weren't the only 2 kids that knew about drugs.

The second kid was a younger little girl, named Megan French. She was in 4th grade and her mom worked at the school. I was shocked! Tyben told me that Mrs. French had no idea about the "sugar" and that this was Megan and her dad's top secret. I was sketched out already, but I was thankful that Studsy only gave me 2 customers today, instead of the 10 he gave Tyben.

We pulled up to the school early. Earlier than I had ever been there before. So early that we were the first car in the parent drop off line and the staff wasn't even outside letting kids out of cars yet. The gates were all locked and the only place we had access to was the blue benches of the parent drop off line. When Studsy put the car in park, at the front of the line he told us to get out. I looked confused, but followed behind Tyben and got out and sat on the blue benches as Studsy pulled away. It was so early that the street lights were still on, and I knew that there were adults there, but it definitely wasn't time for students to be dropped off yet. We sat there for a few minutes as the line started to fill up with cars. Cars with kids still in them.

The gate to be able to enter the school swung open and it was Mrs. Radley and Ms. Osterley. You could tell that they were just out there to do their morning duty and their eyes became huge, when they saw Tyben and I sitting beside each other. Ms. Osterley reached for her walkie-talkie and I heard her call for Mr. Turner. "Here we go." I thought to myself. "Doesn't whoever just dropped y'all off, know that students aren't allowed to be on campus until 7:45?" Ms. Osterley said to us. "Probably not." Tyben spurted back. "Studsy ain't gotten used to being a dad yet." Mr. Turner walks up behind the two women and looks at me confused. " Y'all been at each other's throats and now y'all are friends?" he says to me & Tyben. "We AIN'T friends." I say to the adults. "We're brothers." I look at Tyben and grin. Giving him the sign that all our beef, we once had is now in the past. ​​