Fairytales

Chapter 2

One of my older brothers, John looks up from his video game and rolls his eyes. "Leave it to you to be the one person who's always out of the loop." He remarks.

"And leave it to you to be the one lazy asshole who won't even look up from his stupid game to breathe." I throw back at him.

"Ooh, fight! Fight! Fight!" Conrad whoops.

"Shut up dumb ass." John says.

"What did you just say?" 

Everyone looks over to the kitchen to see Ma. Tall, harsh, and extremely stern Ma carrying a frying pan.

"Well I'll be downstairs helping the moving men." Conrad says quickly and runs out of the house, followed by my three other brothers.

"I'll be in my room, oh and John? Good luck! I'd start praying if I was you." I grin and rush down the hall into my room. I slam the door shut behind me just as the screaming begins.

"-It's like I told you, white people stay being racist. You just got to get on with your life. Don't let some blond bimbo tell you who you are!" Grace says into her phone.

I roll my eyes. "Not all-"

"Yeah, yeah." Grace interrupts me. "We know, 'not all white people are racist'. But if that's the case, how come I haven't met one white person who was respectful towards me huh?" Grace huffs.

"That's probably cause you spent too much time doing bad things, acting rude and disrespectful towards others yourself. It's like that saying, 'You've got to give respect to earn it.'" Aliyah answers.

"Listen to the kid." I say and plop down on the bed. "So, which one of ya'll will tell me what is going on?"

Aliyah and Grace exchange a look.

"Ma got a call from someone a few hours ago and then told us all we were moving." Aliyah says in a monotone voice.

I cross my arms. "Just like that?"

"Yup, we're supposed to move into this really nice apartment. Ma showed us pictures." Grace sighs. "It looks amazing! It's all beautiful and everything."

"Uh-huh." I nod and raise an eyebrow. "So you guys aren't even the least bit suspicious of how Ma just decided that we should move? And how she even got enough money to move us all into a really great apartment?" 

"It's not our problem Ana." Grace says in a warning tone. "We should just be glad we're moving out of this dump." She says goodbye to her friend and turns off her phone.

"You should have seen the look on Ma's face, she looked so radiant and young. Like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. And you know that Ma doesn't even like smiling. This is a good thing." Aliyah whispers.

I sigh. "Okay whatever. I promise not to say anything to upset her. I'm just really surprised."

"So are we." Grace replies.

The door opens and Ma enters our room with an unreadable expression on her face. "You better be packing up your things! Cause we are outta here in 15 minutes."

Grace, Aliyah, and I share a horrified look.

"15 MINUTES??"

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"So...are we there yet?" Conrad asks for the 28th time.

"I swear ta the Good Lord, if you open your mouth one more fuckin time!" Keisha says through gritted teeth.