Chicago Tension

Chapter 2

          The next morning,I woke up and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Afterwards, I put on dark blue overalls with one of the straps undone,a white shirt and white sneakers. Then put my hair in a side ponytail with curls at the end. I walked into the kitchen and saw my mom cooking pancakes and bacon, and sausage. I could feel the warm scent hit my nose as I sat down at the kitchen table. I love breathing in mom's pecan pancakes before school. I also used to hearing Aaliyah and TLC on the radio. My mom will sometimes be on the phone with her friends,sisters,brothers,mother or father. She get's up about 8:00 and goes to work until 10:00.

          "Good morning." Mom said to me. "Good morning!" I replied. She put the mouth watering pecan pancakes on my plate with 3 strips of bacon and 2 sausages then she kissed me on the forehead. Jay and Jerry came in and made themselves a plate and went in the living room to watch TV. I started eating and 12 minutes later,the heard the bus pull up and the horn honk. "Kianna,Heaven,hurry up and get your book bags and go out the door! It's Friday and I don't want you guys to be late" Mom rushed us. Me and Kianna rushed out the door and ran up to the bus. I got on and seen all of my friends there. "Heaven,Kianna!" Naomi called out for us. Natalie and Brook stood up in excitement. We sat in the middle of the bus. "Your hair's phat!" Brook complimented me. "Thanks. I couldn't find anything else so.." I replied. "Did you hear that someone got shot last night?" Natalie asked me. "What else is new?" I asked. "Brooklyn is full of those types of people. Mostly triflin' people though." Naomi said. Naomi is known by the people around the block. She's outside most of the day going places where I didn't even know were there. She has dark red hair. I mean,it's mostly black which is pretty pointless to throw some red in there. "It's sad,man." Kianna said. "They need more police around here. It's getting dangerous. People calling feds left and right."

We arrived at school and we all got off the bus. Our school is really ghetto,it's crazy. Fights break most of the week,some people exchange weed. We walked into the building. Kids who are in one grade higher than me are huge. I don't know what it is about them,but they're scary. "It's horrible walking in these hallways." Naomi said. "I know right." Kianna agreed. We all were grabbing onto each other. It's really easy to get ran over by the kids running and flopping around like a bunch of wild seals. "I have to get to class!!" Kianna shouted. "Then go!" I said. Kianna looked at me then left. We finally got to a spot where there was no one so close to us and it was by the water fountains. "Should we wait?" Naomi asked. "We'll just make a run for it!" I said. I counted in my head and before you know it,we ran and started pushing people aside just to get to our lockers. 6 foot football and basketball players cursing me out and I think I also pushed the vice principal. We finally got to our lockers. Naomi's and Brook's locker is right next to mine."Those kids..." I said trying to catch my breath. "Those kids are tough!"

          "You coming outside today?" Natalie asked. Lots of kids came outside since we live in such a poor neighborhood. We need things to entertain us. We can't afford them because mom spends most of the money on bills. We've been struggling for a while now. Right when Jerry turned 18,he filled out tons of job applications. "Yeah,probably." I said taking my books out of my locker. "If you are then i'm going to walk to the corner store and get some hot cheetos. You can come with me!" I thought about it for a while. Jerry wouldn't notice that i'm gone and even if he did,he would know where I am. "Okay! I will!" I said. "Great! Meet me at the courtyard." She said and she went to her class with Naomi. I went to history class which was the first class of the day. I walked in the room and sat down at my desk. I crossed my legs and opened my textbook to reread something. A handsome boy sat right next to me. I didn't have any type of crush on him but other girls did. I didn't even know his name. He was 6'1,curly but very short hair like Jay's and he had brown eyes. I was still reading when he turned towards me.

          "Can I borrow a pencil?" He asked me. "Sure." I replied. I gave him the pencil and went back to reading. "What's your name?" The boy asked. "Heaven Queens." I told him. "You?" "Damion Thicke." He answered. "I've seen you around school." I said. "Same." He replied. "Do you live around Brooklyn?" I asked. "Yeah. I live about 2 blocks from your house. It's crazy there. A group of girls jumped this one girl who was talking bad about her behind her back." "My brother,Matthew ,sometimes goes out at night with this guy named Jeremiah. Matthew is dangerous,he killed somebody and didn't even get caught by the feds." I was shocked about what he said. "Do you know his last name?" I asked Damion. "Nope." He replied."Queens?" I asked. He looked at me in a confused way. "Yeah...I think that's it." "What does your brother do?" I asked. "He sells drugs on the side of his real job." He said. I sighed and put my face in my palms. I heard girls laughing in the back and turned around. They were looking straight at me but had a heated look on their face. That was Lindy. She doesn't like me at all so right now,i'm guessing she hates me even more for talking to the guy i'm guessing she likes. I turned back towards Damion. "Do you want to come outside after school?" I asked. "I'll have my friends and sister wait for you. It's not that far a walk or bike ride." "Sure." He said. I still thought about when he said. It all made sense though. He would stay out all night sometimes. Other times,he would come back late at around 2:00 at night.

          After school when Kianna and I got off the bus,we went straight into the house to put our backpack on the couch and left out the door. Then we walked to the courtyard pass all of the kids jumping rope and the boys playing basketball in the basketball court right across the street. We finally saw Naomi,Natalie and Brook. "Want to go to Dairy Queen?" I asked. "Nah.." Naomi said. "Let's go to the corner store." Kianna said. We all agreed and started walking towards the corner store. We walked in and started browsing. I was looking in the candy bar aisle and saw a kid sneaking candy into his coat and the cashier saw.

           "Hey! Kid!" The cashier shouted. "Put that back!" The kid ran out with the rest of his friends. "And don't come back!!" He exclaimed. We bought a huge bag of flamin hot cheetos like we always do. We were walking out when I heard some boy shout my name from behind me. I turned around and he ran up towards me. "Hey!" He greeted out of breath. "I went to your house and your brother said you weren't there." I smiled. "Calm down,have some water." I said and handed him a bottle of water. He took a sip and we walked with the rest of the group. We stood by the courtyard and just chilled around. About 2 hours later,we saw this group of girls. I looked closer and it was Lindy. She walked up closer and closer. She seemed a bit heated. We all got in front of her and tried to look intimidating. 

          "Why are you on MY block?" Lindy asked me. She started getting all up in my face. "I will go where I want to go!" I protested. "You see this?" She pointed behind her and to the side of her. "This,is MY block! SO LEAVE!" She shouted in my face. I crossed my arms. I turned around and saw Damion running away. I turned back around then suddenly felt a huge slap across my face. I screamed on the top of my lungs then fell to the ground. I looked up at her.then got up and yanked her by her hair. Then everyone started fighting with Lindy's group of friends. They were kicking and punching each other. I got a fist full of Lindy's hair and dragged her around. She was on the ground and I started punching her in the face. Kianna got me off of her and we all started running back because we heard the police near by. We ran to my house and we quickly got up the stairs then ran in.