Following in her mother's footsteps, 17 year old valedictorian Tahari Campbell soon will be graduating with honors, considering she consistently held a perfect 4.0 Gpa at Benjamin Franklin high school. New Orleans native promised her mother that she...
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Saturday, 10:00 am...
I sat upon my bed as my back rested against my headboard. I've been awake for quite some time now, a little past 7:00 am. I was reading, Anne Frank: Diary of a young girl. I didn't have anything else to do so I just decided to do what was important to me and get through the book a bit. As I flipped the page, my door slowly opened and my mother walked in holding a soft smile.
"Good morning Hari", my mother said sweetly, holding such a heavy accent.
I mirrored her smile as I greeted her. "Good morning mama", I said softly.
She walked over to me and handed me my cell. "Your father and I discussed everything and decided to take you off of punishment.", she said.
I smiled. "Thank God, I've been miserable.", I said relieved.
She chuckled as she took a seat on my bed and gazed my way before sighing. "Look Tahari, I am only hard on you because I believe in you. I want you to succeed in life and believe it or not, sometimes, just a high school diploma means nothing in the real world. I want you to graduate college and build a career, live comfortably and so on. I don't want you to end up being a statistic. Walking around here with nothing to offer but your body and end up with a baby you can't raise properly by a no good little boy. These guys will eat you alive, use your body up and whatever else you are willing to give up until you end up getting pregnant and with that they'll be done with you and move on to the next. Every female has a vagina but an intellectual woman with a lovely personality means so much more to a man, a real man. So please don't resent me when I come down on you about Briana. I refuse to let her steer you wrong.", She said as she gently moved some flyaways from my ponytail out of my face.
I pressed my lips together before speaking. "I understand completely but believe me when I say, I won't let you down, nor myself.", I said as I smiled. "You don't have to worry about me, I want this more than you do, I'm going to be great, mark my words.", I said.
She nodded. "That's what I like to hear.", She said as she stood to her feet. "Are you hungry, I can whip up some breakfast if you'd like?", She queried.
I shook my head...
"I'm actually craving some barbecue, is it alright if I go over to The Joint, it's around the way mama.", I said hoping that she'd say yes.
She sighed. "I guess Tahari but I want you to be careful.", She said.
I nodded. "I will", I said. reassuringly.
She nodded as she made her way out of my bedroom, closing the door behind her.
I placed my bookmark inside of the book I was reading and set it down on the nightstand beside my bed before putting my phone on the charger. I gradually slipped out of my bed and walked over to my dresser. I gazed into the mirror as I took my hair out of it's ponytail. I got some mousse and ran it through my hair before putting a paddle brush to it. Just as I finished I walked over to my phone and powered it on and opened up my contact log. I scrolled until I came across the person I was searching for...
