The Stick Up Kid

Lunch Break

The next day at school I was sitting with Jaliesha, Pam, and Raquan at lunch. There were a few other kids from our neighborhoods next to us, but no one I actually knew like that. I ran my fork through my lunch plate ready to go. The lunch here always sucked, they never had anything good, other than fried chicken Wednesdays.

            “Kashawn, you okay?” Jaliesha asked me, placing her hand on my thigh.

            “Yea I’m fine,” I responded. I was fine too, just ready to go home. Raquan bumped my arm for he third time, jumping on my last nerve. “Man what you doin’ nigga?” I snapped. Raquan turned to me grinning maliciously.

            “Aye check this out,” he snickered, throwing a pea at a kid who sat at the table in front of us. The kid kept eating his food, pretending like nothing happened. Raquan laughed and launched another pea at the guy.

            “K.T,” Pam said, catching me off guard. “You gon eat that?” she pointed to my green beans and rice.

            I slid the plate to her without second thought. “You can have it,” I told her. That stuff tastes nasty anyway; I don’t know how they eat it.

            Pam wasted no time and dived into the food. For someone so thin she sure could eat, and savagely at that. Pam mixed her green beans in the rice, which turned it into this mushy substance that looked like slop. She then used her fork to shovel the food down her throat.

            Pam noticed me staring at her and looked me up and down. “What?” she asked, food barely staying in her mouth.

            “Man chew yo food man . . . you ‘nasty’,” I retorted.

            “Nigga shut up,” she barked. “If you don’t like what you see, then don’t look.” I watched Pam wipe her mouth with her sleeve. That’s so un-lady like. That’s one of the reasons I chose Jaliesha over her. Pam was pretty and all, but she could be so ghetto sometimes. I shook my head and sulked in my seat, zoning everyone and thing out.

            By the time lunch ended, I had my share of school for the day. I had two more classes left, but I was through. Had my next class not have been gym, I would have went home after lunch.

            Raquan and I had snuck back into the locker room while the rest of the class were outside. We were in the showers smoking with the water on. The steam from the hot water would help kill the smell, and just in case any faculty came, we were in our boxers.

            Raquan hit the blunt two times, his eyes burning red. “Aye I’m meetin’ Jax today. You down?”

            “Yea,” I nodded. “I aint got shit to do.”

            “What you aint goin’ to ‘Li-Li’ house?” he teased. I shrugged my shoulders.

            “I don’t know, I might,” I told him. Raquan passed me the blunt. “I wanna see what’s up with Jax first though.”

            “Good, I already hit em up. He said meet him at this tattoo joint in North-T,” Raquan said, referring to North San Tera.

            I raised an eyebrow in bewilderment. “How the fuck we gon get all the way ova’ there?” I asked him in a kind of rude tone.

             “Drive dog, Imm borrow my grandma whip,” He explained. Some how I doubted his use of the word ‘borrow’. His grandma never lets him drive the car, not after he put a dent in the back.

            “What eva you say man,” I shrugged. “Just let me know when you ready.”

            “Shit, I’m ready right now,” He exclaimed.

            I hit the shortened blunt one last time and tossed it on the wet floor. “Fuck it, let’s go.”