Unorthodox

Chapter 1: College bound

(Kimbella In the multimedia.)

KIMBELLA'S P.O.V

I'll never forget the day that my uncle Richie called us from NY and told us that the police had found a body. That was the day that little Kimbella Sanders left my spirit, and a carless one entered. I was broken. My mom had been missing for 5 years. She left my brother and I when I was only ten, I found out at the age of 15 that the only way I was ever going to physically see my mom was in jar. They burned the skeleton and decided to let us keep her ashes. They found out through dental records who my mom was. Sad right?

The police made an inference that my mom had ended her own life, but I beg to differ. I'm 20 now. I haven't seen my mom alive and well for ten years. And I'm still trying to find my way around this fucked up world.

Today's my first day at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). I'm not from here; I'm from Albany, New York. I'm originally from Harlem but my mom moved us to Albany when I turned 9. I lived in NY until I was about 14 with relatives. After my mom left, my big brother and I had to move in with relatives.

Because of money problems and financial issues we were hopping from relative to relative, until my aunt Nina put a stop to it. She took us in and vowed to take care of us until we were old enough to fend for ourselves.

The problem with that was that she lived all the way in Cali. I didn't want to go but I had no choice. So here I am 6 years later packing things into my apartment that's right down the street from my school. Now out of all honesty if it were up to me I wouldn't be going to that school, or any school better yet, but because the only way my aunt would help me pay for my apartment was if I enrolled in college, I had no other options.

My aunt is a defense attorney, and a very good one at that, so she believes in education. My brother already has his own place and even though he offered to let his little sister stay with him, I passed it up. I wanted a place I could call mine. Just thinking about my brother made me miss him more. My brother is my life, even though I don't agree with his hood lifestyle... I love him. He likes blasting his music loud to where you could hear it from 12 blocks away, he likes the big diamond chains, he likes the "bad bitches" with big booties and $600 weave with skimpy clothes, he likes it all. But I love him and as long as he's alive I'll never ask him to change.

My brother is the one who's still holding a grudge against my mom. I think that's why he treats women the way he does today. He and I both HATED what my mom did. She was a stripper, and a good one at that. Not your ideal job huh? I know. But nonetheless she did what she had to do to provide for us.

My mom would leave for work sometimes and we wouldn't see her for days, and when she did come home she'd be in brand new clothes and shoes. Sometimes she even had stuff for us. My brother wouldn't take it and he didn't want me taking it either. He'd say things like "that's Dirty money, I don't want that" or "We ain't a charity mom". I can tell that things like that hurt her feelings but she played it off as if it were nothing and then she'd tell him that he needs to stop being rude and be mindful of what he says.

I think that my brother regrets the relationship that he and my mom had. They had a love hate relationship, I know that he wanted to love her 100% of the time instead of 50% of the time. But he was just too stubborn to try or even admit it.

A knock at my door bought me out of my thoughts. I rolled my eyes and got up out of bed to go answer it. The knocks kept getting louder and louder. I just moved into this apartment a week ago and niggas are already brothering me.

"I'm coming, hold up damn." I said as I swung the door open and got a good look at who it was. My best friend Montana stood there with her fist ready to knock again, and this "I got caught in the cookie jar" look on her face. I stood there with a straight face staring at her.