The Start Of A Good Thing (Book 1)

Chapter 9

After a notably long weekend, Trevor and Thoro sat in their third period class waiting on the teacher to arrive. The students who were already in class hung in their own segregated clusters of friends. Trevor and Thoro chilled next to Miya (My-a) and Tanesha (Ta-knee-sha), two sisters who generally looked alike.

            Trevor sat back in his seat, burning the rim of his desk with a lighter. Tanesha smiled, staring at him affectionately. She always had little thing for him, which Trevor has taken advantage of in the past.

            “You trynna kill us?” She asked, in a flirtatious voice.

            “Maybe,” Trevor shrugged. Tanesha leaned closer to him, shifting her gaze from his body to the flame.

            “Yo crazy self, always burnin’ somethin’,” she playfully teased. Trevor didn’t really pay attention to what she said; his eyes were lost in the fire at his hands. He continued to blaze the wood until the teacher entered the room.

            Mrs. Clamps dragged into her remedial algebra class and dropped her bag on the floor by her desk. She took a seat in her chair placing her hands on her face. The students were still loudly talking and goofing off like Mrs. Clamps never entered the room. The teacher glanced at the class and stressfully grazed her hands over her hair.

            “Would ya’ll shut up!” She snapped. Some of the students looked offended while others just closed their mouths. “Listen. I have a headache, and I don’t have time for your games. So if you wanna act up, you might as well go to D-2 now,” Mrs. Clamps threatened, referring to detention. A few of the more juvenile kids gathered their belongings and left the room with a malicious grin on their faces. “Anybody else?” The remainder of the class didn’t respond.  Mrs. Clamps pulled out a stack of paper from her bag and sat it on the desk. “Now, we have a problem. When I graded your take home test from last week, you all scored over 95%  … that’s not possible. Seeming how most of you all are failing.” There was complete silence in the cold room.

            “Mrs. Clamps, I studied. I don’t know bout them, but I studied,” Some kid randomly lied.

            “Don’t worry, I’ll find out who really studied. Because on Friday, we’re having a re-test, in class!’” Mrs. Clamps announced. The class broke into a frenzy of complaints.

            “That aint fair!”

            “Com’ on cuz,”

            “Man I earned that A!”

            Trevor sighed in anger after hearing his teacher’s statement. Thoro didn’t particularly care about the test, but Trevor did. This was already his second time taking algebra, and taking it again would be a nightmare. Trevor clenched his teeth and dropped his head on the desk.

            “That’s just like Mrs. Clamps, always trynna fail someone,” Tanesha fussed.

            “So,” Thoro shrugged. He didn’t take the test the first time and didn’t plan on taking it the second. “Ya’ll niggas was dumb for cheatin’ like that anyway. How everybody gon’ get an ‘A’.”

            “I needed that A,” Tanesha retorted. “I might actually study for this one, aint no one to cheat off.” She glanced at Trevor and gently placed her hand on his back. “Pyro, you wanna be my study buddy?”

            “… No,” Trevor muttered. He didn’t want to be bothered and the others could see that, so they let him sleep until the lunch bell rang.

            “Pyro, Pyro,” Tanesha called in a raspy voice.

            Thoro punched Trevor in the arm. “Wake up Nigga!” Trevor jerked up and shot his friend the evil eye.

            “Chill out dog,” Trevor grumbled. He looked around the class and saw everybody was leaving. He slowly got up from his seat and grabbed his book bag.

            “Aye dog, me and Miya hittin’ taco bell, you down?” Thoro asked, leading Trevor and the others into the hallway.

            “Naw man, I gotta serve some hours,” Trevor replied. “I got til Saturday or they gon suspend me.” The look on Thoro’s face showed how little he cared about getting suspended.

            “What eva’, “ Thoro shrugged. “I’ll holla at you though.” Thoro placed his arm around Miya and walked down the hall.

             “Aye! You comin’ to fifth period?” Trevor shouted.

            Thoro glanced behind him. “Hell naw!” he called back, disappearing from sight.

            “So, what you doin’ for lunch?” Tanesha asked, stepping closer to Trevor.

            “Pizza I guess,” he answered. The two walked down the hallway and to Trevor’s locker. Trevor opened his locker and Tanesha peeped in it. She saw spray paint, lighters, matches, and various burned items inside.

            “What’s all that for?” Tanesha asked.

            “ Me,” Trevor retorted. He looked up from his locker and saw India walking by with a group of her friends. She turned and glanced at him the second he was staring at her face. The two caught eyes for a moment and she stopped in front of him.

            “Hey,” she greeted, like she knew something he didn’t. Trevor looked her up and down.

            “What up?”

            “I got your note,” She smiled. India’s eyes told him she had more say, but kept it in.

            “What note?” Trevor pretended like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

            “Oh, you probably forgot,” India added, going along with his denial. “I just wanted to say thank you. And whether you believe it or not, it meant a lot.”

            “Oh word,” he replied. Trevor honestly didn’t expect India to say anything about it; in truth, he was embarrassed she did.

            “So… guess I’ll see you around,” She said, waving.

            “Guess so,” He shot back. Trevor was about to let her walk away, when he remembered the math test he had on Friday. He could use India’s tutoring.  “Hol’ up!” he exclaimed, lifting a finger. India turned around wondering what he wanted. “Aye uh… can you still, you know . . .” India realized what he was really trying to ask and grinned on the inside.

            “That depends, are you going to do your ‘own’ work this time?” She questioned. Trevor sighed under his teeth.           

            “Yea, I’ll do my own work,” he mumbled. India smirked, wanting to play this out.

            “Hmm?” she asked, like she didn’t hear him.

            “ ‘I said’, I’ll do my own work,” Trevor repeated, raising his voice.

            “Oh, okay. You wanna meet in the Library after school?”

            Trevor nodded as if he were defeated, “yea.”

            “Alright, see you then,” India smiled, backing away slowly.

            Trevor turned around and slammed his locker shut. He was angry about submitting himself, but what’s done is done. When he went to walk to the lunchroom Tanesha jumped in front of him

            “So you can study with her, but you can’t study with me?” She fussed, looking offended.

            “What eva’ Nesse,” Trevor replied. “You know just as much algebra as me, and I don’t know shit.” He grazed past her heading to the cafeteria.

            Tanesha ran behind him still aggravated, “You wrong for that Pryo, you wrong!”