Bullet Point

Chapter 6: Christal and Cya

"Don't take more than 2 in an hour unless you want to get caught. Don't even think of using a needle, that's how you'll get a disease. Snort it in the bathroom, it'll take about 15 minutes to kick in." Christal says slipping a fine white powder to a senior with a sickening stubble. 

"Christal!" 

"Ninette, what are doing here?" Christal says as her heart rate escalates rapidly. 

"Going to bathroom. Are you dealing drugs?" Ninette cuts right to the chase. "I'll tell my mom, she'll have you sent to a correctional home. Maybe even rehab."

"Don't." Christal pleads. "Please don't tell her!" 

The buyer runs off to get out of the way and Christal starts to breathe heavily.

"And why wouldn't I tell her? This is exactly why you got kicked out of your last foster home!" 

"Because! I actually like this home. And I only deal at school, never at the house."

Ninette sighs and crosses her arms. "Are you just dealing, or are you using again too?" 

"I'm 4 months clean. I swear." Christal says throwing her hands up in a sort of surrender. 

"Promise?" Christal nods quickly and Ninette hugs her. 

"Yes, I promise."

"Fine. But if you keep dealing, than there's no way you'll ever get adopted." Ninette warns and continues on back to her class.

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***

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All the kids race through the threshold and disperse in different directions throughout the house.

"Ninette, did you go into work today?" Mrs. James asks when she comes in from school.

"No." Ninette says softly, dropping her bookbag by the front door with all the others. "There's no need for me to be there unless they ask me to come in."

"Well, you know how much everyone there loves you." 

"Yeah, and now that list is short one person..." Ninette's face gets hot and she runs up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her.

"Hey, N." Tre leans against the doorframe and smiles at her. 

"What do you want?" Ninette says with a furrowed brow.

"I just want to reiterate the fact that we're both single, and I tend to sleep in my underwear." He raises one of his own brows suggestively.

"Stop being a creep. You're my brother, Tre." 

"Only legally. We're not technically related." Tre points out.

"What's the quickest way to get you to leave?" 

Tre grins. "Maybe if you kiss me I'll go away." 

Ninette stands up, walks over to him, and slaps him across the face.

"Leave me alone."

She shuts the door in his face and locks it before he can push his way back in.

Ninette lets out a frustrated scream and falls face first into her covers. 

She thinks about how she got into this situation. 

She doubts any other teenage girl had their boyfriend shipped off to Japan and the adopted brother hitting on her just like he used to when they were little. 

But I guess its also not every teenage girl that has their biological mother fostering almost a dozen other kids in their house. 

The James House seems to have a little bit of everything- danger, drama, love, deceit.

And somehow Ninette always seems to be right in the middle of it.

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***

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"Can I braid your hair?" Christal asks Cya once she comes in from taking her shower. 

"Okay." Cya peeps out.

Christal smiles. "Quick, before it dries!" 

Cya joins Christal on her bed and pushing her long blonde hair behind her shoulders. 

Christal eyes a canvas on the other side of the room and clears her throat.

"I like that." She says, reffering to the smooth oil painting. "That's a really pretty girl. Who is it?"

At first, Cya doesn't say anything, but then she takes in a shaky breath. 

"It's my mom."

Christal just sits there for a second. "I thought you never met you mom." She asks.

"I didn't." Cya says. "That's not my real mom."

"Is it one of your foster moms?" Christal asks.

Cya only nods slightly.

Christal has always been a different person around Cya. 

It's weird that Christal would be the one Cya chose to open up to. 

You'd think she would chose someone more sympathetic, not the school drug dealer.

But hearing Cya talk- on the rare ocassion that she did- it almost made Christal happier. 

She felt like she had someone who was there for her, and someone that she herself could be there for. 

One time, Christal had asked why Cya had picked her to finally talk to and Cya had no answer. 

'I don't know. I guess you're my friend,' Cya had guessed. 

"My second foster home was my favorite." Cya explained in her soft, meek voice that no one had ever heard.

"What happened?" Christal asks, sitting up and listening intently.

"The mother was so nice to me. But the father, he wasn't very nice." Cya's voice cracks a little. "The only reason I stayed there was because she would protect me. She was the mom I always wanted."

"So why did you leave?"

Cya takes a minute, breathing heavily. "He strangled her."

"Oh my god." Christal could feel her eyes burning with tears, but she wouldn't let them spill.

 "He went to hit me, but she threw herself in front of me and he went all out on her for it." Cya says, holding in a set of her own tears. 

"Did she make it?" Christal finally brings herself to ask.

"No." Cya stutters. "She didn't." 

"And that's why you left the home?"

"Yes. He went to jail." 

Another question pops into Christal's head. 

"Cya." She starts. "When did you stop talking?" 

"That night." Cya states. "He told me never to tell anyone. He said he never wanted to hear me speak again." She explains. "I was only 6 years old."

"I'm so sorry." Christal wraps her arms tightly around Cya and they sit in each others embrace until they both fall asleep.