Blood and Barbies

Adrenaline

When we got to the beginning of the territory, it was almost hard to tell. The trees didn't stop; they just got slightly more sparse. There were small wooden buildings here and there but they were all bathrooms. I didn't see any people either.

"We're here" flick moaned.

"Really? Wheres all the buildings?"

"Tree Houses" he said plainly. I gasped, could people actually live like that? I guess they don't wear heels. Why was flick more informed about PTK than I was? I felt so foreign and odd like I was unwelcome. I immediately wanted to put on a tank top, booty shorts, and my crystal pumps to like rep BnB.

Ricky got out and clipped the ties. Flick and I both rubbed our wrists.

"Get out and bring your bags and stuff cus they are gonna check you in. since both your crimes are low profile, you escaped the squat-and-cough" ricky chirped. I blushed. Flick just looked mad. Strangely, ricky just got back in the car and kept it running while we grabbed our stuff. As soon as flick grabbed his last thing, he drove off.

"What the f--- ricky?" flick chuckled. Yeah it was weird he was just leaving us alone.

"Do you know where to go now?" I asked.

"Dang shorty, are you excited?"

"No!" I said way too fast. He put his hands up in the air in mock surrender. "I'm just nervous" I confessed, it was true. Suddenly, a girl in a long brown skirt came climbing down the nearest tree. She hopped to the ground and turned to face us. She was barefoot. Gross. She had a huge smile that wrinkled her face. She was probably sixty.i had never seen someone that old before. They are usually transported to different gangs by then. Her age made me take a step back. She was ugly but in almost a cute way. Flick looked disgusted.

"Are you guys our new POCs?" she clasped her spindly little hands together in delight. Flick just spat to his left. The lady ignored it.

"Yeah" I confessed. Flick shot me a death stare and i just shrugged at him. There was no fooling her.

"Well leave your bags here, toni will look through them and deliver them to your housing tonight" she turned and started climbing the tree. Flick angrily bumped his way past me and gave me the finger before following her up the rungs on the tree. I guess our little friendship was over.

***

When I got to the top, I was horrified. Everything looked so archaic. The furniture was all handmade. There were no decorations and literally everything was wood. A man and a women were sitting on wobbly stools on opposite sides of the room. The old lady, who everyone was referring to as Tea, introduced the women to flick and the man to me as our designated owners. The man I was assigned to was ironically named rick. He seemed extremely suspicious of me, scrutinizing everything I told him about myself. On the other hand, the young women (maybe twenty-five) was all over flick! She smiled eagerly, looking genuinely happy for the new help. She even hugged him. From the meeting, I learned that all the POCs live in small huts on the outskirts of the territory. In the morning everyone runs over to their assigned homes with a bucket of water from the well. A freaking well!

Rick had a small bungalow pretty close to the outskirts, so I had some luck. Rick's house has a cute porch. His house has no door. He lives alone, I found myself worrying about the awkwardness of being alone with him, it is kind of scary. I tapped my foot in impatience as rick explained his personal rules for me. A summary of his regulations is no stealing, no lying, no inviting anyone over and don't come to work high. Maybe PTK does not have rules against drugs the way Blood and Barbies does, not that I would benefit from that. When rick was done setting ground rules, I quickly stepped down the rungs. I swiftly made my way over to the POC housing using a hand drawn map that Tea had given me. Tea also had told me that everyone has the day off tomorrow. She explained that we get 10 randomly picked days off each month instead of getting weekends off. She told me my unit number was forty-seven. The units were placed in a large circle out in a dirt field. They all pointed toward the infamous water well at the center. I could not believe how primitive this gang is! Is it even safe to drink that water? The units were all small huts with -get this- branch roofs! I tried looking around for flick but there were tons of people here. Everyone wore everything. It looked like some people were from BnB. others wore rags and t-shirts. Two asians giggled together in short red silk dresses. I decided to just find my hut before finding flick.