Magic

Chapter 4

Kirshnik 'takeoff' Ball

I hate the way everybody be lookin at me. Like I'm something to be scared of, some kind of monster. I guess the little story that Maggie was talking about was true cause everybody treating me like I'm some typa dangerous animal that could snap at them at any moment. I don't like having all these people in my face but the reputation does have its upsides. One of those upsides is named Trina and I could tell she was feelin me from the first time I laid eyes on her.

She was right; yellow skin, pretty brown eyes, and her hair was cut real short. She had some of the prettiest lips I ever seen, like the kind that white girls pay for cause they can't get em naturally. Trina is in my history class and after that asshole of a teacher made me introduce myself to the class like we was 1st graders he told me to take the empty seat behind her. When I sat down she leaned forward in her seat and rested her upper body on her desk. She arched her back toward me and I could see the red lace peaking up from the top of her pants and the beginning of what looked like a tattoo.

After class I was gone say somethin to her, but by the time I looked up she was already leaving the room and by the time I got into the hallway she was gone. I shrugged it off and went to lunch with everyone else who had lunch 1. I got in line and they gave me a Styrofoam tray with nothing but a sandwich and a cup of fruit on it. Once I found a empty table I sat down and picked at the fruit cup with my fork.

"Nephew!" I looked up and Quavo was bounding over to me with his plate in his hands. I don't know where he come from being so loud. Nobody in my family is like that but his loud ass. He sat down in front of me and leaned on the table with his elbows. "How's it going being back?"

"You got this lunch I didn't see you yesterday." I said.

"Ms. Campos got a crush on a nigga. I go to all the lunches and she lets me make up my work later." He said with a cocky smile. He brushed his shoulder with his hands as if he was getting dirt off his shirt.

"You know everyone that goes here right?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Most of em."

"It's this girl in my history class. Her name trina-"

"Dick suckin Trina?"

"What?"

"Yellow, short hair, with big pretty lips." He said. "Sometimes her hair be spiked up."

"Yeah I guess." I said. "She get around like that?"

"I ain't never seen or heard about her being with nobody, but ever since she got here they been calling her that. Say she got put out her other school for going down on a gym teacher after school." he opened his sandwich and grabbed just the meat and the cheese. He rolled it up into a tube and took a bite out of it. "Everybody want that girl, but she don't talk to nobody."

"She don't?" I asked him. He nodded.

"Might as well join the club phew, half the entire school tryna fuck that girl. You not gone be nobody special." He said.

I dropped my fork down on my plate and took a look around the cafeteria. It wasn't as many people staring as it was yesterday, but that might just be because everybody was eatin their food. I spotted her way across the cafeteria sitting with a large group of girls. When I caught her eye she look down at her plate and pretended to eat.

"What you looking at?" Quavo turned around and looked in the direction I was looking and snorted. "I already told you nephew don't get your hopes up behind that. You not special."

"Who says I aint?" I replied.

"Me nigga," he cut back.

"Alright, watch this." I sat back in my chair and smiled. She was still sneaking looks at me and I knew it even though I wasn't looking at her. When I finally turned to look her way she was looking down at her plate talking so I waited. I waited until she looked back up at me and once she did a motioned for her to come over.

"Bruh you really think you got the sauce huh? She not gone come over here," Quavo said.

"Nigga, shut yo ass up and watch a master work." I smiled at her again and watched as she stood from her table with her plate. She was trying to play it cool like she wasn't paying me no attention. Her and another girl threw their trays in the trash then walked over to the snack cart.

"Told you, you really thought you had her." Quavo teased.

"Just watch." I sat back in my chair and slipped my hand in my pockets. Her and the girl continued to walk around talking like they weren't paying us no mind and Quavo was boastin like my plan failed. I just laughed along with him and waited.

"Hey, you just started here right?" I looked away from him and standing close behind him was Trina and her friend that she had been walking with. The other girl was looking at me like she was scared I was gonna bite her head off but Trina was all smiles.

"Yeah," I replied.

She leaned forward and place a small cup of vanilla ice cream on the table along with a spoon. "Well the cheerleaders would just like to welcome you to our school."

"I didn't get welcomed her by you guys," Quavo said in almost a whine. She glanced over at him for a second before turning her attention back to me.

"So what's your name," she asked.

"You know my name," I replied.

"So people call you by your government?" she pressed on tilting her head to the side.

"No, they called me takeoff," I said to her.

"Since when?" Quavo asked. I lifted my foot and stomped on his underneath the table and he stopped talking.

"Well, takeoff...I'll see you in history tomorrow." She said before she turned and started to walk away.

"Yeah you will." I replied. She looked back over her shoulder and smiled before disappearing into the crowd.

"Bruh, what the fuck is wrong with your heavy foot ass. I was just askin a question. Aint nobody ever call you that shit." Quavo said.

"You didn't, the other side of the family did." I replied. "They been calling me that since I was little and I guess it stuck."

"Well, I guess anything is better than them calling you Kirshnik huh."

"Nigga," I reached on his plate and grabbed one of the bare pieces of bread left behind from his sandwich and threw it into his lap. "Shut yo ass up."