Red Cardinals

Chapter 1

I felt like I had done my momma proud, I had just got my first job. When I reached my front door, I noticed a moving van parked at my neighbor's house, telling me they had finally moved. Wonder what the new neighbors look like, or if they are nice.
As I opened the door, and took a moment to take a whiff of that nice homely scent I started thinking back to my graduation. So many people were proud, I was the first in my family, besides my mom to graduate but of course she still wasn't proud of me. I was the miracle baby but I wasn't treated as such.
Walking up the stairs to my room, I noticed my mom must have already left for work. She always left without a goodbye or a note saying she loved me or anything like that. I had just sat on my comfy mattress when I heard crying coming from my sister's room.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
" I don't know how to tell mom, but I'm pregnant, and the father wants nothing to do with the baby! What am I gonna do now? She's gonna be so disappointed."
" She won't be disappointed, she will be happy, your having her grandchild. The worst she can do is throw you out, and I couldn't see her doing that. Your her baby. She loves you."
After a few encouraging words she finally calmed down enough so she could eat.
" Oh, and Jade, you need to tell mom soon, Lord knows she needs some good news with all the mail saying they are gonna foreclose on the house. But don't worry that pretty little head of yours I just got a job I'll help her as much as I can. As much as she will let me of course. But don't worry, everything is gonna be just fine. You'll see."
" Thanks Ember."
I walked to my room, grabbed my leather jacket that held my secret stash of smokes and headed outside. I was always a stress smoker. I also smoked good ole Mary Jane, but I had no money and my dealer got tired of giving me fronts, even though I payed him back when I could. Still wasn't good enough. But when is anything you ever do good enough to others?
As I breathed in the one thing that might kill me one day, I noticed a red bird, I read somewhere when that kind of bird comes into your yard it's an ancester visiting you. But everyone I knew in my family was still breathing. Sometimes I would get to thinking what if I had a different life? What if I was made to do much bigger things in life. Be a better person.
Inhaling a cigarette when I was stressed was like helping the poor it gave you that calm feeling like you were doing something right. But all good things must come to an end. That's always how the story goes, there is no changing fate, as my mom always used to say. What is meant to be will be.
  And sometimes things were gonna happen that you didn't like or you couldn't agree with but you learn to suck it up against your better judgment and learn to go with the flow. I walked to my car, my baby blue mustang gt, and drove to my best friends house.
  " Maria, got any tree?"
  " I don't, but my dealer just got in town from vacation he said I could swing by anytime."
  " Do I even know the guy?"
  " You will, he's single like you and he's Hot, but don't tell Christian I said that you know how he is."
  " You've been dating him for a while I'm surprised y'all haven't decided to get married or have kids yet. Oh which reminds me, act surprised when you hear but Jada is pregnant."
  " No fucking way! She's been try for how many years now? Good luck with that, I wonder who the father is, you know how she jumps from dick to dick."
  " Hey, that's my sister! But for four years she's tried I guess she took the neighbors advice finally and tried that egg thing."
  " What egg thing?"
  " Get in the car so we can go Maria, and it where you take the yolk out of the egg and you stir the rest of the gooey shit from the egg and pop it in your pussy and let it sit for a while. You never heard of that? You get pregnant like that." I said, snapping my fingers.
  Maria was 5'4 weighing at 120, and had blonde hair blue eyes. She was the beautiful one out of our squad, even though our squad was small. As I put the car in drive and made my way to her dealers house she turned on the radio and started blaring Machine Gun Kelly. He's one of my favorites but the best by far was my niggah Wap. His song lil body was the first song ever made, and when we watched the video for it on YouTube we made many accounts to go like his video and share it. Of course he didn't know that.
   Not realizing I had zoned out I came to with Maria snapping her fingers in front of my face, telling me to turn up her and shit the car off. Sound sketchy but I was used to this kind of stuff with her.