Oakland's Greatest

Chapter 4

Oakland's Greatest: Chapter 4

~2 Years Later~

Being 8 feels pretty fuckin' cool.

Mom yells at me all the time for my foul language but I honestly don't give a single damn shit. I liked how much older it made me seem when I would swear. Varo swears the worst out of us all and niggas back off when they hear what he has to say, so why wouldn't they do the same with me?

They do.

Let me take a minute to explain our hoods and how they worked.

Varo and Lexis lived in the same hood. My house was in the hood right next to theirs. Our hoods were connected by a little corner that looped just before the cemetery. I was in complete control of my hood. How is an 8 year old in charge of a whole hood? Because I don't fuck around.

There were a lot of kids in my hood compared to Lexis and Varo's hood. So I was almost always involved in some fight with some punk ass brat who thought they ran this hood.

Not on my watch.

As of right now I was on my porch in just a pair of white basketball shorts, my black vans, gold chain and my raiders snapback. It was so hot today I had beads of sweat dripping down the sides of my face.

"Ain't you hot out here?" Aldo asked as he dapped me. He took a seat next to me and slipped off his shirt.

"Hot as hell today. I heard it was 102 degrees and its even hotter inside since I wrecked the air conditioner." I had a good reason; Elizabeth wouldn't leave me alone and she hates the heat so I wrecked the air conditioner. I warned her but she didn't listen.

"Holy shit Arlie. We needa do something before we cook." He said as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"Where's Mom anyways?" I noticed she was out. Like always.

"She's with Ramon." I hated Ramon. He was Mom's fiancé but he had a son from his last marriage and he moved in. His name was Fabian and he was just a few months younger than me. He was pretty cool but Ramon knew I didn't like him and the feeling instantly became mutual.

"Fuck Ramon. Where's Fabian?"

"He took Gabriel to get ice cream at the corner store. Elizabeth on the phone with her boo thang." He laughed.

"That kid huh? We should pull a prank on her." Aldo looked up at me with a smirk.

"What should we do?"

"Since she on the phone with that kid, she'll end up goin' out. So that means she'll need to clean up, lets put flour in her blow dryer."

"I'm so down. I'ma go talk to her to make sure. If you ask, she'll know somethin's up." I nodded my head and watched him get up and head inside the house.

Call me a lil' shit if you want, I don't care, I didn't ask to be brought into this world. Well now I'm here and I'm gonna have as much fun as possible even if that means I'm raising hell.

"Oh God. Where's Arlie?" I overheard Elizabeth say with some hesitation that made me laugh a little bit.

"He's out n' about but you gon' see your friend or nah?" Aldo said.

"Yeah, I'm getting ready now. Let me know if Arlie's up to something. I swear I'll beat him if he tries me." No she won't.

I saw this one kid, Joey, come walkin' by with his dog. Joey was an interesting kid. He gets in trouble and starts shit but he's weird about it. Like he doesn't just go out and "start it" he seems to somehow blend into it, if that makes any sense.