Black Girl Meets White World

Chapter 3: Teens Will Be Teens

I wake up to pounding on the ceiling. When I look through the window I realize rain is falling.

"Is mother nature freaking serious? I was hoping to wake to a beautiful sunshine but instead I get this. Okay." I say to myself. I may sound like a crazy person but I'm really not. I got checked already.

I check my phone for any new messages. Still none. Slow texters make my skin crawl, even if their my close friends. I look at the top of my screen and realize its 10:35. I must've slept through the alarm.

As I get up from my bed I hear people talking downstairs. It must be my aunt's friends. My stomach is growling by this time so I make my way downstairs very slowly so I don't cause a scene. When I've reached half way downstairs, I realize that my aunt is talking to a group of teens, apparently around my age. All the teens are scattered on the floor looking at my aunt like she's the great wise one. I take a next step downstairs and the stairs creak louder than the screams of the people that endured 9/11. It caught the attention of the teens and they just sat there staring at me and eventually my aunt noticed. Everyone's eyes were on me and I felt like bagging my face.

"Oh, you've woken up already. I thought you were gonna sleep a little longer than that." She looks embarrassed. Didn't she think I'd find out about this sooner or later.

"Well, you know, the body wants what the body wants." I say and regreting it a little.

All the teens start giggling. This whole scene is just getting more awkward than it already is.

"Yeah, I guess. Cat, these are my students. I'm a guidance councillor at a school for troubled teens who need enlightenment. Sometimes they come over." I nearly faint from shock. My aunt? A guidance councillor? She criticise's everything you do. She can't help build a positive teen non the less ten teens.

"Um, okay."

"Cat, could you go upstairs and change into something more fitting to be around company?"

"Sure but I just wanna get som-"

"No! Go upstairs and change now!" She shouts.

I'm a little confused on why she's acting like so much of a bitch to me in front of so many people, and not to mention their all around my age, but I don't want to get into anything with this crazy old hag so I just listen to her command and slowly head upstairs.

*Whistle*"Looking good sweet ass!" I almost ignore the comment and flip off the asshole who said that.

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"Ok kids, were going to be talking about cussing in front of parents. What do you think about it?" I can loudly hear her conversation with those teens from the kitchen. For the thirty minutes I've been in this kitchen, it's obvious she really loves counseling. I'm glad that she does something she loves.

"I don't think its that much of a big deal." A girl's voice says.

"Ok, explain your thoughts Paige."

"Well, it's just a word. Words can't do much. Sometimes its the only defense mechanism teens have against their parents. Parents have all the power. Sometimes parents are wrong but their still right because their "parents." We must can have the right to say what we want in front of them. It's our way of expressing ourselves and they need to just deal with it." Her theory is flawless.

"Well Paige, that is a very good reason but..." I kinda just zone out after that. She sees a problem with everything and I have no time for her unreasonable argument. 

After I was sent upstairs , I changed into a tank top and shorts. I forgot that it was morning. After a couple of the minutes, the rain died out and I started hearing a lot of shouting in the living room. When I ran out, this whole bloody scence scared the hell out of me. After asking around what happened, I found out apparently two of the boys were fighting and one of them had a knife. The one with the knife started swinging the knife at the other and he cut him up pretty bad. They eventually got the knife out of his hand and my aunt is on the phone talking to the police to send an ambulance.

"You fucking asshole, you deserve to be dead. I don't know why the fuck a was playing with you. I should've fucking finished your ass, you piece a shit." The future criminal shouts while some of them hold him down on the sofa.

All that came out of the victim was shrieking. He had multiple deep cuts on his arm and one across his cheek and he was just laying there hyserically while some of them tried to stop the blood with towels. The sympathetic side of me was coming out and I felt my eyes start to burn. I felt a tear drop roll down my cheek. I've never seen a scene of blood and violence like this before and I was scared. I'm not sure if it was sympathy or terror but there must be a fine line between them in my world. Everyone was trying to help in some way and I just stood there by the kitchen door watching this all go down. I felt frozen.

"Hey princess, are you just gonna stand there and watch or are you going to come try and help us stop Greg from bleeding out." A red headed, freckled face girl wearing all black says to me. Well isn't she a little too biker type for my taste.

"Um...sure. And my names Cat."

"Ok, whatever, just get the hell over here." She shouts.

"God, okay."

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Everyone was outside watching both the ambulance and the police car drive away. The boy who had the knife is going to juvenile detention for a while. This is so unusual for me. Never in my life had I thought I would face such an horrific scene. I still have so many questions to be answered. Why was he mad at him? Why did he have a knife? Weren't they supposed to be searched for weapons? Why are these kids so terrible? I feel like I know nothing about things like this that happen in the world everyday now. I feel like a new born. This is all new to me. Back in Jamaica I wasn't faced with this kind of violence. Fights? Yeah but not to this extent.

I can't contain my terror at how terrible this all is and tears start rolling down my face. I wipe them off my face quick before anyone realizes I'm crying. I would be seen as a pussy if anyone saw my crying over this.

"Kids, you can leave now. Class for today is over. We'll continue next week." My aunt looks exhausted- and why wouldn't she. I bet her blood pressure is all the way up now and she might explode at me at any minute so I figure the smart thing to do is to quickly WALK back upstairs and out of her vision. The prey hiding from the predator.

When I'm in my bedroom, I realize I just wasted a whole day doing absolutely nothing productive to start classes tomorrow. I should be packing my bag, laying out my clothes for school, searching the web looking for how to make friends on the first day, asking my aunt for dinner, but instead I'm sitting in my room. Alone. Waiting for that tiger to come and devour me.

I decide I won't have dinner tonight because I don't want to risk my life. So I just quickly pack my bag, throw the clothes I'll be wearing tomorrow on a chair, brush my teeth and change in my pajamas to go to bed. Who cares about making friends right?

I already set my alarm at 7 am. I lay my head on my pillow, waiting for sleep to come my way.