Tiny Terror

Poor Mama Jace

  "Jaaaaace!" I groaned with my face flat on my desk.

  "What, Mia?" Raising my head, I showed him how my face was grumpy and pouty. "He'll be back." Jace sighed. "Hopefully soon...." I huffed before looking out of the window while furrowing my brows. Since Vasco had left, determined to make back that ten grand for some stranger, Mama Jace and I had been left to co-lead the Burn Knuckles in his absence.

  "Hey, uh, Jace?"

  "Daniel? What are you doing here?"

  "Could you, uh, tell me what the....'Big 4 Crews' are?"

  "What 'Big 4 Crews' are?" Jace asked to clarify, and I lazily looked over since my curiosity had been piqued.

  "Yeah.... You know them?" Daniel nervously asked while holding the back of his neck.

  "What? Why are you asking me out of the blue?"

  "It's just....you seem like you'd know about that...."

  "Wait....do you think I work at some kind of gangster office?" I smirked at his words.

  "Sorry!"

  "First, let's start with the regions of the Big 4 Crews." And suddenly Jace was pointing to the whiteboard with a pointer. "From the Han River, they are divided into North, South, East, and West, since we are central, we are not in their territory. It's said that someone was behind the 'Big 4 Crews' creation, but that's just a rumor." Jace's voice and face were serious. "There's also a rumor that each crew has an illegal business operation."

  "Business? Students?"

  "West River's 'Big Deal', it appears its main business is an illegal betting ring. The head, Kimyeong Kim, was locked up at a juvenile detention center. North River's 'God Dog', its name has been changed. One day, some real hothead became the head and changed its name. East River's 'Hostel', they are in the middle of a major makeover. You can think of them as the worst of the worst criminals. South River's 'Workers', also known as 'Tremendous'. They say they are beyond a teenage level. You can look at them more as an enterprise than a crew. While they each earn money in a similar way, their business has a different appearance and development. The scary thing is since they are so business-like, it's hard to find them." Jace explained.

  "Wo....Woah."

  "Regular people don't know this, only groups like us do."

  "So are Burn Knuckles the same?! Like a fifth Big Crew?"

  "Us? What are you talking about? We are just guys that gathered 'cuz we like Vasco. Well....not all of us are guys, anyways, there's Mia."

  "Yo." I said as Daniel glanced back at me.

  "She's a bit different from us, though, as she actually used to be a leader of a gang." Jace then chuckled. "She was actually going to try and take us over and replace Vasco, but it seems he got to her first."

  "Yeah, and without Vasco a lot of us would've joined the Big 4 Crew."

  "I was scouted."

  "Me, too."

  "You were so lost back then." Some of the guys were laughing, seeming to reminisce how Vasco had changed them.

  "Oh! Speaking of Vasco, where'd he go?" Daniel asked.

  "Huh? Oh....that...." Jace nervously laughed as my face went sour. "He said he had $10,000 to pay back....he left to make money."

  "What?" The freshman shouted.

  "Why are you surprised?"

~

  Blindly following Jace as we were walking the streets late at night, I was still upset about Vasco leaving, but it was just his nature to keep his word and be so nice. Chewing on some jerky, I kicked a pebble along as the other Burn Knuckles walked around me. But when they stopped, I did as well.

  "....What are you doing here? God Dog?" Jace was talking to someone, but I only half heard what he was saying when I spotted a dog wearing a jacket. Going over to it, it snarled a warning at first but stopped when I crouched down.

  "Nice jacket." I said to the dog as it then trotted over to me, wagging its tail and sniffing at my jerky. "....I don't know if your owner would much like me giving you jerky."

  "So you're from this area, huh? Are you the leader?"

  "Our leader isn't here. Tell us why you're here."

  "Shut your mouth....or should I rip it off?!" And now my attention was on the other gang in front of the Burn Knuckles.

  "Wh-What?!"

  "I'll let you go today since I feel good. You should be bowing to our Eden."

  "Wh-What?! You bastard!"

  "Settle down! Vasco won't allow it." Jace raised his voice while the dog was licking my cheek. "So you have no business here?!"

  "My business next time will be you. Don't you dare lose to anyone else." The guy that seemed to be the leader spoke. He turned to look at the dog, then went wide-eyed when he saw me there too. "What the Hell are you doing to Eden?!

  "Petting, what does it fucking look like?" I popped off.

  "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

  "She's our queen!" One of the Burn Knuckles shouted from the back.

  "Queen....?"

  "Co-captain Mia, reporting for duty." I gave a two-fingered salute while standing up. They just blankly looked at me. "Don't wanna call me Mia? That's fine, I got another name. Tasmanian Devil." Giving an evil smirk, that name got a reaction out of them. It seemed as if they were familiar with that name rather well.

  "Let's go." The God Dog leader glanced back over his shoulder at me. "We'll be back. Be prepared."

  "Well, someone is a little morbid." Jace gave me a look. "What? That was like a cliche movie villain line! 'We'll be back.'" I mocked with a deeper voice. "Hopefully they'll be back with a pooper-scooper or something for that dog."