I Am Black

Chapter 6: Blackish

Chapter 6: BLACKISH

"This school hasn't had Africans in a while," said Scarlet as we set our trays on the table before us in the cafe.

My brain processed the information slowly. She sat patiently, gauging my reaction. To her surprise, it was passive but with a lot of curiosity laced in my tone and expression.

"Why?" I asked.

She shrugged, picking up her spoon. "For some reason the black kids always leave. There are biracial students and others from other parts of the world here but if they have some black heritage in them they won't ever speak. And they don't even have to, because some don't even look like it."

My eyebrows creased. I wasn't understanding this. "You tryna say this school got some typa issues with black people or something?" I asked like a bewildered black mom, not entirely believing what Scarlet was telling me. Yes, I knew racism was literally everywhere and it was bound to happen here at Empire's but I doubted it would be this insane.

She stared at me, unimpressed.

Then I turned serious. "Wait a moment, you're serious?"

"Yes."

There was a long pause.

"Everyone here can't be like that." I said perplexed.

"It's always the first levels. It's been like this for years. They basically run the school."

"First levels ke?" I said disdainfully, "who are those?"

She stopped looking at her red coated nails and stared at me deeply before answering in a passive tone. "This school has a monarchy. The First, to the Fifth level. You could definitely already guess who the First Levels were. The popular kids. Like Rachel and her Demon sisters—"

A giggle tore through my throat, cutting her off. She giggled too, realizing how funny that sounded.

"And the Second Level?" I asked

——-

I was chewing on my burger then I stopped immediately I heard that. "So that's why the students keep staring at me like I'm an alien?"

"Yes, and stop chewing like a cow." Scarlet rolled her eyes.

I squinted mine. "Oh sorry," I sarcastically said. "so me being the only black girl in the whole school is that a good thing?" I bit again, resuming my unapologetic munching.

Scarlet gave me a dead stare.

"I guess, its kind of cool if you think about it." she shrugged

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen a black kid when I arrived. They were all white. "Why am I the only one?"

"You see, this school is run by the students. There's a monarchy, and in every monarchy there's a ruler, or in this case, rulers. The rulers run this school with no conscience what so ever. They do what they like, how they like it. There's levels to it. Five levels actually. The First Level are the rich kids, when I mean rich I mean they can feed-your-whole-family-for-a-year-rich. You can even tell how the Firsts look like with the way they dress. The Second Level belongs to the athletes that made their way to popularity by skills. They are worshipped just like the Firsts. The Third Level is basically average. It's the student body. The Fourth Level is for people with no social status, the "nobodies". Basically the Fourths don't even exist in this school," she laughed bitterly. Scarlet's eyes trailed to the popular table for a split second, hate blazed in her eyes.

"The Fifth, and Last Level are the outcasts. The Fifth's were actually in the Fourth Level, they weren't noticed, but once they were, they were picked on, spat on, and kicked on. That's why The Fourths try to never ever be noticed no matter what."