Bey
August
"Good morning, it's time to wake the fuck up," my mother screamed. This was her favorite time of the year—school time, where we were guaranteed 8 hours away from each other.
This was the second year without my older sister Solange in the house. Like everyone else, Solange left the house, but what made her unique was she went off to college. Solange had been the first in our immediate family to attend college.
My sister and I were truly inseparable, we told each other almost everything, of course there were some things that I kept to myself that I chose to hide and push far into the back of my mind. Nonetheless, we knew everything that was meant to be known about each other. Everything that made us sisters.
Now that she was off to college it was just my older brother, Johnathan, my mother, Tina, and her husband, Ivan.
We lived in a lower-middle class neighborhood where my mother owned a hair salon and her husband was a truck driver.
After realizing that I was daydreaming for a whole five minutes I got up to get ready for school. I took care of my daily hygiene and began to get dressed and ready for school. I went to a visual and performing arts magnet school about 15 minutes away from my town's high school, Vital High School, where all of the neighborhood kids went.
When I was in Houston I was Bey, the girl that could sing, Ms. Tina's daughter, and Lyndall's girlfriend. However when I'm in the "Upper" Houston, 3rd ward, where I'm originally from, I'm Beyoncé the talented black girl who can sing and dance, the one whose parents divorced and went broke afterwards.
When I'm in school I have to play my music a little more quiet, I have to pronounce every syllable, I must speak like I recognize my American identity, I must not see color or expound on my black struggle.
3rd ward Beyoncé is the girl who was talented enough to attend the school but privileged enough to actually stay.
When I was done putting on my outfit which was a pair of knee-length jean shorts, a black T-shirt, and black converses. My hair was protected in box braids that my mama had done for me 3 nights ago.
I put on my Rose-Gold beats headphones and started on my journey of my sophomore year of high school.
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When I got to school I met up with my best friend Kelendria, or Kelly, she actually hates her name, but I loved it.
"Beyyy!!" She screeched, she hadn't seen me since last week being that I was helping out at Mama's shop. It gets super busy around school time.
"Kelly!" I matched her energy and wrapped her in a long dramatic hug by my locker.
Kelly and I had been friends since we were younger, whenever my mother and I got into it I would go to her house where her mother loved me unconditionally. The rest is history, now here we are, making up the 10% of the Black population at our school.
"Sooooo," she dragged it out while I rolled my eyes.
"Sooooo what?" I asked.
"How are you and Lyndall?"
I rolled my eyes at the sound of his name. That is my boyfriend of about 7 months now and we've been dating somewhat long distance. He lived on the other side of Houston, which was 45 minutes away from where I lived. Houston is huge, one of the largest places in the US if I wanted to be technical. So when I say other side, I mean about 18 miles away. So we don't see each other that often but when we do we never have sex nor does he do anything too physical besides kissing.
