O'Shaun

Chapter 3

O'Shaun sat in the principal's office, Tony and Janice had organized all his paperwork and gotten him enrolled in school as a junior at Montgomery High School.  It was the local high school in Inglewood about ten minutes from where Janice and Tony lived. 

"So, you're fifteen years old?"  The principal asked O'Shaun looking at his tattoos on his arms. 

"Yea," O'Shaun answered.

"We have a reputation here we are a one of the top schools in the state for basketball and academics.  Your guardians have told me how much you enjoy basketball, but we need your grades to match.  So, I'm going to need you to work hard to catch up, we have classes after school that help with certain subjects so please feel free to go to those.  And on that note, welcome to Montgomery!"  He smiled putting his hand out to shake O'Shaun's hand. 

He walked him out to the hallway, "take this slip and head to room 1604, all the room numbers are on the top of the doors."

O'Shaun wandered slowly down the hallway towards the classroom where he was supposed to be.

Tony had taken him to footlocker yesterday and bought him some new shoes.  They were white with a red swoosh on the side.  He wore blue skinny leg jeans that he found in the cupboard and paired it with a black sweater that had NY on the front.  Tony took him for a fade and kept the sides short and left his curls at the top, "you look handsome," Janice complimented him.

The guy who cut his hair could tell O'Shaun wasn't confident and he even gave him a compliment "you're gonna be fighting them girls off you now boy." He helped him clean shave the little hairs that had grown on his chin.

O'Shaun opened the door to the classroom, everyone turned towards him and stared.  The teacher walked over to him, she was a tall Jewish lady with thick black curly hair and a strong nose.  She was skinny and had a big smile.

"Hello, and who might you be?"  She asked him.

He handed her the slip, "O'Shaun, I just started today."  He said in a low quiet husky voice. 

The kids in the classroom started to talk.

"Calm down class, this is "O'Shaun, he has just started with us today.  You can sit over there if you like."  She pointed to the second front row, next to a white kid with braces and blond hair.

All the kids stared at him as he walked to the seat and sat down at his table.

"Okay, I am Mrs Polinsky and welcome O'Shaun.  I hope you enjoy my class and if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me."  She turned to write on the board when a crumpled piece of paper came flying from the back row and hit O'Shaun on the head.  He turned around and picked up the paper, he pushed out his lips and did nothing.

"Please open your textbooks to page 105, Christine can you read this for me?"  Mrs Polinsky asked a chubby red headed girl with pimples on both her cheeks.  She read and another crumpled paper came from the back of the class and landed on the back of O'Shaun's head.  This time he turned around and noticed the boys in the back row laughing, he cut his eyes at them and turned back around.

The bell rang and all the kids ran out of the classroom, O'Shaun got up and headed out to where everyone was in the hallways.  He already hated it at Montgomery, he walked out of the school and sat alone at the entrance on the stairs.  He looked at his timetable, his next class was Maths, he couldn't do that again, he thought to himself. 

He just sat there and waited for the bell to pass.  He reached into his bag and pulled out half a cigarette that he found somewhere and lit it up and smoked it right in front of the school administration.