"Pass your essays up." Mrs. Monroe told the class as she stood up front. Riley sighed and dug in her binder, before passing up her two page typed essay to Melissa who was in front of her. "The rest of the day is a free period. Don't get too loud."
Everyone immediately got on their phones and Riley sat there doodling on her binder. She wished she had a phone, she would call her dad tonight and ask for another one for her birthday that was coming up. She was a summer baby. June 15th.
She hadn't seen King since the party Saturday and it was Friday.. almost a whole week. He had no way to get a hold of her. But he stayed on her mind. Her fingers had a mind of its own as she started to write his name in fancy handwriting all over her papers. King. King and Riley. King and Queen.
She wished she knew his real name.. but it seemed like nobody in Seattle knew unless they were dating him or close friends with him. Riley was secretly wished she would become one of those people. Close friends, of course.
The bell rang and she was walking to her next class when she noticed Cameron, Giovanni and a group of other boys standing in the hallway watching her. "Riley!" Gio yelled, trying to get her attention as she walked past.
She turned and faced them. "What?"
"Sit by us at our lunch table today."
Her eyebrows mushed together as she eyed them one by one. They sat with all the senior thots, including her sister. "I won't suck your dick." Two of the boys laughed, Cameron smiled and Giovanni looked at her in confusion, raising his hands in innocence. "And I won't fuck you either. I'm not a hoe."
"We know." Cameron's smile hadn't faded.
"Then why are you inviting me to your AIDS ridden table?"
Giovanni chuckled and shook his head at her. "You funny. But I like you. So I want you to sit with us."
He likes me???? Riley thoughts were pondering this. "Uh.... I guess I could sit with you guys. But Imani has to come too."
"Sure."
Cassius had an received very important packages. Lorenzo flipped out his switchblade and cracked the packages up. Inside were huge fish tanks. Cass smiled as he lifted a lid and dipped his hand into one.
He felt the clear rocks that laid at the bottom of the tanks. Holding one to his face, he smiled even wider. Turning around to his crew, he held it so everyone could see. The niggas in the back damn near broke their neck to see what he was holding.
"This is a diamond." Everyone's heart collapsed to their stomach as they thought of the amount of money they would make. "Blood diamonds..."
He handed the rock to the closest guy to him. A rookie by the name of Rakim. "Pass it around. I want y'all to see what a real diamond looks like. Not that shit y'all be buying your grandma."
The rock was passed around and one guy Reid asked a question. "King, where did yall this?"
"Connects in Sierra Leone, young blood." Cass marveled. "I'll be having some bitches selling this for me, but you niggas will be packaging it. So listen up, I'm only showing y'all the ropes once. Forget a step and that's a bullet in your temple."
After the meeting, Ryan came up to his best friend in his office with good news. "I got the bitches number."
Cassius looked up from his computer, happy he was one step closer to talking Riley again. He told Ryan that they would call her later and then they went back to work. This diamond business was no joke. If Rambo, his Sierra Leone connect, could trust Cassius with this at the young age of twenty-three then that meant he could get far. He was so close to being the King of everything. Nothing could stop him, nobody could stop him.
