In the middle of it all

Present day | The recruit

Today is September 2nd. The second day of our first year in Uni finishes. Asad picks Aneesa and I and drives us to the crib.

"I thought we were going there later." I say. 

"We have been summoned." Sings Aneesa to my left.

"We have a new member coming. Well we have to test him before he becomes a new member."

When we arrive at the premises, the black gate opens. We drive through, Asad parks the car and we get out of it. We walk into the house and I notice Kyle standing near the hallway. He looked in deep thought.

"Kyle, you good ?" I asked as we approached him.

He raised his head and nodded. " Yeah my fault, I zoned out."

"Did you see the newbie ?" asks Aneesa.

"Yeah. You'll be surprised once you see him."

"I love surprises ! Finally a new member. Asad, let's go !" The twins left and before I decided to join them outside I could hear Kyle mumbling to himself.

"He looks like her... I must be trippin' there's no way." he murmured.

"Kyle."

HIs head turned to me before his eyes looked. " Yeah?"

"Are you waiting for something ? Let's go." We go through the hallway that leads to the backyard and meet with the others. I glanced around trying to see if the newcomer was inside the crowd. That is until my eyes stopped at Tanisha who stood in front. Next to her was a guy. A young adult to be more precise. He has caramel blond wavy hair and he's about 6 ft 1 (183cm). From my distance that's all I could see.

"What the fuck is a East-side brat doing here?" shouted one Silver member in the crowd.

Gross. East Side ? What the hell Sha ?

"We accepted you so, accept others. He's as different as you are from me, you hear?" declared Tanisha firmly. Asad goes to stand next to her. "You're late." she whispers to him.

"You're the one who started early." He smirks. "Ready ?"

"When you are."

"Stand tall." shouts Asad. In that same moment, everyone stopped talking and stood straight "Respect." he adds, shouting in a gravelly voice.

"Introduce yourself." commands Tanisha.

The young man takes a step forward and speaks to the crowd. "My name's Xavier Presley"

"Xavier, are you certain you want to join this crew?"

"I've never been more sure."

A proud grin appears on Tanisha's face. She glances at the two people behind her before continuing. "Welcome then. I'm Sha. This is Ghost, my right arm. The woman behind you is JJ. I might be the Leader but she's my superior, you feel me ?"

"Dismissed." declares Asad. The rest of the crew goes back to their daily activities. Jessie goes inside and only Asad, Tanisha, Kyle, Izzy, Nate, Neesa and I stay with the newcomer. We stand by Sha, forming a half circle around him.

"Thank you for adding me into your gang..." blabbed the new guy.

Gang?

"Adding ? Boy it hasn't even been a day. You ain't part of this crew, okay?" comments Izzy.

"Oh..."

"Unfortunately for you she's right. You need to get accepted by the crew and go through the ceremony before being considered part of the Silvers gang." explains Tanisha, softly spoken.

"Yeah. You didn't pass the first one yet." Izzy adds.

"I know we're called the Silvers gang but we refer each other as a crew rather than a gang. We're a gang to our opps but a crew to us." adds Tanisha.

"Word." adds Kyle.

"My apologies." says Xavier.

"Yeah... Y'all introduce yourselves now." tells us Sha.

"My name Link."

"I go by Third Eye." says Neesa.

"I'm Tamika- I mean Titi."

Shit. How did I fuck this up?

"My name's Iz."

Xavier looks intensely at Nate. "Are you new here ?" He asks. Nate looks him up and down, scrunching his nose. He tilts his head, gloating at the newbie. "I'm sorry, you're just so young. I thought you'd be new like me." he continues.

"Nate, please be nice. No, he's been here before most of us here." explains Tanisha.

"What's an East Side fucker doing here ?" comments Nate. Xavier scoffs. That ticked Nate off. "Did I say sum' funny white boy?"

"No. You're not funny, Nate. It might be hard to believe but I'm not like the rest of those East-Side fuckers. I'm different."

"How can I believe a word that comes out your mouth ?" questions Nate.

"If I was like them, I wouldn't be here, would I ? Give me a chance. We don't choose where we're born."

That sentence hit close to home. I think each one of us realized it as we were now standing in silence. "Fair." Nate broke the silence. He took a few steps forward and shook hands with the new guy. "I'm Nate, glad to have another man in the crew."