Adolescent| Devanté Swing

chapter two

       "Wait a minute... why you ain't goin' next door with us? Whatchu' in a rush to do?" Derek smirked mischievously as Don's eyes got big, he stammered as he quickly tried to come up with a lie.

"Nothing! I-I'm on punishment... remember? I gotta study all day."

       "Nuh-uh! Mama and daddy said you just got off of punishment last week, that's why you were at Mike's party, you better not be going up there to that recor-" Don slammed the plate down on the counter and sprinted towards Dalvin, his big hand harshly pressed against Dalvin's plump lips to shush him up from revealing his secret.

       "If you don't shut up I'll tell mama you still pee in the bed." He quietly threatens him, through his gritted teeth. Dalvin shakes his head left to right to snatch his lips out of Don's grasp.

"I don't pee in the bed!"

       "Shut up Scooby. My whereabouts ain't none of ya' business, y'all just focus on brushing your teeth and gettin' good grades, now go get dressed before Dad comes in here and whips your butt!" Don commanded, once again as he stretched his long slim arm out, pointing to the nearest exit of the kitchen. The duo sucked their teeth and mumbled rude remarks under their breaths as they stormed out of the kitchen and disappearing up the stairs, leaving Donald all by himself in the kitchen.

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       Rudy's Record factory is one of the most popular record shops in Queen City, it has been up and running since the seventies, this is where all the people from around the town would stand in a long line and wait for hours to get their hands on the cassette or vinyl of the hottest song out at the moment once they got word that the store finally had it. It was current owned by Rudy Frazier, a 50-something- year- old black man who sits on his butt on a wooden stool, reading old newspapers from the fifties and sixties.

       He claimed to be a close cousin to Don Cornelius and dated one of the female dancers on Soul train back in the day and that's how he got the shop, but truth be told that story was a myth. Anyone who was born and raised in Charlotte long enough has enough common sense to know that he built the shop from ground up with the money he got from pimping back in the sixties. He was just a grumpy walnut-skinned old man that looked like a bootleg Richard Roundtree.

       "Did you see the rump on that girl. It was bigger than two watermelons combined- just swinging and jiggling in those shorts... man." Don's friend, Joel spoke loudly and ignorantly as the two wandered through the spacious organized store, Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Reasons" played quietly on the store's radio system to satisfy the customers as they shopped for their items.

       Joel Hailey is his good friend from Sugar Creek, and a fellow Charlotte native. The boys had been glued to the hip since they were in the eighth grade, they would sneak around down to the neighborhood record shop, listening to the songs that were popular at the moment, but absolutely forbidden from their households, and they had been writing and recording the love ballads Don put together on his father's old synthesizer whenever they were home alone.

       He had been using his special notebook ever since he first turned thirteen to write gospel songs for his father, Reverend Don Sr's small gospel band, The Don Delegation. Writing music for his father's group thrilled Don, he finally got the chance to work for his father and see what it was like in the music business, he had always looked up to his father, and once wanted to be like him. As he grew older, his attention started to shift elsewhere. He never took it serious though, it was just a hobby to keep him occupied during the summer, his parents would never let him take any kind of music other than gospel, no matter how much praying and convincing it took, so he just stuck to writing songs here and there to better his skill.