Malia & Khari III: The Kids

Malia Zaria Valentine

The next evening...

Excuse any mistakes
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   I had just gotten back from Washington, D.C. after speaking at my old high school. About eight years ago, I founded the Malia foundation at the school for young, black girls to be of service to their communities and themselves. The goal is to make them better leaders, more independent, and prepare them real life situations and college, if they choose to go that route. They participate in community service such as creating care packages for homeless women, adopt little sisters to mentor, and things like that.

At the end of their senior year, they are awarded so many points and it determines the scholarship I give them. Usually, it's to any school in America and I cover the tuition and room and board. The program proved to be very effective and it made me really happy that I could help someone. Not everyone has the support that I had from my mother, whether emotionally or financially.

  Khari picked me up from the airport, and he was really happy to see me. I had been gone for one day. He called me so much in one day because he was bored and missed me. I thought it was cute, but he was being dramatic. I knew by his whiny behavior that he was sick, though. I was right, too. He was sniffling while he was driving.

"Did you take some medicine, Khari?" I looked at him, already knowing the answer. He was going to say no because he wanted me to fix him some soup.

  He shook his head. "No, I wanted you to fix me some soup."

See.

  "You can cook. You waited a week so I could fix you some soup when you could've made your own?" He looked at me like duh and I let out a chuckle, shaking my head. "You're such a baby."

"So." He shrugged. "I'm your baby."

  "Mhmm." I hummed, letting the seat back some. I covered my mouth as I yawned. I was really tired and hadn't slept much these past few days. I also couldn't keep any food down, which was weird for me. "Why are you sick anyway? You hardly get sick."

"Ascaria and Scarlett poured ice water on me when you left." He said simply. "It was already cold in the house."

  I looked at him with wide eyes. "In my bed?!"

He nodded, and focused on the road. "Yea, them little nigglets somethin' serious."

  "Oh, we'll see about that." I said, adjusting the seatbelt and folding my arms across my chest. I felt his eyes on me and I looked at him to see him smirking. "What?"

"So you mad?" He teased.

  I rolled my eyes. "Hell yes, I'm mad. That's not a regular duvet on my mattress? That's an expensive ass comforter. You see why they did it when I left. I bet you didn't even do anything to them."

"Ha! Wrong! I took their keys to their cars so they gotta ride with me to go to school for a week." He stuck his tongue out.

  "Whaaatt?" I said in shock. "Khari disciplined the twins? You really are sick." I placed the back of my hand on his forehead, feeling his hot skin. "You're burning up."

"It's hot as fuck. You ain't hot?" He looked at me.

  I shook my head no. "Khari, it's 75 degrees outside. It's pretty pleasant." I sighed, leaning my head back. "I hope you don't have the flu. You're gonna get on my nerves." I mumbled the last part, fixing my shirt.

"Huh?" He glanced over at me.

  "Nothing baby." I waved him off, and fetched my phone out of my purse. Pressing the home button, I noticed that I had a missed call from Farrah. I was on alert because she never called me, like ever. I swiped her name to call her back, placing the device to my ear. I adjusted my frames on my face, looking ahead as the phone rung multiple times. After the fourth ring, she answered.