tellem.

the sober up.

sydney.

       My phone making noise well before my 6:00 alarm went off that morning woke me up. Groaning, I rolled over and answered it without bothering to check the caller ID. "Sydney, someone caught Amaria." Carter whispered in a frantic tone over the reciever or my phone before I got the chance to even ask what this person wanted this early in the morning.

"What?"

"A rent-a-cop at the middle school confiscated her bag and searched the shit. She got off with a warning with 12 since she's never had a run-in or nothing, but her parents are hea-ted."

       Naw, they'd be cool with that mess, I thought and rolled my tired eyes. Of course I knew that there were only two ways out of this mess, to get caught by the cops like I was a drug dealer or something, get the black beat off of me, or wait on more people in on this to get caught and then quit. "Oh. So what now?"

"I guess just be more careful, I dunno. But now we gotta do more since Amaria is out. Nigga ain't even got a phone no more."

"That's messed up," I lamented. "Listen, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back to sleep. We still got school today to go to, and band has to perform at the student vs. faculty basketball game tonight." 

"Syd-"

       Click. Not my problem she was dumb enough to get caught, all I had to do was make sure I didn't before Mom got suspicious as to where I got my money from. If it all went like how I planned it, I'd say that I quit to focus on school as midterms came up, and that would give me enough to help Mom until she got another job. 

       I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't for jack. Ugh. I squinted, took my phone from where I left it on my pillow and opened up Instagram to see who had posted what, and if there was any drama I missed last night. Nothing but Sharkeisha jokes and people complaining about Flappy Bird or bragging about their scores like they the stuff.  None of it was funny since everybody was reposting the same jokes, doing the same poses and wearing the same Jordans.

       Before I exited off I checked Rah's page. Yeah, I'll admit, it seemed stalkerish. But if you saw her, you'd know why.  She was so freaking pretty, and the stuff she posted on her page was a little more than the average. But that was Rah, so far from the average.

--

"How was your day?" My friend Melanie asked me. Her straight hair blew around the wind, then ended up getting in her eyes and mouth. "Come on, now," she groaned.

"Boring, as always."

"I can't stand that Carmen girl. I got a class with her and Jesus... how can anybody stand her?" 

      I gasped in mock shock. It seemed so unlike Melanie to start the gossiping that we did on the way home, and to hear her outright say she didn't like somebody wasn't her at all. Melanie was so mild-mannered. Oldest child, preaching dad and a teacher mom... what could you expect from parents like that? Either someone real sneaky, or someone real boring. She was a happy medium, though. "Melanie!"

"What? She's so rude."

       I thought about the one time Rah introduced me to her, then nodded in agreement. "Yes, she is. I remember this one time Raheema introduced us, and all she did was mean mug me and I ain't do jack to her."

"That's messed up." Melanie shook her head. "You going to that basketball game tonight?"

"Have to. Band's playing. You?"

"Nope. I gotta babysit, and since I'm neither in band nor choir, I have no reason to go."

"You can just tell your mom and dad that ball is life! We're all black, they'll understand!" I joked.