It had been a few weeks since the Freemans moved to Woodcrest. Huey and Riley were already in enrolled to a mostly white school.
Riley had been secretly sneaking out and going to hang out with the white girl he had seen when they first had moved there.
They mostly hung around the woods, or the back areas of WoodCrest so they wouldn't be caught,
Huey stayed in his own little bubble after school, often found watching boxing matches on the small tv in the living room. He didn't want to go outside. He heard what happened to small children that decided to "hang" with white children.
One Saturday afternoon, the freeman family got a knock at their door. Huey got up from watching the tv and went to the door. He opened it and he was met with a tall black man, a white woman and a teenager right standing in the middle of both of them.
"How do you do, young brother? Your pa around?" He said. Huey nodded and walked away from the door. He went back into the living room and woke up a sleeping Robert. "There's someone at the front door, pa."
Robert stood up from his chair and went to the front door. He was surprised to see the trio. "Can we help you?" Robert asked.
"Oh, we just finally wanted introduce ourselves, we were debating for a few weeks because we wanted to see if you're the bad apples or not." The man said.
Robert nodded, a bit confused.
"This is my wife--" He gestured over to the white women. Robert's eye's widened. "Sarah and this is my daughter--" He motioned down to the teenage girl. "Jazmine and my name is Tom." He greeted, placing his hand out. Robert took his hand and gave it a firm shake.
"Well, come inside and let's have a chat." Robert said. Tom nodded his head and looked down at Jazmine and Huey. "How about you two go hang out? Hmm??" Tom suggested.
"But-" Huey started. Robert looked at Huey like his life depended on hanging out with this biracial girl.
"Fine..." He said, pushing past Tom and Sarah. Huey and Jazmine began to walk off the front porch and then out of sight around the corner.
Jazmine finally began speaking "Sooooo, how old are you?" She asked.
"I'm fourteen."
She nodded. "That's good, I'm fourteen too."
"So what do you like to do?" She asked again.
"Staying inside." He replied.
She picked up on him being annoyed with her real fast. "Is it because I'm white?"
Huey's head snapped towards Jazmine. "What?"
"Is it because I'm white? You know, the reason you don't want to speak with me?" She explained. He shook his head. "I wouldn't call you white, especially since you show more black features than anything but I guess the proper word would be mulatto." He said.
She shook her head. "My mom says I'm white. That's what she put on my birth certificate." She said.
"Then why is your hair...kinky?" He said.
"Well, because my ma didn't use the hot comb in a few weeks. But, she said she'll use it tonight."
Huey chuckled. "If you were just white you wouldn't have to do that."
"I think you need to shut it..." She said, obviously not wanting to speak on the subject any longer.
Huey and Jazmine came up upon a hill where they both sat down and stared at the horizon.
"Ya, know, you're really boring person." Jazmine said after awhile.
"I know." Huey said plainly.
Meanwhile...
Riley was waiting in the alleyway of a diner, waiting on the Cindy girl to come back. Finally, she came back with their food. "Hey! Sorry to keep ya waiting." She said, handing him his milkshake. "You sure I couldn't have come in with you?" Riley said, slurping loudly.
She shook her head vigorously. "Nope, my daddy would send me away if I were to ever get caught seen with a colored boy."
"Then why do you do it, If I may ask?"
She shrugged. "I just don't find any of the boys with my same skin complexation appealing to me."
Riley nodded his head and went to eating his food.
A couple seconds in, they heard a trash can rustling behind them. Cindy turned around and sighed as she saw who it was. It was Tommy. She quickly leaned over to Riley. "I'm going to have to act a certain way in a moment, kay?" She said.
Riley nodded.
Tommy approached them and took at Cindy and then at Riley. He then turned back to Cindy and said "Cindy, what are you doing with this moon cricket?" Cindy smiled and snatched the milkshake out of Riley's hand, throwing it on the floor. "Ha, this Negro really thought I cared about his sad little life in the slums." She strolled over beside Tommy.
Tommy was a local boy around WoodCrest who fancied Cindy, even though she tried her best to politely reject him, it seems it wasn't hitting home.
Tommy burst out laughing and raised up his boot, placing on Riley's back and shoving it. He watched Riley fall face first, wasting all of his food. Tommy walked over Riley's body and kneeled down. "Don't let me catch you, hanging with her boy, kay? Because it can get real messy, you don't want this to end up like--" Riley didn't let Tommy get his last few words in before slamming his fast in Tommy's face.
Tommy crashed onto the ground, holding his shattered nose. Riley scrambled to his feet and began stomping the now, scared Tommy. While all this was happening Cindy was watching and people began to take notice of the Negro boy beating on a white boy.
Cindy backed up into the alleyway and took a metal lid off a trashcan, she walked back out of the alleyway and crept up behind Riley. Then she slammed the lid against his face, watching him fall, unconscious onto the ground. She had to keep up appearances.
She knelt down next to Tommy. "You okay?" She asked.
Tommy nodded, holding his head. "That Negro boy couldn't hurt me on my worst day." He glanced past Cindy and saw Riley's body. "You got em pretty good. Now help me up." Cindy stood up and dusted herself off. She gave Tommy a hand and pulled him uo.
"Come on, I'll walk home with you." Cindy said, wanting to get far away from the scene as possible.
Tommy nodded and they both walked away from the scene.
Meanwhile...
Jazmine stood up in frustration. "This is what you do for entertainment? Stare at the sky for hours on end?"
Huey shook his head. "No, I usually have a book." He said and stood up as well. "If you don't want to be here, we can see if they're finished talking yet." Huey suggested.
"I wouldn't like for anything else." Jazmine said, stomping off ahead.
Huey kicked his feet into motion, lagging behind her. She reached the house and went inside, followed by Huey.
They heard laughter coming from the kitchen. Tom, Sarah, and Robert were drinking and playing cards like best friends.
Jazmine crossed her arms. "Are you done?" She said, annoyed.
"Jaz-..." Robert interrupted Tom. "No, Tom, she knows better. I got this." Robert turned to Jazmine. "Don't you see grown folks are speaking? He'll be done, when he'll be done. Leave." Robert said.
She huffed and turned around, Huey followed with a small grin on his face.
She walked into the living room, plopping down on the couch. "Your pa is mean." She said.
Huey sat down on the floor, next to the TV. "No, he is fair. You shouldn't have went in there, especially with all that attitude. You're lucky you aren't his daughter, he'd have you seeing two."
Jazmine mumbled to herself. "I'm never coming to this house again."
Meanwhile...
"Ay, Negro, wake your ass up."
Riley slowly cracked open his eyes and stared at the black boy who said that to him.
"You going to stare?" He said, offering Riley a hand.
Riley took the boy's hand and stood up.
"I seen you take that ass whoopin. Sorry to say, but that white girl got you, Negro." He said.
Riley didn't think it was funny, he rubbed his head, looking sideways at the boy.
"My names Michael Cesar, but I ain't seen you around here before I didn't see anyone else move into the slums, so where you live at?" Cesar said.
"I don't live in the slums, I live in the WoodCrest neighborhoods."
"Ohh, we got a rich Negro, I see. Because a poor negro, would've never gotten beaten like that from a white girl." He added.
"Funny. I'll be on my way." Riley said.
Riley turned to leave but Cesar put a hand on his shoulder.
"Ay, my brother. Listen, I don't hit women, but I can get you some one on one time with that bastard who kicked you." Cesar said, lowly.
Riley rolled his eyes. "Yea, and how would you do that?" He said.
"Me and my cousins live in the slums around here, we can help you out. We saw him around here before too, when he's with his friends he try to gang on us, but he alone now. Perfect chance to get your payback and ours." Cesar explained.
Riley nodded, liking the plan. "I'm in." He said.
"Aight, stay here. I'll be back with my cousins." Cesar quickly said and turned around, jogging out of sight.
Riley waited right there, watching nearby cars drive by. After a few minutes, he saw Cesar approaching with two other boys, they were holding baseball bats.
"These are for if his friends show up." Cesar said, handing Riley a baseball bat." He turned to his cousins. "This is Lenny-" He pointed to the shorter one. "This is Mark." He introduced Riley and turned back towards him. "I seen which way them two went follow me."
Riley nodded and they all set out to find Cindy and Tommy.
Meanwhile...
Tommy rubbed his head as him and Cindy walked slowly towards his house. "We should really hang out sometime, Cindy." Tommy said.
Cindy shook her head. "I don't have the time for it, this weekend, but maybe next weekend. Kay?" Cindy said.
Tommy nodded.
It was very awkward between them. Tommy was a slightly overweight kid and was very weird when not surrounded by his friends.
Tommy was going to say something else and then they heard fast footsteps approaching behind them. In sync, Cindy and Tommy turned around to see four negro boys approaching them.
"What's up now?" Riley said and slammed the baseball in Tommy's face.
Tommy went crashing onto the concrete, two teeth falling out his mouth.
Lenny went over to Tommy's body and began kicking him in his groin.
Cindy was in shock at this and she cracked her head towards Riley. "What are you doing?!" She screamed.
"You know what? I do hit girls!" Cesar upped his bat and slammed it into Cindy's back. She fell onto the concrete next to Tommy.
She was crying and Cesar went over to her. "Shut the fuck up, this is how we gets down in the slums."
Riley rushed over to Cesar. "What the fuck man?! Do you know who her father is?!" Riley yelled in his face.
Cesar smiled. "These people oppress us everyday my brother wake up and smell the racism."
He turned his attention back over to Cindy. He reached into his pocket and took out a switchblade.
"It's time to send a message." Cesar said.
Before Cesar could do anything, there was two gunshots fired into the air. They all turned to see what it was. It was a neighbor, on their porch with a shotgun in their hand. "Y'all niggers got 5 seconds to get the fuck away from them before I kill all of you!" He yelled.
Riley dropped the bat instantly and began running away from the scene. He kept running and heard two more gunshots being fired out. He didn't check to see what it was, he kept running until he was home. He came through the front door and locked it. He didn't speak to anybody. He went upstairs and went straight to laying down. This was a stressful day for him.
Meanwhile...
Cesar and his cousins managed to slip away from the maniac with a shotgun and back to the slums.
"I'll see y'all tomorrow, my brothers." He said and went back to his own house. His father was a black panther and his mother was a real estate agent. He really admired his father and he felt what he had done today is what his father would've wanted him to do. He walked into the kitchen and sat down, getting ready for dinner.
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Sorry it took so long getting another chapter out for this book. Was having some serious trouble on which road on I wanna go down for this book, but it's very clear to me which road I wanna chose.