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Aj POV
"Yo."
"Aj."
"Aj." I open my eyes when I feel a hand grab and shake my shoulders. "Get ready for school. You got a hour."
I kiss my teeth and turn my head away then lazily turn my phone on and look at the time. It's 6:45. What he gon do if I just lay here and don't move. He can't drag me to this school.
"I'm not gon say it again." He says and then leaves the room. 'I'm not gon say it again', shut the fuck up. Nobody asked you to say it again. I sit all the way up. Before I do anything I make sure to send Zyier a text back from one he sent me last night. I was gonna be up all night texting him but I was tired, even after sleeping as much as I did when we was coming here. That car ride was the longest and most uncomfortable one I been on. Aside from the issues I got with the nigga from jump, imagine having to be in a car with somebody who literally just said they're mentally ill? Now what if he just decided to drive off a cliff or something because another car "triggered" him. Now I'm dead.
I really don't want to be here right now let alone go to a school full of people I don't know. I've never had to be a new student, I was just always the child to "Cameron and Anthony" but I never had to be looked at like I'm some clueless ass nigga who don't know where the school bathroom is. Imma just try lay low like I always do and not bring attention to myself, which is why after I take a shower and brush my teeth, I dress myself in a black hoodie and black sweatpants with the hoodie zipped all the way up. I put the hoodie on my head and look in the mirror. I think I could blend in pretty well. Nothing about me is standing out.
"Where your bag at?" Daddy asks me when I come out the room at 7:40. I don't know, I probably left that shit. I don't say anything to him. "Look next to your bed." He says.
I go back in the room and look where he said to look and there's a new black book bag there. When I pick it up it feels like there's something in there so I open it to check. It's a notebook and some pencils. I don't even remember him buying any of this. I carry it on my back and then we leave the weird ass "apartment building".
"What you want for breakfast?" He asks. I don't want breakfast, I want to go back to Brooklyn. I lean my head against the window and ignore his question. I don't want to eat right now. My stomach is hurting and I feel weird and angry because I'm on my way to a school I don't know nothing about. This is the worse day of my fucking life, besides when this nigga tried to kill me. But it seems like it's always him that's putting me in the most uncomfortable and situations.
Like last night, he decides himself that he's gonna go in the McDonald's drive thru. He bought me mad shit yesterday, but I got through a lot of it because I didn't eat all day. I ate in my room and then went to sleep. And now we back here again. We probably gonna be eating this shit for every meal.
"What you want?" He asks again, now talking about the menu. He's literally talking to himself at this point because I'm not talking to him. I don't want to and I shouldn't have to. He ends up ordering me two breakfast plates—what Imma do with two, I don't know. But I know I'm probably not gonna be eating nothing while I'm in school, so I give in and eat as he continues to drive.
At 8:00 on the dot we pull up in front of the school. There's still some students going inside so we must've got there right when classes is starting. I may eye contact with my daddy through the mirror. "Finish eating." He says. I take another bit of my food but I think my appetite is messed up now. Seeing all them people go inside there and I don't know not one of them is nerve wrecking. I already don't like school and being around all them people to begin with. I didn't even have time to prepare my mind for this. So, I don't wanna eat no more. But I still sit there and eat the rest slowly to procrastinate on purpose. The longer I take, the longer I don't have to go in. But it gets to a point where it's 8:10 and I physically can't pretend like I'm still eating. My daddy looks back at me like he's been occasionally going for the past ten minutes and when he sees I'm done he nods.
"Aight," he gets out of the car and stands around waiting for me to get out too. Don't tell me this nigga is coming inside too. If this whole thing couldn't get any worse, it just did. This is already embarrassing now I gotta have my father come inside with me too. I get out of the car and I follow him into the school building. We stop at the security desk.
"Yes?" The man behind the desk asks.
Daddy digs in his pockets and pulls out a wallet. Then, he pulls his ID out. "My son a new student."
"Oh okay. Down the hall to your right, room 107 is the main office. ID?"
Daddy shows him his ID and then he gives us the go to walk down to the office. As we're walking there, a small group of students pass by and a few of them look at me like they could just tell they never seen me before. I pull the strings to my hoodie tighter to conceal my face more because clearly what I did before wasn't enough.
"Good morning." The women behind the desk at the main office say collectively. The one that's sitting all the way in the front smiles. "We got the first person of the day at what, 8am? Oh wait it's 8:15. Damn, it's usually earlier than that right Deb?"
"Right, let's keep it like that."
"Mm-hmm," she laughs "How can I help you?"
"He need his schedule, he's a new student." Daddy says.
"Oh okay, who's he? Can I get a name?" She laughs.
"Aj—Anthony Jackson jr."
"Aj Anthony? Oh no wait—just Anthony. I see it right here, mm hmm okay, he's a sophomore?? Is that correct?" She frowns
"Yeah." Daddy answers.
"Wow. I would have thought he was a senior," her and the other women laugh. Leave me alone. How she know I wasn't left back or something. "Okay, we got his schedule right here. His first class started at 8, but he could make it in time to introduce himself to the teacher. So you start at 8, dismissal is at 3. You riding the school bus?"
"Nah," daddy answers for me.
"Alright. And can I see some ID? Who are you, brother?" She asks him. So I guess everybody just gonna think we brothers. This the second time someone has said that. They dragging it because I do not look that old and this nigga do not look that young.
He hands her the ID, "I'm his father."
And here goes the dramatic ass reaction from all them women. "Father?! No you not. Stop playin! How old are you?" She looks at his ID.
"Only thirty six. But I really thought you were like 25. See that's why I kept my mouth shut, thought he was my sons age...." She mumbles the last part making the women in the back laugh out loud and agree to whatever she's implying.
"Right! Cus babyy, I thought it was just me."
"Aight now," the woman in the front—Janet her name tag says—interjects and hands daddy his ID back, "so here's the emergency contact card. You need to fill that out now. Can you maybe put the wife's number on there?" She adds slyly, turning around and looking at the women again. Bitch do your job, the fuck. How you tryna flirt with people's parents right in front of them? Daddy takes the card and quickly fills it out, putting Uncle Tyler, Auntie Zaza, and papa's number down with their names. She gives him some other stuff to sign and things to bring back for tomorrow as well.
She hands me my schedule. "Okay. You're good to go. Your first class is on the third floor, but your schedule tells you the room numbers so you should be good hon. If anybody gives you a problem today you could come to me, they know how I get, I got you," she winks at me with a smile and then looks at daddy, clearly trying to impress him and it's literally not working. He doesn't care, she needs to stop.
"Bye dad, your son is in good hands. Hope to see you again," she smiles and the rest of the ladies wave. With that, daddy and I turn around and leave the office and he walks me to the steps since it's close to the exit.
"You good?" He asks. I'm still ignoring him so I don't answer.
"Aj, we not doing this no more." he says lowly and then asks me again if I'm good, so this time I shrug before he gets too mad.
"I be outside at 3. Have a good day. If somebody giving you a problem, call me." He says. Yeah right. He the last person I would call, nigga wouldn't even deescalate the problem, just make it worse. "Love you." He adds. He coulda just left it at that but he just has to hug and kiss me and with my luck, a whole class comes out of what looks like the gym and walks in our direction. They clearly keep looking at me and at my daddy and back at me then back at my daddy. He lets me go and then leaves, leaving me standing there looking lost and embarrassed.
"Get to class." The security guard at the front says to me with his eyes glued to a newspaper. I narrow my eyes at him. I literally just got here.
The first class on the schedule is geometry in room 310 with "Ms.Grover." I slowly walk away up the steps to kill time and when I'm on the third floor I slowly walk to room 310. From a short distance I can see that the door is open and I could hear student talking and the teacher yelling at them to quiet down. I almost turn back around to go hide in the bathroom but some fat nigga wearing a "hall monitor" necklace starts approaching me. You can't be serious bro, a hall monitor? I take a deep breath and walk into the classroom. Soon as I step foot inside, everything goes quiet.
The teacher takes a look at me, "Are you Anthony?"
I nod.
"Okay Anthony. Welcome, is this your first class of the day?"
I nod.
"Well, I'd like to personally welcome you to Green Run. I hope it treats you well. Where are you coming from again?" The rest of the class slowly and quietly resumes talking to one another while I stand up here and talk to the teacher.
"Brooklyn."
"Wow! My great aunt lives in Brooklyn, the culture is so rich out there. The greatest MC's come from Brooklyn." She takes a sip of coffee. I nod awkwardly.
"Not much of a talker huh?" She smirks. "Okay, well we're going over trigonometric functions—SohCahToa. Have you covered that at all back in Brooklyn?"
I shrug because I really don't know. I wasn't paying attention.
"You don't know? Okay, that's fine. Just—take this reference sheet and try to follow along. I have after school hours if you ever need to catch up or anything alright," she claps her hands, "Okay. Take any open seat and that will be your seat for the remainder of the year."
My eyes immediately dart to the back of the room, hoping there's a seat back there and there is, right in the corner. Eyes are on me as I walk over to the seat and sit down in it. The good thing about this seat is that it's cornered and out the way. The bad thing is I put myself too close to the people who be doing the most talking. Sitting in front of me is a girl who keeps looking back at me, and sitting next to me is a boy who keeps throwing shit at the girl sitting in front of me. I let it rock for a while because it isn't bothering me. I was too busy fake listening to the teacher and zoning out, thinking about 3:00. But I glance at him when a piece of paper he was throwing lands on my desk.
"Yo pass that," he says to me.
"No don't pass him nothing."
"Bro pass that," he says again.
"Don't listen to him." She argues.
"So you really not gonna pass it?" He laughs, "Aight." He reaches over and takes the paper off my table himself. From the corner of my eye I see him laugh and motion towards me. "This nigga." He mumbles.
"What's your name?" The girl in front of me asks. My response to her is the same as it's been for everyone today—silence.
"You don't talk?" She asks. I pull at the strings on my hoodie again and lean back in my seat. It's my first day and they tryna act like I'm they friend that's giving them the cold shoulder. They don't know who I am or where I came from. If I seen a new kid at school I woulda just ignored them. What happened to just minding your business and worrying about yourself?
Me not responding to them eventually makes them stop talking to me and go back to fooling around with each other. I don't care if this makes me look like a mute, so let them think that then. I'm not here to talk to nobody. So for all that I'll be the weird nigga who don't talk.
The rest of the class goes by mad slow. All shapes and lines and the sound of her voice saying "soca toya" over and over again had me wanting to knock the fuck out. My next class World History goes by even slower. The teacher is some white man who swears we asked for his personal opinion on the history he's teaching. He spends more time ranting than he does teaching. But that's better for me so I could just sit around and do nothing without standing out to the teacher. I don't even think he noticed I was new, unlike the students in that class. Couple people kept making eye contact with me and smiling at me and I'm not gon lie, it was especially the females. Then during independent work time they kept tryna talk to me. I'm not acting like this on purpose but imagine one day you was home and the next day you in a random state with mad niggas in your face talking bout some "Where you from?" "What's your name?" "Why you moved?" "What classes you got?" It's annoying. Couple people called me mean when I ain't respond, but that's fine with me. If that's what they think then so be it. The meaner they think I am the more they'll stay away.
When that class is over I have Science which passes in pretty much the same way as the other classes. When Science is over, I walk through the halls to my next class, staring at my schedule. After this class I'm bout to have now which is music, I got Lunch then I got English then Gym. This schedule is too fucking long. But it's a lose lose situation because the longer I'm here the less I gotta be around my daddy, but that also means I gotta be here in this building around all these random people instead of being in "my room."
"Hi! Are you Anthony Jackson?" The music teacher asks me by the door where she was standing to greet all the students. I nod. It's so weird to be called Anthony all the time. Back home only some people call me that, but most them call me Aj because that's what they hear everybody else call me.
"Okay. Well, it's nice to meet you Anthony. This is our music room where we...do music," she laughs, "But I don't want you to worry about trying to catch up to where we are with instruments too much because we started from scratch! And I think that's too much for you. So, for today, you can kind of just observe the class and then at the end if it's not too soon, tell me which group you want to be in! Vocals, violin, bass, flute, trumpet, keyboard, and uh.....oh yeah, the triangle." She laughs again. She reminds me of papa with how much she talking and how she saying it. But I think with her she just need to put that coffee down. "So have a seat in that chair off to the left side, you'll know which one because every other seat has a stand. And you can just kinda chill, sit back, and watch me try to instruct a music class. By the way, you're a sophomore right?"
I nod.
"I don't know what they're putting in the water these days. It's not a bad thing necessarily. You could just pass for a freshman in college." I don't need to keep being reminded of how old I look. I get it, I look like I'm older. Niggas see a lil facial hair and height and start aging you. Now what they gon say when I'm actually eighteen.
I sit walk into the classroom and pass the eyes staring at me and sit in the seat that's off to the side. When all the students are in, the teacher, Mrs.Danovan, feels the need to introduce me to the whole class.
"Guys! We have a new member of the fourth period band! He's new here so be nice, his name is Anthony. Uh-Anthony, do you have any nicknames you prefer or?"
This is my chance. "Aj."
"Aj! Okay, everybody let's start over. Our newest member is Aj, so everybody say hello to Aj."
Collectively the class says hello to me. "He's gonna be observing which group he wants to be apart of so try to impress him enough to get him in your group." She laughs.
"Wait, where you from?" Somebody asks. They all look at me waiting for an answer.
"Brooklyn." I mumble.
"Huh?" A couple people in the class question. I guess they couldn't hear me.
"He said Brooklyn." A girl sitting the closest to me says. Everybody collectively says "Ohhh" together. They start to ask me questions but Mrs.Donovan stops them.
"Uh-uh, let the questions come after class. He can't be bombarded by you guy's nosiness. Everybody, grab your instruments." With that, everyone scrambled to the back of the room to get their instruments.
I actually pay attention to the music class one because I don't have to do nothing. And two, because it's kind of funny. These niggas are so bad, especially the ones on the triangle which don't make no sense because how you got the easiest instrument but still can't figure out when to come in. If I have to choose which group to join it's probably gonna be the triangle though because I'm not good at music. I know I can't sing I don't even have to try, and Im too lazy to do the rest of the instruments that are there. Before the class is over she asks me if I know which group I want to join and I tell her. She smiles at my answer.
"Okay, I was gonna push you to maybe do bass or keyboard since you've got the hands for it but I'll cut you some slack. Promise you'll think about it though?" She asks.
"No." I respond which makes her laugh again.
"Okay, okay. I rather you tell the truth than lead me on so I respect that—" the bell rings "Alright Aj. I hope you're having a good first day, looking forward to getting to know your musical side more!" She nods, "Alright students, you did decent today which is better than whatever yesterday was! So give yourself a pat on the back and be on time tomorrow!"
Now I have lunch. I don't want to go and I would have hid in the bathroom if it weren't for them fucking hall monitors. I checked first to see if that was an option, but they sitting outside of each bathroom clocking who walking in and who walking out so I couldn't get away with staying in the bathroom.
I walk there slowly, dreading getting there. But in the end that hurt me more than it help because now I'm walking into a packed lunchroom with nowhere to sit. I walk around aimlessly for five minutes until I finally find an empty table. Well it's almost empty except for the two kids sitting across from each other on the other end, playing pokemon or some shit.
Since I'm not eating, I take my phone out and FaceTime Zyier. I knew I could depend on him to pick up fast, but the nigga ain't even let the shit ring.
"Hey baby," he smiles. He's at school too and by the looks of the background, he's also at lunch. "I was wondering when you was gonna call me to complain."
I smile a little bit then it drops. "Nah, I'm not complaining..." I mumble. I don't want to spend the whole time talking about me being here and how my day has been going. I know he's gonna ask questions but that's different than me sitting here and ranting for thirty minutes.
Zyier smiles sadly, "You good?"
I shrug, "It's whatever." I say quietly. "You?"
"Yeah I'm good. My mother is being extra nice to me for some reason. She might sense that I'm sad about something."
"You look sad." I mention, taking in his red eyes and nose.
"I know. Niggas keep asking what's wrong with me, cus I'm not usually like this. But it's a mix of you leaving and then of you telling me you love me. Nigga I wasn't expecting that."
I laugh, "I know."
Zyier narrows his eyes, "So do you really love me or was that a heat of the moment thing?"
"I love you Zyier. I meant it." I say quietly. The kids next to me glance at me and I look back at them from the corner of my eye. All in my fucking business. I look back at my boyfriend who's now smiling.
"I love you too. Aww, who woulda thought—" Our conversation is cut short when the bell rings on his end meaning his lunch period is over. He rolls his eyes.
"You gotta go?" I ask.
"No, not really. I could talk while I go upstairs."
"No," I say, "It's okay. Imma call you when I'm out." I say. Zyier asks me if I'm sure and when I tell him yes we say bye to each other. I still got a dreadful twenty minutes until this period is over. As I'm about to put my headphones in, some kids I think I recognize from some of my classes walk in my direction. Only one of them comes up to me completely, some girl.
"Come sit with us, you all by yourself," she laughs.
"That's the point." I answer back under my breath. I meant to say it in my head, but it's just wild to me that they still not getting the message I'm sending which is that I want to be left alone. The girl looks back at her friends and shrugs. I pull at the strings of my hoodie again, feeling to exposed.
She sits down across from me and her friends follow, sitting across and next to me making the kids that was already here get up and move. How they gonna just invade they space like that. The one table they got they wanna take that shit too. I'm bout to do the same thing.
"We just felt bad that you was sitting by yourself. I know it's your first day and you don't know nobody." A different girl says.
A boy speaks, "They were only worried about being the first to make you talk. They got a crush on you." He says dryly. I take a double take at the him. I don't know who I was expecting but it definitely wasn't a chubby dark skin boy wearing a crop top, fake eyelashes, and lipgloss. The way he look just caught me off guard.
"Didn't your boyfriend just walk in? Over here telling stories." Another girl says. It's about five of them. The boy turns around and walks over to some skinny ass Asian nigga and hugs him. I don't realize that I'm watching them from when they greeted each other to when they sit in a seat, to when they secretly kiss each other.
"Oh yeah...that's Ivy—well his names Ivan, but we call him Ivy—and his boyfriend Huang. They're gay. Just a heads up."
Three different boys come and sit on the table itself. "Why y'all watching them faggo- Aight Aight, I'm sorry," he laughs when one of the girls starts to hit him. They turn their heads and look at me, "Yo wassup." One of them says.
"He don't talk bro."
They laugh, "So you mean to tell me, he didn't have to talk to have these bitches acting like they just met they next boyfriend? Wow."
The girls start giggling and blushing and shit making me make a face to myself. Fuck no.
"Look at his face, he don't want y'all." A boy says.
"The nigga is just mean, that's probably his resting face." A girl responds. No, that's my 'get the fuck out my face' face.
"He's a whole sophomore bro, Tif aren't you a senior?"
They all laugh, and I'm guessing "Tif" is the one responding, "Okay? He probably sixteen and I'm still seventeen soooo. And he looks like a senior too so it don't matter."
"Not y'all talking about him like he's not sitting right there." The gay boy pops up again with his boyfriend. The three niggas that was on the table look at each other and laugh.
The gay boy raises his eyebrows, "Something funny?"
"Yeah, you." One of them says.
"Did I make a joke?"
"Nah. But you look like one. Take that shirt off." He laughs, making his friends laugh too. Niggas is mad fucking corny. That wasn't even funny. Man they just need to do all of this away from where I'm at.
"You would like that, wouldn't you." The gay boy says. The boy that was tryna clown him stands up, all big bad and angry now, stepping in his face. The gay boy puts his hand on his hip and tilts his head.
"What? You asked for it. Do something. I dare you."
The girls stand up, "Alright Ivy. Relax. It was a joke."
"Oh I'm relaxed. Tell your friend to relax. He can dish shit but can't take it."
"You right. Alright y'all, let's just separate because y'all always being homophobic and shit—"
"Homophobic?! I didn't even say nothing, I can't make jokes on a gay dude without being called homophobic."
I'm bout to take my shit and leave because they taking up my space with this dumb shit. "Aight, he'll settle this. You think I said anything homophobic?" The nigga that was making the "jokes" asks me. You know how I respond to that? I take my shit and leave. They're doing too much. I move to another almost empty table that has the same two kids that was sitting at the other table. They glare at me and then get up and move. Aight fuck you too then. I ain't even do shit, it was them other niggas. I put my headphones in and listen to music as I lay my head down until the lunch period is over.
Next period is gym and I'm the first one in there. I think it's because everybody else is still in the lunchroom, watching a fight that broke out between two girls. I was just eager to get outta there.
"Are you new?" The gym teacher asks so I nod.
"You got forty dollars?"
I shrug. He stares at me until I give him a yes or no answer. I check my wallet and pull out forty dollars. He takes it from me and then goes into a room and comes back out with a t shirt, shorts,and a locker and combination code. "Get dressed," he throws all of it at me and I catch it all except the lock. After I pick it up I rush to the locker room so I could be the first one in and out. Nigga ain't waste no time, he coulda gave me a day.
I'm not fast enough with changing and my having to use the bathroom is to blame. When I come out the bathroom, niggas is already walking in, changing, and walking out. I find my locker, and then I spend a good three minutes sitting down on the bench, tryna figure out how to work the lock. At this point I'm the only one in the locker room.
Someone walks in and I expect it to be the gym teacher telling me to hurry up, but it's just a late student. Imma at least try to make it outta here before he do.
He stops at the locker across from mine and I could literally hear him open it mad fast. Nah, there's no way this is the right combination for this fucking lock. I try again and it still doesn't work. "What the fuck," I kiss my teeth, quietly ranting to myself. I hate when shit don't work how it's supposed to, or how it's said to work. Shit make me feel like throwing this lock across the room.
"You gotta spin it three times from zero then do the combination." The other boy in here says. I try that out and it still don't work. I try it again and same thing. This just isn't the right combination.
"What's the number?" He asks. It's stupid to tell him because he could definitely steal my shit, but he's the only person I'm bout to tell so I'll know who steals from me if things do end up missing. I show him the paper and he asks for the lock next. I give it to him, and then he stands behind me and bends down to show me how to open it. This bout to be some bullshit.
He spins the lock till it's at zero, "Spin it three times completely from zero," he says and spins it three full times "then do...22, go the other direction....13, then the other direction...7." He pulls at the top of the lock and it opens and he hands it to me. See, nigga ain't even say all that. If that's what he said from jump maybe I woulda got it.
"Thanks." I say.
"Yeah."
I finally change into the black phys Ed t-shirt and shorts then put my shit in the locker. I don't close the locker until I write the combination in my phone which is in the waistband of these shorts since it don't have pockets. Last thing I need is to come in here and not even remember how to get my shit out.
As I'm walking towards the locker room door, I look at the nigga who helped me open my lock. He not even getting dressed, he just standing and using his phone still wearing the masked hoodie and sweats he walked in with. Nigga opened his locker just to stand by it. Right as I open the door to walk out, the gym teacher swings the door open as well, "It's about time. Wonder what's taking you so long. Let's go! Raheem, let's go man."
I walk out to a sea of people running around with basketballs, girls on one side and boys on the other. I have to walk through the girls first to get to the boys side. I don't know. I know girls don't know I'm gay, but they feening. I can hear them whispering about me. Saying I look better with my hoodie off, saying I'm cute. It's embarrassing because they not even leaving it at talking about me, but they going as far as to fake bump into me and try to make small talk with me and it's like me ignoring them isn't enough for them to stop.
"Hey! You new right?" Some girl with blonde dreads runs up to me. I look down at her and she's got a big smile on her face. I look ahead of me and continue walking, aiming for the bleachers. "I heard you're quiet. But some of the girls think it makes you sexier, or something like that."
I keep walking in hopes that she'll walk away, but she keeps following me, and even sits down next to me as the rest of the girls watch from a distance. So I guess she the brave one huh.
"Listen. I don't like you, so don't get excited. You're really cute but I'm not into boys." Yo who said I wanted her to like me, what?
"Okay." I respond awkwardly.
"So you do talk, only when someone says they don't like you." She laughs.
What is going on bro. Where the fuck is the gym teacher at, shouldn't he be directing the class? The gay nigga from earlier walks up to the girl and sits next to her. "You bothering him too?" He asks. "Give the boy a break."
"Am I bothering you?" She asks me. I nod.
"I knew it." The boy says, shaking his head.
The girl shrugs, "I don't care. He needs to talk to somebody. All them bitches is scared to do it. He don't bite... right?" She puts her hand in front of my face and when I move my head slightly she yanks her hand away "Damn. Almost got me."
"Bitch," the boy laughs, "you stupid."
They laugh together for a minute while I just sit there, mad awkward.
"You a sophomore or a junior? Cus we got both in here." She asks.
"Sophomore." The boy answers for me.
"Same. Where you from?"
I lay my head in my hands and twist at my hair. They look at me in silence, waiting for me to answer.
"Brooklyn." I say.
"Oh really? Always wanted to go there." The girl says. I nod my head and then turn my head in the opposite direction, hoping that'll get them to stop talking to me. I look around the gym for the teacher and see him sitting down on a chair on his phone. So this is what gym class is? No wonder that nigga waited so long to come get me out the locker room, he wasn't wondering what was taking me so long, he just forgot.
Speaking of the locker room, the boy that was in there walks out without the mask or hoodie, now wearing the gym clothes. He walks in this direction, I'm guessing to sit on the bleachers. I'm thinking he gonna sit on the other side but he walks right up to the gay nigga.
"So you decided to come to gym," the gay one comments. The boy from the locker room daps him up and then daps the girl up next.
"Yeah."
"You coming tomorrow too? Two day streak?" He asks.
"Probably not." He sits down next to the girl. She laughs.
"Do better bro." She shakes her head and then looks at me. "Wait. We didn't even introduce ourselves." Nah, they don't got to. Trust me, they really don't. I don't got no plans on knowing them for real.
"I'm Kyra." She says.
"I'm Ivy. My name is Ivan but don't call me that."
They look at the boy from the locker room.
"Raheem." He says after a minute.
"Raheem," Ivy and Kyra mock him at the same time and they burst out in laughter, making 'Raheem' laugh too.
He shakes his head. "We introducing ourselves right?"
Kyra wipes at her eyes, "Yeah nigga but why you said it like that." She jokes sending herself and Ivy into another fit of laughter. "Anyways, what's your name again?" She asks me.
"Aj."
"Aj, I feel like we could get along but I'm just waiting for you to say more than one word."
I don't have more than one word to say though. Especially not today, I'm not really in the mood. I look up from my hands and make eye contact with Raheem. Why the fuck them girls not bothering this nigga but they bothering me. He my height with dark skin and if you was to ask me, I'm not gon lie, he look good. So they need to focus on him and leave me alone. He gives me a head nod and then smiles a little bit when I don't respond.
Ivy pulls out his phone and leans back, "Mm, we gon be waiting for a minute chile. Lemme call my nigga in the meantime, I miss him."
"Your what?" Raheem asks.
"My nigga."
"That's not a nigga." He says.
"You right. But he's my nigga, get it?"
"Nah bro," Raheem laughs.
"Bitch, just say you jealous of me and go." Ivy snaps, pursing his lips and rolling his eyes.
"I think so sis," Kyra nods in agreement.
"Why would I be jealous?" Raheem questions, sounding amused.
Ivy shrugs. "Because, it makes you sick to see me in love. You want what me and Huang got."
"That's news to me." He mumbles, then stretches his body out over multiple benches.
"It's okay, I'm sure Tif willing to build that bond with you." Kyra says which gets her a 'fuck you' from Raheem.
I look at the time on my phone while they continue to have a conversation. I end up going into more than just checking the time, like looking at what my Uncle is posting on Instagram which is a picture of him in the studio that was posted twenty minutes ago. I scroll down a little bit more and see a picture Taleah posted which is of her wearing the bag she got for our birthday. I would've liked it but she a snitch so I scroll onto the next post. I don't follow a lot of people so it's literally just my family and a couple people from school that's it. I see my aunt posted a hairstyle she did on some singer, and then Zyier posted a picture looking mad good. He got on some baggy jeans, a tight yellow t-shirt that's cropped right under his belly button and jewelry and white forces. It's more on the feminine side but I can't lie, he looks really nice. I like the picture, and then comment the star eyes emoji and a black heart.
I swipe through the other pictures apart of his post and stare at them for a couple seconds until I feel like I'm being watched. I look over and sure enough, two pairs of eyes is on me—Ivy's and Kyra's.
"Who's that?" Kyra asks with a smirk on her face. Ivy's eyebrows is raised. All in my business bro, this the second time. "Staring at them pictures real hard."
"Why you watching me?" I ask, feeling like my privacy is being invaded.
"Four words, we getting somewhere. Because I'm nosy, so who's that?" She grins.
"I wanna know too. Lemme know if my shit broken bitch because I shoulda been knew." Ivy laughs. Then, he mouths 'that's your boyfriend?' And then looks at me, expecting an answer. They all do, including Raheem. I don't care to lie, so I just answer how it is. If a rumor spreads about me that's a good thing, maybe girls will really leave me alone now.
"Yeah." I say. Both Ivy and Kyra gasp.
"Wait—so you..." she mouths 'gay'.
"Yeah." I answer again.
She laughs and then covers her mouth "Oh these bitches finna be siiiiick. Wait are you out?" She asks. I shrug in response.
"Don't want people in your business type shit?" Ivy asks and I nod. "We not gonna say nothing, don't worry. We only talk to each other."
"Ivy you got a lot of friends, don't play." Kyra responds.
"I know a lot of people but y'all my only friends, you know that." He mumbles. Kyra hugs him.
"I know, I was just playing. Don't make me feel bad," she pushes him.
Not to get in his business, but them girls around him earlier is not his friends the way it seems they so used to people making fun of him for being gay. That's probably why these two his only friends. He even goes on to tell them what happened in the lunchroom when them niggas was tryna clown the way he look. "And Aj was right there when it happened. Tell me if I'm lying." He looks at me. I shake my head. He's not.
"And where was I?" Kyra asks.
"Yeah," Raheem jumps in.
"Not there obviously. But I handled it. Nigga asked me to take the shirt off so I flipped it on him and told him he would like it if I did."
Raheem looks behind him all the way at the top of the bleachers. Up there, the boys who was making the jokes are sitting. Ivy forcefully pushes Raheem's cheek in the other direction so he could be facing forward again. His nails catch my eye. They mad long and pink with sparkles and shit like how girls be getting them. Nigga said he gay and just went all out. "Anyways," he looks at me and puts his hand up reassuringly, "you don't gotta worry about us telling. That's corny. Plus, you the only other gay boy in this school besides me and Huang. I need someone to talk to besides Kyra and Raheem. Kyra always so harsh, and Raheem....he be in his own world. It's cus they don't understand what we go through. But I'm sure we could relate."
Nah I don't think we can, I'm good. I mean you could just look at us and tell we nothing alike. I never had no gay friends and to be honest. I'm cool with keeping it that way. Not in a homophobic way, but in a I'm cool with not having no friends way. Because I am. And gay niggas just gonna talk my ear off about gay shit, and I can't pretend like I'm interested in that. So that's not gonna work out.
"As long as you not one of them masc gays. Cus I can't stand them. Nigga you still gay, you just in pants and I'm in a skirt, get me? We do the same shit." No the fuck we don't. I get what he's saying but it's a difference. His rant is interrupted when they all give their attention to a couple girls walking pass.
"Hey Raheem. I like your haircut."
"Yeah. It looks nice."
He nods, " 'Preciate it."
They sit on the bench in front of him. So they do be bothering him then. Aight good, because it don't make no sense for them to be feening for me when they got him at the school. I thought maybe it's because he be hanging around a gay nigga but now I see that's not the case, I just haven't been here long enough.
"Hey Rahee-" Kyra begins to mock but doesn't get to finish because of the extra ass laugh coming from Ivy, sending the both of them into another fit of laughter. The girls look back at them with attitude. And the boy Raheem smiling and shaking his head.
"Ya'll need to chill," he laughs.
"Bitch, I hate you. Cus why you gotta mock everybody?" Ivy laughs.
"Cus, bitches throats be funny, the fuck," she laughs, "Alright let me stop. I'm just being mean now."
Raheem suddenly stands up and stretches his arms out, making his shirt rise up from the bottom. I have to look away, it just don't feel right. I remember when Zyier asked me if I ever thought another niggas besides him was cute and I told him yes. This is one of those times. It's not like I got a crush on the nigga, because I don't know him plus I don't have crushes except for on Zyier. But physically, he is cute. So out of respect for my boyfriend and guilt I feel on my part, I gotta look away.
"Who you got next period?" He asks someone. Now I'm staring at the clock on the wall waiting for these five extra minutes of gym time to pass. That means one more period and then school is over. But then that also means my daddy is coming.
"Aj," he calls my name. Oh, he was talking to me. I look at him. "Next period. Who you got." He asks again.
"English. Ms.Farrah," I remember the name from my schedule.
"Me too."
The gym teacher suddenly rises out of his seat and tells everyone to go get dressed. Kyra walks off into the girls locker room and I follow way behind the other two into the boys locker room. I'm in there fast enough to see Ivy take his things out his locker and he goes all the way to the bathroom to change instead of by his locker where everybody else does. I wonder if it's because of his weight or because he's gay, or maybe both. He's done before everybody though, and he stands right by Raheem's locker and waits for him to finish. Raheem finishes and I expect them to leave, but they still standing there. They must've been waiting for me to be done because once I finish and start walking out, they walk out too. Kyra is standing by the gym doors and like the others, leave at the same time that I leave. We leave the gym and for the first two floors, they all keep up with me until Kyra and Ivy say bye because they got a different class on the second floor. Now it's just me and the other boy, Raheem.
"Right here." He says when we in front of a classroom.
The teacher appears in front of the door, "Hey. I know you're new, so I'll cover the basics with you later. But for now, take a seat in the back, right next to him actually. He'll show you." She says. I follow after Raheem and sit in the seat next to his then drop my bag on the floor.
"Under your desk," he comments. I move my bag under the desk and lean back in my seat.
"Sit up. Take the hoodie off." He says while taking his own hoodie off his head, making the mask piece fall off too. I kiss my teeth but take the hoodie off anyways. It's the last period, I don't feel like arguing with no teachers about how I conduct myself in a class. I know he is just giving me a heads up before the teacher tells me to do it. So maybe that's a good thing because I'm not very receptive of teachers telling me what to do.
"She's picky about that shit." He mumbles. I glance at him then look away. The class slowly starts to fill up, and as the teacher actually gets to talking, I can see exactly what he means. Every little thing is an issue. You can't be looking away from the board, she gotta see your hands, no hats or hoodies, no eating or chewing gum, you gotta step out the class to drink water. She bugging. Aint English teachers supposed to be the passive ones? I would know. This bitch on something else.
Of course this class goes by the slowest but it's cool because they did a test review so I ain't have to do nothing except for fill out some evaluation sheet for the teacher. I don't know what imma do now that I don't have Taleah to do my work for me. That means I actually gotta try and understand this dumb shit. So on top of all the other problems I got, failing school gonna be another one. That's something I'll worry about when the time comes though.
I watch the clock as the time goes from 2:59 to 3:00 and grab my bag from under the table. I see that Raheem is packing his stuff up too.
"Ah-Ah. The bell doesn't dismiss you, I do." The teacher says. Nigga. I grab my shit and walk out the room. 3:00 on the dot bro, get me out of here. Teachers love doing that shit, it's a bell for a reason. You not getting paid extra to waste my time.
A second after I left the room I hear the door open and close again. "Wrong way." I hear. I turn around and Raheem is out the room too, ready to leave. I follow after him instead. First he stops by the second floor and tells me to wait. We wait a couple seconds and soon Ivy, his boyfriend, and Kyra is coming out of their class.
"Where we going? Can I pick?" Ivy asks as they all walk down the stairs.
"I already said we going to Pizza Hut. It was my turn to pick." Kyra says.
Ivy sighs, "Alright. You coming bae?"
"No, sorry. My parents are outside, I'm going to see my grandparents in Richmond." His boyfriend answers.
Ivy sighs again, "Oh okay."
"My parents invited you to dinner Friday though. My mom says she's gonna make your favorite, Běijīng kǎoyā." He smiles and grabs Ivy's hand.
"Oooh, I love that shit." He hugs his boyfriend. I slowly start to walk towards the door, not really understanding the point in me still standing there. I want to get out of here.
"Aj, why you running? You coming with us bro." Kyra says. I'm really not.
They all approach me and walk out the building the same time that I do. Right at the front I see daddy's car parked. "We going to Pizza Hut. It's on Raheem. Let's go friend." Ivy says after waving bye to his boyfriend and his boyfriend's parents. I shake my head.
"I'm good." I say.
"You sure?" Raheem adds. I nod.
Ivy waves. "Okay. See you tomorrow. Bye Aj."
Kyra waves too. "See you tomorrow."
"Later." Raheem is the last to say bye. I give them one collective head nod and then continue to my daddy's car. I get in the backseat, close the door, and he immediately drives off. There was no way I was bout to go anywhere with them.
Daddy looks back at me. "You good?" He asks. I shrug, then I put my headphones in so that I can drown him out with music. It's not like he talks much but I want to pretend that I'm not even here right now.
"Your therapy rescheduled for tomorrow. So when I pick you up that's where we going." He says. And the bullshit begins. I knew something was coming. Always gotta be something to make me feel uneasy. I don't even bother to say anything back. I lay my head on the window and turn my music up. There's no point in arguing.
Instead of going straight to the apartment, within like five or less minutes he pulls up in front of some kind of shop. When we walk inside it's when I notice that there's people sitting in waiting seats at the side, and then there's four tattoo artists with people in their chair. They all greet my daddy to which he responds with a head nod.
"Is this your son, Anthony?" A woman asks. Someone signals for her to not ask by silently waving their hands across their neck. She makes an 'oops' expression and then goes back to what she's doing. This nigga got these people walking on eggshells to interact with him. Shit funny lowkey. Only when it's not affecting me obviously. Anyways, the person was right for cutting her off because daddy doesn't answer her.
He pulls up a mini couch and puts it in a corner close to him, "Sit right here." He tells me. I sit in the seat, and then watch as he cleans some shit and sets something up, I don't know how all of this works.
"Yeah," I hear him mumble as he's sanitizing something. "Yeah I got him." He adds. I'm sure that's papa on the other end, probably asking him questions about me. "I'm working. He sitting by me...Yeah....I will...I'm bout to right now....Uh, McDonald's." He's silent for a moment and then he smiles, letting out a small laugh. That makes everybody in the shop briefly look at him and then look away before he catches them.
"So what else I'm supposed to do?" He waves somebody over and the guy sits in the client seat in front of him. "Cook? Nah baby, you just talkin' now." He laughs. "You gon teach me? How." He mumbles. Please no. I don't want nothing this man cooks, he been in prison for fifteen years.
"Aight, another time. He just gon have to eat that shit again if he don't start telling me what he want." He coughs and then pulls up a picture on a computer screen and shows it to the guy. The guy nods and then daddy turns away.
Daddy goes into his wallet and pulls out forty dollars. He holds it out to me. I take it, confused. He not even telling me what to do with it. I'm still awkwardly holding the money in my hands as he's putting on gloves. It's as he's in the middle of positioning the mans arm when he looks at me.
"Go get something. It's a lot of stores around here." He mumbles. "Sorry baby, what you said?" He returns to talking to papa. He tells me to leave my book bag, so I do and then leave the tattoo shop quickly. It smell like mad rubbing alcohol in there. I look around and there is a lot of stores nearby, it's kind of like that shit when there's multiple stores in one parking lot. I know I don't want McDonald's, so I'm just gonna pick a place that catches my eye. I walk down the strip of stores, looking at each store name as I pass it. Chinese food, no. Burgers, no.
I come across a Pizza Hut and as I'm looking through the window, I make eye contact with a familiar face. It's Raheem from the school. He's with both Ivy and Kyra but their backs are facing the window. He smiles and then nods his head at me then I think he says something making Ivy and Kyra turn around, look at me, and then wave—a second right before I pass the store. I speed up and turn the first corner I see and just stand there because I done passed all the fucking stores, but I wasn't expecting to see them in there.
"That nigga ran bitch." I can recognize Ivy's voice now—he's laughing.
"He don't like us." Kyra adds on. It sound like their voices are getting closer so I continue to walk a few steps away. "Nigga Raheem said 'get him'. I'm weak. He don't wanna hang out with us."
"Y'all too slow." I hear Raheem say. "I feel bad."
"You feel bad? That's a first." Kyra says. It's kind of quiet after that and then they start talking again. "Give me the board, it's my turn."
"You gon' bust your ass ma." I hear Raheem laugh "Go 'head though." I hear them all laugh in the distance, meaning they're not coming any closer so I walk a little bit more and go into the first store I see which is a Mexican place. Imma just sit in there for a minute.
I order myself some Mexican bowl thing for like eleven dollars. I don't know why this man gave my forty but whatever, he not getting it back. I eat my food and scroll on my phone. After sitting in there for like ten minutes, my daddy texted me and asked me where I'm at so I told him where and he said I could stay there for a minute if I wanted to. That's what I was gonna do anyways, I don't wanna be around him.
I look up and out the store window from my seat and coincidentally, the same three people from school is passing by again. I accidentally make eye contact with Raheem again because the other two had already passed by. Fuck. I feel like they bout to come in here. I'm preparing my mind to come up with an excuse as to why I would have to leave if they do walk in here, but thankfully I don't need to use it. All Raheem does is smile at me and then puts his hand up, briefly waving bye. I don't respond, and even if I wanted to it would be too late because he did all that as he was walking by.
I stare at the window for a couple seconds until a call takes me out of my head. It's Zyier calling me. I answer it immediately and he goes into asking me how my day at school was. I tell him about everything. My classes, the dumb ass teachers, the hall monitors—everything. Except I leave out Ivy, Kyra, and Raheem.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
first day of school tings& we got some new characters yalll 👀
thoughts on....
New characters (Ivy, Kyra, Raheem)?
Aj?
Ant?
Other?
So this chapter was focused on Aj really. I had originally planned to go into the therapy portion of this whole Virginia move, but I kept adding things onto Aj's first day of school in Virginia, enough to the point that I was like I could just give y'all an update instead of making u wait longer for me to figure out how imma structure this whole therapy thing 💀 so I hope u enjoyed anyways!!
Ik i haven't been keeping u guys updated as much and im sorry for that. But im so excited to finally have some new characters!! I only have a face claim for Kyra, but if y'all have any suggestions for Ivy and Raheem please feel free to drop them here. Take into account the descriptions of their appearance!!
Next chapter we will definitely be getting into the therapy though, I know we've been waiting for that!! I have been too.
Anyways, see you soon!! We still aiming for December chile, we got 16 chapters or less left. I need to power through it! 😤 ily bye