(This chapter and remaining chapters will be very heavy on fashion, entertainment, electronics, music and slang of 2006. If you have anything to add please comment below and waht not. I'm trying to make this as authenitic as possible!)
"Friends are God's ways of apologizing for our families."- Anonymous
Chapter 4: Cassandra
"Cassy come on! We gonna be late!" I scrambled to quickly lock the front door behind me while Nova yelled to me from passenger seat.
"I'm coming damn!" I yelled back, practically racing to Tyrone's car. I dreached for the door handle but not before Nova decided to be the fashion police and assess my outfit.
"Wait! Let me check you out right quick." I sucked my teeth. "Now Nova?" I looked past her in the car to Tyrone for some help, but he seemed too into his phone to even care.
"Don't do that. you know the routine. Now step back so I can check you out." I tossed my head back in frustration. " Fine!" I took a few steps back and twirled for a second. "See?"
"Wait, two-toned skinnies, cute, cute. Hmm.." She motioned with her finger for me to spin. "Turn?"
I reluctantly did it. I swear if I was late for first period...
"Apple bottoms, i'm diggin' it. Shirt real cute, I like how it's off shoulder and kind of loose. Where you get it from? Never mind, i'll figure it out. Let me see the shoes." I groaned in frustration, again but took a step further back. "Girl them Dunks is tight!" I looked down at my shoes. They were pink white and red, matching my shirt. I just gotten them a few weeks ago. If it was one thing I liked, were my shoes.
"Thanks girl, now can I get in the car? I looked at my sponge-bob wristwatch. "We gonna be late."
"Yeah, girl. just gotta make sure if i'm being seen with you that you don't look like like who did it and ran." I laughed as I climbed in the car and shook my head.
"You stay trippin'." Tyrone put the gear in drive turning up the radio. D4l 'Laffy Taffy" came on and it was like a switch. Nova cranked the volume all the way up while All three of us screeched to the song all the way to the school parking lot.
"Girl, shake that laffy taffy,
that laffy taffy,
Girl shake that laffy taffy.
I'm looking for Mrs. Bubble-Gum, I'm mister Chic-o- Stick,
I wanna dun dun dunt, Oh! 'cause you so thick!"
Having fun singing to the lyrics, I felt my phone buzz in my purse. I pulled out my Pink Razr flipping it open to see a text from Keith.
Morning gorgeous.
Despite Keith's doggin' ways, he was still a sweet guy. He kind of grown on me from when I first ran into him last year. He thought the best way to get my attention was to grab my ass when i walked by him. The result of a hard slap to the face and a string of profanities led to a semi-decent friendship.
I typed on the little keys.
Morning
And really, that was the most Kieth I did as far as communication. We didn't go out or anything like that. It would be only when we ran into each other he would really flirt with me but I also wasn't one to deal with drama. The last thing I needed was some little hoe coming up to be trippin' bout how I stole her man. With no hesitation I would take her out.
In the school parking lot, I put my phone back into my tote bag, while Nova grabbed hers and we climbed out the car.
"Oh shit, You got the notes to Ferguson class?" Nova asked me as we walked through the double doors of the building. It was only a few minutes before the bell rang so I had to make sure I had enough time to go to my locker, grab my books and head to class.
I sucked my teeth at her. "You was in class, why you ain't take notes?" I asked. We walked down the hall towards our locker with Tyrone trailing behind. We all had first period together and I was the only one that needed to stop at my locker so it made sense that we walked together. The rest of the day till lunch, we were split up.
Approaching my locker, I did the combination, doing it twice. I could never get it right the first time. She leaned against the locker beside mine, scooping out the people that walked by. Tyrone had his back against the locker beside her watching our interaction. "You know he puts me to sleep. Besides he been ridin' me lately bout my grades and I know we got that quiz. I just need it to study till then."
I took out the necessary books, closing my locker back shut. "Please Cassy? I'll owe you." I rolled my eyes. "Fine." I dug into my bad pulling out my notes binder for his class and handed it to her. "You better be lucky I already studied. How you gonna get into college if you can't even take notes?"
"It's all part of a plan, just watch."
"What the four year drop-out plan?" Tyrone joked and I couldn't help but join in.
Nova twisted her face. "Ha ha, Why you gotta dis me like that? No, that's not it. I do plan on going to College." Nova put my binder in her bag and we continued down the hall to class. "it's a good one too."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say." The first bell rung as we entered the class. I took a seat in my usual spot in the second row in the middle, Tyrone in the far corner and Nova in the back. Looking at how far spread we were, you wouldn't even guess that we were friends let alone known each other. Waiting on the rest of the kids to pile in the room, the second and final bell rung. The last student, Aspen rushed in taking an empty seat behind me. Our history teacher, Mr Kingston, strolled in closing the front door. He took a stand in front of his desk and smiled to the class, possibly affecting me and every other girl in the class.
"Damn," I heard Aspen whisper behind me and I couldn't agree more with her. For a teacher, Mr. Kingston was beyond fine. He was young chocolate, teacher with the face of model and hopefully the body of one too. He even made glasses look sexy. Today he had on a button up shirt, with a grey vest, matching grey pants and a red tie, fitting him perfectly.
My phone buzzed in my bag. I discreetly pulled it out, flipping it open underneath the desk.
Tyrone: I hate this guy
I smiled in amusement. Tyrone swore up and down Mr. Kingston was the reason why he couldn't get one girl's attention in this class. He was completely right. I typed LOL and closed my phone putting it back in my bag. If Mr. Kingston saw I was texting, he would have made me stand up and read it to the whole class.
Mr. Kingston clasped his hands together. "Okay, we've been talking a lot about the 20th century. From World War I, impressionable pop culture, Jim crow laws and even the discovery of the deadly infection: AIDS. But today, Let's talk about the possiblities of the future. The year is ending in three months, so I think the topic is very appropriate for the final exam project."
He walked behind his desk and grabbed a stack of papers from his desk drawer. "Mister Cole, pass this around the room please?" The white boy who sat in front of me stood up. He took a second to run his fingers down his braids and tugged on his long white tee but not before making sure his name plate belt was showing. I shook my head. This white boy was trying way too hard. Just cause Eminem can do it, he think he can too.
Cole passed each one at, eventually placing one on my desk. "The instructions are simple. Write on the given lines what you would like to see happen in thenext ten years, what you don't want to see, and where you would see your self in ten years. This can apply to fashion trends to electronics, politics, economical and environmental, etcetra, etcetra. This will be your homework but for da remainder of the class we'll discuss. This also counts towards your participation grade."
Half the class groaned, but I loved class discussions. I always had a question and I loved debating.
He placed his hand on his chest. "I'll start. I heard, that there will be black congressman running for president in the upcoming term. What do you think about that?" Everyone sat silently for second then one of the guys, Lucas, was first to speak up.
"C'mon Mr. Kingston. A black President? That ain't never gonna happen. The closest black man we had to a president was MLK and you see what happened to him." A lot of the class including my self agreed.
"He right!"
"Busch ain't gonna let that happen."
"Every debate gonna be a rap battle, watch.."
'I'm moving to Switzerland, fuck that!"
"Dawg, i'm going witchu!"
Everyone started commenting at once but Mr. Kingston held up his hand for everyone to stop talking.
"C'mon ya'll don't see how this would change history? Books will have to be re-written and a revolution will start."
"No offense Mr. Kingston, but that's alot of pressure on one man, now, because of his skin, he's going to be expected to do more for his people on top of fix Busch's mess. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes." I added.
"Of course, there will be expectations most based solely on because he's black, but at the end of the day, he's still human. There's only so much that he can do. People will be upset and i'm sure at times it'll get overwhelming but he's a democrat and a politician. He has the necessary tools to better this country. His accomplishments will triumph over his skin color, just watch."
Everyone took in his words. Staying silent for a second. Was the world ready for that kind of change? The world still can't shake slavery out it's system.
"What's his name?"
"Barack O'bama." Almost immediately and once again the class erupted in hysterics.
"Aw, hell nah! that's worse, That nigga African!" One yelled.
"Soon it's gonna be an African Immigration."
"He probably got ten kids all named after vowels and animal sounds."
Mr. Kingston shook his head and I looked around at my classmates laughing at the comments. Ignorance is really bliss.
While the debate continued moving to the topic of trends, I felt a tap on my should from behind me and a folded up piece of paper land on my desk. I looked up at Mr. Kingston to see if he was looking my way, but he was too wrapped up in Marcus' opinion about cellphones.
"Hold up, Blackberry is the best phone. That ain't never going out of style!" The boy Deonte that sat beside him shook his head.
"Nah, yo. Sidekick all day everyday!"
"What about an all touch phone?" Mr. Kingston interrupted. "I read somewhere that Apple is developing a phone called iPhone. It's suppose to revolutionize cell phones.
Half the class sucked they teeth, others denounced the idea completely.
"Yeah, right. An all touch phone? That ain't happening no time soon. You been watching too much science fiction Mr. Kingston."
I unfolded the note.
You talk to Tyrone yet? If I rolled my eyes any harder, I swear my eyes would get stuck. I quickly replied.
Nah, Not yet. I will.
I tossed the note back behind me. She must have been satisfied with that answer cause she didn't send it back. Shit, that was fine with me.
***
"Ya'll hear about the party, Kaliyah throwin'? It's supposed to be dope. Some people was talking about it in my English class." Nova announced while looking at the lunch menu while we stood in line. "Chicken or spaghetti?" She asked having an inner battle about the choice.
"Honestly, dirt would be better." Tyrone joked.
"Nah, I ain't hear. Is that tonight?" I asked in curiosity. The last party I went to, in my opinion, was completely wack.
"Yeah," Tyrone answered that time. "We should go, hopefully it's better than Ricky's from last weekend. That was just a complete mess." He shook his head as we all reminisced about his parents walking in the middle of the party yelling that we get out and they were gonna beat Ricky into another race.
We grabbed our food and headed to an empty table. We sat down and Nova continued the conversation. Stuffing her face with the chicken.
"So what you wearing then Cassy?" I shrugged my shoulders twirling my fork in the spaghetti. "Whatever I can find." I replied. I loved going to parties but showing all out wasn't a priority. Skinny jeans, fly shoes and a crop top would work.
"Well then you mind coming to my house then to help me pick out?" I nodded my head. "Sure, Tyrone can pick us up from there."
"Really? Why can't ya'll just walk? She live right around the corner from you."
"Because Ty," I began. "We are young, fine females walking around the neighborhood at nine at night. That's just asking for it." Tyrone sighed. "Fine, but i'ma start charging ya'll gas money."
"yeah, okay." Nova said rolling her eyes. She laughed and looked up but then immediately frowned. Whatever or whoever it was, was somewhere behind me since her eyes never left over my shoulder. She even started to look a bit uncomfortable immediately putting her head down towards her tray.
"Aye Nova, last night was fun." Damion, the school asshole, came in view along with his buddies. He stopped at our table with his pose and pulled out a bag of tootsie pops while his gang of friends snickered behind him. One making slurping noises and the other smiling. "Here, you'll get better with these though." He laughed, grabbed his crotch and walked away.
Nova's eyes followed him, tears brimming. But just as the tears were there, they were gone. She balled her hands into fists and called out after him. "Asshole!" But it only seemed his laughs got louder.
"What was that about?" I asked her concerning.
When she didn't respond after I waited for her to say something after what seemed like a life time, I chose to let it go. She'll tell me when she's ready.
But damn was high school cruel.
Again if you would like to contribute to the 2006 era with trends songs, fashio etc...let me know. can PM me or comment in the comments section.
That Aspen really wants Ty huh and poor Nova.....her story will be told soon. Just a filler chapter..crazy shit will start happening from chapter 5 and on. thanks for reading lovelies!
OH also, can ya'll watch the language? I cuss like a sailor, but some of ya'll be going overboard and I don't need wattpad taking and moderating my book cause half of ya'll cuttin' up. keep it somewhat classy please, if not...even though i don't want to. i'll leave the comment as offensive and possibly delete it. thanks for understanding.