The Ex-Thug!

[Karice]

This is another one of my characters! "


Hi. My name is Darryl Johnson and I am a 16 year old at Marshall Johnson prep school. This institution was founded in 1898 when a very entrepreneurial son of an oil owner had a vision of creating a school for young scholars. His name was Marshall Johnson, and after a rough start (his family and friends didn't believe he'd make it), he proved them wrong by having a successful school in Jacksonville, Florida, that was the envy of other prep schools such as Brian Macarthur's Academy in Pennsylvania, and Maxwell Andrews Prep school in Boston, Massachusetts.



But enough about the start of the school. This is about me. I entered this school on a scholarship that my mother forced me to apply for. That's right. Forced me. She found out I had been living a wild life. I was mugging people, robbing convenience stores, burglarizing homes (red alert security alarms and Rottweilers that bite in homes ain't pretty I tell you), and hot hot-wired cars, stole them, and took them out for joyrides. My friends Julian, Sean, and Mario, contributed in my "wild life" too. We made lots of money "earning it" if you get my drift. My mother did not like how I "earned" my money and gave me an ultimatum: Boot Camp or Boarding School. I'm no dummy. Who wants to get up at 5 A.M. to do 100 push-ups and clean floors with toothbrushes? And I don't even LIKE the military (no offense to people in the military). And if you scream at me, I will scream at you back. In Boot Camp, that's called insubordination. And insubordination makes your whole "platoon" get punished for it. And they don't take kindly to people who make them work even harder.



So I chose boarding school. My mother went to my school, North Miami Senior High School, and talked to the principal, Mr. Kurns about getting me tested for scholarships to go to prep school. He agreed, and I ended up taking three tests in one day. (I got to miss a whole day of classes though, wink, wink). The three tests were FCAT, SAT, and an IQ test.



I started on the FCAT first. I had questions at first such as, "What is the square root of 16?" Easy stuff at first, then it got harder, such as, "If Johnny is standing next to a 30 foot pole and he is 6 feet tall, how tall will his shadow be? You know that kind of question. I panicked a little. I am not good at Math. I'm smart at other subjects, but Math is my bane. Give me Science, give me Social Studies, give me Language Arts, I'll ace those subjects. Give me Math and I shrink. My Math teacher says that I have Math Anxiety. I AM good at basic Math: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division, but when the Math problems have "pi" and "radius," I start to shrink. Do you know how "well" I did on the question about Johnny? I multiplied 30 times 6 and got the answer 180 and put it down. Now, I KNOW that's wrong, but I answered it like that. And you have to explain how you got your answer in little "essay" lines provided on the FCAT test (many questions are multiple choice, but some are "essay" questions.) I actually told the truth about how I did it. I KNOW that the evaluator of my test will go, "Whoa, this kid is lazy", but it's not really "laziness." It's more of, "I want to get this problem out of my face."



I was sure I aced the other portions of the test. They were, Reading, Science and Grammar. I'm really good at those subjects.



After the FCAT, it was time for the SAT. I LIKE the SAT because you don't have to do any "essay" answers. It's all multiple choice. I did GREAT in the other subjects besides Math, and when it came to the infamous MATH, I didn't know if I did well. Once again, the first questions were easy like questions about exponents and equations. I'm good at that remember? The ASMD comes easily to me. So does PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction). Many people say the best way to remember the order of operations is as, "Please Excuse My dear Aunt Sally," but I don't like to remember it like that. I like to remember it the way it is spelled. PEMDAS (Pem-das). I'm probably the only one who likes to remember it the way it is spelled.



Then the questions got harder. I had another "Johnny" type of question. "If Sarah is standing next to a 20 foot ladder and she is 5 feet, how tall will her shadow be?" I quickly multiplied 20 times 5 and got 100. But I could not put "100" because there was no "100" on the multiple choice. The choices were A. 500 feet, B. 320 feet, C.120 feet, D. 200 feet, and E. None of the above. I didn't want to pick "E" and the answer WAS one of the choices, so I decided not to pick "E." I chose "C" because that was the closest to my answer. Lazy, lazy, lazy, I know. I had a question about the Pythogeroum Theroum, and just blindly picked an answer (AKA. Random Guess).


After the SAT was done, I got a 20-minute break. I went to a fountain and gratefully drunk from the fountain. The water was so good to me and so refreshing, that I ended up drinking for almost two minutes. Then I went to the bathroom. (Drinking water for almost two minutes does that to a person.) After that, I got a bag of chips from the vending machine. It was a big bag of Lays. I slowly ate my chips, savoring the salty, fatty taste of the chips. I love that combination, even though I know it's not good for my health.



I finished eating the chips in 10 minutes. As I wondered the main hallway, I looked at the familiar green paint under white paint. Our school colors are white, green, and gray. I realized this would be my last week or so at North Miami Senior High School. I was overwhelmed by shocking sadness. I would miss this school. I would miss my friends and family. It all depressed me deeply. I began thinking of a John Mayer song, “No Such Thing.” Two lyrics go, “I wanna run through the halls of my high school. I wanna scream at the top of my lungs.” To make me feel better, I did just that. I walked to one end of the hallway, and then ran to the other side of the hallway screaming like a maniac. Don’t worry. I don’t usually do this, and this was a regular school day. If anyone was walking around and saw me doing that, they’d call the men in white coats to come and take me away to a nice “hospital”. I felt much better after running and screaming (I’m surprised no one heard me screaming), and went back to the testing room. It was time for the IQ test and I cracked my knuckles and prepared to work.



The IQ test was fairly simple. It had a few math questions, but none that made me “shrink”, like asking how tall a person’s shadow was. Some questions asked about logical reasoning such as what design comes nest. I told you, I’m no dummy. All you have to do is follow the pattern closely. There were questions about other things, such as History questions and the other subjects I always ace. One IQ question kind of did make me “shrink”. It was a question that went something like this: “If all Spinks are Sporks and all Voors are Vines, are Sporks also Vines?” I know I did not word that correctly, but you know what question I mean. I have trouble answering those types of questions. The best way I answer then is Yes. My reasoning is: Kelly can have a sister, Charlene, and Kelly can have a brother named John, but John and Charlene are not related.



After the IQ test, I turned all three of them into the proctor, and went home.

 

[Karice]

Part 2

Things were tense between my mother and me. I am an only child, and my father and mother were never married, so he doesn’t live with me or raise me.(That’s right, I’m a bastard, even though the nice way is to say illegitimate, even though that doesn’t really sound nice at all. The best way to describe what I am is a love child.) He begrudgingly pays child support for me. Begrudgingly. He should not begrudgingly be paying child support for me. He helped make me didn’t he? But back to my mother and I.


“Darryl, I don’t want you going out anywhere. You’re to spend your time at home,” she told me firmly.


“Mom, I’m 16. You can’t keep me locked up like a little boy, “I whined.


“I can when my grown teenager earns money by “earning” other people’s money and “borrowing” other people’s cars."


“But mom”,…….. I began to whine, and then closed my mouth. Arguing with her was futile.


I went up to my room and flopped on my bed with the blue covers and colorful shapes. I know. Even my covers look childish, but I like them anyway. They’re “homey” to me.


I turned over on my back, and stared blankly at the ceiling. Would I pass the tests? Would I go to boarding school? Or would I have to wake up to, “Hut, two, three, four?”


I got up and looked at my last report card. A.A.A.A.A.……EEEEEEEEERRRRRHHHHH. (Imagine a car suddenly screeching) D (In Mathematics) I would have made the honor roll if it weren’t for that Mathematics. (I wanted to add a “D” word between the word “that” and the word “Mathematics, but I decided against it, no pun intended). I’m really smart. It’s just that I make dumb decisions for fun like “earning” money and “borrowing” strangers’ cars.


I turned on the T.V. “And no TV until you finish your homework!” My mom yelled.


“I don’t have any homework mom. I took the tests today, remember?” I yelled back.


“Oh yeah. So how did it go?” She asked me, coming into my room.


"They were fine, except for, I began to confess sheepishly, the Math questions. I am sure I bombed on the FCAT and SAT Math portions. I think I passed the IQ Math portion, because the questions were about basic Math."


“You HAVE always had trouble with advanced Math problems, “she agreed softly.


I looked at my mom intently. My mom is really pretty. She is 5’5, with short hair like Halle Berry in the early ‘90s and Toni Braxton in the early ’90’s. She is so light, she is considered “red”. “Red” is when a person’s skin is so light, it looks like Sean Paul’s skin color. “Gina from Martin is considered to be “red” too. My mom’s eyes are a golden brown, like Bow Wow’s. She’s a slender woman.


As for me, I am 5’10 with a short afro like Cole from Martin. I am a little “husky” like Malik Yoba. My skin color is light-skinned, considered caramel. I’m a few shades darker than my mother, and the best way I can describe my skin color is that it looks like Chingy’s skin color. My eyes are dark brown, like Usher’s.


“Mom, do you think I’ll pass the tests?”


“I’m sure you will. You’re very smart. Look at this report card.” She motioned to my report card. "Besides Math, you are a genius. You just behave “dumb” when you “borrow” cars and “earn” money.”


I blushed a little. Did she have to bring that up right then?


“I love you, Darryl,” she said, looking at me with shiny eyes.


“I love you too, mom," I said back.


She gave me a kiss on my cheek. She left the room. We have DirecTV, and I wanted to watch Spongebob Squarepants. There’s something I love about that little sponge. He’s very adorable and lovable.


I watched an episode where Spongebob wanted to be a “Jellyfish.” He gave up his “industrial, cold life” to live with the jellyfish. The episode was called “Nature Pants.” A word to the wise: Patrick is pretty possessive about Spongebob (Not in THAT way, wink wink). He just wants Spongebob to come back because he misses his friend.


After the episode was done, I turned off the T.V. for a while and listened to my Ciara CD. I listened to the “One Two Step: and “Goodies” songs. I have a confession to make: When I first heard “Goodies” on the radio, I thought that it was Beyonce singing the song. My cousin Tasha said, “No that girl DOESN’T sound like Beyonce.” She was right. I ended up feeling “hurt” when I found out I was wrong. “Hurt” is a slang word for standing corrected.


Speaking of Beyonce, I LOVE her! I LOVED her in Destiny’s Child and Solo! I have all of Destiny and Beyonce albums! I have: the Writing’s On The Wall, Survivor, Dangerously In Love, and Destiny Fulfilled. She is PERFECT! What a Goddess! I am so jealous of Jay-Z. What does she see in him? She can dump him (I’m available, wink wink).


I took out the Ciara CD and put in Survivor and listened to the songs, Survivor, Say My Name, and Bootylicious. I love to jam to those songs. After the songs were done playing, I took out the Survivor CD and listened to my “Hits of The 80’s” CD. I have 18 hits on that CD. I love the 80’s. Wasn’t that a great era for music? I listened to 5 songs off that album, “Cruel Summer by Bananarama, “Putting On the Ritz by Taco. “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell, “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby, and “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles. When I was done with those songs, I pressed, ‘Stop,” and called Sean.


“Sean, my moms got me on lockdown. I can’t go nowhere, dawg." (I am good at Grammar, but I talk “slang” when I talk to my friends).


“Dawg, that’s messed up,” Sean said.


“My moms straight busted me. She’s trippin’," I continued.


“Yeah, she is trippin’. Fool, your old lady got you locked.”


I suddenly didn’t feel like talking about “lockup” too much anymore. “So, Sean, you still gonna “earn” money with Julian and Mario?”


“Fo sho *beep* he answered. “Ya know, me, Mario and Julian scored $300.00 muggin’ 5 people yesterday.


“Wow. Ya’ll don’t need me,” I said, feeling left out. I know, it’s stupid of me to feel left out.


“We DO need ya. We ain’t the same without ya, dawg.”


“Well. Ya’ll gonna be leanin’ on each other for a LONG while," I answered him.


“Since your moms got you on lock down, what you gonna do for fun?” Sean asked.


“Watch T.V, listen to the music, play video games, do my homework,” I answered him.


“Ya call doin’ homework “fun”? Sean asked me sounding incredulous.


“Yeah. It’s basically all I have to look forward to. My moms said, “I can’t go out nowhere,” I reminded him with emphasis.


Sean said, “Well, I gotta go. I’ma holla at ya later.”


“Bye,” I said, and we both hung up.


Sean, Mario, Julian, and I have all been good friends since we were little. We are the Inseparable Foursome. We are all tight as four peas in a pod. We have little squabbles from time to time, but we always make up. Rarely, we do get into BIG arguments, like the time Sean got a girlfriend and spent all of his time with her, and blew us off. We were so mad, we wanted to kick him out of the friendship and become a threesome. We confronted Sean and told him we wouldn’t take a backseat to this girl and would stop being his friend if he continued to neglect us. Sean decided to balance our friendship with his relationship and we forgave him. He and his girlfriend broke up 6 months later because she felt that she didn’t like him too much anymore. We all consoled Sean, and he quickly got over her. I think.

 

[Karice]

Part 3

The other “big” argument was the time when we robbed a convenience store and left with $1000. We argued over who should get the bulk of the money. Sean, Julian, and Mario wanted more than $250.00from $1,000. ($250.00 is what each person gets from $1,000). I told them that they were idiots because that was the only way four people could split $1,000 evenly. They called me a control freak and we almost had a physical fight right then and there. I had a sudden light bulb. I didn’t want our relationship to end like this, over money. So I suggested that all three of them get $300 and I get $100. They asked if I didn’t want more than $100, and I told them no. So they were happy with the $300 they got, and I was happy with the $100. I got. $100 is still a lot of money, especially when you “earned” it.


Back to the near present. I love those guys. I don’t know if I would be able to take being so far away in Jacksonville while they were here in Miami. I’d miss my mom and dad (though he REALLY doesn’t want to pay child support for me), my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I soon got that overwhelming feeling again. That overly sad feeling that I got at school. I was feeling deeply depressed again and I was afraid I was going to fall into a depressed trance. I decided I did not want to become slightly comatose, so I decided to shake my head and ‘snap out of it.” I went into my book bag and got out my “feel good” book, How To Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. I always read that book when I am feeling blue. It makes me laugh to read about people who would be stupid enough to eat worms for $50.00. The T.V. show fear Factor comes to mind when I read this book. These people will do ANYTHING to win money. One guy stuck his face in pig blood to pick out pig parts. Disgusting, but funny. I read some of the book and felt better. I was not overly depressed now, I was just a little bummed.

It was now 6:00. I turned on
the TV to TVONE and watched Good Times. My favorite characters are Thelma and J.J. Thelma is fine and smart and J.J. is cool and funny. I don’t like Michael too much. Too me, he’s annoying and my least favorite character. I watched an episode called, “J.J. And The Boss’s Daughter.” J.J. dates Valerie, his boss’s daughter. Valerie wants J.J. to ditch his friends to hang out with her. Does this seem familiar?


After the episode was over, I ate some dinner and then took a shower, a little after that, I watched American Idol. I love watching people who CAN’T sing but think they can sing. I am an American Idol *****. I love when Simon harshly criticizes the ‘singers”. I swear, some of these “singers” are singing badly on purpose. But it makes for good television. One guy butchered a Michael Jackson song. I think it was “Thriller or maybe it was “Billie Jean.”


When American Idol was over, I watched another episode of GT. This time, it was an episode where Thelma wanted to be engaged to Larry. I felt so jealous. Larry was so lucky. Anyway, Mrs. And Mr. Evans (Florida and James) were against it. J.J. stood up to James for Thelma, and Thelma proved she really did love Larry, and that she wouldn’t marry Larry until they were both at least eighteen. (She had been 17). Her parents agreed to let her remain engaged to Larry.


After the show, I went to bed to go to sleep, I know, it was pretty early to go to sleep. It was only about 9:30, but when you are stuck at home, there’s really not much to do but sleep at this time (besides, I was tired). I fell asleep, and dreamt that I was in an airplane, and not only was I in the plane, I was piloting the plane. All of a sudden, the plane got out of control. It hit major turbulence and began shaking like crazy, and even began taking a nosedive. The stewardess, the passengers, and my co-pilot were screaming, and what’s worse, even I was screaming and I’m supposed to look in control. I knew I couldn’t let everyone on the plane crash and die! I had to fix the problem. I pulled the shift stick, aligned the plane, and got us back on course. The plane glided smoothly, and passengers were crying. Out of relief or shocked fear, I don’t know. I turned to my co-pilot and he looked at me with awe and incredibility. “You really had us scared for a minute, Captain, but you pulled us out of trouble,” he said gratefully. The stewardesses looked a little disoriented, but okay. “That was a close one, Captain, “one of them said to me.


“You know how I do it,” I said a little smugly. I was getting a little cocky. Then I woke up.


I didn’t think much of the dream after I had woken up. I’m 16. Who would give a 16-year-old a pilot license? I laughed at the thought.


I looked at the clock. I t was 3 AM. I was still tired, so I went back to sleep.


I had another dream. I was riding a ride in the Youth Fair, and the ride got stuck in mid-air. I was terrified! I looked at the sign of the ride. The Ride Of Doom. How ironic, “I thought. Granted, it WAS fun until the ride got stuck. The other people looked terrified too. I literally was stuck in the air. Some people were stuck close to the ground. I looked at my partner and he looked terrified too. “Someone help us!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Sorry,” the ride operator said. “You guys are stuck here. The ride is stuck. I’m going home. You guys will be fine when the electricity works again, which will be soon, I think.” He sounded unconvinced. “Hey, you can’t just leave us here!” an angry voice yelled. “Hey, get us off this ride!” Another angry voice yelled. “Yeah! I have to get off this ride and go home!” Another angry voice yelled. “Sorry,” the operator said. “I’m leaving!” He started to walk away. A flurry of obscenities and profanities spewed out of the angry riders’ mouths. The operator looked helpless at us, and then ran off. He left us abandoned.


I decided to do a risky thing. It literally could have hurt me badly. I unbuckled the safety latches and seat belts and leapt out of the ride. Remember, I was in mid-air. I luckily landed on both feet with just a bit of a painful jolt as I landed. I quickly latched and buckled my partner back in, so he wouldn’t fall out. I already knew what I was going to do. I walked over to the operating station. I figured out quickly what had gone wrong. A wire had broken in half. I quickly found another way to get the ride moving. I manually turned the dials and pushed a few buttons. I got the ride started again. I went as fats as I could and the ride went relatively fast. When the ride was over, I slowly pulled the ride to a stop. The riders were now all close to the ground. I pressed a button to release all latches and safety belts, and everyone got off the ride all right. They all looked shaken.


“I’m suing!” a few of them angrily exclaimed. “I am filing a report on this ride!” a few others exclaimed. “I’m never going on this ride again!” some others exclaimed. I didn’t blame them for saying those things.


“You are a hero young man!” a woman in her 20’s said to me, looking at me with bright eyes. “You saved us all!


“Yeah young man!” You ought to be on the NEWS!” a man in his 30’s said to me, shaking my hand. I smiled self-consciously. Then someone took a camera and surprised took a picture of me. My partner came up to me and gave me a hug. “Thank you for saving us.” I smiled and hugged him back. He looked to be about 12 years old.


Then I woke up. I was still smiling as I woke up. I had saved people on that ride! I felt happy! I looked at the clock. It was 6:00. It was time for me to get ready for school. I showered, brushed my teeth, put on lotion and deodorant, and put on my red T-shirt, blue jeans, white socks, and white Nike sneakers. I quickly brushed my hair, packed my book bag, and left my room to eat a bowl of Fruit Loops cereal. After breakfast, I got my book bag and keys, said “bye” to my mom and got into my car and drove to school.


At school, I was a little early. It was 7:15. School starts at 7:25. I went to the library which has computer access and went on www.amazon.com and typed in “Snoop Dogg”. When Snoop Dogg search results showed up, I clicked on “Doggy Style.”


I read some reviews about the album, such as one who said, “This album is great. I love the song, ‘Gin And Juice. That’s’ my favorite song from Snoop Dogg. All of the songs on this album are great! He’s a great rapper! 5 stars! Another review was not glowing at all. “I give this album a 1 star. Snoop Dogg is a washed up crack rapper. He has very little talent and ALWAYS looks stoned when he is on T.V. And that is because he is! I’m glad I didn’t buy this crap piece of trash. My cousin let me borrow it for free. I wish I could burn this CD, and not in the term we in 2005 say we want to “burn” CDs. I want to burn the CD in the literal way, with lots and lots of fire. Snoop Dogg needs to go away……………forever.


Whoa, harsh I thought. I read other reviews, and the stars and reviews were excellent. Basically, all the reviews were glowing except for that one harsh review. Overall, the CD got a 4 and a half star rating.


Soon, it was 7:21. I logged off the computer and rushed to class. It was 7:24 when I sat down at my seat. My first class was Homeroom. Actually, it's not really a "class" as it is a "check in." We get our names called, answer, and do left over homework for about 15 minutes. Then we go to our "first" block of the day. We have block schedule, which means we only have three classes a day, for two hours each. We also have lunch for 45 minutes. We have block 1, 3, and 5 today, and tomorrow we will have Block 2, 4, 6. I went to block 1, and we had to do Silent Reading for 30 minutes. Silent Reading is mandatory in all six blocks (even though many teachers sometimes skip it) my first block was an English class. We had to proofread another class’s Creative Essays. I almost fainted when I saw how bad my “student’s” essay was. Here is a little “piece” of the student’s essay. You can see why I almost fainted.



April 10, 2005. I went to the bech last weekend wit my hole phamily. We went swimming wit other people. I ain’t never had so much phun for in a long time. We swam for one our and then we eight lunch. It was chicken, and it was rice, and it was soda, and it was chips, and it was pretzels, and it was potato salad. We listened to the raydio and had heard sum good sungs. After we had laid down to dygest the food for a half an our, we went back to swimming. We swam for too more ours. Then we left.



There was more to this student’s essay, but I think I’ve put you in enough torture. I quickly proofread and edited the essay. I turned it in, and Mrs. Hayes looked at me with amazement. “I am surprised you went through this without going off the wall,” she said.



“I did feel like fainting when I saw this essay,” I confessed to her.



“I don’t blame you,” she said and gave me a sympathetic smile. I



I went back to my seat and waited for the other people to finish their assignments, and in the meanwhile, I began to finish my Silent Reading book. I had been reading Silent Night by R.L. Stine. It’s about a rich girl named Reva Dalby, the rich heiress of a department store. Her father, Robert Dalby owned Dalby’s Department Store. On the other hand, Mr. Dalby let his poor niece, Pam, live with her and his daughter. I found it extremely weird that Pam was Reva’s ONLY cousin. I myself have TONS of cousins, and so does everyone else I know. Anyway, the cover is amazing, interesting, and eye catching. Reva looks like she is trapped in a mirror, her mouth and eyes are open wide in horror and shock, and there is snow outside the mirror. Hey, how do you pronounce Reva? Is it pronounced REV like, “Revving up a motorcycle and adding an “A” or is it pronounced “Reeva” like how we pronounce Reba McIntyre? I just decided to read it like the motorcycle pronunciation.



Soon, everyone was done with their assignments. Darn it! Just when I was getting to a really good part. Reva was had just put on her lipstick and started to scream. Makeup shouldn’t make you scream.



I closed the book. Everyone else turned in their assignments. Mrs. Hayes put them on a stack on her desk. I knew that since we had proofread another class’s essays, they would be proofreading our essays. We had done essays last week. I wasn’t nervous because I knew I was great in grammar (spelling is part of grammar)



Mrs. Hayes told us our next assignment would be reading aloud from a play called, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream by Williams Shakespeare. I got to play Demetrius. A beautiful woman named Helena was madly in love with me (Demetrius), and I would shun her. Helena was played by a beautiful girl named Alicia. Alicia is a dark milk-chocolate colored girl (think of a Snickers bar), with beautiful chocolate brown eyes, an oval face, and long brown hair, with a beautiful smile. She’s also tall and slender. Who would “shun” Alicia? She’s a really sweet girl. And what’s wrong with Demetrius? If a beautiful woman was in love with ME, I wouldn’t shun her. Anyway, it was fun playing a guy who would shun a beautiful woman.



After the reading, class was over, and it was time for Block 3. My block 3 is the bane of my day. It’s Math. Do you know what type of Math it is? Algebra. We had to some problems, and my brain just wasn’t working for the problems. I was hitting a wall with the problems. I was so frustrated trying to work on the problems. I HATE feeling stupid. Mr. Smith came up to me and asked if I needed any help. He must have sensed my frustration. I was embarrassed. “No, I don’t need any help!” I snapped. I had a lot of pride and he was embarrassing me. I am almost an honor student! I thought in my mind. Everyone was staring at me. I began to blush. Mr. Smith looked at me sympathetically. “I’m here if you need any help,” he said, and went back to his seat.



I worked on more frustrating problems, biting my lower lip. I kept hitting walls. I tried doing the integers assignment, but I was having trouble figuring out if two negatives equaled a positive or if a positive and a negative equaled a negative. I was having trouble figuring out what to do when the problem was a multiplication problem. Did we divide or multiply? What if it’s two different signs, like -8*-7? What’s the answer?



I worked on the problems, really frustrating my brain. I began to get a headache. I knew it was time to swallow my pride. I needed help. I got up and slowly walked to Mr. Smith’s desk, with my notebook, pencil, and textbook in my hands. I stood in front of Mr. Smith’s desk, and looking defeated and reluctant, confessed, “Mr. Smith, I need help.”



“Sure. I’m gonna help you,” he said, looking at me eagerly. “Sit down. There is a chair next to his desk for students to sit when they need help with problems. I sat down and told him the problems I was having. He took out a paper and one of his pens. “Darryl, here is how you solve addition problems. He wrote down 8+7. “That’s 15,” he said. (Duh). -8+7=-2, -8+-7=-15. The larger number for addition is the number that will determine the sign of the answer. Subtract when the signs are different.



For subtraction, add the opposite of the problem. For example, 25-5=20. Adding the opposite is 25+ (-5) =20. -8-(-2) would be -8+2. To solve, you would answer the problem -6. The larger number still determines the outcome of the sign. -12+ (-16) =-28. Add when the signs are the same, negative=negative, and pos=pos. Subtract when the signs are different.



For multiplication, 2(-8) =-16, because of the different signs. In this case ALWAYS put a negative sign in front of your answer, no matter what number has the negative sign. For example: (-3) (25) =-75. -5(-6) =30. Same signs =positive.



For division, (-50) divided by (-2) =25. Same signs=positive. -20 divided by 5=-4. Different signs=negative signs.



He asked me if I understood everything he was talking about. I had! I told him so, and he said, “I am going to give you two problems from each category and I want to see if you answer them correctly. “Okay,” I agreed.



He took out another paper and wrote down these problems: 1. -8+-6, 2. -8+6, 3. -10 - -5, 4. -10 -5, 5. -6*7, 6. -6*-7, 7. 9 divided by -3, 8. -9 divided by -3.

I followed the guidance he gave me on the paper, and for number one I answered -14. For 2, I answered -2. For 3, I answered -15. For 4, I answered -5. For 6, I answered 42. For 7, I answered -3. For 8, I answered, 3. I turned in the assignment. He quickly checked it and said, “You did good. You answered the questions correctly. I think you’re ready to do these problems on your own, Darryl.”



“Thank you for the compliment, and thanks for your help. I’m sorry I snapped at you,” I added.



“You’re welcome, and I understand why you snapped at me. You’re a smart kid, and for a teacher to ask if you need help is embarrassing. I know about the straight A’s you get in all your other classes.”



I looked at him in surprise. “How did you know that?”



“We teachers have our own little “chats.” It’s kind of a teacher alliance. We discuss students with each other. And we talk about you sometimes. About how bright and dedicated you are.



“Oh,” I said, feeling shy.

 

[Karice]

Part 4


I went back to my desk. I opened up my math book and textbook and worked on the problems. I wasn’t hitting walls anymore, because I had help now. I just followed the “Guidance” paper, and I knew I did fine. I wasn’t frustrated anymore, and my headache was long gone. I felt great! We had lunch break in the middle of the second block (this one), and I went to the cafeteria and stood in the line. Hooray! They were serving Pizza Hut! That’s my favorite pizza company! I was served a HUGE slice! My goodness, that pizza almost covered the whole tray! I loved it! For sides, I got corn and chocolate pudding. For a drink, I had a red milk carton (whole milk). I went to the third row of tables. Actually, each “row” has smaller tables which are all separated. I saw Sean and Julian. (Mario didn’t share our lunch period). I sat next to them.



“Don’t you guys love pizza day? I asked them. “Don’t you guys love these big slices?”


“These “slices” are so big they actually look like the lunch lady gave us the whole box instead of just one slice each,” Sean said wryly. He had a wry smile on his face.



“Yeah, I love it,” I answered Sean. “How about you?” I asked Julian.



Julian answered, “I love fatty, greasy foods. So I am loving these humongous pizzas.” He smiled.



A girl named Andie came up to us and said, “This pizza is disgusting. How can you guys actually enjoy all this fat and grease the pizza has in it?”



“Because we’re guys,” I answered. “You girls pick at salads and frown at tasty foods like hamburgers and fried chicken. We guys don’t know the meaning of the word “diet”. You girls worship that word.

“You are a sexist person!” Andie said angrily.




“How is that being sexist?” I asked.



“It just is,” Andie said frowning.



“Then why’d you pick the pizza?”



“I didn’t want to hurt the lunch lady’s feelings. I’m throwing this pizza away,” Andie said decisively.



“You’re going to throw away good food?” I asked her, upset.



“Yeah. I don’t want to gain any more weight,” she said, patting her slim stomach. She could actually use more pounds, I thought.



Out loud I said, “Why don’t you blot out all the excess grease with a napkin and then eat the pizza? You would still save calories and fat,” I suggested.



“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” she said, brightening up a little. “I’ll do that.” She went to the next row. I carefully watched her. She blotted the grease from the pizza and ate it (the pizza). I hate seeing people throw away good food. I always eat MY food, down to the last crumb. I ate my own humongous pizza. I love pizza. That’s one my favorite foods. I ate the corn, then ate the chocolate pudding, and then drank my milk. I chatted with Sean and Julian a little more, and then lunch was over.



I walked back to Math class, and finished the math problems. We turned in the assignments, and Mr. Smith asked ME to do a random integers problem on the board. I had already shown him I could do the work, but I guess he wanted to see I f I could do a problem correctly in front of the class. I agreed. I went up to the board.



“Darryl, I want you to do a multiplication problem. Do 8 negative times positive 4.



“I wrote down, “-8*4. “Can I use the guidance paper?” I asked.



“I would really like it if you didn’t,” he said gently. I knew what that meant. No. I had to do this all on my own. I had to remember how I had answered the other questions like this without the guidance paper. I tried to remember how to do the problem.



“Take your time,” Mr. Smith said gently. I did. In one minute, I remembered. The answer will always be negative if the signs are different, but still multiply!



I answered, “-32.”



Mr. Smith said, “Good job, Darryl!” I beamed. I know integers! I know integers! I inwardly gloated.


After class, Mr. Smith stopped me on my way out. “Darryl, maybe you need Remedial Math. Maybe you should be taught in a smaller class,” he suggested gently. “I see you struggling in Math. Maybe Remedial Math would be the best thing for you.”



“I. I…... I started. He was suggesting that I be put in a Learning Disability class! I was one of the brightest students in his class! (Not in Math, though). I was beginning to feel that pride well up in me again, and a little voice told me to tell the pride to shut up and accept help in Math.



“Yes, I WOULD,” I started slowly.



“Why do you say “would” like that?” He asked me perplexed.



“Because I might be leaving the school soon,” I answered.



“Oh? What happened?’



“I was not about to tell Mr. Smith about my crime spree and the ultimatum my mom gave me. I was about to omit that part.



“I might be going to prep school. Saying “boarding school” would sound like a punishment. “Prep school” sounded much nicer.



“Oh? Which one?”



“I don’t know,” I answered.



“You don’t know which prep school you might go to?” he repeated, furrowing his brows.


I know, it did sound ridiculous. “My mom just made me apply for a scholarship to ANY prep school. Do you know if prep schools teach remedial Math?" I asked him.



“They should," Mr. Smith answered. “When I was growing up, they did. In the meanwhile, why don’t you transfer to a Math remedial class? Just have him sign the transfer slip and bring it to the front office? I’ll give you a note to give to your Block 5 teacher to excuse your lateness so that you don’t have an unexcused tardiness.” He wrote me an excuse note and got out a transfer slip. He handed me both. I put the excuse note in my left pocket and the transfer slip in my right pocket and begun to walk to Block 5. Wally, a security guard saw me. “Hey, young man, do you know you’re tardy? Do you have a pass in order to avoid detention?” I pulled out Mr. Smith’s note. Wally looked at it, and told me that was fine. I put the note back in my pocket and rushed to class. I didn’t want any more security guards stopping me.



Our school has mandatory lockout. After the final bell for each class is rung, the teachers MUST lock their classroom doors. It’s so students can’t "sneak in” to class late. They have to knock on the doors in order to be let in. I knocked on Mrs. Cox’s Science door. She opened the door. “My,my, my. Who do we have here? It’s Darryl, come to join us on his own sweet time. I hope Darryl has an acceptable excuse for being late.”



“I do,” I said. I handed her the Mr. Smith’s next. She accepted it.



“This will do,” she said.



I sat down at my desk. My “Science” class was actually Biology. In Biology, we had to read about the life of plants. We read about chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Then we had to grow our own plants. Mrs. Cox gave us seeds, and we each walked over to empty plant cups that were filled with soil, and she told us to put the seeds in the soil and water them. I did. All of us did.



Mrs. Cox told us to sing to our plants. We all looked at her like she was crazy. Sing to the plants?



“Plants love songs. Sing to them,” she insisted. “They will grow.”



I sang, “It’s Peanut Butter and Jelly time! Peanut Butter and Jelly time! Where he at, I don’t know! Where he at, I don‘t know! It’s Peanut Butter and Jelly time!” Then I sang, “To the window to the wall, to the sweat run down my balls, to all these bitches crawl, to all skeet skeet mother****er!”



“Darryl! That’s not what I meant by “singing” to the plants. And what you are “singing” is Hip-Hop! And please, no more profanity,” Mrs. Cox admonished.



“I am sorry, Mrs. Cox,” I apologized. I won’t do it again,” I promised.



“Please choose another song, something a lot more soothing,” she said softer.



I sang, “Treated me kind, sweet destiny.” (That’s the first lyric of Vision of Love by Mariah Carey.) Then I skipped a whole lot of the song and sang, “I had a vision of love, and it was all that you’ve given to me.” Then I jumped all over the song. I sang, “Straight through the nights, so faithfully, knowing that the one that I needed would find me eventually. I had a vision of love, and it was all that you turned out to be.” Then I sang more of Vision of Love, and Mrs. Cox was satisfied.



“That’s much better, Darryl,” she said with a small smile. “Everybody else, sing to your plants." The majority of the class sang either pop songs, like Christina Aguilera songs and NSYNC songs, or R&B like Usher and Keith Sweat songs, but someone sang a folk type of song, “What’s Going On” by 4 Non Blondes!



After class was over, I went to my car and drove home. My mom was home. She had been off for two days. Yesterday had been her first day off.



“Hi, Darryl,” she said, smiling at me. "How was your day?”



“It was fine,” I answered. “But I am about to transfer into a Math remedial class.”



“Oh, that’s wonderful! She said. “You’ll get the help you need!” She excitedly wrapped her arms around me. I tried to seem as happy as she was, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want to go to remedial Math too much. It’s still and LD class.



“What’s wrong, honey?”



“Math Remedial falls under the category of ‘Special education.’ You know, Learning Disability?” I answered her.



“But you will be getting help." She pointed out again.



“Yeah, but I won’t learn much. I might be going to boarding school soon, remember?”



“Yeah,” she said slowly.



I gave her the transfer slip. I had until Thursday to get it signed. I would get it signed the next day, on Wednesday.



She looked at it for a few seconds, and then gave it back to me. “When do the results of the test come back?” She asked me.



“They should come back one week after I took them, so I would say next Monday,” I replied.



“Good,” she said.

 

[Karice]

Part 5

I went to my room to do my homework. I had Homework from my English Class. I didn’t have any Math homework since today was my last day in Mr. Smith’s class.



Homework was proofreading a letter from a handout Mrs. Hayes had given us. This is the handout.



April 15, 2005. We went too a fre muzik consert in a park. Wee where so exited to cee acks like Kristina Agulera, Richard Marks, Sierra, and Rik Springfield. We ate potato calad, korn on the kob, and pissa. Then we played frisbe after the consert. We went home it was like 11:00, or 12:00, or 1:00. It was a grate nite.



I fixed the mistakes, and then I put my homework in my backpack. I washed and dried my mother’s and my laundry, folded them, and put them away. Then I cleaned my room. I swept and dusted, fixed up my dresser, and made my bed. I would have gone on the computer and surfed the net, but both computers were at the computer repair shop. I usually have a computer in my room and there is another computer in our family room. I watched my “White Chicks” DVD. I love that movie! Shawn and Marlon Wayans go undercover as rich and spoiled heiresses Brit and Tiff. It’s really funny! You’ve gotta see it. After the movie, I switched from DVD player to “DirecTV” and changed the channel to The Simpsons. I turned on my DVR and pressed record so I could go take a shower. After showering, I finished watching the Simpsons. I pressed “Stop” and turned off the DVR. I watched some more TV, and then listened to some songs on the radio, and ate dinner. After dinner, I watched some more TV, and then went to bed. You see how boring my life is when I’m not doing crime? I’m boring myself as I write this.



When I woke up, it was the same routine as I had done yesterday to get ready for school. At school, I arrived at 7:23, so I went straight to Homeroom. After Homeroom, I went to Block 2. In Block 2, during Silent Reading, I continued reading Silent Night. I found out why Reva had screamed. She had screamed because someone had put a needle in her lipstick! There was blood running from her lips, and she quickly wiped her lips. When she told Mitch, one of her dad’s young employees what had happened, Mitch told her, “That’s because no one likes you, Reva.” I thought that was rude of Mitch!



I read some more, and then Silent Reading was over. The Block I was in was reading. I LOVE this subject. We read a story about a boy who finds a genie lamp. It was called, “The Best Day of Your Life!” In it, the boy finds the genie, and the genie says he will grant him a wish. The boy wishes for the next day to be the best day if his life. The next day, he has a great day. He gets an A in class, gets smug, the girl he likes talks to him and he acts like a big peacock, strutting around her, looking cool, and he does great in basketball. When he goes home at night, the genie still says that tomorrow will be the best day of his life.



The boy is ecstatic! Even better than this day? He goes to school the next day, and finds out he is doing the same day over again. He realizes that his classmates look resentful of him, something he hadn’t realized before, and the girl he was strutting around looks upset at how he is acting. He wants to stop this day, but he can’t. He begins to feel trapped. He goes home again, and that night, the genie STILL says, ‘Tomorrow will be the best day of your life!” The next day, the same day happens again. He is stuck in the same day and wants it to stop. He is really feeling trapped now. He relieves the day the next day, and just goes through the motions. When he goes home again, he wants to beg the genie to undo the wish, but he can’t say that, since he is repeating the same day again. The story ends with, “Tomorrow will be the best day of your life!”



I really felt sorry for the kid. Imagine being stuck in the same day forever? Well, at least he’ll never die, I thought.



After the reading, we had to answer questions from a short story about a boy who travels into outer space. We finished that in about 30 minutes, and then we watched a short film about the fundamentals of reading. After the film, our teacher, Mr. Simms, told us we had to do a summary on the film for homework, and then class was over. After that, it was Block 4, Government. We talked about George W. Bush. We had a lot of heated discussion about him. I said, “I think George Bush is running America into the ground. Think about it. The tragedy of September 11, 2001 happened while he was the president. I think he needs to be impeached. He’s not doing a really good job.” Another student said, “I actually LIKE George W. Bush. He’s bringing America UP not DOWN.



Another student said, “Well, it happened under HIM. And why hasn’t he caught Osama Bin Laden yet? Bush is wasting time and money with Iraq,” the student who defended Bush said, “Well; it is hard to find a sneaky criminal mastermind rat like Osama.”



“How do we even know Osama did crash the airplanes into the World Trade center buildings and The Pentagon? Where is the proof?” Another student asked.



“The proof is on the news and in the newspapers. Osama was seen on live tape talking about what he did with the airplanes,” I answered him. Was this student living under a rock?



“Well, how do we know that that was Osama and not some imposter?” The same student asked.



He was right. How could we tell that Osama really had confessed to the doings of September 11th? Any Iraqi male could imposter Osama.



I told him he had a valid point. He said, “Thank you.” This was sort of a “free day” and we just sat around talking about government in general for a long while. Then it was lunch time.



At lunch, I had chicken legs, mashed potatoes, whole milk, and a fruit cup. As I ate, I thought about the U.S. Government. How DID America stack up against other nations? I knew some countries were envious of us, but I also knew some countries spat on us. Hmm. After lunch, we went back to block 4. We began talking about George W. Bush again.



“Didn’t Jeb Bush throw away votes for Al Gore so that George could win?” One student stated/asked.



“That was just a rumor,” our teacher, Mr. Kelley answered.

“Didn’t Cubans vote for George Bush because they thought that George Bush would help overthrow Castro?” Another student asked.



“And how was Bush going to help overthrow another country’s dictator?” I replied. “I am sure that was just a rumor too.”



“I heard a rumor that George Bush wanted to have mandatory year round school for all schools in the country,” another student said. “Thank god that didn’t happen.”



“If that did happen, I am sure Congress would step in. They have more power than the President, don’t you know? “I replied.



“They do?” Another student replied mystified.



Mr. Kelley said, “Darryl’s right. As a whole, Congress can overrule the President.”



“That’s interesting,” another student replied. A few other students murmured in agreement.



“Can they PLEASE tell George Bush to go away?” One student joked.



Mr. Kelley said, “They can impeach the President if he does something really bad.”



“Like letting airplanes crash into the World trade Center and Pentagon?” The same student retorted, being a smart aleck.



“I guess they didn’t think that warranted an impeachment,” Mr. Kelley replied.



We talked more about the President and government, and then class was over. For homework we had to write a letter to ‘George Bush”, telling him what we thought about September 11th. Actually, Mr. Kelley was going to be “George Bush.”



In Block 6, I had Intro to Computers. In that class, we had to do an assignment on Word. We had to write a Creative Story. My story was about a soldier who comes home to see his one true love, his girlfriend of two years, after being in the Navy for the past 3 months. I was kind of graphic without being sleazy or pornographic with their love scenes. (Basically, it was a LOT of making out and hugging, but nothing more). I hit save and Print and turned it in. Then we had to do some Excel Spreadsheets. After the Excel assignment, we had “free time”. I went to the internet and went on Yahoo.com to watch some music videos. I watched “Fallin” by Alicia Keys, “You Drive Me Crazy” by Britney Spears, “Uh-Huh” by B2K, and “Lucky Star” by Madonna. When I was done watching the videos, there were still 30 minutes left.



I asked for a pass to get the transcript signed. My teacher, Mr. Randall said okay. (I have four male teachers). I went to Mr. Wilkerson’s room and got him to sign it. Then I took the signed paper to the office and they switched my Math class. Then I rushed back to my computer class. There were still 10 minutes left.



I took out my CD player and listened to my Ciara CD again for the remaining time (we are allowed to listen to music quietly if we have free time).



When class was over, I drove home again. I had the same routine again. I don’t want to go into detail.



The next day, I showed up at Mr. Wilkerson’s room. I was amazed that there were only about 10 other students in remedial Math. Mr. Smith’s class had about 28 students. Mr. Wilkerson had me introduce myself to the class. “Hi. I’m Darryl Johnson, a transfer from Mr. Smith’s Math class,” I said, smiling a little nervously.



“Hi, welcome” everyone warmly said. I felt a lot better and began to relax.



The week went by fast, and some of the following went by fast as well. On Wednesday, Mr. Kurns called me into his office and gave me my test results.



Mr. Johnson, your SAT scores are Verbal, 1700, Written, 1800, Math 1350. Your FCAT Scores are English, Number 4, reading, 4, and your Math was a 3. Your IQ is 120.



I nodded my head slowly, showing that I was being attentive. Those were pretty good scores. My IQ was 120? That’s Superior! I’m a genius! I’m a genius! I inwardly gloated.



I put my test results in my book bag. Mr. Kurns said, “And now here comes the good part. (He smiled at me jokingly, because everything was a “good part”). “You have been accepted at Marshall Johnson Academy School in Jacksonville.”



“I was accepted! I had so many emotions running through me. I was excited, nervous, scared, and exhilarated.



“You will finish this school year as a sophomore, but after this year, you are going to Johnson!” He was giving me a big smile.



“Thank you,” I said.



“You’re welcome, Mr. Johnson.” He shook my hand warmly.



After that day, I worked very hard in Math. I even got my Math average up to a “B.” I finally got on the Honor Roll! I had just needed Mr. Wilkerson’s help.



I finished Sophomore Year with a 3.98 Grade Point Average. On the last day of school, I said goodbye to a lot of students, faculty, and staff. They knew I had been accepted at Johnson.



Over summer break, I began packing for my new life in Jacksonville. My mom came in while I was packing and said, “You know, Darryl, I’m going to miss you.” She had tears in her eyes.



“I know. I’m gonna miss you too,” I said. She wrapped me up in a big hug. I was going to be leaving on Monday, in two days. I hugged her back and gave her a watery smile.



Two days later, on Monday, June 12th, it was the big Moving Day! My mom had had a big going away for me party yesterday and it was like a big family reunion! (And my three best friends were there too). It was so much fun! We even had a cake that had candles on it and mom told me to make a wish (I wished for good luck in Johnson, just so you know). It was just like having a birthday party! I obeyed mom and gave mom the first slice. Who else could I give it to besides my mom? No one! There was music and lively conversation. Everybody wished me good luck. The atmosphere was very festive.



Today, mom gathered Julian, Sean, Mario, my cousin Tasha, and me in her Ford SUV. Dad picked up some of my other family members in his Ford Expedition. Mom put my luggage in her trunk. We drove to The Miami International Airport. At the Airport, everybody came out of either an SUV or an Expedition. My luggage was checked, I gave my ticket, and my ID was checked. Mom asked everyone to pray for me and we stood in a line and prayed for my well-being and for me to be blessed. We gave thanks that I was going to Jacksonville and asked for protection while on the journey to Jacksonville/Johnson and for protection wheel I was at Johnson/Jacksonville. After praying, everybody hugged me. Mom and dad gave me a LOT of spending money, and as my plane was called, I was overcome with emotion. I began to cry. Sean, Mario, and Julian were hugged me, Tasha gave me a kiss on the cheek, and mom hugged me after my friends did. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and told me she loved me. Dad playfully rubbed my head, looked at me with proud eyes, and told me he loved me. (I pushed the “begrudger” thought in the back of my mind). Then mom gave me one last hug and said she loved me too. Everybody said, “Goodbye for now, Darryl.” I began to walk backwards towards my gate. I blew them all kisses and mouthed, “I love you all,” and waved goodbye. They waved goodbye back.



I soon boarded the plane. The plane was a big American Airlines 747 Jet. I had a window seat, and I put my carry on luggage on the top rack compartment. I was shocked when I saw who my partner was. The boy looked just like my partner from the Ride Of Doom dream! I did a shocked double take. Actually, he looked a LOT like that boy! If I didn’t know any better, I would say that WAS him! I kept staring at him. He noticed me staring.



”Um, hi,” he said, sounding a little upset. I knew what lied in his greeting. Why the hell is he staring at me like that?



“I’m sorry. You look just like someone I’ve seen before, “I said simply. I was not about to tell him I saw someone who looked exactly like him in my dreams. That would freak him out. Imagine me saying, “Hi! I’ve seen you in my dreams!” And imagine him saying, “Airline Security! Get me away from this loony bin!”



“I’m Darryl,” I said amicably.



“I’m Johnny,” he said softly. Johnny was a fair-skinned boy with chestnut brown short wavy hair. He looked to be 115 pounds and about 5’6.



“So, how old are you?” I asked him.



“I’m 13. How old are you?” He asked back.



“I’m 16,” I answered him.



“I’m going to Tallahassee,” Johnny told me. “I’m going to see my grandma,” he said smiling.



“I’m going to Jacksonville to go to Marshall Johnson,” I said.



“What’s a Marshall Johnson?” Johnny asked me, furrowing his brow.



“It’s a prep school,” I answered him.



“Oh, cool,” Johnny said. “Good luck.”



“Thanks.” I smiled at him. “So, are you going to spend your summer with grandma?” I asked him.



“Yeah. She’s the coolest grandma ever! She’s totally awesome!” Johnny said, his whole face beaming.



“I see you love Grandma a lot, I said wryly, giving him a little smile.



“Yeah.”



The “Seatbelts” signal went on and we buckled our seatbelts. Then the plane took off. The turbulence was like a loud whooshing in my ears. I wished I had brought some gum to chew.



After takeoff, the plane flew smoothly. Johnny was an amicable kid (meaning he talked a LOT), but he was an entertaining kid.



“So, Darryl, what kind of video games to you play?” Johnny asked me.



“I play Mario Brothers,” I answered him.



“I like to play Sonic,” he answered, but MB is cool too.”



“Is Sonic that blue thing that looks like a porcupine?” I asked.



“Sonic is a hedgehog and he is cool. He has super running sneakers. He beats up a bad scientist that so that he can save animals that turn into robots.



“I thought that all Sonic did was run around,” I said, impressed. “He’s a hero.”



“Yeah, he is,” Johnny agreed.



Johnny took out a handheld Gameboy Advance and played Sonic The Hedgehog. Oh my goodness, that Hedgehog could run! Johnny wasn’t lying!



Sonic could zoom straight through “Acts” at a breakneck speed, but that wasn’t recommended, as Sonic had to dodge fireballs, hit robot animals for points (the “robots” turn into birds when hit), and avoid “squishes” (these “squishes” were obstacles that killed Sonic if Sonic didn’t maneuver through them correctly.



Johnny asked me if I would like to play. I said, “Sure.” Johnny handed me the game console. I super-ran through The Marble Zone (not straight through it though. I played the game correctly). At the end of the Marble Zone, I got to meet Dr. Robotnik, a power mad evil scientist. I tried to jump on him, but that wasn’t working, because he wasn’t dying. He put flames on the ground, and I tried once again to kill him by jumping on him, but I fell into the flames and died. I got two more chances, and tried to kill Dr. Robotnik both of those times, but died both times, and then Game Over appeared on the screen. Did “Game Over” mean to start all over from scratch? From Act One? 9Dr. Robotnik is in Act Three). I hoped not. The SEGA Logo appeared and I knew it meant to start over from scratch.



Johnny looked at me and then at the game. “Don’t worry. I have a bag full of new batteries.” He showed me a bag full of about 10 more batteries. “You can play until you get to Jacksonville,” he offered graciously.



Play Sonic until I got to Jacksonville? I repeated in my mind . No thank you.



Out loud I said, “I really don’t feel like playing Sonic anymore. (The game is a trip). You can get 80 rings, and then one robot animal touches you, and you lose them all. Rings are your protection for life. Instead of losing them one by one as each animal touches you, you lose them all. Rings are easy to get, but easy to lose. 100 rings give you an extra life. And it’s near impossible to beat Dr. Robotnik at the end of Act 3.



“Okay,” Johnny said. He turned off the power. Then he kept yakking about video games. After a while, he yakked himself to sleep.

 

[Karice]

Part 6

As he slept, I reminisced about Robin. When I was 14, my mother married a man named Robin. My stepfather was abusive to me. He would grab me and shake me violently, and then give me powerful blows to my head. He would pick me up and body slam me onto our wooden floor. He once gave me a black eye. He would act like the perfect stepfather and husband around my mother, hugging me only when she was around and would tell us that he was glad to have me as a stepson. When my mother was not around, evil, maniac,psycho Robin came out and would really lay it on me. I was scared of robin, but I knew my mother loved Robin and called him the man of her dreams, so I suffered in silence.



I would visible tense whenever I was around Robin and would be totally uncomfortable. My mother just thought that I was shy around Robin. Then, one day, Robin gave me a black eye. I put on black sunglasses and went to my room. My mother later came into my room, and I quickly turned away from her, covering the side of my face with my hand.



“Darryl, what’s wrong? Why are you wearing your sunglasses at night? You are not Corey Hart.” She noticed I kept looking away from her. I didn’t want her to see my black eye.



“Look at me,” she demanded softly, but firmly. I turned in her direction. With the sunglasses on, she couldn’t see my black eye.



“Now, take off the sunglasses.”



“Um, I can’t. It’s for a Science experiment,” I lied.



“Science experiment?” She questioned suspiciously.



“Yeah,” I continued to lie.



I knew she didn’t believe me. She knew I was lying.



“What happens in the experiment?” she asked me with narrowed eyes.



“We have to see if the Ozone layer affects us while we are wearing sunglasses.”



“Ozone Layer? Yeah sure,” she replied, unconvinced.



I knew it was a crappy lie, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.



She took off my sunglasses. “No!” I screamed in protest. She gasped, very shocked. “What happened to your eye?” She screamed, demandingly.



“I uh. I uh,”……. walked into a door, and it gave me a black eye,” I lied.



“Who did this to you?” You did NOT walk into a door!” She demanded.



“I told you, I walked into a door,” I lied desperately.



“You liar! Someone’s been beating you up!” she screamed, frantically.



“No! No one’s been beating me up!” I lied, even more desperately.



“Robin! Come here! Look at Darryl’s eye! Someone gave him a black eye!” She screamed, sounding really upset.



Robin came in. “Oh my gosh Darryl!” What happened to your eye?” he asked, doing a real good job of pretending to be shocked.



He should have won the Oscar.



I glared at him when mom was not looking.



“Darryl says he walked into a door, but I think someone’s been beating him up,” she said, sounding panicked.



It’s true; I walked into a door, “I insisted, knowing I was really telling a bold-faced lie.


“Stop lying, Darryl! She yelled. “Stop lying! Stop protecting whoever’s hurting you!’ She soon collapsed into tears. It hurt me to see my mother cry, but I couldn’t tell her about precious Robin.



Robin put a comforting arm around her. “I’ll give Darryl some ice and frozen meat to put on the eye,” he said softly.



“Thank you,” she said, still sobbing.



Robin put ice and frozen meat on my eye. He’s a really good actor, I thought as he treated my black eye (that he caused)

After that, Robin and mom left. I wrote a “story” about my abusive stepfather. I wrote, “There was a boy named Larry (Larry is “Darryl” without the “D” and rearranged letters, he had a stepfather named Bob (If Robert can have Bob as a nickname, couldn’t Robin also, because of the “Rob” ), and a mother named Andie (My mother’s name is Sandra, and I decided to say “Andie” because “Sandy” is the nickname for Sandra, and I dropped the “S” to make Andy, then put “Andie” to make it feminine. The names I chose took creative thought. It is common assumption that “Larry” is the nickname for Lawrence, Bob the nickname for Robert, and Andie the nickname for Andrea or Aundrea.



In the story, I wrote that Bob used Larry as a punch bag, but Andie had no idea. She didn’t see the fear in Larry’s eyes when Bob was around. She didn’t pay attention to Larry locking his room door when Bob was home. Andie thought everything was A-Ok. Then she found Larry on their driveway one day, bleeding from his mouth and gasping to breathe. She rushed him to the ER, he was treated, and then he told the truth about precious Bob. (I was thinking of the possibility of Robin doing something really fatal to me when I wrote that part.) Andie quickly found out that Bob was beating up Larry when she secretly spied on them. She immediately divorced Bob, and Larry and Andie’s relationship got even stronger.



I quickly put my story in my folder and put it in one of my drawers and went to bed.



When I awoke, my mother was in my room. “Robin told me what he did to you. He confessed that he’s been abusing you for months,” she said, looking at me with pained eyes.



“Yeah. He has been abusing me. He’s the one who gave me the black eye, “I confirmed.



My mother looked at me intently. “I made that up. Robin said he didn’t know where you got that black eye,” she said softly.



“Oh.” I said. I realized I had just spilled the beans.



“I figured Robin had been abusing you,” she said. She told me she had found my story, read it, and found it strange how similar the names sounded to Robin, Darryl, and Sandra. She confronted Robin, he confessed and they got their marriage annulled. I was so happy to be free of him, but sad that mom’s love turned out to be such a jerk. I tried to console her by saying she would find another man, one who was better than Robin, but she said she didn’t need any consoling, but thanked me.



Back to the present. Johnny had woken up and was once again yakking about video games. He yakked for 30 more minutes, and then I said that I was going to sleep. I did for about 30 minutes. When I awoke, the captain was saying that we were passing over Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida! I looked out of the window and looked down at Disneyworld! It was great! I wished Johnny could see it to, but in order for him to see it too; we would have to get permission from the stewardess. I asked the stewardess if we could switch seats, and she agreed. We did, and Johnny’s face lit up as he watched Disneyworld and other Orlando attractions such as Sea World and Universal Studios! After we passed Orlando, we got permission to switch back and Johnny was happy. His whole face beamed! “That was cool!” Johnny said, excited!



I was glad Johnny was happy, even though I myself missed out. Johnny began to yak about Orlando attractions for another long while, and then we ate lunch. We had bread, butter, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables, pork chops, and apple juice. After lunch, Johnny and I both read Choose Your Own Adventure! (Books where you choose your own outcomes).




The plane arrived in Jacksonville, Florida a couple of hours later. After landing, I got my luggage and said bye to Johnny. “Good luck with Grandma,” I said. “Good luck with Johnson,” he said back. I asked for Johnny’s number (I had received a 1000 Anytime Cell Phone by my mother at the airport in MIA.) Johnny gave it to me. I put it in my pocket, and we both said goodbye. I went into Jacksonville Airport. There were so many people bustling around. It was great. I called for a cab to take me to 12450 S.W. Great Street. That would be my new home. I looked around Jacksonville. It was all new to me, but it was also the same. Jacksonville really didn’t look much different than Miami.



After the cab dropped me off at Johnson, I paid the fare and stood in front of Johnson for the first time. Johnson was a big estate. The main building was a brick building with three stories. I walked into the building.



Inside the building, there was a student tour guide who welcomed me.



“Hey, young man! How are you doing? You are walking in the finest institution in Jacksonville! He said, eagerly with a big smile.



“Hi,” I answered him. Hey Skippy, I thought in my mind. He looked like a “Skippy” to me. Preppy, perky, and eager.



He asked me if I wanted a tour of the school. I said, “Sure,” “Skippy” led me around the school. “Johnson was founded in 1898,” he told me proudly. “It’s been here for 107 years.



I gasped in sheer amazement. “That’s great,” I said impressed. I actually can’t wait to start school here,” I said, smiling eagerly too.



He smiled at me, and said, I agree with you."




We went to a lecture hall. “Here is where students spend their time to do free stud,” he said. He took me to the dining hall, the gymnasium, the main classes’ hallways, the dorms, the auditorium, swimming pools, tennis courts, and golf courses. After the tour, he said, “I forgot to properly introduce myself. I’m Max Cartwright. I’m 18 years old and one of the Student Tour Guide s and one of the dorm parents. You probably figured out some of that last part.” He chuckled. He really seemed like a nice person. “What’s your name?” He asked me.



“My name is Darryl Johnson,” I answered.



“You’re a Johnson?” he repeated with raised eyebrows. “You could try to “play” a joke on fellow students and say you are a descendant of Marshall Johnson,” he suggested.



Skippy, I mean Max, must have been smoking something if he believed anybody would fall for me being a descendant of M. Johnson. M. Johnson was White. I was African-American. Anyway, I did like Max. He was very friendly.



Skippy (Max) was a 6 foot, lean guy, with pink skin, and with short blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. He was wearing Johnson’s uniform: Tan pants with a white shirt and tan tweed jacket, with black penny loafers. Each student was provided with 5 outfits.



I thanked Max, said goodbye, and then went to my dorm (Max had given me my dorm key). My dorm was dorm 309 in Alexander Hall. I unlocked the door and stepped inside. I gasped! The dorm looked just like a four-star hotel suite! It was amazing! There were two beds, which I knew meant that I would be having a dorm mate. I put my luggage on the bed and emptied its contents. I began to pack the drawers with my clothes. There was a Zenith TV in the dorm, a Dell Computer with internet access, and a bookshelf with lots of Literature books such as Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility both by Jane Austen.



I had just settled myself on a bed when the dorm opened. I looked to see who would be my new dorm mate.



He walked in, carrying two luggage suitcases. He was about 5'8 and 125 pounds, and had short brown hair. His skin color was pink. He looked up (he had been looking down at his luggage), and smiled a welcoming smile when he saw me. I saw that he had chocolate-brown eyes.



“Hi,” I’m Dave,” he said, offering me a handshake.



I accepted it and said, “Hi. I’m Darryl.”

 

[Karice]

Part 7

After we shook hands, Dave went to his bed and sat/leaned on it. “So, are you nervous about school?” He asked me.



“A little nervous,” I confessed. Tomorrow would be the first day of school.



“Well, I’m a returning student, and I can tell you, this school is not so bad. You’ll be fine,” Dave said. He gave me a reassuring smile.



“Thanks.” I smiled back at him.



“No problem,” Dave said back to me. I already liked this school. Dave and Skippy were so welcoming. I liked them.



Dave unpacked his suitcases and put away his things into his own drawers. After he was done, he asked me about my life.



“So, how did you get here?”



“I got here on a scholarship,” I answered him.



“How did you get that?”



“My mom wanted me to apply for a scholarship, so she told me to apply for one.”



“Oh. Did you get the scholarship right away?”



“I found out I got it after a little over a week.”



“How did you feel when you got the scholarship?”



Some people would have been put off by Dave’s questions and would have thought that Dave was a nosy busybody. But I liked Dave and didn’t mind. I just laughed and answered, “I felt happy.”



“How do you like Johnson so far?” Dave asked.



“I like it. The tour guide is so nice,” I answered.



“You mean Max?” Dave asked. I nodded. “Yeah, he is really nice. He’s one of the sweetest guys around, “Dave said, looking really sentimental.



I suddenly wondered if the two of them had a thing together.



“Are you and Max……….um?” I didn’t want to ask directly, though.



Dave said, “Oh no. We don’t like each other that way. I just admire his sweet nature.”



“Oh,” I said.



Dave left the dorm. I soon fell asleep. Dave woke me up at 7:20. “Come on, get up! It’s time to get ready for school! Here is your uniform.” He gave me a uniform outfit (they looked like the ones Skippy had on yesterday).



“Thank you Dave” I said, thanking him for the uniforms and for waking me up.



“You’re welcome,” Dave answered me.



I sleepily made my way to the bathroom. (Every dorm had its own bathroom). The bathroom was white with a long counter with a sink in the middle of it. There were two towels, one was blue, and the other one was orange.



“Dave, which towel is yours?” I asked.



“The orange one,” he answered.



Dave came into the bathroom without knocking.



“Dave! I admonished him. “You can’t come in without knocking first! I could have been doing………….things.”



“Sorry,” he said. He left, closing the door. Then he knocked.



“Come in,” I said, laughing.



He opened the door and came in.



“I just wanted to tell you where everything was,” Dave said. “The Crest toothpaste is in the top drawer. That’s yours. The blue unopened toothbrush in the same drawer is yours too. My toothbrush is Complete Care. The pink toothbrush is mine. Those two are in the middle draw.”



“We can’t share toothbrushes?” I cracked.



“I wouldn’t mind sharing my Complete Care with you, but you wouldn’t like to share my toothbrush. I have tons of plaque and tartar build-up,” Dave said, smiling.



I asked Dave to look away as I undressed to take a shower. He did.



I went into the shower and closed the curtain. I told Dave he could look anywhere he wanted to now. The shower was really a shower and not a shower/bathtub. The showerhead had 5 different spa settings. I luxuriously showered. I washed with the Dove Bar that was in the soap dish. The water felt so good, and the soap smelled so good that I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to shower for a LONG time. I was in the shower for at least 30 minutes before Dave said, “Darryl! Class starts at 8:30. Do you know it’s 8:05? You’re gonna be late!”



I finished the shower and rushed out. I quickly wiped, put on my clothes, brushed my teeth, and put on my uniform. I quickly brushed my hair, packed my bookbag, put on lotion, and then put on deodorant.



Dave said, “You’re too late to eat “real” breakfast in the dining hall, so here’s a Nutrigrain Bar.” He handed me an Apple Cinnamon Bar (the green colored wrapper). I gratefully accepted it, ate it, and then Dave and I walked to Marshall Johnson school.



I looked at my schedule. My first class would be Intro to Psychology. Dave and I only had two classes together. We said, “Goodbye.”



I walked into Room 101, in the first building. When I went inside, I saw that the seats looked just like the ones from North Miami Senior High. The seats had wooden tops, with a chair attached to the top. Under the seats, you could put books in a little tray. I sat in the third aisle, third row.



Our professor (here they were professors, in N.M. they had been teachers), was a tall balding man with horn-rimmed glasses, pink skin, and a bit of a gut. His eyes were gray.



I looked at the clock. It was 8:31. Other students began filing in. A boy with close cropped brown hair walked in. Another boy with curly red hair came in. Another boy with stringy black hair came in. Another boy with spiky blond hair walked in. More boys came in. A total of 15 boys (including me) were in this class.



Where are there only boys in this class? Where are the babes? You may be wondering. This is an all-boys school. It’s also a predominantly White school. There are only a handful of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Middle-Eastern students here. And when I say handful, I mean like 5 minority students of each minority.



In my psych class, we read about Jeffrey Dahmer, the guy who raped people (mostly guys), tortured and then killed them, and then ate their (dead) bodies. Eew, eew, eew. Gives a new meaning to the term “Loves to eat.” Nasty! Then we had to talk about how J.D. made us feel.



“It’s disgusting,” I said. I wanted to throw up.



“It’s abominable,” Rick Small said.



“I’m glad he’s dead,” Jorge Lopez said. “We’re rid of a person like that.”



“What was wrong with his mind?” Milton Wakeman asked.



Professor Watson answered, “He obviously had a chemical brain imbalance.”



“I think I’m going to have nightmare for weeks,” Rodney Kelly said, shuddering.



Other students murmured disapproving sayings too. After the class was over, it was time for my Remedial Math. (Even though I had gotten a “B” last year in the final semester, North Miami staff still told Johnson I needed Remedial Math. In Remedial Math, there were 10 students (including me). Our professor was a man who looked about 60 years old, but had a full head of hair. (All of my professors are White, so I don’t have to explain their skin colors). He had blue eyes and was about 5’12.



In Remedial Math, we did basic fractions. I really don’t like Math THAT much, so I really will sum up my first class: You have to do the reciprocal of the fractions you see in order to start working on them. (Reciprocal means flip it around).



After R.M, there was Western Philosophy. We had to talk about Socrates, the Philosopher. I’m thinking, “That’s that Greek guy, right?” In my middle school, Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Wright had discussed Socrates with us, but that was over three years ago. I hadn’t really kept in “touch” with Socrates since then.

I kept my mouth shut and let the others discuss him. The discussion was interesting and I listened with ears wide open. Then Professor Bryan asked why I wasn’t participating in the discussion. I answered, “I barely know Socrates. We used to talk about him when I was in the 8th grade, but I haven’t thought of him too much since that grade.” I told the truth.



Professor Bryan said, “Now, that’s an honest answer, but I want you to do a report on Socrates to get to “know” him better.”



“Oh, man,” I grumbled. A report on my first day.



“It’s due a week from today,” Professor Bryan said.



“Okay,” I said. My first homework assignment from Johnson! (I HAD to do well in this school because scholarships are only kept for students doing well in schools).



The class talked more about Socrates, and then class was over, and it was lunch time. I went into the dining hall. The dining hall looked like a banquet hall. There were flowers in vases and beautiful Formica long tables. The food was like a buffet. There were fried chicken, white rice, potato salad, mixed vegetables, bread, butter, and beverage choices such as fruit punch, whole milk, 2 percent milk, 1 percent milk, and skim milk, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Orange Minute Maid soda, and Evian water. We were served on China plates and had silverware for utensils. I chose fried chicken, potato salad, bread and butter, and some fruit punch.



I saw Dave and sat next to him. He smiled at me.



“Hey, Champ. How’s the first day of school treating you?” Dace asked.



“It’s fine,” I replied.



“Good.” Dave smiled.



Skippy came up to us.



“Hi, Darryl. He Dave,” Skippy said to us smiling.



“Hey Max,” Dave said smiling.



‘Hey,” I said back to Skippy.



Skippy had his own plate of food. He sat down next to me. We all began to eat our food. The food was delicious. It tasted like a chef, not a cook, cooked these delicious foods. (Being in a boarding school, I wondered if a chef did cook these foods).



We all chatted about the school, and soon, lunch was over. Dave and I had the next class together, Botanical Science. We sat down next to each other. Our professor this time only looked like he was only about 28. He was lean, muscular, and tall. (I know, about everyone in this school had brown hair). He kind of looked like a younger Bob Saget (Danny from Full House).



Our first Botanical Science class was about the original scientific names for flowers and plants. We did that for the whole class.



After class, it was time for my History class. For my History class, we studied World War 2. We studied the Holocaust. I shuddered when I read that babies were being thrown into fires under the command of the heinous Adolf ******. A.H. was just mean and nasty! I don’t even want to go into detail about him! Nasty man!



After that class, I had Advanced English. We had to proofread college essays from Jacksonville College. After proofreading those essays, we had to proofread essays from the University of Florida. After that, class was over.



I went to my sixth class of the day, Drama. We learned the basics of acting, such as keeping your tone steady while doing diction (speaking). We did a few diction lessons, and then class was over. (Oh yeah, Dave is in this class too).



My final period of the day was French. We learned a few basic words (or reviewed them) such as “hello” is bon-jour, goodnight is bon-nuit (I figured bon-nuit was “goodnight” when I read a book that had a character calling a French restaurant, asking for her parents, and then says, ‘Bon-nuit” and hangs up the phone when she finds out that they have already left). We learned that “Thank you” was merci, Thank you very much is Merci bon coup, please is Sil Vous Plait, and a few other words.



After French class was over, Dave and I walked back to our dorms together. We both decided to just relax for a little while, so we lied down on our beds, just looking and feeling lazy. Soon we were chatting about school again and how we liked our first day.



“I have never had 7 periods in one day!” I exclaimed. “I used to have six periods a day in middle school, and I had 3 blocks a day in my old high school,” I continued.



“That’s how it is here,” Dave said, smiling. “You might as well work a full-time job.



I took out my cellphone from my pocket and called my mother. My phone has a camera in it. She gave me 1000 minutes and told me to use it sparingly (but 1000 minutes is only about 17 hours). I had already used an hour talking to her since I left the MIA airport. I had spoken to her on the plane, when I first arrived in Jacksonville, when I had arrived at Johnson, before I went to sleep last night, right before I went to my first class, and during lunch. Now I was going to speak to her again.



“Hi, mom,” I said when she picked up.



“Hi, sweetie,” she said warmly. “How was your first day?”



“Mom, it was good. I already told you how the first half of my day was, and I also told you the classes I took for the first half of the day. The second half of the day is Botanical Science, History, Drama, and French.”



“7 classes in one day? Woo,” she exclaimed. “Are you sure you can handle that?” she asked me.



“Mom, I used to take 6 classes a day, remember?” I reminded her.



“Yeah, I know, but this is a private school. The work is much harder,” she pointed out.



“Mom, you are right,” I agreed with her. ‘I already have to do a report on Socrates,” I mildly lamented.



“That’s exciting.” She said wryly.



“I know,” I replied wryly too. “I can’t wait for the fun to begin,” I said sarcastically.



“I have to go to work, Darryl. Bye. I love you,” she said, and gave me a kiss over the phone. “Bye, I love you too,” I said, and gave her a kiss back. We hung up.



I had 7 books to NOT lug around (I had a “rollie” bookbag, so I didn’t have to carry 7 books on my back. I began to thumb through my books, trying to prepare for the next day’s lessons. After a few minutes, I got bored, so I closed the books and watched some T.V. Dave was quietly doing his studies. (I would go back to studying later).



I watched Moesha. It was the episode where she wanted to buy her own car and Frank said, ‘If you want to buy a car, you have to limbo under this price,” and she said, with an uneasy look on her face, “That’s a low bar.” Then I watched a TRL rerun. After TRL, I began to study again. I studied for an hour. Then, I figured I had studied enough for the first day, and began to leave the dorm.



“Where are you going?” Dave asked.



“I’m going to walk around the campus to get some fresh air,” I said.



“Okay,” Dave said.



I left. I walked around the campus, and stopped at the student hangout, student Life (outside). Inside is where student planning and events are held. Outside is where students “chill.” I went to a bench and sat there for a while, musing about Jacksonville and Johnson. It was so different here. Here, everyone wore tan uniforms. In North Miami high, the closest thing anyone wore to tan was Khaki, and in North Miami high, students didn’t wear any uniforms. In North Miami high there were less than 300 white students (I mean, Caucasian), in a student population of over 3,000. In North Miami, we were protected from the cold of winter most of the time by the Florida Everglades Swamp. Don’t ask, but the everglades swamp is so warm, its warmness goes to North Miami. Jacksonville is further from The Everglades Swamp than North Miami, so it doesn’t get ‘protected” from the cold winter. Don’t get me wrong, though. Sometimes North Miami’s temperature drops as low as the 30’s. But usually the lowest the degrees go are between 40-63. Sometimes, it is 80 degrees in December! Thank you Everglades!



I sat for a few more minutes, and then I got up and walked back to my dorm. I entered the dorm and called Johnny.



“Hi, Darryl,” he said. “How are you doing?”



“I’m fine,” I answered. “How’s Grandma?”



“She’s fine,” Johnny answered me.



“So, how ya doing?” I asked.



“I’m fine too,” Johnny answered me.



Johnny and I chatted for a few more minutes, and then we hung up. Then I called Sean.



“Hey, what’s up, G?” I asked Sean. “How’s it going in north Miami?”



“It’s fine. We miss ya, G,” Sean answered me.



“I miss ya’ll too,” I replied. “Doin’ anymore “earnin?” I asked him.



“Yeah. We got $900.00 yesterday,” Sean replied. “How’s it goin’ at Johnson?” he asked me.



It’s straight,” I replied.



Sean asked, “They ain’t workin’ ya too hard?”



“No,” I replied.



Sean said, “Good for ya.”



We chatted for a few more minutes, and then we hung up. I called Julian and we chatted for a few minutes, and then hung up. Then I called Mario. Julian, Mario, and I had basically chatted about the same things Sean and I had chatted about.

 

[Karice]

Part 8

Soon, it was dinner time. Dave and I went to the dining hall. We had Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza, corn, and drank strawberry soda, and then went back to the dorm. I took a bath and changed for bed. I called my mom again, and basically told her goodnight. I went to sleep, and when I awoke it was time to get ready for school. Dave and I got ready for school. A brief run through of my second day: I did a lot more homework the second day of school, and ended up with 7 hours of homework.


For lunch, I had turkey and wild rice, and drank Coke. After school, I decided to buckle down and work straight for a few hours, break, and then start again. Since we come home before 5, I started at 5 and worked until 8, then Dave and I ate lobster, scalloped potatoes, and drank some grape juice until 8:35 in the dining hall, we came back to the dorm about 8:41, I called my mother at 8:45 and spoke to her until 9:00, and took a bath until 9:25. 9:30-1:30, I finished my homework, and went to sleep around 2:00. (It takes me a while to fall asleep).



When I awoke, it was 7:30. I quickly woke up Dave, and took a 15 minute shower. I brushed my teeth, dressed, and brushed my hair. It was about 7:55 when Dave came rushing in. He quickly showered, brushed his teeth and hair, and dressed too. We both finished getting ready and Dave smiled at me and said, “Nutrigrain Bar?” I replied with a smile, “Nutrigrain Bar?” We both ate Nutrigrain Bars and RAN to campus. We made it at the campus at 8:25. It took about 3 minutes to get to my class and about 4 minutes to get to Dave’s class.



More work for the third day. The reason I am not really going into detail about my actual classes is because I want to get to the parts that happen OUTSIDE of classes. I already walked you through the first day of classes, and that’s the only day I’ll walk you through.



I was doing my report on Socrates in the school library (the library, believe it or not, has tons of books on Socrates). I had gathered books and had taken notes on him to type into our computer at the dorm, when I saw two brown-haired, brown-eyed guys sneering at me. I was thinking, “What’s their problem?” I looked away from them and continued to write names on my paper. When I had gathered enough info for my report, I walked out of the library, and started walking through Johnson’s front hall. As I was walking, I saw the Sneery guys.



“Go home Nig.”(That word that we black don’t like white people to call us, but I’ll only write the first 3 letters of that word. I will tell you that it ends like this: ger) Sneery Left said.

“Go back where you came from, Nig,” Sneery right said.



Did they just call me a “Nig?” I thought, seeing red. I wanted to fu both of them up (that “fu” word ends in a “ck”) How dare they call me a “Nig”?



The Sneerys left. I was so angry, I just yelled obscenities. Here is an edited spelling of what I said. (You can pretty much figure out the missing letters for yourself). “Oh fu this shi! Those fuing, fuing, fuing, shi-fuing bitchfuers, motherfuers!”

The dean came by. “Son, is there any particular reason you are using profanities?” He asked me gently.



‘I’m just mad about something,” I answered. I didn’t want to talk about it yet. “Well, please, do not use profanities. If you have any issues, you can talk to the counselor, George Green,” dean riley said gently.



“Thanks, Dean Riley,” I answered.



“You’re welcome,” he answered, and left.



I went back to the dorm. I was sure my thoughts were showing on my face. (They sometimes do).



Dave asked me what had happened. “Dave, two guys called me a Nig,” I said, fuming, almost exploding. I wanted to choke those guys (or at least pimp slap them). “I feel awful. I want to beat the shi out of those guys.” I was visibly shaking.



Dave put his arm around me. “It’s okay, Darryl, it’s okay,” he said, trying to comfort me. I looked at Dave. Dave was really a good friend, even though I hadn’t known even known him for five days.



“Dave, thanks, “I said.



“You’re welcome,” Dave replied.



I called my mom. “Mom, these two guys called me a Nig. They told me to go home.” My voice was breaking. I was really affected by this. I needed to speak to my mom. She was my rock. I could tell her anything.



“Honey, I’m sorry that happened to you. I know words hurt,” she said gently.



“Mom, I feel awful,” I confessed. “I want to beat them up.”



“Don’t beat them up. You don’t want to get expelled from a great school like Johnson for fighting,” Mom said.



“But mom, they degraded me. I want to get even with them,” I said.



“Remember what Eleanor Roosevelt said? ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent’,” mom reminded me.



Mom was right, and I do always try to heed that quote, but I had trouble heeding that quote.



“Mom, Eleanor was never called a “Nig””, I reasoned.



“Nig is just a word. They are the ignorant ones for calling you that,” Mom said.



“Mom, were you ever called a “Nig””? I asked softly.



Mom paused for a while. Finally, she spoke. “Yes. I was called a nig before,” she answered me softly.



“And how did you feel?” I asked her softly.



“I wanted to kick those White kids’ asses. My own mother, your grandma, told me that violence was not the answer. She told me if I fought those White kids, I would just be giving them the satisfaction of seeing that they had me in the palm of their hands. So I didn’t beat them up. I put them in their place by acting like I couldn’t care about them less. They stopped harassing me,” Mom recalled.



“Thanks mom,” I said, feeling better. “You’re welcome,” she answered. We both said, “I love you,” and “Goodbye,” and then hung up.



I was still mad about them calling me a nig, even though I was going to heed my mom’s advice.

Dave asked me if I wanted chocolate-chip cookies to make me feel better. I said, “Sure,” and he went into our minifridge and pulled out 4 Nestle Tollhouse “Ready” cookies. He popped them into the microwave and when they were ready, we both got two cookies.



The cookies were so delicious, moist, and warm that I savored every bit of my first cookie. Dave watched me closely, while eating his own first cookie.



“Darryl, I am sorry that you were called a Nig. I would never call you a nig.”



“Thanks, Dave”, I said. I wondered something. “Dave, have you ever called someone a nig?



Dave paused before answering me. He looked hesitant, reluctant, regretful, and embarrassed. “Yes,” he admitted finally, and very softly, looking at me sheepishly.



“When did you?” I asked. “And why?” I also asked, not with hostility, trying to get him to know I wasn’t mad at him, I just wanted to know.



“When I was little, about 9 or 10, I thought that Nig a good word to call Blacks.” He blushed. “I didn’t mean it offensively. I called black people Nig because I heard them calling each other that all the time. I also heard White people calling them Nig too. I thought that Nig was an okay word for a White person to call Black people” He laughed self-depreciatively. I went up to blacks saying, “Hey Nig!” He laughed self-depreciatively again. “I was perplexed when they would give me angry scowls, and I would have a big question mark in my expression. Wasn’t Nig a good word to call Black people? Why were they angry with me? I had questioned in my mind. When an 11-year-old boy kicked me in my shins after I said, “Hi, Nig”, to him, I ran home crying to my mom.



I asked, “Mama, what’s a nig?” with my lip trembling.



“Why? Did you hear that somewhere? “She had asked me.



“I called Black people that word, and they got mad at me. Someone even kicked me in my shin when I called him that,” I had answered her. My mom said, “That’s a VERY bad word! Black people hate that word when White people call them that! Don’t you dare ever call another Black person that!” She was so adamant and vehement, I was scared. But she still hadn’t told me what it meant.



“Mama, what does it MEAN?” I emphasized.



“It means, ‘We White people are better than you Black people. You Blacks are ignorant and stupid. You are like dirt to us. We are superior to you Black people.’ “Is that what you meant when you called them Nigs? “ She asked me, trying to get me to see the point.



“No. I thought that Nig was a good word,” I had answered her.



“Why did you think that?” She asked calmer now.



“I heard Black people calling each other that, and I heard White people calling them that too,” I answered.



“Blacks can call each other Nigs, because when they say it to each other, that’s just their way of communicating with each other. When a White person calls them Nig, that’s usually said in a degrading term.,” she told me. Did the Black people like it when the White people called them that?” she asked me.



“I never paid any attention to the Black peoples’ reactions to the White people calling them that,” I confessed sheepishly.



“Now that you know you are not supposed to call Black people that, will you still call them that?” She asked me, staring at me hard.



“No, mama, no. I will never call Black people that again!” I promised her, and I still haven’t called Black people Nig to this day,” Dave concluded.



I (Darryl) felt better after Dave told me his story. I even laughed while he told me his story. “Thank you Dave for telling me that story,” I said with a smile.



“You’re welcome,” Dave replied. “Just pretend that the guys who called you a Nig just didn’t know any better, like what happened to me,” he advised me.



“No, I can’t “pretend””, I said, my expression turning serious again. “They really meant it. They sneered at me, Dave. They SNEERED,” I repeated again for emphasis.



Dave said, “Those guys are idiots. They didn’t know you. They just saw a skin color. You’re a great guy Darryl, and you are also very smart.”



I thanked him again, and he said, “No problem.” I did some homework, and Dave and I went to the dining hall again. As we were eating our chicken fingers, fries, and drank orange soda, I saw the Sneerys again.



I asked Dave if we could sit somewhere else. He asked me why, and I answered, “It’s too cold under here.”



We moved to another table, FAR away from the Snerrys. Dave and I finished our meal, and began to leave the dining hall. All of a sudden, the Sneerys stepped in front of us.



“Hey, Dave, you like Cookies and Cream?” Sneery Left asked.



“Hey, Dave, you got Jungle Fever?” Sneery Right asked.



“You like mixing your chocolate with your vanilla?” Sneery Left asked.



“You like the color gray?” Sneery Left asked.



“Leave us alone,” Dave said. I could tell he was feeling harassed.



“We already told your friend to go home, “Sneery Left said.



“And he’s still here,” Sneery Right said.



They were talking about me as if I wasn’t even there.



“Let’s go,” I said, pulling Dave’s arm.



Sneery Left said to me, “No, you didn’t want to “go” home when we told you to “go” earlier, so now you are going to “stay”. He said this, glaring at me menacingly.



He was scaring me.


“Dave, remember if you stay friends with this Nig, you won’t get into the “Club” and we will tell everyone about your little “Trip”. Remember the heavy sweats, the shaking, and the fixes?” Sneery Right asked. Sneery Left nodded his head, giving Dave an evil smile. “I remember clearly. And I don’t mind telling Dave’s family what happened.”



“Leave me alone,” Dave said again. “And leave Darryl alone.”



“Darryl? This little Nig’s name is Darryl?” Sneery Left replied. “I thought his name was Kunta Kinte.” He laughed nastily.



I tried to leave again, but Sneery Right grabbed my arm. Hard. His fingers dug into my skin. “You don’t belong here. Go back to the projects. Go back to your welfare ghetto. You’re just a little Nig. Your parents must have begged the government to get you here. This institution takes pity on you little Nigs, he said softly, but menancingly.



“Please,” I begged softly. Why wasn’t anyone helping Dave and I? I looked around, and some students looked reluctant to help Dave and me. Other students just plain ignored us. They must have not wanted any trouble. The Sneerys obviously were a threat not to be reckoned with.



“I don’t want any trouble, “I told Sneery right.



“If you didn’t want any trouble, you would have left when we told you too. Now that you’re here, you’re gonna get what you asked for,” Sneery right told me ominously.



“Please,” I said again. Tears began to run down my face. I cried because I was scared. What would they do to me? To Dave?



Dave said, “Darryl’s not asking for trouble. He just wants his education. Just let him be.” Dave looked at the Sneerys pleadingly.



The Sneerys laughed cruelly. “His welfare school wasn’t giving him an “education”? Sneery Right asked/said, mockingly.



North Miami was the “projects/” NMSH was a “welfare” school? North Miami was one of the most blessed areas in all of Miami, with a low crime rate. NMSH was the envy of a lot of school is Miami.



Sneery Left said, “Johnson is for us Rich, White, Boys. And this Nig is only one of the three. He was smiling evilly.

 

[Karice]

Somebody reply to this story! Please! I am desperate!

 

[Karice]

Part 9

Sneery Right still had his hand on me. Sneery Left had been holding Dave’s arm. The Sneerys both looked at us very intimidatingly, as if they wanted to beat us up. Sneery Right spit in my face. “That’s a moisturizer for your ashy face,” he told me, cruelly. Then Sneery Left said, “You missed a spot”, let go of Dave, and spit in my face too. “That’s extra moisturizer for you,” he said, evilly too. Then, Sneery Left pushed Dave backwards so hard that he fell backwards on his back. Sneery left walked over to Dave menancingly, and I could see the fear in Dave’s eyes.



“Please. We’ve never harmed you,” Dave said, shaking. “We’ve done nothing to hurt you,” he continued, begging. Sneery Left kicked him in the side. “That’s for hanging out with a Nig. If you dumped him, you wouldn’t be going through this now.” He roughly picked up Dave and gave him a closed first punch in the jaw. Dave yelped in pain.



On the other hand, Sneery Right let go of my arm and beat my head with powerful blows. Then he kicked me in my stomach, and as I bowled over from the pain, Sneery Right kicked me in my leg, and I fell. I was getting the shi beat out of me. As I lay down on the floor, Sneery Right kicked me again in my other leg.



“Please stop,” I begged him. “I already told you, I don’t want any trouble.”



Sneery Right laughed evilly, then picked me up, and pushed me roughly into Dave.



“Sorry to interrupt your “fun” with Dave,” Sneery Right apologized to Sneery left.



“No problem,” Sneery left answered. He dragged Dave away from me and continued his pummeling on Dave.



“Please,” Dave begged again. He sounded weak and frail.



“I’ll stop beating you up when you stop being his friend,” Sneery Left said. He punched Dave in the jaw again.



“Please,” Dave begged again, shaking. “Please.”



“Oh you don’t want to stop being his friend,” Sneery Left said, and punched Dave in the gut.



“Just stop. Please,” Dave begged again, shakily.



“Call him a Nig and then you can go. I’ll stop beating you up,” Sneery Left negotiated.


]
Dave looked at me. I could see tortured pain in his eyes. He really didn’t want to be beat anymore, but he promised his mom and me that he would never call me or any other Black person that word.



“Say it!” Sneery Left said. He whacked Dave upside his head.



“Ni….Ni….” Dave said, shaking. I knew he was really tortured.



“The whole word!” Sneery Left barked. He punched Dave in the gut again.



“Ni…….” Dave said weakly.



“The word is Nig-Ger!”” with each syllable, Sneery Left roughly punched Dave in the face.



“I don’t want to call him that,” Dave said, shakily. He didn’t look to strong.



“Then you WANT to be beat up like a rag doll,” Sneery left said. He picked up an empty chair and cracked it over Dave’s head. Then he slammed Dave’s head into a table.



“Noooooooo!” I screamed, watching Dave suffer.



“Shut up!” Sneery Right yelled at me and roughly put his arm around me neck and began to strangle me.



“You shouldn’t have come here, Nig,” he told me raspily. I began to make gagging noises. Sneery Right removed his arm and did DDT on me. (That’s a wrestling move). He picked me up into the air. “Please no,” I begged, knowing what he had in mind. He was going to drop me onto the floor. “Please don’t do it,” I begged.



He put me above his head and dropped me onto the floor. The floor rose to meet me and I blacked out after the searing pain. When I came to, I was still lying on the floor. I got up and looked for Dave. Dave was on the floor, next to me. Dave’s laboring was heavy and his eyes were closed. I hoped he was okay.

I called a school nurse to look at him. I was worried. I had fallen on my face. Dave was lying on his back, which meant he had been dropped on the back of his head. The nurse asked, “What happened to you guys?”



“I…I…,” I started. “We fainted,” I concluded, lying. The nurse looked at us suspiciously, but said he’d be right back. He left us for five minutes, and then came back. He had smelling salts and put them under Dave’s nose. Dave came to.



“Where am I?” Dave asked, sounding groggy. He blinked, looking confused. His breathing was still labored.



“You’re on the dining hall floor,” the nurse answered. “Can you tell me what happened?” He looked at me suspiciously again.



“We fainted,” Dave said.



Amazing! He couldn’t have known what I had said just a moment before.



The nurse gave Dave an oxygen mask, and in a few minutes, he was breathing normally. The nurse took off the mask and he checked both of our “okayness”. We responded fine to his questions.



“What time is it?” I asked.



“It’s 10:15.” He said.



“10:15?” I exclaimed. “We need to get back to the dorm!”



The nurse said, “It’s dangerous walking back to the dorm at this time of night. I’ll walk you back.”



Dave and I agreed, and we all left the dining hall. The nurse escorted us back to the dorm, and I took out my key and opened the door.



“Thanks, Nurse,” Dave and I both said.

“You’re welcome,” He said. Dave and I went in, and Dave closed the door.



“I can’t believe what happened,” Dave said.



“I know, it’s like a bad dream,” I concurred. I looked at him in awe. “You didn’t even give up when you had the choice too.”



“I wasn’t going to call you a Nig. I gave you my word that I wouldn’t call you that,” he said, looking sheepish.



“What about the Ni…Ni…”? I asked him, wondering.



“I wasn’t going to call you a Nig. I was hoping they would be satisfied with just the first syllable, but they weren’t.” He smiled ruefully.



I remembered something. What about the “club” and the other thing? “What’s this about a “club” and sweating? And what are “fixes?” I asked him.



Dave suddenly looked unwilling to talk. He gave me a “closed” look. I knew he really didn’t want to talk about what they were.



“Darryl, don’t you want to go to sleep?” He asked me in a kind of begging tone.



“No, not yet,” I answered him. “What were those guys talking about?” I asked him again.



“Nothing. They were talking about nothing.” Dave gave me a nervous look. I knew he was hiding something.



“Come on, you can tell me. We’re friends,” I coaxed him.



“You promise not to tell anyone?” Dave looked at me imploringly, like he wanted to know he could trust me.



“Yes,” I promise,” I promised.



Dave took a deep breath. The “Club” is an exclusive fraternity. Phi Beta Alpha. It’s really great. Once you get into it, you become a BMOC.”



“What’s a BMOC?” I asked.



“Big Man On Campus,” Dave answered. “I’ve always wanted to join PBA. I’ve always wanted to become a “brother”,” Dave continued.



“Hey, I’m a “brother”, I said, jokingly. The joke was that all Black guys are considered “brothers”.



Dave tried to smile, but I could tell he was more interested in telling me about PBA than in the joke. He continued. “If I get into PBA, do you know how good that will look on my college applications?” He smiled a real smile this time. “Some colleges like fraternities. If I get into PBA, I will get more respect. The Student Body would respect me a lot. I would go to a lot of parties, instead of staying home alone on Fridays and Saturdays.” He looked at his nails. I could tell he was sad about spending Fridays and Saturdays alone. But hey!



“You have me. I’ll be home on Fridays and Saturdays,” I told him.



“True, Dave agreed, “but you just got here. Before you came, this dorm was a single,” he said.



“Oh,” I said, understanding.



“And even with you being here, staying home on these days is still considered spending it alone." Dave continued.


“Dave, you could visit other dorms on those nights,” I suggested.



“Yeah, that’s not much fun when most people are asleep at night,” Dave lamented.



“Oh,” I said again.



“PBA is the best fraternity on Johnson. There are others, but nothing touches this one. But, I do have something to confess.” His face had been bright when he talked about how great PBA was, but it became dark when he went to the “confess” part.



“What?” I replied.



“The WonderBoys are both head of the PBA. The wonderful guys who beat us up earlier,” he answered, looking upset.



“I had no idea,” I said softly. “And you still want to join the PBA?” I asked him, perplexed.



“Yeah. I know, it’s pathetic,” Dave answered. “That’s why they told me if I didn’t drop you as a friend; I wouldn’t get into the club. They know how much I want to be in the PBA. They know how great I think it is,” Dave continued.



“People like that run the PBA?” I answered, astonished.



“Yeah. The way they rush people is horrendous. The pledges have to steal test answers for them and do their homework for them. The pledges have to walk around campus in their underwear for a full school day, and sometimes they have to steal professors’ belongings to get into the club.



“So, you would have to do that too?” I asked him.



“Actually, I’m pre-pledge. They are only THINKING of rushing me for PBA. So, right now, I’m in a good place,” he answered, smiling.



“What about the “sweaty” part?” I asked him.



Dave looked at me nervously again.



“Come on, tell me. You can tell me,” I coaxed him again.



“I used to be a drug addict,” he said softly, looking reluctant. “I was on crack. I tried it once at a regular party, not a Frat party, after someone offered me a little. “I thought, ‘What the hell? It’s only a little crack. It’ll be harmless.’ I took it, and was instantly hooked. I LIKED the crack, and loved the high I got off from it. It was such a rush! I soon was snorting crack 20 times a day.


I was skipping classes to snort crack. I couldn’t stop, and I LIKED not being able to stop. I was using money my folks gave me to buy crack. I had a drug dealer that would come to this school, and we would make the exchange. When my money ran out, I soon began stealing money from other students to buy crack. I was always shaking and sweating when I couldn’t have my fix. After the fix, I would start convulsing, because Darryl, crack makes you convulse. But I did stop sweating. When Dean Riley found a trace of cocaine on my book bag, he demanded I seek rehab. I said, “I don’t have a problem! I’m not a crack addict! I’ve never even taken crack in my life! That’s not my crack!”



He let me go for a few days, but soon found me snorting crack. He watched me as I finished with my “fix” and confronted me.



“Dean Riley,” I had said in surprise. I knew I was busted, but I wasn’t going down without a little lying. “It’s not what you think. It’s not crack, it’s baby powder,” I had lied. I soon began to convulse.



Dean Riley searched my book bag and my dorm and found five more bags of crack.



“So, all of this is Baby Powder, huh?’ He said wryly, obviously not believing me.



I had looked at the floor. “So, am I going to jail?’ I had asked him.



“No, we’re going to take you to Rehab,” Dean Riley told me.



“No! I need the crack!” I yelled. I lunged for the crack, but missed and ended up on the floor. “Dean Riley, I can’t live without the crack,” I said. “I need it! I need it!” I yelled again, and got up. “I want it!” I yelled. I looked like a madman. My eyes were wild and I was doing this wild, wild, dance. “Give it to me!” I yelled again. I began to burst into tears because of my addiction.




Dean Riley gently wiped my tears and threw away the bags of crack. I actually tried to dig into the garbage to get my “fixes”, but Dean Riley gently stopped me.



“You have a problem, son,” he told me gently. “You need help.” He put me in Rehab, and I was there for two weeks. The withdrawal symptoms were murder. I couldn’t get my fixes, I was sweating and shaking, and my brain had gotten so used to the crack that it wanted more. My body started to go through pain, because I was going through drug withdrawal. I was sweating my bed sheets so much that it looked like I had wet the bed. A counselor talked to me about how much better my life would be without the crack. When I had been de-toxed, I felt good and made a vow that I would not use crack anymore. A full year later, I am still crack-free. “He gave me a big smile.



“That was only a year ago?” I asked him, shocked.



“Yeah. And my family doesn’t know. The WonderBoys threatened to tell them about my addiction and Rehab if I continued to be your friend,” he answered.



“Wow,” I answered. “Thanks for sharing your story with me,” I told him.


"You're welcome," Dave said.

 

[Karice]

Part 10

“You have anything you want to tell me?” He asked me, looking curious.



“Yes. I used to mug people, rob stores, rob houses, and steal cars with my friends back home,” I confessed. Somehow, I felt I could talk to Dave about anything.



“I won’t tell anyone what you told me,” Dave said, and I believed him.



“When my mom found out, she went ballistic. She told me I’d better get a scholarship to boarding school or go to boot camp. Guess which one I chose?” I smiled at him.



“Boarding school?” Dave said, laughing.



“Yep,” I answered.



“How’d your mom find out?” Dave asked me.



“She began asking me where I got all this money I had had on me. I kept telling her that I found it on the ground. How many times does the same person find money on the floor? And she saw caught me driving a stolen car and confronted me and I had confessed I stole the car, and I ended up telling her that I didn’t find the money on the ground, but that I stole it,” I confessed to Dave.



“Wow.” Dave said.



“I know,” I replied to Dave.



Dave said, “Look at this: In this dorm, an ex-crack addict, and an ex-robber. “He smiled. For some reason, Dave’s funny imposition was contagious, and I found myself in a very humorous mood. I grinned broadly. I was in a good mood.



“You know, it is getting late,” I said.



“I’m feeling a little tired myself,” Dave concurred.



We changed into our nightclothes and I turned off our light. Dave and I told each other goodnight and we both climbed into our beds.



As I lay in bed, I reminisced about something. You know, today was not my first taste of racism. I had my first taste of racism when I was six years old. And surprisingly, it was not the White people who were racist towards me. It was other Black people. Many people believe that Black people are safe from racism from other Black people, that Black people aren’t racist towards other Black people, but that was not the case in my situation.



I was in Van E. Blanton Elementary School, trying to play with other Black kids who had Milk Chocolate skin colors and Dark Chocolate skin colors. The MC looked like the outside of Twix Bars, and the DC looked like Hershey’s Special Dark. I asked if I could play with them, and they told me no.



“Why not?” I asked.



“Because, you are too light too play with us. You are not very brown,” one girl told me.



A boy told me, “If you were browner like us, you could play with us.”



So because I was a “caramel”, they didn’t want to play with me. If I were a Brownie (Twix Bar) or a Blackie (Special Dark), I would have been able to play with them. I decided I didn’t like the Brownies and the Blackies. They treated me badly because I was too light to play with them.



But for some reason, the Whities let me play with them (You should know what a “Whitie” was). They didn’t show me racism, and I liked them a lot. The Reddies (Red-Skinners, like my mom’s color), Mixies (People who were both Black and White), the Spanies (Hispanics), Asianies (You should know what an Asianie was too), and the other Goldies (people with my skin color) also always let me play with them. I once went home to my mother and said, “I don’t like Brownies and Blackies!” They are so mean! They never let me play with them!”



She looked confused, so I had quickly explained to her what the Brownies and Blackies were. I told her about the other “Ies” too. I told her that I loved the other “Ies”.



“No one can make you feel inferior without your permission,” Mom had told me firmly.



“What does “inferior” mean? I had asked her. Hey! I was only six at the time!



“Inferior means bad,” Mom had explained to me. “Those kids only make you feel bad because you give them permission to make you feel bad.”



“I allowed them to make me feel bad?” I had asked, a little perplexed.



“Yes. Ignore them and you will feel better.” Mom had told me.

I had went to school, and I tried to ignore them, and they ignored me too. There was soon visible animosity between me and the Brownies/Blackies (and the other “Ies” because they also ignored the B&B and vice versa.



Finally, our first grade teacher, Mrs. Gray said, “Stop this animosity! (We didn’t know what animosity was, so she told us). She said, “Look at Martin Luther King.” She showed us a picture of Martin Luther King. He was a “Brownie” and he made life better for all shades of color! He didn’t care what “color” he made life better for! He just did!” We also bleed the same color of blood. Red.



Everybody heeded her words, and we made up with the B&Bs. We all played together.



Back to the present. I fell asleep in a few minutes.



When I awoke on Friday, I got ready for school and did more schoolwork at school. After school, Dave and I went to the dorms, but after an hour, I left the dorm to go walk around.



As I was walking around, I saw an open dorm door. I peeked inside, and saw two students sitting on the floor. One was blond, and the other was brown-haired. The Brown-haired guy took out a bag that had white stuff in it, took some of the white stuff out of it and put it in his hand and snorted the powder. He soon convulsed. The white powder was crack, I knew. The other guy put a rubber band around his arm and put a syringe in his left hand and put it into his other arm. I saw a liquid that was in the syringe disappear as he “pumped” the syringe. He soon convulsed too.



I THINK it was heroin that that guy put in his veins. It could have been insulin shot for a diabetic, but something told me that it was heroin. There are drugs on this campus! I thought in my head, not believing my eyes. This school was supposed to be a drug-free place! Thos was Johnson Prep School! Not a run-down inner city public high school! In North Miami High I had never seen any drugs (not that NMSH was an inner-city school), and here it was this prestigious prep school had people convulsing over drugs. In fact, I had never seen drugs in real life. I had only seen them on T.V.



I quickly left that dorm in case they saw me. I went back to our dorm.



I was breathing hard when I came back.



“What happened?” Dave asked me again.



“There are people snorting crack and shooting heroin on this campus! There are drugs on this campus!” I screamed wildly.



“Of course there are drugs on this campus,” Dave told me softly. “Remember me?”



I had forgotten that Dave had been a crack addict once.


“Oh yeah.” I said.



“You can’t escape drugs, Darryl,” he told me softly. Drugs are everywhere you go.”



“Where I was raised, I never saw drugs.” I said.



“Where were you raised?” Dave asked me.



“North Miami,” I answered him. There were no drugs here,” I persisted.



“You sure?” He asked me quietly. “You sure you just didn’t see any drugs? Because I’m sure even the most idyllic sub-cities have drugs. Are you sure there were never any drugs?” He looked at me thoroughly.



“Yeah, I think I might have seen a drug deal going on one day,” I said remembering. My family was at church one Sunday morning, and the church door was ajar, and my cousin Tasha and I looked outside, and saw two men standing in front of a building connected to our church. We saw one man give money to the other man and the other man gave him a paper bag. Tasha said, “Look! Those guys are buying and selling drugs!” But she didn’t know for sure. All we saw was an exchange of money and a paper bag. It could have been a drug deal, though, Dave,” I finished.



“I’m sure it WAS a drug deal that you and your cousin witnessed, Dave told me softly.



“Yeah, it could have been,” I agreed.



I suddenly didn’t feel like talking about the subject anymore. “So Dave, have you started on your homework yet?” I asked him.



“Yeah, I started,” Dave replied. “Did you finish your report?” He asked me.



“All I have to do is type this onto our computer and I will be done,” I replied.



“Good for you.” Dave said to me.



I went over to the computer and typed up my report, saved every few minutes, and then print. I was done with my report. Soon, it was dinner time. We still didn’t want to go into the dining hall. For lunch, we had bought 4 big bags of Chips (2 Lays Original) and 2 Cheetos Original. One was our lunch, and one was our dinner. We took out our Lays and ate “dinner”. Then we ate some cookies we had not eaten the night before for “dessert”. After that, I called my mother and told her I loved her. I didn’t tell her about my Sneery Attack though. I hadn’t wanted to worry her. She told me she loved me too and was proud of me. We chatted for a few more minutes, I said goodbye, and then hung up.



After finishing our homework, bathing, and changing into our nightclothes, we both went to bed.

 

[Karice]

Part 11

I fell asleep, but woke up again a long while later. I heard two voices. Dave and Skippy’s.



Skippy said, “I’m so glad we can be together again.”



Dave said, “Me too. I’m glad you’re here, Max.” I heard the unmistakable sound of kissing.



Between kisses, I heard Skippy say, “It’s so hard to keep this a secret. I love you so much, and I have to pretend to just be your dorm parent. I am tired of it.” They kissed again.


Dave said, “I know,” after that kiss. You are one of the greatest things to happen to me.”



Skippy said, “Are you sure your roommate is asleep? If he is awake……………” His voice trailed of.



Dave said, “Darryl? He sleeps straight through the night. I don’t think he’ll hear us.”



“You sure?” Max asked uncertainly. “I can’t take the risk of him knowing about us…………..”



I heard Skippy’s footsteps come closer to my bed. I had been under covers, and I quickly shut my eyes. Just in time. Skippy pulled back my covers. I suppressed a little smile.



“Hello? Hello? Skippy said to me. “Are you awake?” He asked.



I had to hold back my laughter, but I remained still. I heard Dave’s footsteps come up closer to my bed too. I knew he was looking at me too.



“You see?” I told you, he’s sleeping.” Dave sounded like he was right by me. “He sleeps tight, all the time,” Dave said. Just to make sure, Dave said, “Darryl? Are you awake? Can you hear me?” I remained still. Dave said, “He’s asleep.”



Skippy breathed a satisfied sigh, and went back to Dave’s bed. I heard him lie next to Dave.



I heard Dave say, “I love when you hold me like that. It makes me feel so good.”



“I feel good too,” Skippy said. They kissed a long kiss this time, at least two minutes. When they were done, Dave said, “Max, how come you don’t visit me in the dorm often?”



“I don’t visit you often because you have a dorm mate. It would look pretty weird for me to show up out of the blue every day. What would Darryl say?” Max replied.

“You’re a dorm parent,” Dave pointed out. “Darryl could just think you were just checking up on your charges.



“Yeah, but it would be pretty strange if he found out I was only visiting this dorm in particular,” Max answered. “He would know something was up.”



“Yeah, but,……….” Dave started.



“Shh……” Max said, and they kissed again for a while. After kissing, Max said, “We can’t let anyone know about us. If they found out, I could lose my job as a dorm parent because dating you is against school policy, you would be scandalized, and I don’t want you to be scandalized. You know Johnson frowns upon gay affairs. I could also be thrown into prison because I am eighteen, a legal adult, and you are 16, a minor. That’s called Statutory Rape in Florida, and we both know it. “



“I know, but I love you, Max,” Dave said sadly and heart-felt.



“I love you too, sweetie, “he said, but it’s really hard to keep our love under wraps.”



“I know,” Dave said again. “Are you trying to say we are breaking up?” He sounded heart-broken.



“Never!” Skippy said vehemently. “We just have to be careful. You know, I love this job of being the school tour guide and dorm parent. I love the kids at this school. I don’t wanna lose that.”



Dave said, “Don’t worry. I will never spill the beans about us!” He sounded vehement too.



They kissed for a little while longer. Dave said, “Our love affair is really hard to hide.” He sighed.



Max said, “I know. Let’s just keep it up a while longer. I’ve gotta go now, honey. I’ve gotta go back to my dorm.”



They kissed a long goodnight kiss. I heard Skippy’s footsteps coming towards the door.



“Wait, when will I see you again?” Dave asked, sounding desperate.



“Tomorrow,” Skippy promised. “I’ll see you tomorrow."



“What about Darryl? How will you see me without Darryl seeing us? I don’t want to have to meet like this again, in the middle of the night.



Skippy thought for a while. Darryl‘s a slight problem, but I will come see you tomorrow, while you are supposed to be in your first class. I’ll write your teacher an excuse note and say that your room was so messy that I made you stay and clean it. Your teacher will believe me because I’ve actually had to make students stay and clean their rooms before they left for school. Johnson prides itself on a clean, tidy environment. I’ve had to write a few excuse notes before. This won’t look any different from the other notes, except this time, you won’t be cleaning your room; you and I will actually be spending some much needed quality time together."



“Won’t Darryl be suspicious? We always walk to school together,” Dave said.



“Just walk to school with Darryl like you always do, but sneak back to the dorm while he heads back to his class. You guys have different classes, remember?” Skippy answered.



Dave eagerly agreed.



They both said, “Goodbye.”



Skippy left and Dave lied on his bed.



“Max is so sweet,” Dave said to himself. He giggled happily to himself. I could tell Dave really liked Skippy. You see? I knew they were gay! Remember when Dave got all happy-looking when I mentioned Max’s name and I asked him if they were a couple and he said “no?” I knew it! “Max is just a sweet guy” my ass!



Dave said, “It's 4 AM. I’ve gotta get some sleep." In a few minutes, I heard snoring.



I fell asleep too a while later.



Dave woke me up at 7:30. Darryl wake up!” He screamed at me. “Get ready for school!”



I smiled a secret smile at him. “I don’t think I’m going to school today,” I started to lie. “I have a fever,” I continued lying. I wanted to see his reaction.



Dave looked distraught. “Please not now,” he said, sounding upset.



“What do you mean?” I asked him, trying to sound guileless.



“Why did you have to get a fever today?” He sighed.



“I didn’t ask for this fever,” I said, sounding petulant.



Dave sighed and put his hand on my face. “Your skin doesn’t feel as if it has a fever,” he said, thoughtfully. “I’ll give you a thermometer just to check it out. He gave me a thermometer. After a few seconds, the reading was done. “98.6,” Dave said softly. “Normal.” Darn it!



I blushed. “Okay, I don’t really have a fever,” I confessed. “I lied.”



“Why did you lie?” Dave asked me, looking at me intently.



“I just didn’t want to go to school today,” I told him. “Maybe I’ll lie in bed all day. I wanted to see what he would say.



Dave’s eyes held panic in them. “Go to school Darryl!” he said, urgently.



“Why do you want me to go to school so badly?” I asked him.



“I just want you to get your education.” Dave said. (Liar)



“I want to stay home!” I told him petulantly again.



Dave looked really upset. “Please go to school Darryl?” He looked pleadingly into my eyes.



A little voice told me, “Just go to school and let Dave and Max have their quality time together. They’re both nice people who love each and just want to spend some time together.”



I sighed. “Okay, I’ll get ready for school.”



Dave smiled. “Are you ready for school yet?” I asked him.



Dave answered, “Yes. I’ve already showered and everything.”



I quickly got ready for school, and Dave and I walked to school.



When we got to my class, I told Dave “bye” and he told me “bye” too, and looked really nervous. I knew he was going back to the dorm to meet Max.



Dave didn’t know this, but I saw him head back in the direction of our dorm.



I went to all of my classes, and did assignments, and then it was lunch time.



At lunch, Dave and I sat across from each other. Skippy came by, and I saw Dave and Skippy smile secretly at each other, then quickly look away and blush. I knew they had spent their quality time together.



Skippy sat down next to Dave and said, “Hi,” to both of us.


“Hi, we both said.



“Dave, what time did you come to class today?” I asked. I knew he had come in late.



“What kind of question is that?” Dave replied. “I came to school with you, remember?”



I had worded that in a suspicious way.



“Oh yeah,” I told him softly. ‘I forgot.



Dave said, “Well, actually, I came in late.” He said this in a confessional tone. “I forgot to do finish my homework, and I went back to the dorm to finish it.” Liar! I thought.



“How long did it take?” I asked him.



“I came to first period about 8:40,” Dave said.



Max said, “It’s true. I remember seeing him going back to the dorm and I asked him what he was doing. He told me about the homework, and I wrote him an excuse letter. He’s such a loyal student. He put his arm around Dave’s shoulder and smiled at him. Dave looked content.



“Are you sure you’re supposed to give Dave an excuse letter for that? Couldn’t you be fired for giving Dave special notes?”



“Why would I be fired for helping my charge out?” Max looked confused. He removed his arm.



“Yes, your charge,” I said, emphatically. “Couldn’t you be fired for giving one charge special attention?”



Max suddenly looked troubled. ‘I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”



Even Dave looked troubled. We finished up lunch, and I went back to my classes, and did more work.

 

[Karice]

Part 12

After school, I went to the dorm, and Dave and I did some homework. After a while, Dave went to the bathroom. I noticed something sticking out from under Dave’s bed. I quietly but quickly went to it and took it out. It was picture of Skippy, smiling. Next to it, was a love card, from Skippy to Dave. It read on the outside, ‘Thinking of you,” and on the inside, it read, ‘All the time, you really blow my mind!” On the other side was Skippy’s handwritten letter to Dave.



“Dave, we’ve been together for a long time and I hope we’re together for even longer. You are my shining star and I love you. I wouldn’t give you up for anything in the world. Love, Max.”



I quickly put the card back where it was and rushed back to my homework. Dave came out a few seconds later. He continued his homework.



I did some homework too. When I was done, I told Dave I was going to Student Life (Outside). He said, “Okay,” and I left. I walked out the door, and I saw Skippy coming towards our dorm. I knew he was coming over to see Dave.



“Hey, Max,” I said, smiling. “Hey Darryl,” he said, smiling back happily. “Where are you going?”



“I’m going to Student Life Outside,” I told him.



“Oh, you’re going to be gone for a LONG time, then, huh?” Skippy asked me with a hopeful look.



“I’ll be gone for about an hour,” I told him.



Skippy beamed. He could go see his boyfriend again, I knew.



“Wait, there is something I forgot,” I told him.



“What is it?” Skippy asked.



“I have something in the closet. I think it’s better if it came out of the closet. I think it really needs to come out of the closet,” I told him pointedly.



Skippy looked at me perplexed. “Then go get it,” he said, puzzled.



“I will,” I told him. I went back into the dorm and got out a book from my closet called, ‘The Chocolate Touch.” It’s about a boy who likes chocolate way too much. He makes a wish that everything he touches turns to chocolate. And it comes true. He turns his toothpaste into chocolate, his pencil into chocolate, and even his own mother into chocolate! It’s a good book though.



I got out with the book and showed it to Max. Max smiled at me and, “That is a wonderful book.”



I smiled back at him and left. I went behind the Alexander Hall hallway corner, and peeked my head out. I saw Max go into our dorm.



I walked to Student Life (Outside). I sat at a bench, and read some of The Chocolate Touch. After a while, I begun to reminisce about North Miami. My three friends, Sean, Julian, and Mario would avoid doing our crimes in North Miami and Biscayne Gardens (BG is actually a part of North Miami), because they were our hometowns. We did rob North Miami Beach, NM’s “brother” hometown. A lot.



On our crime sprees, we would go up to people, wave our guns in front of them, and they would fork over the cash. We wear disguises too. Hooded jackets and ski masks.



The other “brother” neighborhood is Miami Shores. That sub-city is wealthy! If we robbed MS, we would be rich! But, it is really protected. There are police crawling everywhere in that sub-city. It’s a huge risk for us.



One day, Sean suggested that we rob in Miami Shores. I said, “Sean, what is wrong with you? Why would we rob such a high-risk place?”



Sean said, “But, we’d be rich!” His eyes were happily shining.



Mario said, “Yeah. We could have bling-bling all the time!” (“Bling-bling” is slang for flashy jewelry).



Julian reluctantly agreed. “Mario and Sean, you have good points.” He looked at me next. “What do you think?”



I thought thoughtfully for a while. I pursed my lips together for a while thoughtfully, and then reluctantly said, “Those are good points. Let’s go to Miami Shores!”



We all agreed and in just a little while, we were in Miami Shores.



“Let’s not do our muggings on the main streets,” I suggested. “There are way too many police patrolling the main streets. (Miami Shores has dozens of police cars going up and down it). “Let’s go to the neighborhoods.”



They all agreed and we went off the main streets.



We were walking around, looking for a victim, when we spotted him. He was a man around his 30’s, wearing a white shirt and black slacks, and had brown hair and brown eyes. He looked like he worked in a high-tech office. He had a PDA in one hand and a cell phone in the other hand. The closest celebrity I could say he looked like was Michael Dell, creator of Dell Computers.



We walked up to him and said, “Give us all your money!” We showed him our guns.



He calmly said, “I am not giving you guys my money.”



We shot at the ground to show him that our guns were real and not fake guns. Still, he was calm.



“I am not giving you guys any money,” he repeated, and then said, ‘Call me back in a few minutes,” to the person on the phone, put the phone and the PDA down on the ground, and took out a bottle of pepper spray. He sprayed the mist in all of our eyes.



It hurt like hell! I fell to the ground. “Oh my sh…..! God help me!” I screamed in pain. The mist was stinging my eyes. The other three reacted the same way.



Then the man began to beat us up! He kicked all four of us over and over!” He beat the sh….. out of us! We all got up and ran away from him, half-blinded. We went to another street, took off our ski masks, then we went to a main street and went to a restaurant to use its bathroom, and we all rinsed out our eyes.



I turned and glared at Sean. “This is all your fault. You and your stupid Miami Shores plan. If you hadn’t suggested we come here to do crime, none of this would have happened.”



Mario said quietly, “You know, this is your fault too, Darryl.”



“How is it my fault?” I asked Mario.



“You’re the one who suggested we go off the main streets to mug people.”



“I said that because if we mugged on the main streets, we would have been caught. Too many police,” I answered him.



“It’s all of our faults. Can we just agree to disagree?” Julian asked.



We all agreed to disagree. (This is one of the little squabbles I was talking about.)



After that day, Sean still wanted to go to Miami Shores to score quick cash.



I looked at him, incredulous. “Sean, you are crazy. Didn’t you see what happened last time?”



“Yeah, but this time, we’ll rob houses, not people.”



Julian, Mario, and I foolishly agreed. We went to Miami Shores again, and went up to a blue Victorian house. There were no lights on and no cars outside.



I took out my credit card and stuck it in, trying to jimmy the lock open. All of a sudden, I heard an alarm siren and a computerized voice say, ‘Intruder! Intruder! Unknown intruder!” And something from the outside of the house came down and zapped me with 50 volts of electricity! I screamed, and shook at the same time! I was being discombobulated! That thing hurt like hell! White hot searing pain went through my entire body. I managed to get the card out, and the shock stopped.



I could barely walk when I left that house. Julian, Sean, and Mario asked me if I was okay.



“I… I’m, o… o…o….kay,” I said, stuttering and my teeth chattering. I was also shivering. They helped be back into Mario’s car and Julian let me lie down on him in the backseat. Mario drove the car, and Sean sat in the passenger seat. I was still shaking while Mario drove me home. When we reached my house, they helped walk me to the front door. They walked me to my bed, and helped me lie down. As I lay down, Sean said he was really sorry. I could see the regret in his eyes as he told me that. I was too much in shock to be mad at him, even though I knew I should be.



Mario and Julian said that they hoped I felt better soon. Sean said that he knew I would feel better soon. Mario fed me some soup, Julian cleaned up my room for me and Sean had red me some of my favorite book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and fluffed my pillows and massaged my feet.



“I’m really sorry,” Darryl,” he said again.



“It’s o…o….kay,” I answered. I was still too “shocked” to be mad. After a while, the shock went away.



“Sean, I’m not mad at you. You didn’t know that house had such a powerful security system.” I smiled wryly.



“Sean said, “I still feel bad.”



Mario said, “I think we can all agree on something.”



“What’s that?” I asked.



“We never want to do our crime sprees in Miami Shores again!” Mario exclaimed.



Julian said, “I think we should take Miami Shores off our list forever.”



I said, “Let’s make a pact to never ever do our crime sprees in high-risk places again!”



Sean said, ‘and I’ll never ask us to do our crime sprees in high-risk places again!”



We all agreed to the pact, and Miami Shores was permanently crossed off.



When I was done reminiscing, I looked at the time on my cell phone. It was now 7:20. I had been sitting here for over an hour! I went back to the dorm.

Dave had a big smile on his face when I entered.



“What are you so happy about?” I asked him, already knowing.



“Nothing, “Dave said.



I walked over to him. “Dave, do you have a girlfriend?” I asked him.



“No.” He looked really nervous.



“Why not?” I asked him.



“None of the girls I know are my type. He said.



“So, you’re single?” I asked him. “At our sister school, there is going to be a party. Lots of girls are going to be there.”



Dave looked even more nervous. He began to stammer…. “I….I… I... don’t think the girls there are my type either. “He looked at the floor.



I knew what his type was. Max.



“I don’t have a girlfriend either,” I said.



Dave looked at me in surprise. “Are you gay?” He asked.



“No, I just don’t have a girlfriend right now. Speaking of gay, how do you feel about gays?’ I asked him.



Dave coughed in surprise. I knew I had caught him off-guard.



“I think there’s nothing wrong with being gay,” he said, looking caught off-guard. “How do you feel about gays?” He asked me back.



“I accept gays. I don’t judge people for being gay. I looked at him intently, trying to get him to open up to me. “I accept people the way they are. If I were living with a gay, I wouldn’t want to move out just because they were gay.



“You know, there are some gays on this campus. Some students date each other,” Dave confessed.



And some students date dorm parents, I said mentally.



“Dave, I said out loud, I feel I can tell you anything. I can talk to you, and know that you won’t judge me.” Dave smiled self-conscious.



“Just know one thing. I don’t judge you either, Dave. You can confess anything to me, and I won’t judge you,” I told him pointedly.



Dave took a deep breath. “I have a boyfriend,” he confessed.



“You do?” I asked, pretending to be shocked. “You’re gay?”



“Yes, Dave confirmed.



“Who is it?” I asked, already knowing. “Who’s the man in your life?”



Dave looked “closed” again. “I can’t tell you. If people found out I was dating him, he’d lose his job.”



“Why? Is he on this campus?” I asked.



“He doesn’t go to this school.” Dave answered.



“Then why can’t you let anyone know about you and he?” I asked.



“He’s a legal adult.” Dave answered.



“What does that have to do with him losing his job?’ I asked him.



Dave gave me a chagrined look.



“Is he a professor?” I asked him.



“No,” Dave answered.



“Does he work anywhere on this campus?” I asked him.



“I promised him I wouldn’t let anyone know I was dating him because he’s really worried that I would be scandalized."


“I thought you said that there were gays on this campus. Why would you be scandalized?’ I asked.



“Being gay is frowned upon in this school. The students date each other in secret.” Dave answered.



“Why does Max show up so often at this dorm?” I asked him suddenly.



“How did you know that?” Dave asked me, looking sharply at me.



“He showed up at our dorm when you were late for class and II saw him go into our dorm when I left the dorm.



“Uh…um….um…,’ Dave stammered uncomfortably.



Just then, there was a knock on the door. I opened it. It was Skippy.



Skippy gave me a nervous expression and smile.



“Darryl? Is an hour up already?” He looked uncomfortable and surprised.



“Yes, actually, it’s been over an hour,” I said, looking at him intently.



“Darryl, don’t you want to go eat dinner in the hall?” Skippy asked.



“No, I’m not hungry,” I told him.



Skippy laughed uncomfortably again. I knew he was feeling nervous.



“Don’t you want to go visit other dorms?” Skippy asked.



“No,” I said again. “I don’t have that many friends here.”



Skippy said to Dave, “I need to show you something in the bathroom.” Dave said, “I’m coming.” He got up and they went into the bathroom. I heard the sound of a doorknob clicking. In a few minutes, I walked up to the closed bathroom door and opened it. I guess one of them thought he had locked it.



I saw Skippy and Dave French kissing. Dave was sitting on the counter, and Max was in front of him, with his hands on either side of Dave. Dave’s hand was behind Max’s head.



They were so into their kiss, it took them a long while to notice I was in the room. When they did notice me, they immediately broke their kiss.



“Darryl!” Skippy said in shock. “It’s not what it looks like. We were just playing.” He backed away from Dave.



Dave giggled nervously and said, ‘we were just playing. We don’t like each other like that.” I could see sweat on his face, and he was smiling a fake, uncomfortable smile. He could barely look me in the eyes.



“Save it guys.” I said. “Max, you were in our dorm early this morning,” I told him softly.



“Yeah, when Dave came late because he had to do his homework,” Max said.



“No, I meant even earlier this morning. Like after 3 AM. I was awake, Max.”



Max looked caught.



I continued. “I heard everything you two said to each other. About how you two were tired of pretending to just be dormparent and dorm resident. Dave saying that you were the greatest thing to happen to him. You two professing your love for each other to each other. You talking about how you couldn’t let anyone know about the two of you. I concluded, I heard everything, Max and Dave. I’ll stop now with that."



After a minute, I said, ‘Dave, you told me that you had a boyfriend who would get into trouble and lose his job if your relationship was found out. Now you know that I know about you and Max.



Dave blushed.



Max looked at me pleadingly. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t." I assured him.



Skippy and Dave looked relieved.



Skippy said, “You were talking about me, weren’t you?”



“When?” I asked him.



“When you said, “The closet.” I am so slow to figure out what you meant just now.” He smiled.



“What?” Dave asked, confused.



“Basically, I told Max that I had something in the closet and that it needed to come out.”



“Oh,” Dave said.



All three of us left the bathroom. Dave and Max sat on Dave’s bed, holding hands.



“So, how’d you guys start dating?” I asked.



Max answered, “Dave and I met when we were both students here over two years ago. We fell in love, and have been dating steadily since then. They smiled at each other warmly. They really did make a good couple, I thought to myself.



“What about the dormparent thing?” I asked.



Dave answered. Max told me one of his biggest dreams was to become a dormparent. He always looked at the dormparents with stars in his eyes. When he told me he wanted to become a dormparent, I was crushed. I thought we would have to break up, because our relationship is already against the rules, and this would make it even worse. I wanted him to be happy, but I wanted to still be his boyfriend. But, I know the risks. Max and I decided that we would just keep our relationship even more secretive. And it’s worked.”



“Why did you lie to me when I asked you if you and Max were a couple?” I asked.



Dave gave me a sheepish blush. “I didn’t want you to know I was gay because I didn’t know how you would accept me. There are a lot of people on this campus who shun gays. They treat us like we are diseased-ridden aliens. I looked at you in surprise when you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend because I thought you might be gay. If you were, I would have come out and told you that I was gay, too. He gave me an intense look. “If I had told you that Max and I were a couple when you asked me that first day, would you have asked to move out?” He looked really serious.



“No, I wouldn’t have. I am okay with gays,” I told him.



“So, you don’t think of our lifestyle as “weird?’” Dave asked. He looked even more intent.



I looked at the ground. I thought it was “different”.



Dave said, “You don’t have to answer.” He seemed to already know.



Max said, “Darryl, if it were found out that Dave and I were dating, I could lose my job. Dave could be shunned. I could end up in jail for statutory rape.” He looked very serious.” I guess you already know that since you were awake last night. You heard it all.”



“Yeah, I did," I said.



Max said, “Dave and I love each other very much. It would break our hearts if someone were to spill the beans about us and get us broken up. “I knew by “somebody”, he meant me.



“Look, why do you keep saying that you don’t want me to tell about you guys?” I asked, annoyed.



“Max said, ‘I’m sorry. It’s just that you’re the only person who knows about us.” He looked sheepish. “We’ve hid it for over two years, and in less than a week, you figured our secret out.”



Dave said, “Darryl doesn’t seem to like the kind of person who would let secrets out.” Dave gave me a little wink. “I think the “wink” was referring to Dave’s crack and the PBA.



I asked an uncomfortable question. “Do you give Dave special “attention” (you know, let him get away with “bad” stuff), because he and your relationship?"



Max answered me with a light smile. Dave behaves because he knows I love my job, and can’t grant him special “attention” because I could get into a lot of trouble. Plus, I don’t want to have to write him up or kick him out of the dorm because that would put a damper in our relationship.”



“So, when you told me that you had written an excuse note for Dave because he had forgotten to finish his homework, didn’t you use special attention for Dave?” I asked/pointed out.



Max said, “Yes, but that thing was a lie. We just really needed to be alone. We hadn’t had too much quality time in a while, and just decided to hang out without worrying about you being awake. No offense,” he finished.



“Oh.” I said. Dave said, “You were pulling something yourself, Darryl.”



“Who me?” I asked.



“Yes you.” He said. “Oh, Dave, I feel sick, I have a fever,” he said, doing a mock version of me. “Feel my temperature….. That is completely normal!” He said, while giving me a teasing smile. “I should have known something was up. I should have known that you were on to us.”



“Yeah, I wanted to see what you would do if I told you I wanted to stay home because I was sick,” I told him.



“I must admit, I wasn’t too happy when you told me you were sick,” Dave admitted. “I didn’t know how I was going to explain Max coming over if you and I were supposed to be in school. Well, I guess when you saw Max here, Max and I would have been out of the closet this morning. Oh, and yeah, I worried about you being sick too,” Dave said with a wink.



Max chimed in. ‘If Darryl were really sick, Dave and I would have just had to reschedule our “date”. Dave is very motherly and will skip a day of school to nurse someone back to health. I probably would have just said that I was at the dorm to check on you guys because you guys didn’t leave the dorm. That would have been a plausible excuse.”



“You have a good point, Max”, I said.



Dave said he was getting tired and he and Max gave each other hugs and kissed good-bye on the lips. And then he left.



Dave and I both went to sleep.

 

[Karice]

Part 13

When we woke up, it was time for school again. We got ready for school. We went to school again, and did more assignments again. At lunch, Dave sat next to me. We ate our food and chatted amicably. We ate pizza, salad, corn, pineapples, and orange soda.



After eating, there was still about 20 minutes left of our lunch hour. Dave and I went to Student Life Inside, and sat down. When we looked up, we saw the Sneerys again.



Sneery Right said, “I see you two are still friends.” He smiled an evil smile.



Sneery Left said, “After what happened the other day.”



“Please just leave us alone. Like I told you before, we’ve never hurt you.” Dave said. I could see that the fear was back in Dave’s eyes. Dave was really scared of these guys. They must have had some strong hold over Dave.



Dave begun to back away, but Sneery Right grabbed him. “Please leave me alone!” Dave cried again, his eyes as wide as saucers. He sounded and looked frightened. I felt bad for him. “Just let Dave go. He’s a real nice guy and wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I said standing up for him.



Sneery Right let go of Dave. “We’re not going to beat you up again. Max Cartwright would kill us both if we ever touched you again.” Sneery right smiled an evil smile.



Sneery Left said, "Yeah. He cares about you two.” He smiled a cruel smile too.



Sneery Right said, "Dave must be his favorite charge. A charge he loves a lot. More than usual for a dormparent.”



Dave’s color drained from his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said unconvincingly.



“We know that you and Max Cartwright love each other. Like a gay couple.” Sneery Right smiled even more evilly.



“That’s a lie,” Dave said. He backed away a little more.



Sneery Left pushed him back to where he was. He put his face next to Dave’s menacingly.



“There is no place for gays at PBA,” he said very quietly.



Sneery Right said, ‘Only straight students can join our PBA.”



Sneery Left said, “That means you’re not eligible, Dave,” he smiled more evilly too.



“Dave said, ‘I’m not gay. I’m straight.” I could see sweat pouring down his face.



The Sneerys were really scaring me. I wanted to leave. Even leave them Dave with them. But something wouldn’t let me. I knew what it was. Dave had stuck by me when I was getting beat up. He hadn’t betrayed me. He kept getting beat up too, but didn’t give in and betray me by calling me a Nig. I had to do the same thing for him. I stayed.



Just then, Max stopped by. “Hi, Max Cartwright,” Sneery right said.



Max’s eyes held a note of suspicion. “What’s going on?” He asked in a guarded, wary tone.


“Oh, nothing. It’s just that Dave told us you two were dating. Sneery right said, smiling evilly.



That was a lie! Dave denied the whole thing! I thought in shock and outrage.



Sneery Left said, “You know that’s against the rules, don’t you, Mr. Dormparent?”



Skippy said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in a cool tone. “Dave and I aren’t dating.” He looked at Dave. “Are we Dave?” Dave shook his head.



Skippy said, “I love my job way too much too risk it dating a dorm resident.” He seemed so truthful, but I knew about them two.



“But, Dave told us you two were dating,” Sneery Left said, grabbing at straws. He seemed kind of desperate and frustrated that neither Dave nor Skippy was taking the bait.



“It’s not true,” Skippy said firmly. “Dave wouldn’t say that because it’s not true. Besides, Dave has a girlfriend. Her name is Allison.” I saw the taken aback look Dave gave Skippy, but the Sneerys didn’t notice.



Dave decided to recover and play along. “Yeah, we’ve been in a long-distance relationship for a while now. She’s the love of my life. Besides, Max has a girlfriend too. Becky. She’s a really sweet girl.”



Max decided to play along too. “Yes, Becky and I have been together for 5 months. We’re in a really committed relationship, and she’s the most wonderful girl I know.”



Sneery Right said, “You guys were making out in Dave’s dorm.”



Sneery Left said, “Yeah, you two were on Dave’s bed, getting it on.”



Max said, outraged, “These allegations are scandalous and ridiculous! I’ll sue for defamation of character!”



Dave said, “These two have nothing better to do than to make up false lies.” He looked around nervously.



“You guys seem pretty defensive,” Sneery Left said, perceptively.



“Yeah, they do. Let’s ask Darryl,” Sneery Right said. He turned to me.

“Are Max and Dave a couple?” I looked into Dave’s eyes, which seemed to say, “Don’t let us out of the closet.” It was a pleading look.



I looked at Max’s eyes next. I saw doubt and fear in them. They both didn’t want to be forced out of the closet.



I said, “No, they are not a gay couple.” I saw the couple smile relieved smiles.



Soon, it was time for class again. Dave thanked me for keeping their secrets. I welcomed him.



We did more assignments. After school we went to the dorm and watched T.V. and did some homework. I fell asleep soon after, and stayed asleep until around 8 that night. I was hungry, and Dave said that he was hungry too, so he and I ate dinner at the dining hall. We ate vegetable soup, some garlic butter bread, some orange juice, and lobster. After eating, we bumped into the Sneerys.



Dave and I tried to run, but the Sneerys were much to fast for us. Dave once again began shaking uncontrollably. Something was going on between all of them. What was it? I thought. Sneery left picked Dave up by his collar and pushed him into a wall. Dave quickly yelped.



Sneery right punched Dave in his temple. Dave groaned and fell to his knees.


“All I ever did was give you kindness,” Dave said softly. Sneery Left laughed cruelly and repeatedly punched Dave’s face. Dave looked like a rag doll.



“We’re gonna beat the “gay” out of you!” Sneery Right said, pulling Dave by his hair and slamming his head into the floor. Dave groaned as a pool of blood came gushing out of his head.



“Please, you’re gonna kill me!” Dave said emotionally. His eyes were rolling to the back of his head.



“Stop!” I screamed, unable to take them beating him up anymore. “He’s never hurt you guys. “Why are you beating him up?” I was finally out of my trance. I had been in a sort of trance while they were beating him up.



Sneery Left laughed cruelly. He continued to pummel Dave’s comatose body.



“He knows what he did,” Sneery right said cruelly. What had Dave done to deserve this? Be gay? Being gay gave a person the right to beat them to once inch of their life? I thought.



Just then, Max showed up. When he saw what was happening, he flew into a rage. He angrily choked Sneery Left. Sneery Left begun to gag up blood. To Sneery Right he angrily slammed his head into the hard linoleum floor. Really hard.



Finally, security showed up and took Max away from them. Then he called an ambulance for Dave. As Dave was being lifted into the ambulance, he weakly said, “I’ll see you soon Darryl. You too Max. He gave us a weak smile. We both said it back to him and the ambulance drove off. I couldn’t sleep too well. I was worried about Dave. After about 30 minutes, Max knocked on my dorm. I let him in.



“I’m going to get George and Robert for what they did to my baby.” He looked and sounded very vindictive. “He looked ready to die when I found him! They could have killed him! What would have happened if I hadn’t shown up when I did? His voice choked with emotion. His face contorted with the anger of his emotions.



“Please, no, don’t do anything to them,” I said. ‘You’re a dormparent. You can get into a lot of trouble. You can already get into trouble for what happened today,” I continued solemnly.



I saw the dark shadows in Max’s eyes. “Number one rule of dormparents. “Protect your charges and take care of your charges,” he said solemnly.



“Especially the charge you fell in love with,” I told him softly.



“Yeah, I love Dave, you know?” Max asked. He looked troubled. “And when I saw what they were doing to Dave, I couldn’t take it. I got really angry. I lost it. Dave has never hurt anyone in his life, and didn’t deserve that.”

‘I know. They beat him up before,” I said. Skippy’s eyes got shocked and even angrier. “What they beat him up before? Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked me, looking accusingly.


‘I chuckled weakly. “I thought you already knew." I had just spilled the beans.


“No, I didn’t. It seems as if Dave doesn’t tell me stuff like this anymore.” He looked sad.



“He probably didn’t want you to worry,” I said weakly.



“I am worried. They took him to an ambulance! I hope he’s okay,” Skippy said, wringing his hands nervously. He checked his watch. ‘I’d better go in and check on him. You wanna come with me?” he asked me.



“Sure”, I said. I was sure Dave would be thrilled to see us.

Skippy drove us to the hospital. At the hospital, we went to Dave’s room. Dave looked like hell when we saw him. He was having trouble breathing, so he had tubes up his nose. He had a bunch of bruises on his body too, and his eyes were half-closed.



“Hi, Darryl,” he said weakly, smiling at me. “Hi, Max,” he said, smiling at him too.



“Hi,” we both said.



Max said, ‘I hate what those guys did to you.”



Dave said, “It’s okay.”



Max said, ‘No it’s not okay. Look at you. You’re in a hospital! Look what they did too you.” His voice cracked with emotion.



“I said, “We hope you will feel better soon.”



Max said, ‘I love you, you know, and it hurts me to see you like this. I want to get those guys good. And don’t think I don’t know about the first time you got beat up,” he added.



“You told Max about that?” Dave asked me, accusingly.



‘It kind of slipped out, I said.



“Dave said, ‘I didn’t want to worry you Max.’


“No, I’m not worried at ALL,” Max said with sarcastic emphasis. “My boyfriend is just covered in bruises, breathing through a tube! I’m not worried at all!”



“Dave said, ‘Please. I just want to some rest,” Dave said, looking really tired.



Max said, “Fine. Bye. Feel better soon.”



“Thanks for coming,” he said to both of us.



We both welcomed him. We left.



While Dave recovered, Max spent a lot of time with me. I think he was using me to replace Dave in his life. He obviously needed a friend, and I obliged. We watched T. V. together and played video games with each other, and just hung out and chatted. Max was a really cool guy, not just my dormparent or my dormmate’s boyfriend. We had fun together.



When Dave recovered, Skippy picked him up from the hospital. Dave spent a day in bed, and we tended to him. Skippy fed him soup, and I rubbed his feet. The next day, Dave was okay to go back to school. At school, we saw the Sneerys. And they saw us.



I looked into Dave’s eyes. I was expecting to see anger for what they did to him, but I didn’t see anger. He actually looked compassionate for them. And he fear too.



“Hey, Dave, nice stay in the hospital?” Sneery left said asked evilly. Sneery Right said, “We gave you a little vacation.”



Dave asked, sounding weary, ‘why are you picking on me?”



Sneery left said, ‘You know what you did.” Sneery Right answered and grinned nastily.



Dave looked at me with chagrined eyes. But to them, he said, ‘That was a long time ago. Leave me alone.”



Sneery Right said, ‘We can tell your “friend” Max about what happened.



“Don’t you tell him anything!” Dave said, said, sounding outraged.



‘You don’t want your gay lover to find out you used to snort crack? That you were a serious crack head who was going around stealing money to support your habit?” Sneery left asked.



“Leave Max out of this,” Dave said sweating.



“Huh. Dave, you didn’t deny that Max is your lover,” Sneery Right said.



Even I noticed that.



Dave said, “Max is not my boyfriend.”

Sneery Left said, “And Rupaul is not a cross-dresser."




Dave said, ‘I already told you I’m not gay.”



Sneery Right said, “We have gay radar. And our gay radar is going off around you.”



Sneery Left said, ‘Yeah. And it’s beeping really loudly around you.” Dave and I both tried to run, but the Sneerys were much too fast for us.



“Where you going, you little fa? “ Sneery right asked Dave, pushing him into a wall.



Sneery Left said, “Yeah, you homo, you’re not going anywhere.” Dave tried to leave, but Sneery Right held his arms, while Sneery Left prepared to kick him in the stomach.



Dave’s eyes held a lot of fear in them again as he anticipated Sneery Left’s kick in the gut.



“Stop!” I screamed again. “Let go of Dave.”



“So, the little thug from North Miami is stepping to Dave’s defense,” Sneery Right said with a sneer. ‘The little mugger from North Miami.”



Sneery Left said, “Yeah, the criminal who hijacked cars, robbed stores and houses, and mugged people before he got here is sticking up for another thief. “



How’d they know that? The color drained from my face. How did they know that I used to be a thief?



“You two deserve each other. Two thieves should be great company for each other,” he continued.



Did Dave tell? I thought. I looked into Dave’s eyes. He slightly shook his head. He hadn’t.



Sneery right said, “maybe we should just leave them alone.” Sneery Left agreed, and they left.



I looked at Dave. “How’d they know about me?” I asked.



“Dave said, “How’d they know about Max and me?”



I answered him. “At lunch one day, Max put his arm around your shoulder and you were happy. Max did that in plain view of a lot of people. Maybe one of them told.”



“But, that was only a few seconds, “Dave said, making an excuse.”



“Yeah, but those few seconds did happen. Anyone who was watching could have told.”



“Yeah, that’s true,” Dave said.



“The real issue is how’d they know I used to be a criminal?” I asked. I began to tremble out of fear.



“I don’t know, “Dave said. “I never said a word to anyone.”



“I know. I believed Dave. “Maybe our dorm is bugged?” I suggested.



Dave’s eyes got big in shock. “You think that could be true?” He asked, looking scared.



“Yes. That’s the only way they could know about me.”



Dave suddenly realized something. “Remember what they said yesterday?”



“What?” I asked/ answered him.



“They said, “Max and you were on your bed, in your dorm kissing.’ How would they know about that?”



“That’s true, “I said thoughtfully. “Let’s go check it out.”



We walked to our dorm, searching for the ‘bug.” We frantically looked in all our draws, in the bathroom, under the T.V stand, and the closet, both nightstands, and even in the mini-fridge, but with no luck. I said, ‘No such luck.” Dave said, “We haven’t checked under the beds yet. ‘Yeah, we haven’t,” I said. We looked under my bed, and found nothing. Then we looked under Dave’s bed, and found nothing. We were about to get up, but Dave suddenly said, “Look, there is something hiding under my card.” Surely enough, we picked up the card and found the “bug.” We picked it up. Dave looked violated. I didn’t blame him. I felt violated too. Into the bug, Dave said, ‘Leave us alone!” Dave took the bug and threw it out the window.



“Wait, what are you doing?” I asked him. “You should have kept that for evidence,” I said.



“Oh yeah,” Dave said sheepishly. We both went outside into the dorm yard to look for it. We miraculously found it in some grass. I picked it up and put it in Dave’s pocket and went to our dorm.



Dave looked upset. “Why don’t they just leave me alone?” I could see the shadows in Dave’s eyes. I wondered something.



“Dave, why are you so afraid of them? What kind of hold do they have over you?”



Dave looked away from me.



“Are you in some sort of trouble Dave?” I asked. I could see Dave stiffen. I knew he was hiding something.



“Dave, I’m your friend. You should be able to tell me your problems,” I said soothingly.



‘I can’t tell you”, Dave said chokingly. Aha! I knew there WAS something he was hiding.

 

[Karice]

Part 14! The Final Part!

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” I said. Dave looked at me with doubt in his eyes. I knew he wanted to open up, but wasn’t sure how to.



“You really promise?” Dave asked me.



“Yes,” I assured him.



Dave walked over to his drawer and took out a bag of white stuff. I knew what that “white stuff” was.



“Dave, no!” I said in shock. “I thought you were done with that it.”



Dave took a deep breath. “I am. I’m not going to snort this, “Dave assured me.



I took a deep breath. “Then why do you have it?” I asked.


Dave took a deep breath. “I’m being blackmailed. George and Rob gave it to me so that I can sell it to other students. Get them hooked just like I was. They want me to get the money and give it to them, just like a hooker. They want me to be their drug puppet. I refuse to, so they beat the shait out of me. I’m scared of them! They are 6’9, and huge. They are 5 times as strong as I am and have so much more force than I do.” Dave shuddered. “They always beat up on me.”



“Dave,” I said softly. “I feel for you.” I gave him a hug. He hugged back. After we hugged, Dave said something else. “Also, if I don’t sell the drugs, they will tell the whole school about Max and me. About our secret relationship. Max will be in big trouble, and I will become a black sheep in this school.”



I felt extremely bad for him. Poor Dave. He’d done nothing to deserve this.



Dave and I had forgotten about the bug in Dave’s pocket. When we remembered, we were ready to confront the Sneerys. We went to the Sneery’s dorm, but there was nobody there. We were extremely upset, but we went back to the dorm. We were almost ready to go to Dean Riley, but we weren’t sure that that was a good idea.



We both went to sleep. The next day, we got ready for school. We did our assignments, but around 1:00, during lunch, we happened to go outside, and we saw Max there. We smiled and waved at him. He smiled and waved too. All of a sudden, a gunshot rung out and hit Max. Max fell to the ground, and was bleeding.



“Max!” Dave cried inhumanly and ran to him. There was a lot of commotion. People were screaming in panic, like maniacs.



Dave held Max in his arms, while I took off my shirt and tried to stop Max’s bleeding.



Max was groaning in pain. “I love you, Dave,” he said weakly, his eyes half-closed.



“I love you too,” Dave said softly. Max closed his eyes for the final time.



Dave begun to cry uncontrollably. “No, no, no!” Dave cried, like a lunatic. Even I began to cry a bit. Max was a nice person. I couldn’t believe he was dead. I missed him already.



All of a sudden, Max's eyes fluttered open. Dave gave a hopeful smile.



I didn’t know that Max was still alive. I guess I saved him by stopping his bleeding. But, he still had a bullet lodged in his stomach. I called ambulance for him. Ambulance came in 3 minutes and a paramedic put Max on a stretcher. “And thank you Darryl. You saved my life.” He said, smiling gratefully, but weakly.



I welcomed him. Dave said, “I’m coming with you.” The paramedic looked at him questionably. Dave said, “He’s one of my best friends.” The paramedic let him come into the ambulance with Max. “Can I come too?” I asked the paramedic. The paramedic asked, “Let me guess. He’s your “friend” too?” I think he knew about Dave and Max. “He’s my dormparent,” I said.



The paramedic let me come ride too. In the ambulance, Dave and Max held hands. I could see the love between them. Dave looked lovingly but worried at the same time.

I saw the paramedic look at Max and Dave holding hands and he smiled a little knowingly. It was amazing that they kept their secret for so long. Anyone who saw them together could see the love they were in for each other.



The paramedic took us to a hospital, and Max was put in ER. After he was seen at the ER, they put him in a room and Dave sat next to him and said, “I’m glad you’re alive.” He smiled.



Max said weakly, ‘”I’m alive with a bullet in my stomach.” He smiled ruefully.



Dave gave Max a hug and then gave him a kiss on his cheek. “I thought you were dead and that was one of the worst days of my life.”



"I may by dead if they don’t take this bullet out of me,” Max said ruefully again.



Dave said, ‘It’ll be fine.”



Just then, a doctor came in and said that Max needed immediate surgery. He and a few more doctors operated on Max and removed the bullet. They stitched Max up and said he’d be fine.



Dave and I did relived sighs. Max had to stay overnight and Dave said that he wouldn’t leave Max’s side. I reminded Dave that he had school the next day.



Dave’s answer? “Screw school! My boyfriend just had surgery!” He sounded vehement.



Max said ruefully, “As your boyfriend, I must say that’s really sweet, but as your dormparent, I must say, “Go to school!” Max’s eyes struggled to stay open. I could tell he really needed his rest.



Dave said, ‘I want to stay with you!”



Max said, ‘I want you to stay with me too, but I love you and don’t want you to miss out on your education.” Max’s eyes looked ready to stop the struggle.



“Can’t I stay with you just a little longer?” Dave pleaded.



The next sound Dave and I both heard was snoring. Max was fast asleep.



Dave reluctantly said, ‘We should go now. “We wondered how the hell we were going to get home. We didn’t have any money on us to take a bus back to the dorm. Suddenly, Dave had an idea. He took out his cellphone and dialed a number. “I’m calling Rodney Kelly to pick us up. He’s my friend, and I’m sure he’ll take us.”



He spoke into the cellphone. “Rodney, hi. Cab you pick up Darryl Johnson and me from the hospital? Max is in the hospital, and we have no way to get home.”



After a pause, Dave said, “Thank you,” and hung up. Rodney said he’ll get us in about 20 minutes.”



We waited for Rodney, and while we waited, I asked Dave, “You know, people are going to know that you and Max are a gay couple. You guys told each other “I love you” in front of a lot of people.
Dave said, “I know what you’re talking about, but that happened while people were panicking over gunshots. I don’t think people will focus on that while thinking about a random gunshot."



Yeah, you are right,” I said.



In a little while later, Rodney showed up. We hopped into his car and thanked him for picking us up. He welcomed us, and then drove us home. We all got out, and Rodney hoped that Max was okay.



“Thanks, Rodney,” Dave said gratefully. “For the ride and your concern.”



“You’re welcome. Hey, us gays got to stick together,” Rodney said with a wink.



I saw the surprise in Dave’s eyes. “How did you know I was gay?”



“Come on, you know “we” have gay radar. We can tell who is gay and who is not. That’s one plus of being gay,” Rodney answered with a smile.



Dave blushed. “We’re always getting shunned just for our sexual preferences.”



Rodney said, ‘It shouldn’t be that way. We shouldn’t be shunned."

Dave said, “I wish they would stop treating us like we all have diseases. Especially George and Rob.”



Rodney said, “You know those two are gay, don’t you?” George and Rob are “in the closet”. They are a couple.
"


Dave’s eyes widened in surprise. “They are?”



Rodney tsk-tsked. “Your radar must have been malfunctioning around those guys. Don’t you see that they always hang out together? They spend a LOT of time with each other. And I know they are a couple because I saw them kiss on the lips. They just treat other gays badly because they are afraid of being shunned, so they take their fear out on other gays.”



Dave said, “I think they bugged our dorm the other day. “ Rodney said, ‘They probably did that to get the dirt on you and Max. They want to throw “gay” suspicion off of themselves.”


Dave remembered something. “They told me they had gay-radar. They told me that’s how come they knew I was gay.”


“There’s your clue,” Rodney said.


Dave said, “How’d you know about Max?” He looked shy.



Rodney gave him a knowing look. “Come on, anybody can see that you two are together. You give each other “lovebird” looks.”



“Oh.” Dave said.


I had been silent during their conversation. Rodney finally asked if I had anything to say. I shook my head.


Rodney asked, ‘You sure?”


I finally said something. “I feel left out because you two are talking about gay solidarity. I’m straight, so I feel that you are excluding me.”



Rodney said, “I think we can include you in our “solidarity.” I know you’re straight, but you are not a gay basher. You are an open person.”



I smiled self-consciously.



Dave said, “Yeah. You seem to have a bit of gay radar yourself, Darryl.”



I looked at him with surprise. “I do?” I asked.



“Yes. I remember that you saw right through figuring out that Max was my boyfriend.” Dave said.



“I guessed that because you were smiling very happily when I mentioned Max,” I replied.



“Yeah, that was a big tip-off,” Dave said sheepishly.



“And you lied,” I said.



“Let’s not get into this again,” Dave said, sounding reluctant. “I lied to protect Max and my reputation.” Dave really didn’t want to go into this again. I let it go.

Rodney said, “You and Max have a very star crossed relationship. You have the worst of both worlds. You and he are dormparent/ dorm resident, you two are a gay couple which is shunned on this campus, and Max can get into trouble for dating because of statuary rape, since Max is 18, a legal adult. You two are like Romeo and Juliet, except you’re more like Romeo and Romeo.”



“Except our families don’t hate each other,” Dave said ruefully.



Rodney said wryly, “No, but if the school finds out about you two, you’re gonna feel just like them.”


Rodney looked at him emphatically. “I know what you’re going through. It’s hard to have to carry that big a secret around with you. It sometimes feels as if overwhelming. You feel as if you are living a lie. Hiding your true self. Pretending to be straight when you know you’re not.”



Dave looked at him with understanding. “I know what you mean. I hate that I have to hide myself too. I want to be able to come out too.”



Rodney said, “Society is becoming better about “us.” We’re being more accepted.”



Dave said, “Yeah”. We all went into our own dorms.



Dave begun to softly cry. He pulled up a pillow to his chest and sobbed deep, racking sobs.



“Dave,” I said softly. I put my arm around him. After he calmed down a bit, he said waverly, “He did nothing to get shot.”



“I know, I know,” I said soothingly. I smoothed Dave’s hair.



Dave looked at me with sad, pained eyes. I could see how much pain he was in over Max. “I can’t believe I almost lost Max,” he said in a tortured voice.



I didn’t know what to say. I just gave him an understanding look.



“Come on, let’s go walk around,” I finally said a while later. Maybe you’ll feel better.”



Dave sadly agreed. He thanked me for saving Max’s life. I said, ‘You’re welcome.” We began to walk around when suddenly we saw the Sneerys. They didn’t see us, but Sneery Left and Sneery Right were talking amicably to each other.



They soon kissed on the mouth for about 30 seconds, and then both looked around furtively, and then went their separate ways. Dave and I couldn’t believe what we had seen. Dave looked at me in surprise. He didn’t really look sad anymore. Okay, he did, but just a little.



“I can’t believe it,” I said to Dave.



“I know, Rodney was right,” Dave said. “And they torture me for being gay.” He shook his head.



We continued to walk, and bumped in to Sneery Left. Sneery Left said, “So how’s your gay boyfriend’s stay in the hospital?” He sneered.



Dave said, “Why’d you bug our room?”



Sneery Left said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.



Dave said coolly, ‘You said, ‘That Max and I were on my bed, making out. You wouldn’t know that unless you bugged our room.” I noticed something. Dave basically admitted something.



Sneery Left said, “All right. Yes we bugged your room.”
]


“Why did you do that?’ Dave seemed cool.



“I don’t have to tell you anything,” He said. “We just know that you and Max are a gay couple.”



Dave took a deep breath. “Yes, I am gay. No more lying, no more hiding, no more denying. I’m in love with a very special man. But, I don’t deserve to be beat up for my sexual preferences. And I certainly don’t deserve to have my privacy invaded,” Dave said softly.



Sneery Left said, “You and Max Cartwright are breaking the rules by being a couple.”



“No more lying,” Dave said again. “Max and I are a couple, and have been dating for over two years. How long have you and George been dating?” Dave asked. Aha! He gave Sneery Left a very “catching” question.



“We’ve been dating for over a year,” Sneery Left answered, then clamped his hand over his moth.



“What was that?” Dave asked softly.



“Nothing,” Sneery Left said, nervously.



Dave said, “We know that you and George or a gay couple. We saw you and him kissing.” He gave Sneery Left a cool smirk.



“You bitch!” Sneery Left cried emotionally. I could see the fear in his eyes.



“Come on, Rob. Being gay is not something to be ashamed of. Come out of the closet,” Dave said soothingly.



“I don’t want to be shunned,” Sneery Left confessed.



Just then, Sneery Right showed up. “Hey, Dave, worried about your gay ass lover, Max Cartwright?” He sneered too. His sneer faded as he realized that we were all staring at him.



“What’s going on?” He asked us.



I finally spoke. “Hi, George,” I said in a cool tone.



Sneery Right knew something was up. He looked at his boyfriend, Sneery Left. Sneery Left lowered his gaze to the ground.



‘Did you tell them about us?” Sneery Right screamed emotionally at Sneery Left.



“You just did,” I said coolly.



Sneery Right said, “He and I are just friends.” He looked very agitated. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he added to Dave and I, looking caught.



“I thought you and he were “just friends,” I pointed out. “Why can’t we tell anyone that you two are friends?’



Sneery Right said, “Okay, okay, Rob and I are in love with each other. We’re boyfriends.” Sneery Left nodded.



Dave said, “And you two beat me up for being gay, and landed me in a hospital.’ He seemed a little embittered.



Sneery Right said,” Sorry. We only did that to you because we were trying to hide our own identities.”



Sneery Left said, ‘I’m sorry too. If you don’t tell anyone that we’re gay, we will never beat you up again.” He looked very scared. “We’ll never ask you to sell crack again,” he promised. Sneery Right nodded.



Dave said, “Deal. But you know, there are plenty of “us” in this school. Max, I, and you two aren’t the only gays on this campus. Being gay isn’t a crime.”



Sneery Right said, “But, I doubt that dean Riley will allow gays to run the PBA.”



Dave said, “If he would ban you two from running the PBA just because you’re gay, that would be discriminatory.” Dave looked very convinced.



The Sneerys stared at each other. “Maybe it’s a good idea to come out,” Sneery Right said to Sneery Left. Sneery Left agreed.



They left. Over the next weeks, max recovered, and it was found out that Max’s gunshot was the result of a random gunman trying to rob the Marshall Johnson treasury, who got nervous, and shot out of panic. He was caught and put in prison.



Turned out that people did remember that Dave and Max said, ‘I love you’ to each other the day Max was shot. Dave and Max decided to clear the air. In a crowded auditorium, Dave and Max went to the stage, holding hands, and announced that they were a gay couple. They said that they were tired of hiding their love for each other. They both looked relieved, but Dean Riley announced that Max would have to become another dormparent. He was fired as our dormparent, but was still allowed to date Dave.



He became the dormparent of Anderson Hall.



The Sneerys came out too, but were still allowed to be the PBA presidents. The Sneerys apologized to me and Dave for beating us up and calling me a Nig. They were suspended for two weeks after admitting that they did that to Dave and I on stage. Dave became the “sub” president of the PBA. All the members adored him.



As for me, I am still enjoying my Junior year at MJ academy. I talk to my mom every day and tell her I love her every day. She tells me the same thing. I have such a great year ahead of me at this school. The drama is over and I am just going to have fun at this school. The end.



I forgot something. The public “coming out” inspired 400 Johnies to come out of the closet. They weren’t hiding in that closet anymore, and all looked happy and relieved. Dave announced to me that he and Max were going to get “committed” to each other when Dave turned 18.



“Committed” is a gay version of a marriage, since America doesn’t allow gay marriage, but will allow “commitments”. . Dave asked me to be his best man. I happily accepted. Guess I’ll have to wait two years for that to happen. Oh well, I know they are in love now, and will still be in love in the future. Okay, bye for real this time.


Thank you guys for reading!