Thread: Live Another Lie

I may change the title since the book doesn't seem to have anything to do with the title lol. But here is one of the chapters, not all of it because it's 20 pages long lol.

*Contains some language*

Chapter 3
‘What's the deal yo, man, stop tellin’ me no. Man, what’s the deal, screw that Travoltino.’ – Nine-T, ‘What’s the deal with Nine-T?’

Getting home was murder. I was so bruised, I had cuts in several places, I had to limp as well. It was 3am so no one was out to help me, I had split from the others ages ago so I don’t know where they are or what they did, if they made it alright. Madrine’s face was so scared…it was unexpected nobody knew about it, but the thing about Cool-T and Claude…took me by surprise I would’ve never guessed that. He said he’ll tell me all the details later, when will that be? That was so mad, I got the most damage out of them all, that blow to my legs could’ve been really bad but with my luck I made it through. I’ve had to stop several times to catch my breath and rest, I still have 10 more blocks to go but I don’t think I can do it. I slump down on the floor, leaning against the brick wall. I can hardly breathe, my chest feels tight, I don’t have asthma but it feels like it. My head is spinning, maybe I don’t have to make it, maybe I can just close my eyes a little…
I wake up, I’m not on the side of the road anymore. I jolt up and then wince in pain, my body hurts all over, my joints feel like they’re on fire. I’m in a bedroom: blue, stuff all over the floor, curtains drawn open and I can see the city outside. It’s morning. How long have I been out for? My hands are bandaged. The door opens. “Ah, amigo you’re awake,” it was Nine-T, he was wrapping some bandages around his hand, it’s probably still bleeding from where he got cut last night. “Thank goodness I ran down that way instead of taking the shortcut way, I would’ve never had found you.”
“Nine-T, what happened?” I asked him
“You passed out, homie,” he replied looking at me with worry. I rubbed my eyes and sighed and then it all came back to me. The docks, Madrine, the gas, the thugs, the warehouse, Cool-T and Claude, Helen, running, the assault. That was crazy and really scary. “How are the others?” I asked
“Well I dropped Helen home and passed E and Madrine. I saw Nikko running,” Nine-T bit at the bandages and tried to rip them off
“Don’t do that,” I said “What about Cool-T and Claude?”
“Sorry, amigo, I don’t know. No one saw them since we all split.”
“Damn…them two, they’re…”
“I know, I couldn’t believe it but something must’ve happened for why Cool-T didn’t say anything”
“Yeah…what time is it?”
“9am, homie” he walked over to his closet and threw me a bag “time to get ready for school” I looked down at the bag and smiled. We always have at least two sets of each other’s clothes in our houses for situations like this. I opened the bag and stared into the contents, there was bandaids inside and my favourite outfit.

Nine-T and I arrived in school half an hour later. Yeah we were 30 minutes late but we usually arrive later than this. I’m actually on time to go to home room for the first time in 2 months. As I open the door everybody stopped what they were doing and stared at me; there was dead silence. Nine-T and I stood at the doorway, we felt like intruders, this is my home room right? It was, there was Jenny and Francis and Caitlin and Miss Holmen and all the others. Yet everyone was staring like they didn’t know us, like we were outcasts. “Sorry we’re late, Miss,” Nine-T said and she just nodded and gestured for us to take our seats. As we walked down the aisle of desks I felt the stares burning holes into my back. I sat down and realise Ee at the back filing her nails. I waved at her and she looked up but then just looked back down again, her expression not changing. I wondered what was going on, I know that I’m hardly ever at school but usually at the times when I do come in everybody greets me and treats me like the superstar that I am, today they’re treating me like I’m subhuman. I stayed quiet the whole time and couldn’t wait for the bell to go.

As soon as the home room nightmare ended I grabbed Nine-T. “Man, what was going on in there?” I asked
“I don’t know, One-T but everyone was definitely giving us the silent treatment,” he replied. Ee walked past and I grabbed her hand, she spun round quickly like she was going to throw a punch but then she saw it was me and held her hand in mid air. “Ee, what’s going on today? Why was everyone staring at us like that?” I asked her
“Not us, you,” she said
“Me?”
“Yeah”
“What? Why?”
“Nikko told everyone that last night you assaulted him for drugs and he showed everyone his bruises. Now they all think you’re some crazy drug head”
“What?! That’s bullshit! Anyways, that doesn’t explain you”
“What about me?”
“Why did you blank me like that?”
“Why are you arriving so late?”
“I arrived earlier than I usually would. You don’t believe Nikko, do you?”
“I weren’t there so I don’t actually know what happened”
“Jessica if you believe Nikko for a second then you don’t-“
“Touché One-T” and she walked off. I kicked the lockers in anger, she could be so difficult at times, she confuses me a lot and it pisses me off. “One-T, there’s Cool-T,” Nine-T said and I looked around and saw him at his locker, he was on crutches. I approached him “hey, man,” I said but he ignored me “Cool-T, I said hey.” He still ignored me and I got angry quick. “Not you too! Come on, man! Speak to me, what is everybody’s problem today?”
“Rascal said you ordered him to attack us,” he said quietly
“What?” I said
“He said at the club when he went over to you at the DJ booth you told him that night to attack us and take all the drugs so you could have them for yourself and make the money yourself”
“That’s bullshit, I didn’t say that, he asked me if I wanted a cigarette”
“That’s what he said with the tape recording to prove it” Cool-T slammed his locker shut “later,” he said and he limped away. I couldn’t believe this. I walked on down the corridor and spotted E and his computer nerd friends. “E, you can’t tell me you believe all this shit people are saying about me,” I said to him
“What?” he replied
“The tape, what Rascal said, I didn’t say it, man, honest I didn’t”
“One-T. I believe you”
“Look I know you probably don’t trust me and- what?”
“I believe you”
“You do? How comes?”
“Because, I’m your talented Japanese computer hacker friend. One who knows how alter tape recordings to make them sound like whatever he wants,” he smiled sneakily and I caught on instantly. “Oooh,” I said “that’s smart, so you’re gonna help me clear my name?”
“Of course,” he replied
“Thanks, good to have you and Nine-T on my side”
“Where is Nine-T?”
“Shit, I don’t know” I checked around but Nine-T had vanished “hey, I’m going to the senior block, k?”
“A’ight.” I ran off to the senior block, that’s where all the college students and that study, which is where Fat-T was.

Although it was only across the bridge it was still a bit to run and I had to stop running half way and walk cos of my limp and bruises from last night. As soon as I got to the gate I waited at reception to ask to see Fat-T. There was no one there so I had to press the buzzer and wait. I usually never wait for anything but I was tired from running so I just stayed there. “Hey there, Superstar,” a voice said behind me, I spun round to see Na’Tishe, the gorgeous, college student that runs reception duty 3 times a week. I’d forgotten it was her shift today. “Na’Tishe, hey,” I said and she smiled, she was clutching her usual notebook and pen to her big chest. “I’m looking for-“ I started
“Eugene? I’ll call him down for you, unless you want to go up?” She replied
“I’ll go up,” I said, I was tempted to stay and chat but this isn’t the time. “Jermaine, where’d you get all those bruises from?”
“Oh...I got-I got attacked last night”
“Really?” her eyes went wide.
“Yeah”
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m coping”
“That doesn’t sound like you’re ok”
“I’m coping!”
“Let me have a look” she tried to grab my hand and I jumped away. When Na’Tishe gives check-ups she is notgentle. She kept trying to grab my arm and I kept jumping away. Eventually she put down her clipboard and grabbed my waist, lifting me up - she was a lot stronger than she looked. She threw me onto the desk chair and yanked up my sleeve. She pressed my arm “Ow! Ow, ow, ow!” I yelled
“Don’t be a baby,” she said grabbing some iodine.
“No, no, NO!” I screamed and tried to run away. She grabbed me with one hand and pushed me down firmly while she took off the lid of the iodine with the other. She grabbed some cotton wool and doused it in the iodine. Seeing the iodine was like looking at death and I almost shit myself. “Don’t move or it will hurt more,” she said getting ready to dab my bruises with the cotton wool. Time slowed down in my head as the cotton wool came closer to my wounds, I tried to wiggle but she just held me down. The cotton wool made connection with my arm and I screamed in terror. “Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!” I said as my wounds filled with fire one by one “The pain, the pain!” Na’Tishe ignored my yells and continued to dab the iodine all over my wounds. I screamed the whole way through it. Fat-T came plodding up next to me and Na’Tishe let go of me and threw the cotton wool away. “Yo, little man, what’s with all the screaming?” Fat-T asked.
“Na’Tishe tried to kill me!” I replied.
“Oh shut up,” Na’Tishe said “I just rubbed some iodine on his wounds to disinfect them and help them heal.” Fat-T laughed his head off and I kicked him on his arm lightly. “Ah, One-T you make me laugh,” he said, still snickering “what you here for anyway?” I pulled down my sleeve slowly and Na’Tishe wondered off. “Did you hear the rumours?” I asked him
“No, what rumours?” he replied
“The one about me ordering Rascal to attack us”
“Wow, who spread that?”
“I don’t know, I think Rascal’s tryna set me up”
“Who else knows?”
“Everybody, Cool-T believes it and now he won’t talk to me.”
“The others?”
“Nine-T and E are on my side”
“What about Ee?”
“I don’t know, man. She – she just..confuses me, I don’t know if she’s on my side or not”
“Ah well I’m on your side, little man”
“Thanks, Fat-T. Lunch time, E wants to speak to us, be there, k?”
“Yeah sure, can’t stay long though, gonna have brunch with Niesha”
“K, homie, later” I hopped out the chair and walked off to class.

Lunchtime we all gathered at one of the outside tables. E was going through how to alter tape recordings to make them sound like something else and how to use voice manipulators and sound boards to change your voice to match anybody on the planet. I gave up listening half way through and just enjoyed the outside sun. Lydia and Lianne Newhart approached our table. They were the only twins in the school and they were fraternal at that. I had dated Lianne last summer, lasted about two weeks before I dumped her and moved on. She’s fine with it but Lydia holds it against me.

“One-T we heard what happened!” Lianne said.
“Yeah, we heard what happened!” Lydia repeated.
“If y’all gonna accuse me then-“ I started
“You poor baby! I can’t believe that jerk Rascal would do that to you,” Lianne said and she kissed my cheek.
“What do you mean?” I said kissing her hand.
“Didn’t Rascal hire some guys to beat you up last night?” Lydia asked.
“Um,” I said
“That’s what everybody’s saying,” Lianne said and she kissed my cheek again.
“Wait, but I thought, “Nine-T said.
“Thank you, thank you,” Fat-T said gesturing for us to clap for him.
“Fat-T, what did you do?” I asked.
“Nothing, I just told all the seniors what really happened,” he replied.
“Oh!” E said as he shut down his laptop “smart idea, us juniors look up to you seniors and believe whatever the seniors say so by spreading the truth...”
“You got everybody to believe me!” I said and threw him a hug “homie, if I was a homo I’d kiss you!”
“Easy, little man, not everybody believed it,” he said. Lianne stole some of my fries and fed me one. Lydia slapped her hand and gave her a stare, Lianne looked guilty. Nine-T drifted off to the table where Helen was, probably to go see how she’s doing. I spotted Cool-T over in a corner by himself, playing around with his food. “Go to talk to him,” E said noticing me staring at Cool-T “you guys have been friends from way back, he’ll understand” I nodded and got up to go over to him but not before eating the rest of the fries in Lianne’s hand and she blushed, then she seemed to notice something and walked away with Lydia. She probably spotted Ee and her girl squad giving her the evil eye as usual. I sat down next to Cool-T. “Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” he replied.
“Not hungry?”
“Not really.”
“I’m guessing you heard what the seniors said, huh?”
“Yeah, I heard what they said” he poured all of his drink into his fries and played around with his spoon in the liquidy mess.
“Faith,” I said quietly “I didn’t do it.”
“I know,” he responded and I turned to look at him “last night was so...just hearing that got me mad, y’know? But I realised: I got all mad and forgot to do the most important thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Ask my best friend” he smiled and I smiled back.
“Hey, if you don’t want that burger...” I said and he flung it at me .
“Pig,” he said and we both laughed. Then I remembered. “E figured out how Rascal made up the tape recording,” I said.
“Man, I don’t even care, I just wanna forget that lil bitch,” he replied getting up to put his tray away.
“Need help?” I offered my hand and Cool-T put his tray on it.
“And then you can carry my books,” he said.
“What? I’m offering help not my services”
“You owe me” he limped away on his crutches, leaving me with his tray. The drink and ketchup mixed to make a foul smell, hell no I’m not taking this. I left it on the table and went to go catch him up. It all works out in the end.

you've got a great voice angelling, both the narrator and the dialogue, which makes me feel the characters a lot. hope you'll post more...

Thank you, a lot of people have told me that

I'll post another chapter for you, this one is chapter 4, but since I didnt post all of Chapter 3, the beginning won't make much sense


*Contains a lot of language*

Chapter 4
‘I’m a cool, cool, man’s man. I’ll show her my big band…Cool-T in the house, house; I’ve opened that nice blouse.’ – Cool-T, ‘Kamasutra’

A couple days later we cashed the jewel. It wasn’t worth as much as E said, it was worth $79k and most of it Cool-T took and gave to the orphanage for them to build a new building. The orphanage was where his mum grew up. He donated $40k which left us with only $39k to split between us. We got $6,500 each. “Man, I made more money dealing!” I had complained
“Shut up, One-T, at least it’s something,” Cool-T said to me and I sulked. I spent some of it on a new phone and a diamond bracelet for Lianne.

I ran over to Cool-T’s house. “Hey, Jermaine. Here to see Faith?” Cool-T’s mum said when she answered the door.
“Actually Ms Matthews I'm here to see Marissa,” I said.
“Really?” she raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I replied. She let me in and I ran up to Marissa’s room. I knocked on Marissa’s door. “Come in,” she called and I entered in. She was wearing some denim shorts and a yellow short-sleeve and was on her laptop. “Jermaine!” she shrieked and she immediately flew off her laptop to greet me. Her gold anklet jingled about on her ankle. “I got ya something,” I said and her smile faded.
“If it’s stolen I don’t want it,” she said crossing her arms “just to let you know, I didn’t eat the chocolate”
“What? Why not?” I replied.
“Because I had a guilty conscience”
“It got it for you, didn’t I?”
“I know and I really wanted to enjoy it but I couldn’t because it was stolen goods so I gave it to the kids next door”
“Fine, I’ll buyit next time”
“Thank you”
“Don’t thank me yet” I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out a blue box wrapped in a red ribbon. I handed it to her and she stared at it for a long time. “It’s not stolen, I bought it, I promise,” I said to her and she cautiously opened it.
“Oh Jermaine, it’s beautiful!” she gasped. I had gotten some of the gem we stole from Travoltino cut and got it made into a pendant. The gem was stolen but I paid for the gold chain, to get it cut and the box so technically the necklace wasn’t stolen. I put the necklace on around her neck. “It sparkles just like you,” I whispered in her ear, I saw her cheeks flush. “Jermaine...” she whispered and then she turned round and kissed me real quick. “That was for um...for um...thanks,” she said looking at the floor. I lifted up her chin and kissed her back. I knew I shouldn’t be kissing Marissa, she’s Cool-T’s sister but I didn’t really care at that moment. Just at that thought there was a knock on the door. Marissa and I broke contact straight away and Cool-T entered in. “Marissa it’s your turn to do dishes, hey One-T,” he said giving me a nod.
“Cool, man,” I said.
“Okay,” Marissa said and she bounded off downstairs. Cool-T stepped further into the room. “Could’ve told me you were coming over,” he said.
“Yeah, well I was just coming to give the necklace to Marissa,” I replied and he raised an eyebrow.
“That all?” he asked. I knew that there was no way of putting things past
Cool-T, he always guesses and is always right too. “I just-“ I started.
“It’s cool man,” he interrupted.
“What?”
“You like my sister, it’s cool”
“Um...”
“Man, I saw y’all kiss, I was gonna wait ‘til you finished to come in but then I thought: nah” he hit me on my back lightly.
“You don’t mind?” I asked
“Of course not,” he smiled and turned to walk out the room “wanna play on the PS2?”
“Nah, man, gotta get home, Ee’s coming round”
“Suit yourself” he walked out and I went downstairs. I said bye to his mum and went home. His words ran through my head. He was ok with it? It’s strange but it’s better than him getting angry over it, I guess.

When I got home Ee was waiting for me up in my room. She was sitting on my bed and filling her nails. She was wearing a green blouse and an orange miniskirt with orange sandals. “You’re late,” she said.
“Yeah I had to drop off a necklace to Marissa,” I replied.
“Why?”
“Just an act of generosity”
“Cool-T told me you like her”
“When’d he say this?”
“Just now when I phoned him. And he told me you kissed her”
“Yeah...” Her face changed and she got real angry real quick. “I don’t uphold with you kissing other girls!” she yelled. I was taken back, I don’t know why she’s yelling at me like I done something wrong! “Ee would you chill out?” I said and she pouted. “Look, I don’t know why you’re always getting so bugged when I’m with another girl. Even if I just stand next to one you get all touchy about it. Jessica, we’re not together so stop acting like we are.” She stayed silent, arms crossed, still pouting. After a few minutes her face softened. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” she said. She may be an annoying diva and a bitch sometimes but she’s still really sweet and very nice. Also she’s still my friend so I can’t stay mad at her – especially when she looks all cute like she does now.

Jessica and I had confessed waaaayyyy back that we liked each other but nothing had happened and everything continued like normal. We’ve kissed before, hugged and held hands and whatever but we’ve never been an item and I don’t think we will be. Not now, not ever.

Jessica stood up and gave me a hug. I hugged her back and kissed her, not the first time and certainly won’t be the last. Although this time was kinda different; kisses between us before have been nothing, just little things like when you kiss someone as a dare in spin the bottle or something. This time the kissing started off slow then got much faster and definitely more passionate. Everything seemed to be moving like slow motion and soon we found ourselves rubbing and touching places, I backed her up against the wall, I felt her up, she felt me up. The air got hot, we started to sweat, my heart was racing. I unbuttoned her blouse, opened it up....then stopped. Even though I flirt carelessly with girls and I’m a superstar and girls tattoo my name all over their chests and I enjoy a good pole dance most of the time, there is the lingering fact that: I’m still a virgin. Jessica’s a virgin too, all of the crew are. Ee has this thing where she promises to stay a virgin until she’s 18 and she will absolutely notlet it go, not for all the money in the world – and that’s saying something. In her room all over her walls is posters of girls quoting ‘virgin ‘til 18’. She goes on about it whenever anybody brings up the topic. She has this saying that goes: ‘make the boys melt but keep it on lock down’ meaning she’ll flirt until heart’s content making boys go stupid over her but she’ll only go so far and the 18 rule stays always. Thinking of that at that moment in time made me stop dead in my tracks. I pulled away and stared up at the ceiling and then laughed to myself. “What’s funny?” she asked, she looked like she’d been running the marathon.
“You’re a virgin,” I mumbled
“What?” she asked
“You’re a virgin,” I repeated louder
“Yeah, so are you,” she replied
“I know” I looked down at the floor and realised I was still holding her blouse open. I hadn’t even looked, I’ve never actually checked to see how big her chest is and here it is open right in front of me. I didn’t look. I continued to stare at the floor; I’m just not that kinda guy. I’m not at all sleazy in any way and this feels really wrong to me. I closed her blouse, buttoned it back up again, and went to sit down on my bed. I rested my head in my hands and sighed. Ee sat down beside me. “Jermaine...”she said quietly.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Th-that was scary...” she sounded kinda upset and I looked up at her. She did look quite scared and really worried, she must’ve been afraid I’d pressure her into doing it with me. “I know,” I replied “I’m sorry.” She took my hand.
“It’s ok,” she said and smiled, I smiled back and we hugged, a lot friendlier this time. “So what now?” I asked.
“Guess I better go home,” she said getting up to leave. I grabbed her arm “wait”, she looked at me “Wanna play on my PS2?” she laughed and grabbed one of the controller’s laying on the floor.

Marco knocked on my door soon after Ee left. I didn’t respond to his knock and he came in anyway so I threw a book at him. “Why you in my room?” I said ready with another book in my hand.
“I just wanted to come talk,” he said holding his hands up in a defensive manner. I threw the book.
“You know you’re not allowed in here,” I said and I grabbed three more books and got ready to throw them.
“Lil bro, I mean no harm, just let me talk to you...please?” he said. I dropped the books. Marco breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on my bed then gestured for me to sit next to him. I cautiously sat down on the bed near him. “I just wanted to talk to you since I know mum and dad won’t do it,” he said. I frowned. “Since you’re my little brother and all,” he continued “I thought that even if mum and dad were to do it they should let me because hearing it from someone who’s had experience from a couple months not years ago is much better. And they’ll just mess it up. It’s err- it’s an embarrassing topic.” I had absolutely no clue what he was on about, and then it clicked in my head. My eyes grew wide. “You-You wanna give me-“ I stammered “the talk?!” He nodded. “You’re not for real,” I said.
“Yes, I am,” he replied “better that you hear it from me than anybody else.” I stared at him, he is not serious about this, is he? I don’t even like him, why is he gonna tell me this? “I’m not gonna beat around the bush with you,” he said “I’m just gonna say it straight.” He took a deep breath and then continued “sometimes in life we are faced with certain decisions. Some aren’t so bad and some can determined the rest of your life. And people can like pressure you into making these decisions. The decisions are mainly drugs, alcohol and sex.” I listened carefully, I might as well while I’m stuck here, he ain’t gonna let me leave now. ”Drugs are weird. They say to you ‘just once, try it just once’ and ‘it’ll be lots of fun’. I’ve been there and done that and it ain’t as fun as it sounds. Alcohol is not much different, it’s fun for that time but afterwards it makes you depressed.” He played with the elastic band around his wrist and then took it off and tied back his long hair. It was weird listening to him tell me this and even weirder that he’s had so much experiences. I never knew he’d taken drugs, makes me wonder if he knows what I do. “Sex,” he carried on “sex is just a whole different topic on its own. Your virginity, it’s sacred, y’know? It’s something you should keep for a long, long time until you feel you should let it go. Most of the time people don’t wait that long, get too hasty, let it go without a second thought. It’s tempting at every situation, the amount of times I’ve been close and then actually doing it – it’s not worth it.” I thought back to an hour ago when I got close to undressing Jessica, that was a very close encounter. If I hadn’t stopped I don’t know what would’ve happened. I didn’t know that Marco wasn’t a virgin and so it was shocking news to me, my perfect brother is not so perfect. “Obviously there’s like, different types of sex. You got sex which is some spontaneous shit and making love which is romantic and then you got a fuck.” He looked directly at me when he said that and I got a bit scared. “A fuck- you’ll know when you have one of those, I don’t even need to describe it to you, you’ll know. It all starts from just being in a room alone, you talk, laugh, have a little bit of alcohol, talk some more. You’ve just drunk the alcohol so you’re all loosened up, you talk then you flirt. When you flirt, you kiss, when you kiss, you make out, when you make out you undress and it all goes from there. Sex can start from something like a kiss or even just a smile. By the time you realise what’s happening it’s already over, and then...and then you feel like shit, cos you just blew away the thing that was most important to you. That crappy feeling follows you around for days and you’re like ‘fuck, why the hell did I do it?’ , it all becomes too much and then you got the girl come telling you that she’s pregnant and then you’re all like-“
“Ok stop, stop, stop!” I said. What he was saying was really scary, I haven’t heard it said that way before, it was even more scarier because of the situation with Jessica. That was so close, so scary, what would’ve happened? What if she got pregnant? What if? Would I have that same crappy feeling too? I couldn’t listen anymore. The more I forget about it, the happier I’ll be. Sex. It’s just too much to think about right now.

The next day I told the crew what Marco had told me. Their reactions were not as I expected. “Dude, why did you talk to Marco?” Nine-T had asked.
“You ain’t had sex yet,” Cool-T said.
“Hey One-T, can I borrow ‘Juiced’? Did you complete it yesterday?” E asked.
“You’d get more info from looking at porno mags,” Ee added.
“I’m getting Niesha a bracelet, what you think about think this one?” Fat-T said. None of them took it as seriously as I did and it was like my worries weren’t that important and I was just worrying for no reason. I felt kinda stupid. Ee was just acting like yesterday never even happened, I guess that’s just the best way to go about it. I stayed silent as the rest of the crew continued with what they were doing. Knock on Cool-T’s door. “Come in,” he called and Marissa walked in. “Sorry to bother you, Faith, friends of Faith,” she said quietly as she bowed to us “I just-“ she swallowed and looked down.
“You, er, here for Jermaine?” Cool-T asked and she nodded. Cool-T nodded at me and I sat for about 5 seconds until I realised he meant go with her. I got up and walked out the room, Marissa trailing behind, the rest of the crew stayed quiet. I’d forgotten that Cool-T and Ee were the only ones who knew about Marissa and I. I stood outside Cool-T’s room and shut his door after Marissa walked out. “Jermaine, I...” she looked everywhere apart from at me “I...here!” she thrust out her hands and looked down whilst blushing. In her hands was a little blue box wrapped with a green ribbon with a green gift tag attached. I stared at her cowering beneath her arms and then stared at the box wrapped nicely. I took the box and she slowly looked up. She monitored me as I continued to stare at the box and she leaned in closer as I unwrapped the box. Inside was a chain that said ‘One-T is my #1 DJ’. I stared at the chain for like 5 seconds. I couldn’t believe it, it was- it was...perfect. “It’s not real gold, unfortunately,” Marissa piped up “but there is only one of them in the world since I got it specially made for you.” I looked at her and then hugged her. “It’s perfect Marissa, thanks,” I said. We hugged for ages. “Y’all can stop listening in whenever you want,” I shouted and Marissa looked confused. The door opened to reveal my team with the most stupidest looks on their faces. Marissa blushed brighter than ever and we heard giggling behind us. Her friends were standing right there. Great, now everybody’s gonna think we’re going out and we’re not. Cool-T raised his eyebrows, a smug smile on his face. “Man, shut up,” I said and he laughed. Marissa’s friends came and took her away whilst giggling the whole time which was really irritating. We could hear their girly screams, I pressed my ear against her door. “You lucky, lucky girl! With a gorgeous older guy like Jermaine,” a girl squealed
“He’s so cute,” another one said and they all sighed and cooed and made irritating noises. I moved away from the door, slipped the chain around my neck and walked back into Cool-T’s room. The rest of them slid into the room after me. “Oooh amigo, you never told me you had something going on with Marissa,” Nine-T winked at me.
“There’s nothing going on,” I said.
“They’re dating,” Cool-T said and they all laughed and acted stupid, slapping my back and telling me I’m The Playa. I just sat there moping the whole way through, Ee didn’t look impressed but she didn’t look angry either. She looked more...upset. “Ee, you k?” I asked her.
“No, I’m not,” she replied and everybody stopped laughing and smiling and got more serious.
“Ee...” I said.
“Every time. I feel used,” she got up to leave but Fat-T pulled her back.
“Come now, my girl. Tell us what’s the problem, senorita,” he said to her.
Fat-T is Latino as well it’s just he doesn’t speak it in his everyday words like Nine-T does, also he’s from a different place to Nine-T. Ee sat down in his lap cradled like a baby. “If it’s about last night, Ee, it was an accident, I didn’t mean it, you didn’t mean it,” I said and everybody whipped their heads round to look at me. “Jermaine,” Cool-T said.
“Yeah?” I replied.
“What didhappen last night?” he asked and everybody stared. Then Ee blurted “he tried to have sex with me!” I almost jumped up to hit her twice round the face. “No I didn’t!” I protested.
“He did! He undid my shirt and everything!” she pointed at me. And then I got pissed off, she can’t just blame that shit on me like it was my fault, it was her fault too. “Holy shit...” Nine-T said “Jermaine I didn’t know you was that kind of a guy.”
“I’m not! She’s lying,” I said
“Why would I lie about something like that?” she spat.
“I don’t know. Look, yeah we were almost close to it last night but it wasn’t on purpose it wasn’t um, what’s that word? Intential that’s it,” I said.
“Intentional,” E corrected me.
“Whatever! I weren’t planning it, I realised and stopped what I was doing before it got too far. Marco said it all starts with a kiss”
“No way, you’re actually believing him?” Cool-T asked.
“Now, now, come on, kids. Marco is right, it does start from just a kiss and obviously Jermaine and Jessica experienced that last night, y’all can’t be fighting over nothing. Jessica don’t spill information like that, you caused yourself embarrassment to spite someone else, don’t do that, home girl,” Fat-T said “I think y’all should have a bit more respect for Marco, he’s given you guys advice when he could” We all sighed. We hate it when Fat-T tells us off like little kids, forget the stupid 3 year difference. It works though. Ee cuddled up to Fat-T more and she looked less like a cute little baby and more like a spoiled brat.

Afterwards, I kept thinking – about Marissa and the chain she gave me, how she got it personalised and everything. Then I thought about Ee, how upset she got and how she ratted me out just like that. And then I thought about Marco and what he told me; it all starts with a kiss. And it did start like that, but it didn’t continue. I think I’m in way over my head, I’m worrying way too much about this. I should be thinking about Travoltino and what revenge he’s plotting on us for stealing his diamond. I got a call from E. “One-T, Acid Man’s made plans for 11pm tonight, we’ll check it out and report back to you later,” he said
“Wait, I’m not coming?” I asked.
“We think it’ll be best if you just sit this one out. Seems like you got a lot on your mind,” click, he hung up. So now I’m bored at home knowing that the rest of the crew are going on a mission without me, the first time in like forever. I got three calls from Cool-T asking if I was ok and a call from Nine-T telling me everything that they were doing at that moment. Then Ee called me. “Yeah?” I said.
“Jermaine, I wanted to talk about us,” she said.
“There is no us remember,” I replied.
“Us, as in the team”
“What about the team?”
“I think we should stop”
“Stop what?”
“Everything. Skipping school, the drugs, the robberies, the nightclubs and late night parties”
“What? Why do you think that?”
“Because…we’re only 16 and just about. We’re too young for this, I think we should start over and start a clean slate. The team will only do it if you do it so you gotta quit first. I’m tired of the Game, I don’t wanna do it anymore, it’s gotten us in enough trouble. You know Travoltino is gonna try get us back for the diamond and it may be just sending the dogs after us like he usually does or it may be something bigger this time. I don’t think we’re aware of how deep we’re digging our graves, this is a full grown man we’re messing with.” I stayed silent for a while. She had a huge point but we can’t stop now, besides Travoltino, he won’t do anything, he never does. It won’t get bad enough, we don’t owe any debts and we haven’t double crossed anyone else so we’re fine. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve survived this long, besides we can’t get out of it now. If we’re doing this great then it can only get better right?” I said.
“I’m telling you from now, One-T,” her tone got suddenly a lot more serious “Change. Change you, change your lifestyle and the rest of us will follow. If not, it may cost us something bigger than our unmarked skin.” I told her to not worry and if it gets that bad then I will change but apart from that we’ll just keep doing what we do. I hung up and E reported to me that Acid man was working on some new and improved drug and was gonna test it on his own goons. Nothing to worry about there then. Acid man was Travoltino’s drug dealer, he makes and sells his own manipulated drugs to people. The drugs often cause loads of havoc and we steal them half the times to profit for ourselves or just destroy his factory for the sake of it. He’s not that big of a threat but he is annoying.

I thought about Ee telling me to change. Change to what? She’s just being ridiculous, but why do I have this dark feeling? And why is it that whenever I’m near to Marissa I get butterflies in my stomach? This is way too weird for me, it’s going on too much. I can’t help but feel that Ee’s warning is genuine and I really should pay attention to it but not now. I rested on my bed and before long I dropped asleep.

I woke up to pillows being thrown on my face. “Boy, get your lazy ass up! I got some shit to start with you!” Oh shit, it’s my dad, he’s back and he sounds really angry. I got up and stole a quick glance at the clock, it was 2am in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and another pillow came hurdling my way, this time it hurt really badly. The pillow dropped on the floor and blocks of wood spilled out. “What the fuck?” I said and my dad grabbed me by my shirt and held me against the wall. “Who the fuck do you think you are?!” he screamed in my face
“What?” I asked, I was so confused.
“I said: WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” he replied shouting louder than ever.
“I’m Jermaine”
“Don’t gimme that talk. You don’t come in this house after smokin’ and you most certainly do not come in this house and disrespect your mother.”
“She disrespected me first”
“Shut up!” he slapped me in my face “you better go learn some god damn respect or god forbid some policeman gonna have to come up in this mother fucking house to hold me back cos I’m gonna hurt you realbad, boy!”
“What I do?” he slapped me again “stop hitting me!” I shouted.
“Don’t shout at me you irritating, good-for-nothing, little shit” he grabbed my neck and squeezed. I felt the air escape my lungs and not come back. I kicked him in the stomach and he dropped me on the floor whilst he howled in pain. I choked and gasped for air and then reached for my phone. My dad recovered quickly and grabbed my phone, he threw it across the floor with one hand whilst grabbing my leg and dragging me towards him with the other. He whipped off his belt and got ready to lash it on me, I tried to grab it from him and we struggled, both trying to take a hold of the belt to whoop the other. He threw me against the wall and got ready to lick me a good couple hundred beats. Whip! One. “Ah! Shit!” I screamed.
“Don’t use that language in my house, boy!” he retorted.
“Fuck you!” Whip! Two. My skin started to sting. “I’m gonna fuck you up and make you wish your momma never brought you into this world!” As the third one got ready to crack down on my skin again Marco stepped in. “Dad, stop,” he said.
“Marco, move out my way,” dad said, his voice was calmer.
“No.” Marco protested “you have to stop”
“Why? Gimme one good reason why I shouldn’t put this boy in hospital”
“Because he’s still your son.” Time stopped at that sentence. Dad was staring at Marco, you could see the anger in his eyes. Marco was returning dad’s stare. I was staring at the both of them, too sore and scared to move. Eventually dad lowered his hand and dropped the belt. He heaved a sigh and walked out. “You ok, little bro?” Marco said, helping me up. I had a small coughing fit. “Why?” I croaked “Why...help me?”
“Because it’s what big brothers do.” I stared at him. I’ve never been nice to Marco, I’ve always been rude and a brat to him. Shouting at him and swearing at him, insulting him whenever I got the chance. I never took time to actually find out the real him, I just thought he was some jerk face who my parents loved more than me but he’s actually a pretty cool guy. After all the verbal abuse I’ve given him, he’s still acted like an older brother should, and I’ve never thanked him for it. He helped me up and sat me on my bed. “Thanks...”I murmured.
“No problem,” he smiled and I smiled back. My legs were still stinging and I could still hardly breathe but I was ok. I decided to go back to sleep, Marco put the duvet over me and closed my door as he exited, I fell asleep with no trouble apart from the thought that my own father tried to kill me, but that’s nothing new. I received a text from Ee shortly before I dropped asleep, she was saying night and sweet dreams and she apologised for earlier on. I was too tired to text her back, so I just drifted off.

I just read chapter 3, you nail down a high school hierarchy nicely, never got confuse when i was reading it to where he was or to who he talking to, you're a skilled writer for sure.

Originally Posted by Lubu

I just read chapter 3, you nail down a high school hierarchy nicely, never got confuse when i was reading it to where he was or to who he talking to, you're a skilled writer for sure.

Really? Thanks

Your ending to chapter 4 is very vivid; look forward to the next post...

This is the first chapter, to kind of regulate the storyso every knows what's going on lol

May contain some language.

Chapter 1
‘This sudden end to my days makes me wish I'd changed my ways. Spent more time with the posse: One-T, Nine-T, Bull-T, me. From up here, life seems so small; what’s the meaning of it all? Miss the way it used to be: One-T, Nine-T, Bull-T, me.’ – Cool-T, ‘The magic Key’

Listen up, you’re on my turf....man, what rhymes with turf?My head just isn’t in it today; it’s Cool-T who does the writing of the songs most of the times. I only do it to clear my head, but otherwise I do the hot mixes. A wiz at Logic Pro, master on the mixing desks. But I haven’t got time right now, too busy with stuff. Not good stuff either. The name’s Jermaine but my friends call me One-T, I’m light skin, I got dark brown eyes, I’m 16, that’s all you need to know.

I have my crew. The One-T gang, we got Cool-T, he’s black and makes some good rhymes. Nine-T my Latino friend, he’s like our soul protector. Fat-T, can’t no one mess with him. E, my Japanese homie who can hack computers in the blink of an eye. Ee, the twin sister of E, she’s a damn sexy minx who uses her sexiness to get us through sticky situations. Bull-T...well, he’s my dog, but we consider him one of the team. Obviously, that isn’t all their real names, they’re just nicknames. Their names are Faith, Juanito, Eugene, Max and Jessica but we only say our real names when we’re being very serious, like in arguments or those heart talk things that girls do. We’ve known each other since way back when we were still in diapers. Come to think of it, I’m supposed to go meet them right now, better put this stuff away.

The gang are sitting on the wall, Cool-T in the middle, spitting some rhymes. E is on his computer like usual, Fat-T is chilling to Cool-T’s beat, Nine-T is playing that damn shooting game again on his PSP and Ee is checking herself in the mirror. Bull-T ran off to go greet them; I took a while to check out Ee. She’s wearing my favourite outfit today: short, blue off-the-shoulder top showing off her flat stomach, short pink mini skirt to show off her long legs with the blue and white sneakers she got for Christmas last year. Her silky hair was in the usual two buns, she had on her usual hooped earrings and red cherry lip-gloss to match her flawless yellow skin. My skin started to tingle, how could someone be that hot? I looked her up and down, cautiously. Jessica and I, well, our relationship is different, we’re kinda like friends with benefits but not really. Like, we flirt and kiss but we’re not dating and sometimes she acts like she hates me. We’ve been doing that for about two years now and we ain’t even dating. It’s just all really complicated.

I shook out of my daydream and approached them. “Yo, yo, yo, wassup?
One-T is here,” I said. Cool-T stopped what he was doing. “Cool, man,” he nodded at me. Cool-T was just like his nickname: cool. He was so laid back; I’ve never seen him get angry. He always is so chill and solves everybody’s problems, he keeps us together when we’re arguing and he’s so nice. The girls love him to death. I wouldn’t be able to be that nice, I haven’t got the patience. I couldn’t imagine life without Cool-T. He was in his favourite outfit: blue and yellow sports jersey, black shorts and matching blue and yellow sneaks. His grey-tinted shades were propped on top of his corn rowed head so that everyone could see his clear, light brown eyes.

“Hey, Fat-T,” I said.
“Yo, little man, why you so late?” Fat-T said.
“Got a bit caught up in mixing a new track,” I replied.
“Haha! That’s my little man, always working. You’re going somewhere, homie.”
“Thanks, man” I smiled. Fat-T was big, fat and looked kinda scary but that dude has a heart of gold. He’s the oldest by 3 years so he looks out for us like we’re his kids. Although the rest of us like to chat up girls for the fun of it, he stays forever faithful to his girlfriend Nisha who he’s been with for 5 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he popped a ring on her finger any second now.

“Yo, E, what you working on now?” I said, turning my gaze to E who was typing away at his computer like mad.
“Oh hey One-T. I’m trying to break the code for Travoltino’s Atlantica base. If I crack that then we’ll be able to see where his next shipment is going and raid it before it reaches him,” E replied “I just need to debug the terminators and rearrange the X87Y50 slot to match the reprocessor charge on the 2-X1.”
“Uh-huh, I see, well I don’t know what you’re talking about so imma leave you to it,” I replied. That dude always got his face near a computer screen. In his glasses I could see the reflection of random letters and words on his screen. Max is very self reserved, he’s the smartest one here and we never understand what he’s doing so we just leave him to it. He always hacks things for us: doors, security cameras, anything. Sometimes I wonder how a kid that smart is still here in a slum place like this and how his twin sister is completely the opposite of him. Ee loves to party, flirt and get drunk just like the rest of us,
E isn’t a big fan of parties and he doesn’t drink occasionally, I don’t even think he’s been drunk before. Flirting is not his strong point and he’s quite shy.

Bull-T started sniffing E’s leg. “Hey, Bull-T,” E said, patting Bull-T’s head.
Nine-T looked too distracted by the game so I didn’t disturb him. I casually slid over to Ee. “Hey, beautiful,” I said to her in my Casanova voice that I used to flirt with girls.
“One-T don’t be such a pussy,” She replied.
“Wh-what?” I said.
“I’m kidding with you.”
“Oh” I blushed and she laughed and slapped my back, I almost dropped forward.
“You so funny!” She laughed.
“Hey lovebirds!” Cool-T shouted “Keep it down; I’m working on a riff.”
“We ain’t no damn lovebirds!” I shouted back.
“You might as well be” he said and they all snickered.
“Yeah, yeah, y’all laugh while you can,” I said, pouting. I looked over at Nine-T playing his game. “Dude, you’re not gonna pass that level, give up,” I said to him.
“No way, One-T. I almost got it I just gotta ...Ah hombre!” he said in his strong Latino accent “I lost man, I lost. I almost had it, man.” I patted his back.
“Yeah, you were real close, homie, the game just cheated you” Nine-T was full Colombian and his mum was hot, hot, hot! Damn, she was spicy! Nine-T didn’t think much of his mum since she is just a housewife and his dad has been in jail for the last 5 years so he didn’t think much of him either anymore. His dad used to pimp his mum but then he realised he loved her and gave up the pimping. He got arrested shortly before Nine-T’s 11th birthday. Nine-T never talks about his parents much but I know he thought his dad was the greatest and he got let down when his dad was caught and sent off to the big house. He became a lot more serious about things after that but still kept being the jokey fool we all know and love.


I sat on the wall and just listened to Cool-T’s rhymes. A couple of school kids walked past. Columbus, I recognise the school because of the navy blazers. Those kids think they’re so hot because they go to a private school. Whenever they see us they turn up their noses like they smell something bad and laugh and whisper to each other because they’re stuck up snobs. “Oh look, it’s the Constance kids, penny for your troubles?” a red head guy said to us.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked.
“Nothing,” a brown-haired girl replied.
“Hey, we don’t want no trouble, we’re not bothering you so don’t bother us,” Cool-T said.
“Touché, Faith,” some blonde dude said “but you bother us all the time, like the cherry bombs in our school toilets?” We all started laughing.
“Man, that was so funny!” Cool-T said “Y’all got what you deserved after that sign you posted outside our school.”
“Amigos, you need to keep on walking, I’d hate for things to get messy, eh?” Nine-T said. They all look puzzled. Nine-T picked up a bottle of grape soda by his feet, shook it and sprayed it all over the Columbus people. Grape soda stained their white shirts and ties and soaked into their blazers.
“You...you insolent little bastard!” the brown-haired girl said “I’ll have it that your father never gets out of jail!”
“Don’t bring up my Padre!” Nine-T said, jumping off the wall and running to go knock her a punch. Ee grabbed his shirt. “Don’t hit girls,” she said “let me do that.” Ee walked up the brown-haired girl and stood there for a minute. Then she slapped her in her face. The girl look stunned and then attempted to hit Ee back but Ee was smart and grabbed her hand whilst slapping her face again with the other. The blond dude tried to interfere but Cool-T jumped up to stop him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said to him. The blonde guy frowned and threw a punch at Cool-T. Cool-T dodged it and threw a blow in to blonde guys’ stomach, winding him. The other 3 Columbus kids came to protect the other two and Fat-T, E, Nine-T and I stepped in. Soon there was chaos, I was taking on the red head guy whilst Nine-T and E were taking on some black haired boy and Fat-T was taking on some other brown haired guy. The red head flew through the air, getting ready to fling a punch at me. I ducked and he missed, then I tripped him up. I saw a guy behind Ee ready to grab her but just as I was about to go rush to her aid she spun round and kicked him in his face. Sirens bellowed and we all stopped. “Shit!” I heard Cool-T say.
“Run!” Ee said and we all ran for it, Bull-T running behind us. Around the corner, down the street and into Cool-T’s front garden. We all hid behind the wall and waited for the sirens to fade. We were panting hard. Some of us had a couple of bruises and cuts on us but it was nothing, we weren’t hurt badly. I smiled. “What you smiling at?” Cool-T said.
“That was fun,” I said and we all laughed.
“Come on y’all,” Cool-T said “let’s go in and get cleaned up.

“Mom!” Cool-T shouted out.
“Mmm?” yelled his mum from the kitchen.
“We’re back” Cool-T replied.
“Ok, sweetie,” She said. We all bustled into the kitchen “What happened? Oh no, don’t tell me you guys got into another fight again?”
“Mom it was those damn Columbus kids, they started trouble.”
“Faith, didn’t I tell you to just ignore them?”
“I weren’t our fault.”
“Go get cleaned up, look at you, all messy, go get cleaned up. All of you.”
“Yes, Ms Matthews,” we all chorused and went upstairs to the bathroom. I love the smell of Cool-T’s house, smells like cooking. And his mum always smells like perfume. He lives here with just his mum and his sister who is mainly always up in her room; his dad left after his sister was born. I always think of this place as my second home and his mom as my mom since my mom don’t do shit for me. We’ve had good memories in this house, from sliding down the stairs to camping in his backyard. The rest of the crew are my friends but I’ve known Cool-T the longest.

We took turns to wash our hands and clean our bruises and cuts then we headed to Cool-T’s bedroom. But first I went to his sister Marissa’s room to say hi. I knocked on her door. “Come in,” I heard her say and I entered in. Marissa was very pretty, with long dark brown hair and almond shape eyes, a cute button nose and full lips. She had her hair back in a messy ponytail and was lying on her bed reading a magazine. She looked up from her magazine. “Hi Jermaine!” She said getting up and running to give me a hug.
“Hey,” I replied.
“You smell nice,” she said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I’m guessing you’re here with my brother.”
“Yeah.”
She looked down. “Oh,” she said.
“But I decided to stop by and say hi” she looked back up again and smiled.
“Really?”
“Yeah” She grabbed my hand.
“Look what I did,” she said, pulling me over to her desk. She picked up a piece a paper and on it was a sketch of me DJ-ing. “Nice,” I smiled “you did this all by yourself?”
“Yeah, pretty good, huh?”
“Yeah it is.”
“You can keep it if you want, I can do another one.”
“Nah, you keep this one, it’s really good. You should be an artist.” Marissa stared at me. I knew she liked me, from ages ago she’s liked me. But I can’t get together with my best friend’s sister, that’s wrong. “I’m gonna go back to Cool-T’s room, k?” I said to her.
“Ok...” she said, looking down. I took the picture. “On a second thought, I want it, to put it on my wall,” I said and she smiled and hugged me again.

Back in Cool-T’s room, Cool-T and Nine-T were on his ps2, Ee was looking at some CDs. E was fixing Cool-T’s hard drive and Fat-T was watching Cool-T and Nine-T playing the ps2 and sipping soda. I threw myself on to Cool-T’s bed and started reading the new issue of ‘Bling’. I can’t believe nothing is going on today; usually we have something to do but not today, today is just time to chill. I skipped half the pages in the magazine, this issue’s lame. I threw it back on the pile of magazines on the floor. “Hey guys, wanna go rob a store?” I said.
“Why?” Cool-T asked.
“Just cos,” I replied “there ain’t nothing to do, man. I’m so bored.”
“What kinda store?”
“Just some corner store.” Cool-T got up and stretched. Nine-T seized his controller and made his car crash in the game. “Sure,” Cool-T said reaching into his draw. He pulled out ‘reliable’ his lucky Desert Eagle.”And don’t think I didn’t see that Nine-T,” he said not turning around and Nine-T just laughed. Ee put down the CDs and pulled out a black bandana from her pocket. I grabbed my black bandana from my back pocket and covered my mouth with it. The rest of the crew done the same. “E, is there any security cameras in that store down the road?” I asked.
“Just one, but it’s easy to disable, I’ll disable it the moment you step into the store,” E replied.
“Hey One-T, we still on for tonight?” Cool-T asked.
“Yeah, get E to keep it wired just in case,” I replied.
“I’ll be on the lookout whilst you guys transaction,” said Nine-T.
“K, but don’t talk about it now,” I answered.
“We ready? I’ll go get a sack,” Ee said and she ran out of the room. I watched her little ass moving as she ran out then I noticed Cool-T noticing so I stopped.
Cool-T grabbed his keys and walked out, Fat-T followed him. “Done,” E said.
“Cool, man. I appreciate it,” I said. E never gets involved within the actual robberies that we do, instead he sits in the car watching and waiting for our commands. He also alerts us of when something may be on to us. I remember one time when E told me he didn’t really feel like part of the team. “You guys do everything and I just sit on the computer and watch,” he had said to me “I’m no good to you guys.”
“Hey, man,” I replied “Do you know how many talented computer hackers I know?”
“No”
“None. You the only one and that makes you special. If it weren’t for you we wouldn’t have gotten where we are today. We made it cos of you, homie.”

E had gotten way braver after that and now he’s more than happy to help us with anything he can do.

Seems kinda weird. A bunch of 16 year olds deciding to rob a store one day because they’re bored but that’s just the type of people we are. Some people call us criminals; I call us skilled ‘borrowers’. I’ve committed so many crimes it’s a crime all on its own. I got arrested for arson to some warehouse last year and was suspended from school for starting fights. I have no idea why I commit so many crimes I guess I’m just a rebel without a cause also I like all the money I make from it. The rest of the gang are criminal but not as much as me, I’m the one they call a ‘wild child’, I’m the one with several ASBO’s to my name. I know I don’t’ sound like a person to be messed with but I’m a nice person really, I just can’t stop myself from breaking the law. Rules were meant to be broken is my motto.

We all piled into Cool-T’s Hummer H2. Every time I get into this car I remember how we afforded it. Not such good memories. “Okay be swift, the same way you get in is the only way you can get out so don’t go so far away from the exit. You shouldn’t have to worry about the cameras, no one will realise they’re disabled. Don’t touch a thing, we don’t want any of our DNA on anything,” E repeated the same procedure he does on every robbery we go on. I ignored him cos I practically know it off by heart now and stared out the window. “Cool-T slow down, there is sexy Miss Shaniqua,” I said sitting up and tapping Cool-T. Cool-T pulled over and wound down his window. “Hey Shaniqua baby, where you off to, girl?” He said.
“Just coming home from school which you missed, again,” Shaniqua replied.
“Ouch, the attitude. But without it you wouldn’t be so fine,” Cool-T put on his best smile and Shaniqua fell for it. She started swaying and fixing her hair and all that crap that girls do. “Oooh, Cool-T, you’re so smooth,” She said batting her eyelashes.
“Only for you, baby,” Cool-T blew her a kiss and she giggled “Hop in, girl, I’ll drop you home.” Shaniqua opened the door and sat on my lap. “Hey One-T,” she said hugging me.
“Wassup,” I replied. Cool-T started driving again. Ee looked back from the front seat and shot daggers at Shaniqua. “Shaniqua, this car was smelling nice before, close your legs,” Ee spat.
“Ee, my vision was fine before I had to look at your face,” Shaniqua retorted.
“Girl, don’t start with me.”
“Don’t start with me.”
“Shut up!”
“Make me!”
“Y’all shut up before I shove my dick in your mouths,” Fat-T said and they both shut up quickly. I burst out laughing. “Y’all got told!” I laughed and I high-fived Nine-T who was also laughing. We dropped off Shaniqua who hadn’t said a word since Fat-T told her to shut up and we got out around the corner from the store. We all made sure our ear pieces were in properly and that at least half of our face was hidden. I got my gun ready. I weren’t gonna use it, it had no bullets, but it was just to intimidate. Yeah, yeah it sounds bad but like I said, I’m not gonna use it. When we were all ready, we walked casually into the store. “ALRIGHT ALL YOU MOTHER FUCKERS PUT YO’ HANDS UP!” I shouted and instantly everybody screamed and put their hands up. “That’s right, right where I can see ‘em.” There was about 8 people in the store - none of them around our age. There was only mums and old ladies. “Ok Amigos, you’re all gonna put the money in the sack,” Nine-T said waving around the sack and approaching some quavering woman “In the sack, in the sack.”
Cool-T headed straight for the counter and kept his gun on the man’s head while he raided the till. I looked around making sure no one was trying to escape or call 911 on our asses. Ee went and helped herself to all the freeze pops, sodas and the many boxes of chocolates on the shelves. Fat-T secured the door. “Luna, grab me some cigarettes,” I shouted over to Ee. ‘Luna’ was a fake name we use so we don’t give out our identity. “One-T! One-T!” I could hear E through the ear piece.
“Yeah?” I said.
“Seems like a trigger alarm has been pulled, the cops are on their way!”
“Shit! Guys, get what you can and let’s bounce, the cops are coming!” Cool-T shoved the last of what was in the till into a bag and Nine-T came bouncing back with a sack full of money and even some jewellery. “Man, is that an engagement ring in there?” I asked him.
“Real gold, homie,” he replied.
“Go give that back, man!” I told him and he threw it back to the woman. Ee came back with a bag load of treats, Cool-T behind her. “Let’s go,” he said and we ran out of the store just as we heard the sirens coming round the corner. We jumped into the car and E stepped on the gas. We hid in the car until we were back outside Cool-T’s house.

Cool-T’s mum didn’t like the fact that we went on robberies and so we never bought the stolen goods into her house. Instead we put them back in my house and then went back to his. As soon as we got in his room we all started laughing and chatting about it. “That was fun, y’all!” Cool-T said.
“I think I got enough snacks to last us a life time, great idea One-T,” Ee said, giving me a seductive smile.
“Yeah, I know,” I winked at her then I walked out to go see Marissa. “Marissa!” I shouted as I knocked on her bedroom door.
“Come in,” she replied and I entered in.
“Look what I got for you,” I said and I tossed her a box of chocolates
“Delafée!” She squealed. She grabbed the box and rubbed the ribbon. “Wait, but how did you afford this? They’re like $190 a box.”
“I didn’t,” I said looking straight ahead and not looking at her.
“You....you...stole them?” she gasped.
“No, Ee stole them.”
“But still, they’re stolen. I can’t accept a stolen gift!”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s criminal evidence!”
“Hey look. This ain’t the first time we’ve stolen things. We never get caught, hear me, never. Just take it, no one will ever know. It’s my gift to you.” She looked at me, her mouth slightly open, then she looked down at the box again. “Ok,” she said “You promise?”
“I promise,” I smiled and went back into Cool-T’s room.

Cool-T was counting the money. “$300,” he said finally “not bad.” I nodded.
“$50 each,” Nine-T said quickly grabbing his share “gonna go into school tomorrow, homies.”
“Why?” I said.
“Tomorrow’s biology and you know what that means...” he replied.
“Ms Leonard” I smiled. Ms Leonard was the hottest teacher known to man. Half Japanese and half Korean, she looked like Kimora Lee Simmons. She’s the only reason we go to biology: to flirt with her. “This time imma get her number for sure,” I said.
“Yeah right!” Nine-T waved away my comment “That’s if I don’t get it first, amigo.”
“You guys are such boys,” Ee said.
“Shut it,” Nine-T said, then he added “...Mable” Ee punched him in his arm and he yelled in pain. Mable was her middle name but she hated it, especially when we called her by it. We all laughed as Nine-T winced in pain. “Stop laughing, that wasn’t funny! Que dolió realmente!” We all laughed harder. I love moments like this, just reminds me of how close we are and how much I can rely on my One-T crew.