crush on me, but nah. I think he just wants somebody to talk to. He’ll hit me up for candy, too. Like today.
“You got some king-size Skittles, Bri?” he asks.
“Yep. Two dollars.”
“Two dollars? That’s expensive as hell!”
This li’l boy’s got a whole bunch of money pinned to the front of his jersey—it must be his birthday—and he’s got the nerve to complain about my prices?
“One, watch your mouth,” I tell him. “Two, that’s the same price they are at the store. Three, why you not in school?”
He pops a wheelie. “Why you not in school?”
Fair enough. I slide off my backpack. “You know what? Since it’s your birthday, I’m gonna go against my own rules and let you have a pack for free.”
The second I hand them over, he rips them open and pours a bunch into his mouth.
I tilt my head. “Well?”
“Thank you,” he says with a mouthful.
“We gotta work on your manners. For real.”
Jojo follows me to the courtyard. It’s mostly dirt now thanks to the cars that people have parked there, like the one Aunt Pooh and her homeboy, Scrap, sit on. Scrap’s hair is half braided, half Afro, like he got up in the middle of getting it braided to go do something else. Knowing Scrap, he did. His socks poke out of his flip-flops, and he shoves huge spoonfuls of cereal into his mouth from a mixing bowl. He and Aunt Pooh talk to the other GDs standing around them.
Aunt Pooh sees me and hops off the car. “Why the hell you ain’t in school?”
Scrap and the GDs nod at me, like I’m one of the guys. I get that a lot. “I got suspended,” I tell Aunt Pooh.
“Again? For what?”
I hop up on the car beside Scrap. “Some BS.”
I tell them everything, from how security loves to target black and brown kids to how they pinned me to the ground. The GDs shake their heads. Aunt Pooh looks like she wants blood. Jojo claims he would’ve “whooped them guards’ ass,” which makes everybody but me laugh.
“You wouldn’t have done nothing, boy,” I say.
“On my momma.” Aunt Pooh claps her hands with each word. “On my momma they messed with the wrong one. Point them out and I’ll handle them fools.”
Aunt Pooh doesn’t go from zero to one hundred—she goes from chill to ready to kill. But I don’t want to have her in prison over Long and Tate. “They’re not worth it, Aunty.”
“How much time you get, Bri?” Scrap asks.
Damn. He makes it sound like I’m going to prison. “Three days.”
“That ain’t bad,” he says. “They take your candy?”
“Nah, why?”
“Let me get some Starbursts then.”
“That’ll be a dollar,” I tell him.
“I ain’t got cash. I can pay you tomorrow though.”
This fool did not. “Then you can get the Starbursts tomorrow.”
“Goddamn, it’s just a dollar,” Scrap says.
“Goddamn, it’s just twenty-four hours,” I say in my best Scrap voice. Aunt Pooh and the others crack up. “I don’t do credit. That’s against the Ten Snack Commandments, bruh.”
“The what?” he says.
“Yo! That shit!” Aunt Pooh backhands my arm. “Y’all, she redid Big’s ‘Ten Crack Commandments.’ It’s dope as hell, too. Bri, spit that shit.”
This is how it goes. I let Aunt Pooh hear some rhymes I wrote, she gets so hype over them that she tells me to rap them for her friends. Trust, if you’re whack, a gangbanger will be the first to let you know.
“All right.” I throw my hoodie on. Aunt Pooh pounds out a rhythm on the hood of the car. More people in the courtyard drift over.
I nod along. Just like that I’m in my zone.
I been at this game for months, and the money’s been gradual,
So I made some rules, using Big’s manual
A couple of steps unique, for me to keep
My game on track while I sell these snacks.
Rule numero uno, never let no one know,
how much cash I stack, ’cause it’s fact
that cheddar breeds jealousy ’specially
when it comes to Basics. They’ll be quick to take it.
Number two, never tell folks my next move.
Don’t you know competition got a mission and ambition
to make exactly what I’m getting?
They’ll be at my spots where it’s hot with plans to open up shop.
Number three, I only trust Sonny and Leek.
Li’l kids will set my ass up, properly gassed up,
hoodied and masked up. Huh, for a couple bucks
Stick me up on playgrounds when no one’s around.
Number four is actually important the more:
No eating the stash while I’m making the cash.
Number five, never sell no junk