If I Grow Up

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online
Authors: Todd Strasser
name. Don’t pull this crap with me.”
    Terrell shook his head. “This ain’t no crap. Gentry’s the enemy.”
    â€œMaybe the Disciples’s enemy, but not ours. Besides, she’s no Gangsta and I’m no Disciple.”
    Terrell shifted the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other and narrowed his eyes at me. The pose was starting to get on my nerves.
    â€œHow come you won’t get with Soon To Shoot?” he asked.
    I glanced at his “crew” around the bench, crossing their arms and lowering their gazes, practicing defiant, menacing looks. “You sure you don’t want to call yourselves Soon To Shave?”
    Terrell’s lower lip jutted out angrily. “The only reason you ain’t with us is because of her .”
    â€œThe only reason I ain’t with you is because I don’t want to be with you.”
    â€œHouse boy,” Terrell taunted. It was about as bad an insult as you could fling. Already frustrated by not getting to be alone with Tanisha, I felt my fists clench.
    Terrell lifted his fists. “Okay, come on, let’s see what you got.” But as he spoke, his eyes darted back at his crew, and I knew it was just more show. I dropped my fists and started back toward Tanisha. Terrell followed.
    â€œYou’re messing everything up for me,” he said in a hushed voice he didn’t want the others to hear. “If you got with us, Marcus might think serious about bringing us into the Disciples.”
    â€œHow about you get with me and think serious about coming back to Washington Carver?” I asked. School was set to begin in a few days, and Terrell had said he wasn’t going back.
    Terrell jerked his head at Tanisha, who was talking on her cell phone, her face bright and animated. “Only reason you go is ’cause of her.”
    I spun around and aimed a finger at his face. “For the last time, you leave her out of this. You get with the gangbangers, and all you’re gonna do is wind up in jail.”
    â€œMarcus and Jamar ain’t in jail,” Terrell said. “They’re wearing fresh clothes and driving hot rides. They got more bank and bling than you’ll ever get from going to school. All they teach in school is how to work for the white man.”
    â€œStop talking trash.” I turned and headed again toward Tanisha.
    â€œAm I?” Terrell asked, following me. “Look at what they teach us. The history of white people. Books by white people. Stay in school and all you’ll ever be is a pawn for white people.”
    â€œNot me,” I said.
    Oh, yeah?” Terrell said. “Then what else you gonna be?”
    I didn’t answer. The truth was, I didn’t know.
    â€œCome on, DeShawn,” Terrell said behind me. “You know you gotta get with us sooner or later. Around here there ain’t nothing else you can do.”
    SARDINES AND A LOAF
    It turned even hotter the next day. Terrell and I were up in his apartment playing Thrill Kill on his Xbox with the window fan blowing on us like a gale. The anger we’d felt the day before had passed, but I wasn’t sure our friendship was the same as it had been. Inside we were still a couple of kids playing games, but outside he was an aspiring gangbanger and I wasn’t. We were both careful not to mention Tanisha. Terrell paused the game and went over to his desk and took a handful of peanuts in the shell out of a plastic bag.
    â€œHave some,” he offered.
    â€œWhere’d you get ’em?” I cracked open a shell.
    â€œCousins in Georgia. They got their own farm.”
    â€œEver been there?”
    Terrell shook his head. “What do I want to go to some farm for?”
    From outside, above the whir of the fan, came yelling and laughter. I went to the window. Someone had opened a fire hydrant on Abernathy, and bare-chested boys, and girls in T-shirts, were playing in the spray.
    â€œWant to

Similar Books

Wolf Tickets

Ray Banks

Chasing His Bunny

Golden Angel

The Wolf Fount

Gayla Drummond

i 743ae055a1ebb037

J. L. Langley

The Chosen Ones

Lori Brighton

Stone Quarry

S.J. Rozan