Halo Stone #2
It made me jealous and I turned my nose up at him. The rest of the class continued introducing themselves and it pulled me from my anger to Darius. Mrs. Toll started teaching and she was better than Mr. Benton. The hour went by faster than normally and it was time for us to go to our last class.
Anna and I had the same last class which was English. When I got there, she was seated so I sat next to her. I opened my pencil box and gave her two sharp pencils with purple erasers on them. It made me feel like a man taking care of his woman, just like daddy taught me to.
English went by slow but eventually it came to an end. The bell rang and it was finally time to go home.
“I have to go to my locker first. But my brothers will be outside with their girlfriends.” I told Anna when we got in the hallway.
“Okay, I will have my sister, and we will be waiting with them.”
Anna left her way and I went mine. I forgot to put my history book in my bookbag so I could take it home with me.
The sound of lockers slamming, loud talking, laughter and running.
The end of the day was the only time teachers did not catch us running.
It’s because they run just as fast as we do when the bell rings.
After I grabbed my book and zipped my book bag up. I put it on and headed towards the exit. As I walked, I spotted Darius and Mrs. Toll in her classroom. He was helping her clean up and put the art supplies away. The door was open and he was making her laugh as they cleaned up.
“Oh, hi Halo. Did you enjoy your last class?” She asked when she saw me.
“Yup, sure did. I can’t believe Darius is cleaning up. His locker is the messiest, I thought he hated being clean.” I shot shade at him.
“My locker is full of A+ papers dufus!”
“Shut up---”
“Boy. Boys. Let’s not argue or name call. Halo, I could always use more help if you’d like to join us.”
“He can’t because he has a girlfriend. The rules are, you have to walk her home if she lives close by. Anna’s house is two blocks before his, so he must walk her home.” Darius was annoyingly proud to tell her that.
I stood in the doorway ready to fight him. Mrs. Toll just gave me a nice smile and spoke.
“What a sweet gentleman you are Halo. Better not keep her waiting, I’m sure I’ll need you for something else another time. See you tomorrow in class.”
“Bye Mrs. Toll, drop dead Darius!” I yelled at him then ran down the hall and out the door before he could respond.
The sun hit my face when I stepped outside. School had only started three weeks ago. It was still hot outside like summer. My brothers, their girlfriends, Anna, and her sister Mina were waiting for me. As soon as I got with them, just like a typical ten-year-old, my brain forgot about today.
We played around while walking home. Greek wanted to stop by the candy lady house. It was sugar to our teeth, and we all ran in the direction of the house. Our parents always made sure we had money for school In case we wanted more to eat at lunch.
The school was selling something, or we wanted to go to the candy lady. We each got $5.00 a day unless it was bookfair day. Then we’d get $50.00. We got to her house and Greek knocked on the colorful door.
The rule was to make sure the ‘Open’ sign was on, knock once then walk inside. As soon as we did it was like stepping inside Candyland. Candy lady had it all, you name it and she had it. Juices, flavored pickles, chips, and snow cones as well. I could taste what I wanted already.
“Ooo, she has watermelon suckers and Nerds rope!” Anna was excited to point that out.
I went and picked them both up so I could get it for her. The sucker was fifty cents, and the Nerd rope was the same price. That was only a dollar, and I had more than that. I got Vitner’s hot chips, a green ring pop and two Slim Jim’s.
My brothers got them and their girls something too.
I felt bad because Mena did not have anyone to get her something.
So, I gave her my last seventy-five cents.
We left candy lady’s house and continued walking home.
When we arrived at Anna’s block I gave her a hug, she kissed my cheek and went off with her sister.
The only time you kissed on the lips was when you made it official, those were the rules. Golden’s girlfriend lived on Anna’s block too, so he said goodbye to her. The next block was Greek’s girlfriend’s then it was finally our block.
We lived in a big house on W. Seven Mile where other big houses were as well. Ours was light brown brick, big driveway, backyard and six bedrooms. It was the fifth house from the corner we turned down. As soon as we reached our block, we would take off running.
“I’m about to whoop some ass!!” Mommy yelled her usual from the kitchen.
“Hi mommy!!” The three of us spoke together.
Golden and Greek ran up the stairs.
“Hey! What y’all mama say!” Daddy’s voice made everything stop.
“Sorry daddy!” Golden and Greek shouted their apology,
“I walked mommy!” I confessed.
“Snitch!” Greek yelled from his room.
“Mommy’s favorite!” Greek yelled from his.
It waws so funny when they would get mad at how honest I was with our parents. Especially mommy because me and her were so close.
Me and Golden shared a bathroom. Greek waws lucky, he had a bathroom in his room like our parents did.
Since he was the oldest, he got that room.
But mine had a door that opened and I could sit outside and see the block.
Golden’s room had a closet bigger than me and Greek’s. He never let us forget it either.
“How was school, boys?” Mommy asked us.
Me and my brothers were now in the kitchen at the table waiting for our snack. Mommy put plates in front of us. There was a crunchy peanut butter sandwich on it, a fruit cup and Ritz peanut butter sandwich crackers. She gave us a Capri Sun juice with it too.
“Halo finally has a girlfriend.” Greek rushed and told.
“I would have said it loose lips Billy goat!” I called him.
Golden laughed and so did Greek.
“Beat you to it!” He rubbed it in.
“Don’t start y’all.” Mommy broke up our arguing. “And I keep telling y’all how you’re too young for girlfriends. You have girls who just so happen to be your friend.”
“Stop lying to them woman.” Daddy came into the kitchen.
He walked over to us and kissed us on top of our heads. Then he went by the stove where mommy was. He kissed her and squeezed her booty. She always hit his arm in a ‘girl’ way and reminded him that we could see.
“Malik, stop telling them they have girlfriends. They are only eight.”
“I made you my girlfriend when we were six and now look. You’re my wife and we have three handsome children.” He told her then he came and sat at the head of the kitchen table. “Only thing y’all are too young for with girls is what?”
“Getting naked.” We answered together.
He looked at mommy and smiled from being pleased with our answer. She laughed and shook her head.
“Why the hell did God allow me to have three ‘copy and paste’ Malik Stones I will never understand.” She put his sandwich in front of him.
“Because God is my nigga and he knew what we needed!” He joked and took a bite of his sandwich.
Me and my brothers loved it when it was just the five of us. Our family was almost perfect except for one thing.
“Boys. Me and mommy need to go out of town to Virgina. We’ll be gone for a week.” Mommy shared with us.”
We hated it when they went out of town but at least this was not far or long like many others in the past.
Dad wiped his mouth and said, “After we get back, we will be home for a while. But uh, we leave for London on December 12th.” Dad announced just as mommy stood on the side of him. “We won’t be back until the 27th.”
“The 27th! But that’s after Christmas!” Greek reacted first.
“London! That’s so far!” I expressed and I felt myself about to cry. But daddy was here and I did not want to be a crybaby.
“Please say Ms. Latimore is not watching us. She’s old, makes us eat vegetables and farts in daddy’s chair.” Golden expressed.
His truth had daddy cracking up. Mommy tried to hide her laugh, but she failed.
“Don’t be rude Golden and no, Ms. Latimore only watches you while we go to Virgina. Not while we’ll be in London. She only babysits when we stay in the country. Auntie Imani will be staying here.” Mommy explained.
“I know we won’t be here for Christmas, and we are so sorry about that.
So, we thought of an idea. Decorations and the tree will be up along with your gifts around it.
Y’all love her cooking so we told her to cook whatever y’all decide.
Also, we’ll be on Skype watching you open everything.
” Dad was trying to make this better, but it wasn’t working.
“My babies, listen up.” Mommy put her cup down and sat down next to daddy. “We know how important the holidays are for us. The traditions we do and the time we spend. But you also know how important our work is. There are some changes that daddy and I are trying to make.”
That excited me, “Will you get new jobs?!”
“In a way son, yes, we will. But for us to do that, we must oversee some very important people and get out of some deals we made. All we want is for the three of you to be understanding and know we do not like being away from y’all. Can you do that for us?”
I looked at my brothers; Greek nodded at me and Golden. Then we smiled and agreed to do that for them. Their job was highly important and a secret that we kept. For anyone who asked, they had government jobs and traveled a lot.
Me and my brothers never thought to ask any questions about it. They were our parents, took care of us and loved us a lot. After we ate our snacks, my brothers and I did our homework then went outside to ride our dirt bikes.
A week later
School was going good until Tuesday when Golden got into a fight in his homeroom. Since we were separated there was no way for me and Greek to help. From the rumors around, Golden won the fight against Timmothy.