13. Uzi Reaves
Uzi Reaves
We were almost finished with today’s class.
Today was a tough day. A lot of different emotions were running high this morning.
The past couple of classes, I’ve been getting the women familiar with the gun, so today, my team and I were able to bring them out back, behind the warehouse, where I had all this land, that was deep into a wooded area, and I was letting the girls shoot for the first time.
For a lot of them, this was their first-time shooting.
Some of them never heard a gun go off before, so for the first few minutes, it took them awhile to get used to the loud roar.
Not everyone was going to become a perfect shooter overnight.
This was the kind of skill where it took a lot of repetition.
We were going to have to have a lot of classes out here, or inside the gun range to get these women to become perfect shooters, but right now, they had the basics, and that’s all I cared about.
We had the girls set up in different groups.
Each group had one of the trainers with them, but ultimately, I was walking around, giving direction too.
Right now, I was with a group of about five women, talking amongst them, but there was a loud commotion that was taking place towards the end, so I took my eyes off the women that I was standing in front of, so that I could turn and see what was going on.
There were three different women, and they were going at it with one of the ladies.
I was praying to God that it wasn’t Riot that they were going at I with because ever since I found out about her, she’s been someone that I would think about often, wanting her to stay on the straight and narrow, especially since I knew that she was freshly home from jail.
Sure enough, it was Riot that the women were going at it with, so I quickly walked over, wanting to see what was going on.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking from the three women to Riot, trying to understand what all the yelling and shit was about.
“She coming over here with all this attitude because Bernay used her earmuffs. Bernay and I had been sharing because she left hers at home. We saw that Riot walked off to use the restroom, so Brenay used her earmuffs while she was gone, and she came back doing the most. It ain’t that fuckin serious.
Ain’t no way I would have did all of that over some cheap ass headphones,” one of the girls said to me.
Her name was Shayla. Her, Bernay, and Dreya were a click that stuck together.
I would often try to keep the three of them separated because I didn’t want this to be the kind of program where everybody clicked up.
I wanted the girls to bond with each other and meet new people while they were here.
The three of them came in already knowing each other.
“Man, I don’t give a fuck about none of that shit that you saying.
Don’t touch my shit. You don’t know me well enough to be touching anything of mine.
The fact that you’re having a hard time understanding that is crazy to me.
That’s just like me walking over to your space, picking up your phone, and using it because I left mine at home.
Fuck wrong with you? Don’t touch my shit! ” Riot snapped.
I knew that Riot had that side of her, but I haven’t seen it yet.
I could say that she’s been biting her tongue and really trying to control her temper.
She could have snapped on her first day when a few of the girls were laughing at her when she announced that she’d just come home from jail.
She could have snapped last week when some of the other girls were talking shit amongst their breath, saying that Riot was showing off when she shot her gun in the range, but she didn’t.
She kept her cool. I wanted her to continue keeping her cool, so here I was, about to try to dissolve this situation quickly.
“Bernay, next time you forget something at home, just let me or one of the other instructors know, and we’ll supply you with whatever you need.
We have plenty of earmuffs here. Nobody needs to be touching each other’s shit.
Cool?” I asked, hating this shit because I felt like I was breaking up a fight between my damn kids.
“Bitch did a little petty ass year in jail and think she’s so fuckin hard. I’ll mop the flo’ with that hoe,” Shayla talked shit as she walked away. Riot stood there, and she shook her head.
“That’s my cue. Let me go before I kill these bitches,” she snapped, walking over to her station, so that she could grab her stuff.
“Oh, I’ll like to see you touch me bitch!” Shayla went on, and the shit that Riot picked up, she quickly threw it down, and she ran her little ass over to Shayla, popping her right in the mouth.
Shayla was here with friends, so of course they tried to swing back on Riot, but it’s almost as if Riot knew that she was going to get jumped because she was prepared for the swings, and she knew how to hold her own.
The fight didn’t have the chance to go on for that long because the instructors came over, and you would have thought that they would have been able to easily fling Riot’s little ass off the girls, but it took at least three of them to get her off.
Another three went for Shayla, Bernay, and Dreya, each getting one of them, and deescalating the situation as best as they could, pulling each of them out of the way, moving them away from Riot.
They all continued talking shit to Riot, calling her all kinds of names, and from there, I knew that their beef had to have been deeper. It’s no way in hell that they were this mad at this girl because she was mad about the fact that one of them touched her shit. It had to be something deeper.
“Alright. Class is over for the day. Everybody can pack up their stuff and go out through the back door. We’ll pick back up Saturday,” I had to make the announcement for the rest of the women that were standing out here.
“Don’t leave. Let me talk to you,” I said to Riot for a second because I knew she was going to try to quickly run off. Every time class was over, her ass was always the first one out, and I was trying to avoid that.
That look on her face was all too familiar.
I knew that face because I used to sport it often.
That angry face. The one that didn’t give a fuck about nothing and would risk getting that charge to get my point across.
I could tell that Riot wanted to kill the bitches that she just fought, and for that, I needed her to stay back, so that I could talk to her.
I allowed the outside area to clear out, and once it was just the two of us standing out here, that’s when I walked over to her, getting in her personal space, standing right in front of her.
“Them same bitches been trying me since I got here. I don’t know them hoes from a can of paint but judging by the way they keep fuckin with me, they must know me from somewhere.
I let them laugh at me when I had to tell the class that I just came home from jail.
They was talking shit the other morning in the gun range when I was shooting my gun.
I ain’t say nothing, I ain’t react because I’m honestly not trying to go back to jail.
They knew the kind of shit that I was going to be on when they decided to touch my shit.
It’s the principle with me. You don’t touch shit that don’t belong to you, and they old enough to know that!
” she was angry as she looked up at me, telling this to me.
“You just answered your own problem, Riot. I hear it in your voice that you not trying to go back to jail. Them bitches know that you don’t want to go back to jail, and they picking with you, and you going to fuck around, and give them exactly what they want to see happen.
Don’t let nobody have that much control over your actions.
I know that’s easier said than done, but that’s the way you gotta move when you have too much shit to lose.
Everything don’t always deserve a reaction.
That’s exactly where you going to fuck up at,” I told her, and she sucked her teeth, rolled her eyes, as if she wasn’t trying to hear shit that I was saying.
“You got it. I’m not trying to be lectured. Let a bitch touch your shit and let’s see if you scream that same bullshit about everything not needing a reaction!” she snapped.
I had to look around and see who this girl was talking to. That’s when I knew I was being hypocritical because the same way a bitch just had her fucked up for talking shit, and she swung, was the same way that I was feeling. I almost swung my fist on this bitch, I swear.
“You think hoes don’t try me, Riot? Yeah, I made a name for myself, and just about everybody in Miami knows me, and knows my history, but there’s always going to be that one bitch out there that’s going to try your gangsta and see if you’ll stoop as low as they want you to.
You walked your silly ass right into that trap.
I don’t move the way a bitch want me to move because I’m not a bitch puppet.
The second she took your shit, and kept talking crazy to you, she had set the trap and was just waiting for you to walk into it, and you did just that.
If you react every time somebody disrespect you, I guarantee you that you won’t live to see 25.
You need to learn when to chill the fuck out.
You don’t gotta prove to everybody that you not pussy,” I snapped, going to leave it at that, not wanting to keep talking about it.
She eventually walked away from me, and she went over to the wooden table, where all her stuff was, and she started loading up all her things into her bag. The infamous headphones that they fought over had fallen in the grass, so she picked them up, so that she could put them in the bag.