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Onika's P.O.V.
Run and hide....That's all I wanted to do after my best and only friend, Terrell, had to move to another state. His mother noticed that he was beginning to hang with the wrong crowd. And well, he was! Even I tried to tell him that the people he was starting to hang with were going to get him into a lot of trouble.
However, Terrell was very hardheaded. He and I only had each other because we never fit in with the "cool" kids in the neighborhood. But while we were walking to the corner store one day, these older kids told both of us that we should join their gang. I told them no. But T. said we should so that we wouldn't have to worry about being bullied anymore.
I was tempted, but still decided that the whole "thug life" thing wasn't for me. Terrell on the other hand took the older kids up on their offer. And even though I didn't want to be a part of it, Terrell never stopped being my best friend. He said, "Don't sweat it, Nika! I'll just protect you at school and around the hood with this..."
He pulled a gun out and showed it to me. I was scared as hell!
"T! What the hell?! Where'd you get that from?! Your mother is going to kill you if she finds out you have a gun", I told him. We were 13 at the time.
"Nika...she'll never find out. Look...it's crazy out here! And I'm tired of getting picked on! Now nobody will mess with me and nobody will mess with you either", he said.
Well, for awhile his mother never found out about the gun. Until somebody at school snitched on him. The principal asked to search his backpack and there was the gun! He was expelled...
His mother cussed him out, beat his ass and then sent him to Georgia to live with his father. She said she wasn't trying to visit her son in prison or visit his grave site! So she needed to send him away from Queens, New York.
I knew she did the right thing, but I was crushed! Terrell was my only friend. And although he was wrong for joining a gang and carrying a gun, he still was my protection from the bullies. I was hurt but also terrified when he left.
"Who will protect me now?", I thought to myself as I entered my freshman year of high school without him. Again, I wanted to run and hide! I tried to stay invisible as much as possible. And believe it or not, it worked. I didn't have any issues all 4 years of high school.
But, my neighborhood was still being ran by the gang Terrell had joined. You didn't want any drama with them. Unless you had a death wish!
In my 12th grade year, I was more serious than ever about my education. I wanted to graduate and get the hell out of Queens! And being educated was my only way out.
Well, one day I was walking home from school late in the evening. I stayed afterwards to get some tutoring so that I could pull my grades up in a few subjects. I unfortunately missed the bus and decided to just walk home.
