Ganja on Fourth Street

Chapter Twelve

. . .

Laken Rivera

Everyone was right when they said all I had to do was get used to my new environment. Two months living here and I already felt like I knew everyone. Things at the rink have been getting better. Instead of just cleaning up, Shade had me work the skates to avoid contact with Danielle.

For some reason, she still had some sort of hatred towards me. I didn't really care, though. I wasn't about to let her make my working experience a bad vibe.

EJ and I have been hanging out a lot more. Sometimes he comes whenever Stanley closes and helps me clean up the rink. Whenever we just want to chill, we go to his apartment and get lit for hours. He was turning into my best friend—we could talk about anything and everything. I felt like I could trust him. Two months and I haven't witnessed anything dangerous from EJ except that time in the alley.

"Girl, do you have a perm?" Josephine said as she fingered through my hair.

"No, I just blow dry and flat iron it a lot. Is something wrong?" I replied.

I decided to visit the shop and the girls insisted they do my hair even though nothing was wrong with it. For the most part, I kept my hair straight down. It's been that way ever since I was ten.

"Hair is so dull! All you ever do is wear it down...do you even know what your real hair texture is like?"

"My mom said it was too wild and looked ghetto so she just blow dried it and flattened it whenever we did a wash."

"What's your natural texture like?"

"I have a curly fro." I mumbled.

My hair was a big ol' curly puff. My mother tried to hide it from the public as best as possible. She kept giving Xae low cuts and gave herself a perm to keep it straight.

"Girl! We about to get you under the sink. Embrace your natural hair, girl. Enough with this look, baby."

Josephine rushed me over to the sink where they washed hair. I sat down and put my head back as she spent twenty minutes washing my hair. When she was done, I sat up and felt around my wet hair that scrunched up into short wet curls.

"Aw look," she pulled one of them and let go, making it bounce right back into place.

"We about to cornrow this then whenever you ready...let it out. Deal?" She said as we walked back to the styling chair.

"Okay...I don't really know how my manage it, though. I'm so used to having it down."

"Keep it moisturized!" Kady piped in.

"Protect it...braid it up, twist it up, bantu knot it, etcetera." Tessie said.

"Deep condition!"

"Pony tails!"

"Find the right products, girl."

The salon started blurting out ideas on how to manage my fro. I giggled as Josephine started to braid my wet hair with water based products.

Soon enough I had shoulder length cornrows that were still dripping with a little water. She dabbed the towel on the ends and turned me around so I could get out.