Coming of Age

7

"What was all that hot shit you was talking earlier? It's after school, so Wassup?"She stood in front of her. "Your friends ain't with you now."

"Ain't nobody scared of you, Bianca."Joelle dropped her backpack and tied her hair up.

Bianca took the first swing hitting Joelle in the mouth. They immediately started fighting. Joelle was swinging and so was she, but nobody was winning.

Bianca grabbed Joelle by the hair and tried to drag her across the sidewalk, but Joelle kept her feet firm on the concrete still landing every punch could while her head was down.

Bianca uppercut her twice, making Joelle pick her head up. That made her made mad, and Joelle started showing out.

Feeling like Bianca was about to lose the fight, Bianca's older sister jumped in and started to hit Joelle too.

When her sister jumped in, Bianca pushed Joelle to the ground and started kicking her. "I bet you won't talk nomore shit, dumb bitch."

Joelle laid on the ground her holding her ribs but sat up when she stopped kicking her. "Fuck You, bitch."Joelle spits blood at her.

Joelle got up from the ground and grabbed her backpack. She continued to walk down the sidewalk that led to her neighborhood thinking that their scuffle was over.

Bianca ran up on her once again, but this time with a weapon. She had a 0small blade that she broke off of a pencil sharpener and slashed Joelle clean across the cheek.

When Joelle held her face and started screaming, Bianca and her sisters started running down the sidewalk.

Raven felt in her gut that something was wrong so she ran. She ran down the path that she knew Joelle would walk to go home

"Why are we running?"Aisha panted.

"It never takes Joelle this long to get home. Something is wrong."Raven continued to run down the sidewalk.  She had finally run into Joelle, crying and holding her face.

"JoJo, what's wrong? What happened?"Raven removed her hand from her cheek. The blood started to stain her light pink shirt. "I knew we should've fucking waited for you. What happened?"Raven raised her voice.

"I got into it with Bianca earlier, her and her sister just jumped me and she cut me in the face."Joelle sniffled.

"Why you ain't tell me? I woulda never let you walk by yourself."Raven smacked her lips and took off her backpack. "Here. Hold this on your face. You got blood all over your hand."Raven handed her a shirt that she intended to sell. They continued to walk down the sidewalk, but they took a different path. They were going to Raven's older sister, Alicia's house.

Alicia was way older than Raven. She's 25 and she never played about her sister's or Joelle. They had been friends since they were toddlers, so she claimed her too.  Aisha came along in 1st grade, but Alicia never liked her too much.

They walked into Alicia's apartments and knocked on her door.

"Wassup RaeRae. Hey Joelle and Aisha."Alicia's boyfriend, Kendrick answered the door. They had been together since they were Raven and Joelle's age.