MISS MONEY MAKER, jamal turner

Numbers

Oscar pointed to Latrelle. I shook my head as Oscar pulled out a gun and handed it to Cesar. "And I actually forgave you." I mumbled to myself about Oscar. "We went to school with Latrelle. Me and Him played Pop Warner together." 

"He still pulled a gun." Oscar countered. "But he didn't shoot." Cesar defended. "Next time he will. This way there's no next time." 

"You've been playing me... us. All that talk about our future was bullshit-"

"You wanna have more days like today? This is how we do it. Ain't no future if you don't handle your present." Oscar gave Cesar the gun. "Cesar-" I stopped and looked down.

 "Listen to me, you shoot until you empty the clip. Don't freeze up, don't flinch, don't second guess-" 

"How are you telling him to do this! He can't kill someone!" I cut Oscar off. "It's do or die time." 

I saw a little girl running to him. "See, he's with his sister." 

"His punk ass got lucky. Cesar you handle this tomorrow and Y/n, don't talk or tell him ANYTHING!" Oscar ordered. I sat back and closed my eyes we we drove off. 

"Hey, drop me off here." 

"Flower place?" Oscar asked. I nodded. 

Cesar got out the car and let the seat down for me to get out. I grabbed my bookbag and got out. "I won't be home tonight." I closed the passenger door. 

I started walking and as soon as I got there I heard talking. 

"Tell your J-daddy." I heard Jamal's voice say. I saw him talking to a gnome. "Jamal what the hell-" I stopped and laughed. 

He came over and hugged me. "Y/n- You're- okay?" He spoke, peppering my face with kisses. "I found a key, this and now-" The sound of rustling cut him off. We smiled at each other and ran to the door. 

We got it unlocked to see. More cases with locks on it. 

"Oh, hell no."

We spent all night opening them with the code 'Twenty, Seven, Forty-Two' and it unlocked them but we found no money. 

Jamal ended up taking his shirt off and wrapped it on his head.

"Twenty, Seven, Forty-Two"

"Do me right and make my dreams come true." He wished and opened it to nothing. He threw it making me giggle a little. 

"YOU'RE HEARTLESS!"

"Babe how about we calm-" I said but he picked up another one. 

"Come on, boo. You know I love you." He caressed the case. "Damn, you say that to everything huh?" 

"Those other boxes didn't mean a thing. You're the real deal." He said then kissed the box.

"Oh my-"

"Uh, am I interrupting something?"  We turned around to see Monse. "Where have you been?" Jamal interrogated. "I'm sorry. I didn't see any of your until this morning. What's all this?" Monse responded. 

"This is what Ricky left Chivo. It holds the answers to RollerWorld. I know it does. That combo right there opened every box and still nothing. I've been searching all night and nothing!" 

"We've been searching." I corrected him. 

"Still nothing! And there are dozens of boxes left to go! I think I have arthritis. Would it be juvenile arthritis? Am I still a juvenile?" Jamal panicked. Monse looked at him like he was crazy then at me. "I've dealt with this all night. It's been worse."

"I'll help." Monse went to the boxes. "WOMAN PLEASE! THERE'S AN ORDER TO THIS BOTTOM TO TOP LEFT TO RIGHT!" Jamal yelled. "Calm down." 

Monse turned around with a paper. 

"I hate you. Let me see." We both got up and looked at the numbers. "What are you guys doing?! This is trespassing!" We heard. We looked up to see Ruby then back down then back up to see Ruby in full face makeup. 

"Is there anything you wanna tell us?" Jamal asked, chuckling a bit. "About what?" He asked. "That whole thing." 

"I was helping Olivia with a makeup test for her quince when Jamal 911ed. Right side's glamour, left side's chic." Ruby explained. "Oh my god, Ruby I knew you were a make up guru!" I teased. 

"Dude, I can't believe I'm saying this but you're beautiful!" Jamal complimented. 

"Why is he here?" Monse asked. "Because SOMEONE wasn't answering my calls and texts." Jamal scolded. "My phone was dead and I'm here now and that's all that matters. I think the naysayer needs to go home." Monse argued. 

"I am not a naysayer-" Ruby was about to argue back. "We've been up all night trying to find this RollerWorld money while SOMEONE had a dead phone and the OTHER was doing his makeup. Please... Shut the hell up." I spoke calmly.

"RollerWorld? I'm out."

"RollerWorld is real!" Jamal yelled. Ruby stopped walking and turned around. "So were the chupacabra bones you found in sixth grade." Ruby sassed. "It's the only way to save Cesar." 

"Save Cesar?" Ruby asked. "BEFORE he's forced to kill Latrelle." 

"Per usual, you're overreacting." Ruby was about to walk away. 

"He's got a gun and he has to do it tonight unless he disappears." Monse explained. "This is crazy! If he's got a gun then why don't we help him now? Why can't he disappear now?" 

I walked around to calm myself from the stress that a lot of us were under already. After drinking some water and taking deep breaths I went back to the group who looked like they'd discover something new. 

"Hey, look, Y/n! These numbers are coordinates!"