The Seven Twenties

...and then there were six...

This will end in tragedy.

*

Life is a bitch, that's just the truth. When you're living in a shithole smackdab in the middle of bum-fuck southern California, that's the first lesson you learn. Nor will it be one that you will very soon forget. You learn that if you wanna survive, you gotta love the streets till they don't love you. You quickly remember friendly tidbits like the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend', 'respect is earned not given', 'snitches get stitches'. Shit like that, y'know. But the number one lesson? Stay on the good side of the lesser evil. And in this case, for the residents of the small dot on the map deemed Woodland Heights, California, that lesser evil was a ragtag, drug-slinging, cop-fighting gang of six teenage boys. Fuckin' crazy, right?

Yet, for those six boys, this life was the only kind they knew.

One thing they didn't know?
You live by the life, you die by the life.

*

The Seven 20's.
That's what he named them when he created the gang three years ago at the ripe old age of 16. What dumbass was still in high school trying to form a street gang, you may ask?
Cash West, that's who.
Cash, or '12 Inch' as the town and his friends called him, was ahead of the game. Now at 19 years old, he knew the inner workings of gang life in and out. Or at least, he liked to believe he did. Was he getting ahead of himself? Probably. Did he care? Not in the slightest.
Still, this was no average gang he founded. This was a gang with an end goal; a righteous objective. Cash knew their tiny neck of the woods, Woodland Heights, was going downhill and fast. Riddled with crime and poverty, schools shutting down left and right, people being evicted by their asshole landlords, kids starving on the streets. The list went on and on, and there was no telling how long Woodland had before it completely crumbled to the ground. It didn't help that the lovely man "running" the town, Mayor Mitchell Beckett, didn't give a hot wet monkey's ass about what went down. The poor families and kids of the town he swore to protect in the 2016 election were none of his concern once he was elected. Legislation to help the citizens? Seemed like a problem for God, as far as the Mayor was concerned. He'd rather stuff money into the pockets of his rich friends, since they're who got him elected. Really, what did anyone expect? He was a politician.

A politician that Cash would jump at the chance to knock the goddamn head off of.

Regardless, Cash didn't let the government's faults stop him from doing what he had to. He swore to protect this town he had the misfortune of being born in, even if it cost him everything. For a gang fairly new to the life and started almost on a whim, they miraculously gained traction that most gangs take decades to acquire. They kept outside gangs out and held their own. They rebuilt the community as much and as often as they could, but you'd have to be stupid to think they could do this without a little dirt and blood on their own hands. They knew the price, and they paid it. Fighting fire with fire is what Cash liked to call it. Money didn't grow on trees, and broke gangs don't build towns from the ground up. So if slinging dope to other towns outside of their own was what they had to do to keep their town afloat, then so be it.

Life was hard and times were tough, but he knew the risks.

This was his life, whether he liked it or not.

*

Cash watched himself in the dirty bathroom mirror, wondering how the hell he got to this point in his life. How'd he go from your average kid complete with a shitty childhood, to a young man with an entire town on his shoulders? One might think; if it's so bad, why not just up and leave? Why make an entire gang just to help out less than 2,000 people? Let the town sink, it'll be someone else's problem. He thought that too. But he has family here. A sick mom and a 14-year- old little sister. They're part of the reason he stuck around. They're why he does what he does. Why just stop at his family, though? There are more families out there who need his help. One thing about Cash, he's not selfish. Or at least, he tries not to be. And that's one thing he'll always have over Mayor Mitchell and the rest of the 1% that hung them out to dry.