The Seven Twenties

...oh, how the mighty have fallen...

Cash was parked patiently outside of Woodland's only high school, Woodland Heights High, as he waited for his kid sister to get out of soccer practice. Personally, he preferred sports like football or baseball, but if she liked it, he loved it. He'd be there to support her anyways. 

It was around 4:30 PM as he sat in his old red pickup truck that he bought for less than four grand, fresh out of high school. He watched the lives of the people he grew up with fly by around him. It was almost eighty degrees out, and his A/C was on full blast, but still he tied his long blonde hair into a bun atop his head to keep the heat off his neck. Even for early April in southern California, it was hot as hell today. The sky was clear and blue, and it almost felt and looked too perfect. Sometimes, on days like these, he wondered what his life would be like if he weren't in a gang. 

A group of laughs caught his attention as he looked towards the front entrance of the school. Out walked his kid sister, Angel, and her best friend Maggie, who happened to be the one who ratted out the pedo. They made their way over to Cash's unmistakable truck, and he rolled down the window as they approached. 

"Hey, bubs." Angel grinned.

"Hey, squirt. Hey, Mags." Cash greeted the girls with a polite smile.

He always hated the 'scary gang guy' rhetoric when it came to kids, so he was always nice to them. He wanted the gang and himself to be someone they could come to if they needed help, not someone they feared. 

"Hey, Cash." Maggie smiled as she leaned into the window. She didn't care about pleasantries. She wanted to know if Herrick would still be creeping around her house or not.

"We, uh, called the exterminator about your rat problem. He caught it and is taking it out as we speak." Cash winked.

Maggie sighed in relief. She hadn't felt safe in weeks, and who knows if, or when, that creep would escalate from just taking pictures.

"Thank you so much." She grinned. 

"Glad we could help." He stuck his hand out the window and gave her a graceful fist bump. "You got a ride home?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "My sister is picking me up."

Angel and Maggie had only been friends since the beginning of the school year, which apparently was enough time for them to become to bestest of besties, but Maggie having a sister was news to Cash. 

"Maggie!" a voice called, interrupting their conversation. The girls turned their heads to a figure approaching them, one Cash couldn't quite see from his spot in the driver's seat.

"Speak of the devil," Maggie groaned.

Approaching the window was a girl, probably around the same age as Cash. She was too tall from her spot on the sidewalk for Cash to see her face, but he could see everything else. From the loose-fitted oversized Boyz In The Hood t-shirt she wore, all the way to her ripped jeans that he noticed fit her very nicely.  With a curly bounce in her hair and the April sun kissing her brown skin, she looked as if she was on top of the world. Somehow, something felt all too familiar about her. His eyes traveled her body, trying not to get stuck on her ass, and eventually landed on the small portion of her neck that he could see. A simple heart tattoo lay there and all of a sudden, Cash knew exactly who it was.