Chapter 1 Moving on Up
"Why we have to move here?" The nine-year-old boy asked as he slouched in his seat.
"Arnez, we are not going through this again." His mother turned around to face her son.
"But, Mommy why here? I don't know nothing about Maryland, let alone this place called Whitecrest."
"It's Woodcrest boy." The father corrected his son with impatience as he kept his eyes on the road.
"Same difference, Daddy," Arnez's twin sister Marian chimed in while playing with her green Gameboy color.
"We still gonna be surrounded by white folks."
The family was in their silver 1995 Honda Civic driving down the streets to their destination with the moving van following right behind them.
"You say that like you two never been around white people." Their mother sighed in disappointment.
"Besides, your father had no choice but to move since his job gave him a raise and relocated him."
"Of course we've been around white people, Mommy." Arnez replied like what his mother said was stupid.
"But, we're gonna be the only black folks in this joint."
"Right," Marian agreed.
"And one thing I don't want to be is white folks' token black friend, I'm not shucking and jivin' for them. This ain't Good Times."
Their father had enough of the two of them rambling on, so he slammed his foot hard on the brakes. He startled everyone as their bodies went forward and snatched them back to their seats due to them being strapped in their seatbelts. The driver of the moving van nearly didn't have time to react to the sudden halt. He could have rammed into the rear of their car.
"Troy, what the hell?!" His wife Jackie exclaimed through labored breathing.
"You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Troy ignored his wife and turned his head to the back where his children were and gave them the meanest, nastiest scowl he could muster, letting them know he was not having it. His eyes were fiery red and the sweat was pouring down his face.
If looks could kill, Arnez and Marian would drop dead immediately. The twins were nervous.
"Look here," He began a cold, dry voice. "I am just about sick of the two of you with y'all whining bullshit. Do you two think I like the fact that I had to get up and move us out here? I had no choice, work is work and if they tell me to jump, I'm gonna ask 'how high?' Not only that, your mother had to find a teaching job out here, so it wasn't easy for her either."
The twins didn't response nor looked directly at their father.
"I'm doing this for all of us and you two either put up or shut up. And as for all that nonsense about white people, y'all always gonna find yourselves being the only black person in a sea of whites! You don't think your daddy ever been that token black?!"
The driver of the moving van was honking his horn at the Honda Civic.
"Alright! Alright! Give me a minute!" Troy rolled down his window and shouted.
"Anyway," He continued. "White people in general don't give a damn about black people. You have to learn to play their game. When you're hip to it, you get a good education and you won't ever have to work for white people, since you're so damn concerned about them. Ain't nothing in life free! Remember that!" He mumbled the last part and stopped at a red light, no one spoke afterwards.
The light changed to green and Troy switched to the gas pedal.
After the next ten minutes of silence, he looked at his children from his rearview mirror and sighed and allowed his anger to melt away. In retrospect, he realized he probably was a little too hard on them. Troy knew that his twins were still trying to come to terms with all the changes going on in their lives.
"Hey," He finally spoke up. "Daddy doesn't want to be the bad guy here and I'm sorry for yelling. Like I said before, I understand you two aren't happy. It's an adjustment for everyone and I know that you two miss your friends, school, and our home in Yonkers, but you can't always have what you want. You get what Daddy's saying?"
"Yes Daddy." The twins responded in unison and then once again no words were exchanged. Everything remained quiet shortly after.
A few minutes later, the family entered the Woodcrest suburbs.
Arnez frowned crossing his arms while staring out the window. All the houses looked the same for the most part, reddish-brown roof top, cream-colored painstaking paint job, multiple shiny windows that probably cost thousands of dollars, and a huge driveway made of dark-red stones.
The lawns were manicured and fresh green including the just as precise bushes in the front yards. The trees were enormous; the leaves could have reached the heavens.
To Arnez, this was the epitome of a white suburb.
The little boy softly groaned.
"Everything is just so damn perfect in Whitesville."
he glanced over his shoulder to see what his sister was up to. She simply went back to her handheld, probably playing Pokémon or something.
He went back to sightseeing even though he had little interest in doing so.
Suddenly, as they drove up, their mother Jackie spotted three black children in the front yard; one was under a tree reading while the other two were playing basketball in the driveway.
"See children, you won't be alone after all." She commented.
"Yeah, I guess." Marian muttered.
"Yeah, cool." Arnez sounded unfazed.
Part of him felt some relief while the other part felt like those three kids could be whitewashed and don't have much connection to their black culture.
He grunted. He couldn't win.
The car turned into the driveway, which was very spacious and parked.
The moving van positioned itself to go in reverse and back into the driveway next to the family car.
The McIntosh family hoped out the car and gathered around to the see their new home, which as stated previously, looked the same as all the other houses in the neighborhood.
"Well kids, home sweet home." Their father smiled while admiring the place. "Let's get cracking. We have a lot to do."
"Yep," His wife agreed. "We have a lot of unpacking to do."
The couple went to unlock the front door but the children stayed behind and faced each other.
"Welcome to Whitecrest." Arnez greeted dully.
"It's Woodcrest boy." Marian said mockingly as she imitated their father's gravel voice.
The twins laughed uncontrollably until their sides hurt. Despite all the changes, at least they knew they had each other and maybe living here in Woodcrest, or even Maryland for that matter wouldn't be so bad.
A/N: Hey everyone, this is my first Boondocks story. I hope everyone enjoyed this. If you have any ideas for this story, feel free to PM me and I'll give you credit. If you just want to talk or have questions, you can PM also. Peace and chicken grease!