April 15th, 1995
It was an early Saturday morning, around 4:30 AM, and Huey had just awakened by the booming sound of thunder. It was pour heavily, raindrops tapping rapidly against the window as if they were ready to strike their enemy.
Huey was still in bed but he couldn't go back to sleep. He turned his over to his side to turn the table lamp on that was displayed on the nightstand, to face his brother, whose bed was on the other side of the room.
He was still snoozing. More like knocked out as his snoring obnoxiously increased.
"That nigga would sleep through anything." He noted unamused along with rolling his eyes. "If the world was to end, he'd probably sleep through that too."
Why did he have to share a room with Riley? He understood doing so back when they lived in Chicago due to their house being small but why continue this now that they live in a much larger home? It really annoyed him to no end sometimes because he hardly ever had the room to himself.
Having just turned ten in January and his brother turned eight the other day, Huey simply felt they were getting too old for this. Yet, he sighed and hopped out of bed to retrieve one of his books from the shelf.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley.
He read it more than once but he didn't mind reading it again. He went back to bed and began turning the pages of the book.
In ways, he felt that he could relate to Malcolm X, although he wasn't a Muslim, nor did he conform to any religious practice for that matter. He had always admire Malcolm X for his courageous speaking voice and views on racism and having pride as a black man for his people.
He surely wasn't a man who stepped back, and Huey himself knew that all too well.
Ever since he and his small family, consisting of his willfully ignorant brother Riley and his cantankerous, reckless grandfather Robert, moved to Woodcrest, it seemed as if Huey had to fight for his humanity (as well as his sanity) in his predominately white suburban area of Maryland. School, to Huey, was an inconvenience. The teacher Mr. Petto would make off handed comments to Huey but then instantly become timid when Huey debated with him, thus winding the young strong-minded boy in detention every once in a while. His principal, Williams, was no better, he too would assume questionable things about Huey and his brother and when Huey would counter, the man would accused the boy of being confrontational and give him another day in detention. And to top it all off, the school was the namesake of a racist whose mission was to destroy black people. Wasn't that something?
The neighbor was just as ridiculously prejudice.
The only good that came out of living in Woodcrest was his new friend Michael Caesar, or Caesar. He moved here back in early March and at first Huey thought he would be some whitewashed black kid who probably wouldn't know he was black if someone told him yet, he was proven wrong. Caesar was from Brownville, Brooklyn who grew up relatively poor until his father finished college and landed a six figured job and moved the family to Woodcrest. He was a streetwise kid, who loved Scarface, Method Man, and Onyx. He donned dreadlocks, was proud of his partial Jamaican roots, and had a tendency to verbally rep his borough. Most of all, he was very intelligent, had vast knowledge of black history and for the most part, agreed with a lot of Huey's views, but Caesar was more optimistic and playful.
Had the two never met, Huey knew his existence would be miserable, especially when his other neighbor similar in age, Jazmine would meddle in his affairs.
"BOOM!" The sounds of thunder crashing startled the boy with the Afro but immediately gain his composure.
"Thunder made me jump…" He mumbled to himself and went back to the page he was on when suddenly his brother shot up from the sea of covers and squinted when he realized the lamp was on.
"Uhh…nigga why the fuck are you still awake?" he yawned and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles.
"I was asleep until the thunder woke me up."
Riley snickered.
"I know yo bitch ass ain't afraid of no thunder."
The older boy sucked his teeth.
"Of course not, but you know I'm a light sleep, doesn't take much to wake me up."
"Yeah, whatever yo ass is still gay…"
Normally, Huey would ignore Riley after mocking him but for some reason he felt like talking for a bit and so he placed the book on the nightstand and faced his brother.
"Be honest Riley, do you like living here?"
The younger brother scoffed.
"That came out of nowhere and no, I hate living here! All these white folks here be acting like a brother gonna rob them and shit. A brother just minding their own damn business, damn."
"Who you telling? We've only been here since November yet it feels like forever. I wish this was all a dream."
"You know who I hate the most is that Jazmine girl, she such a little white girl. She's such a damn cry baby too. Not only that, the other day I was tellin' her about rap, she ain't even know who 2pac was. Ain't that stupid? " Riley crossed his arms.
As strange as it may be, Huey felt the need to defend Jazmine even if Riley somewhat had a point.
"It's not her fault she's naive. Blame her parents. Hell, we probably the only blacks folks she's ever interacted with other than her uppity father."
Riley snorted.
"That's why his name is Tom." He yawned once more, he was getting drowsy.
"Well, I'm getting some more shut eye, nite." He muttered in a monotonous fashion and let his head hit the pillow. Within minutes, he was in slumber land.
Another crackling cry of thunder and it was followed by a twisty flash of lightning. Once more, Riley didn't so much as stir.
Huey groaned and slumped against his bed board. How he wished he could sleep so easily. Then again, how could he when the world seems to be against him?
Hey everyone, for those who may not know about a year ago, I wrote another Boondocks story but I will be taking that down soon. I guess you can say this is more or less a reboot. But anyway, I hope you liked this chapter so far. The OCs I made in the old story will appear in the new one but much, much later on. Thank you.