Hey guys, I hope you like this :)My first Boondocks fanfic. Anyway, I apologise if I get some of the characters kinda wrong here so I hope you guys can help me fix that if I do:/ Also I'm not American, and I never heard slang like Riley speaks since before Boondocks, so sorry if some words or phrases sound wrong or weird. Anyway, hope you like it!:) Please tell me what you think.
Huey was not having a good day. Firstly, the project he had slaved over for Chemistry class had only been graded asa B, due to him being partnered with a bimbo who didn't know what temperature water froze at. Secondly, he had opened his previously prepared lunchbox at breaktime to find Riley had thought it hilarious to replace his cucumber sandwich and juice with a pound of odour-ridden pork.
And finally, though he hardly dared admit it, the stares Jazmine, his close neighbour and friend, had been receiving from a staggering amount of hungry looking teenagers was enough to make his stomach clench. Though still brutally self-conscious and naïve, Jazmine herself had actually been one of the rare people to listen to Huey's advice and kept herself looking natural.
In the three years since the two had met, she had grown even more beautiful, with her cinnamon curls and honeyed skin, a smile that could light up the sky and make her emerald eyes sparkle in hope. Huey could never tell her how he really felt about her. But that didn't stop him trying to look after her.
It was seven at night, and the young revolutionary was bundled into a pitch black bedroom along with his best friend Caesar, a bowl of buttered popcorn, and a heap of illegally downloaded movies. Resting against the bedframe, Huey found he could simply to focus on the film flickering across the television that acted as the sole source of light in the small bedroom.
Instead, he realised he was distracted with the thoughts of Jazmine, and how her naivety could put her under such risk from boys much like the ones he stared at earlier. For a reason the boy could not understand, he felt an immense sense of pressure to keep the girl he lo-…liked, the girl he liked, safe.
"Yo, Huey?"
The questioning voice of his best friend shattered Huey's thoughts and caused him to glance slightly to his left.
"What's up man? You've not been right all day."
Caesar flicked a single dreadlock from his face casually, dark eyes locked deeply onto his friend's. Huey wished he wouldn't do that, the serious look from the usually optimistic Caesar always unnerved him.
"Nothing."
"You're thinking about Jazmine, aren't you?"
His thick Brooklyn accent cut through the awkward silence, and Huey's eyebrows settled into an even more sincere position that usual. Why did his best friend have to be so good at reading him?
"No. Why would I be thinking about her?"
He replied flatly, and Caesar rolled his eyes.
"Huey, come on. I know you. You've been crushing on that girl since forever. Why don't you just ask her out already? Before someone else does."
"Like who?"
The dreadlocked boy didn't miss the sharpness in his friend's tone, and shuffled uncomfortably on the carpeted ground.
"Oh, you know. People. Everyone can see how pretty she is, Huey. And if you don't step in first, then maybe I will."
Huey blinked, staring at his fellow teenage friend as though seeing him in a new, rather alarming light.
"You have a thing for Jazmine?"
The shock in his voice was at a level that even Caesar found surprising, but he proceeded anyway,
"Who doesn't?"
Now, Caesar had been fully aware of his best friend's crush for as long as he could remember. And he, too, saw the gazes jasmine unknowingly gathered in both the school halls and town. The dreadlocked boy prided himself on being an exceptionally good actor, and often used his ability when he felt it needed, in moments such as now.
Honestly, Caesar did not have a crush or any feelings for Jazmine other than one of mutual friendship, and his hopes for the evening rested on Huey believing his faked interests. Caesar could think of no couple more suited for one another, in a strange sort of way, and he hoped his acting would encourage the young revolutionary to pursue his love interest.
Huey had his wine coloured eyes glued to the ground as he fidgeted remarkably awkwardly and unlike himself, committing to silence when words failed to surface.
"If you don't make a move, I certainly will Huey. Or someone else. And it'll be too late. She won't be your Jazmine anymore."
This last, desperate attempt to push the Chicagoan towards his true love appeared fruitful and to have at least some sort of impact, as Huey leapt up and made his way to the exit, a raging glare plastered across his face,
"I'm leaving."
"Where're you going?"
Caesar piped up, praying his friend would be heading to Jazmine's house. Huey shrugged, slamming the door as he left and leaving a suitably frustrated Brooklyn boy behind, seriously considering his controversial actions and hoping they would have the desired effect.
Huey trudged down the street at a painstakingly slow speed, his boots crunching into the mid-December snow. Caesar's unusually brash worlds had angered him, letting loose a ferocious monster deep within him that was screaming to be heard. He did not want to face any superficial interests his heart so deeply desired; his brain was in control and he could not risk to lessen his work on the revolution by falling for the happy go lucky girl next door.
But even someone with as stronga personality as Huey could admit it was a struggle.
Enraged, the teenager kicked furiously at the snow as he walked, foul thoughts lingering in his mind as he headed towards the home he shared with his younger brother and grandfather. All the boy wanted now, was to be alone to ponder in his own company.
"Hey Huey!"
Of all people to turn up, of all times to occur, why, Huey cried silently, why, did the lovely Jazmine Dubois have to walk into his path?
"Don't you just love the snow? It makes me feel so magical, like anything could happen!"
The mulatto girl danced alongside the mocha skinned boy as he sauntered towards his home, ignoring her bluntly. There was no such thing as magic, just stories to entertain young children.
And the gullible Jazmine.
The teenage girl was well accustomed to the cold aura granted by her best friend, but even her patience was being tested by his unforgiving attitude.
"You wanna go to the hill? Or come back to mine and watch movies? I'll let you choose."
Jasmine laced her skinny fingers through her friend's, and Huey stiffened as a raging shock of electricity sparked through his nerves at her very touch. He couldn't do this. She was going to drive him insane.
"No,"
The dark skinned boy pulled away from the girl roughly and stormed up the front steps to his house, not even glancing in Jazmine's general direction as he slammed the front door in her face,
"Just piss off Jazmine."
Huey flattened himself in the miniature space between the wall and the open door, his fingertips brushing against the pellet gun in his pocket. He could hear footsteps growing closer, his brother's angry mutters increasing in volume.
"Huey? Get out here ya fucking bitch nigga! Ya can't hide f'rever!"
Riley paced along the hallway, his back to the door and so therefore completely oblivious to when Huey kicked back the door and leapt on his brother, causing them to both come crashing to the floor with a muffled cry.
"That's cheating nigga! You cheated!"
The younger cornrowed boy twister around painfully and shot his brother in the head, setting Huey back a few moments as Riley leapt to his feet and grinned, pointing the gun to his older brother as he fumbled for a second in his slouching jeans. He fired towards where Huey had been lying, only to find the teenager had rolled clean out of the way and had a balled fist flying for his abdomen.
Winded, the eleven year old crumpled backwards and into the railings that edged the first floor, almost snapping them in half with the sheer force of his fall. Groaning, he began to haul himself upwards until Huey came at him again, kicking his brother through the bars and to the ground below.
"Fuck you nigga! This is all yo fault!"
Riley scrabbled for his guns and continuously shot at his brother who leapt off the only just standing rails and flipped through the air, dodging all pellets before landing next to the younger boy, gun aimed at his chest. Huey glared at his younger sibling as he pulled the trigger, and both brothers stared as the pellet, instead of nipping the cornrowed boy's skin, smashed into the coils of his silver chain and shattered the metal.
The chain itself slithered to the floor, it's slippery links slinking their way over the exaggerated pendant, the diamond microphone icon twinkling feebly. Riley cradled the chain in his palms and stared at his brother with such cold, unforgiving eyes, that he didn't seem the same person anymore. Huey dropped the gun, letting it clatter to the ground as he spun on his heel and began to depart the house, a wild mixture of emotions bubbling inside him. Overcome with fury, Riley snatched for his funs and let loose dozens of pellets at his brother's vanishing back.
"Yeah you better fucking get yo ass outta here, you fucking nigga! Aint nobondy want yo bitch ass here anymo'. So keep the fuck away!"
Jasmine sank lazily into her window seat, allowing her head to loll dreamily against the cool glass. She had heard gunshots and raised voices from the Freeman household once again, but it no longer surprised her. She had witnessed one of Huey and Riley's extreme fights before, and though it had at first terrified her, she was now just glad to be out of the way.
As the mulatto girl gazed out of the window, she noticed her best friend's slouching frame heading in the opposite direction from their neighbourhood, and she only needed one guess as to where he was going. He had really hurt her feelings last night, more than usual, but she didn't want to leave their relationship on a bad note. And anyway, perhaps there was the slightest chance that he would appreciate the company.
Tugging on a thick, rose-pink fleeced jacket and the soft scarf Huey had bought for her birthday several years ago (that was now a prized possession), Jazmine hopped into her boots and padded into the outside world, smiling. Everywhere was coated in a thick layer of snow, like icing sugar, the naïve teenager thought. It was heavier than usual, and a small part of her hoped that Santa would be able to reach everyone on Christmas Day. She was thirteen years old, but Jazmine strongly believed you could never be too old for fairytales.
She could see the looming mount of the hill in the distance, and a sense of excitement lurched in her stomach when she spotted a lone figure on the horizon. Honestly, Jazmine had the biggest crush on the retired domestic terrorist next door.
She had been getting these feelings since she met Huey Freeman when she was ten years old, but had never understood them at the time. Butterflies swarmed in her stomach whenever their skin touched, and a surge of emotions that she could not possibly begin to describe rose within her whenever they spoke. Unfortunately, Huey ever seemed to share any interest in her other than as a friend, no matter how many hints the teenager dropped.
She couldn't help but to feel like she was close to giving up hope.
As she crunched closer to the hill, Jazmine noticed that there were not one, but two figures roaming a top the hill. The taller, slouched silhouette with the wild hair was clearly Huey, but the other person who was mere seconds away from the first was harder to make out. As sudden snow shower distracted the mulatto girl as she dragged her eyes away from the scene to her gloved hands, where billions of snowflakes were sinking into her palms.
She would regret tearing her gaze away, however, as a yell that was loud even at the foot of the hill caught her attention, and the teenage girl stared in sheer horror as one of the figures tumbled uncontrollably down the side of the coated hill towards the main road, the small, indistinguishable character having vanished out of sight. As soon as she regained feeling in her legs, Jazmine tore around the side of the hill, the short journey seemingly taking hours to perform.
When she reached the particular edge of the pavement, she was relieved to see her best friend hauling himself up shakily, brushing off the snow and dirt from his faded jeans. Letting out a breath she had been unaware of holding, she smiled when she knew that everything was going to be alright.
At least, it was, until the car hit Huey.