Jose- A mexican gangster stuck in Gorin but would rather live back in Chicago. He lives with his grandmother and his sister and half sister in the projects of the next town over. He lives the thug life, lots of alcohol, tats, and women. He had been dating Tina, but the recently broke up. Neither of them were faithful and Jose just figured why even date then? He's a senior technically, but he isn't sure he'll graduate til after one more semester.
Glandy- Andy Mitchell knew Chris "Barnabas" since the first grade, and has known Jose for about 5 years. Barnabas was an old school friend and Jose and he became friends back when Glandy used to watch every sport he could, including the baseball team that Jose played for four years ago. He was born HIV positive and has since contracted AIDS, his dad's gone now which helps him relate to both the other boys. He lives at home with his mom who also has the disease. His half brother, Torrin, from his dad's side, also lives with them. Glandy's also a strong Christian, and a good kid who wants to help kids with terminal illnesses. He lives like he had seconds left, he has tons of fun with his life but in a way that glorifies his God. He's a freshman in highschool now.
Barny- Lives at home in the country with both parents and his brother just moved out to go to the U od M in St. Paul. He's the youngest of the two boys, and just this year switched from the snooty private school to the public school where he has more friends, but also realizes a ton of worldly things that he now has access to. The resistance starts out as an easy obstacle to overcome, until his closest friends seem to pull him in. His dad works long business trips frequently and on days when his mom goes with or works at the local clinic he'd sneak out and go for a drive. He's just started dating Nena, his first girlfriend and first kiss, and his new best friends Josh and Chase or decent guys and they're all trying to be better men and Christians, but still growing into their own poses issues. He's a sophomore in highschool now.
all three characters are in highschool in Gorin and may or may not be true stories.
JPOV
It's been 11 years since we first moved here and I started pissin off white people, and not much has changed; except I suppose the fact that we moved away for awhile, I went to juvie, I'm working on drawing my fifth tattoo and I'm prolly the best drug dealer in our town. I said best, not the biggest. See, I went to juvie for a fight in junior high, not for drugs; they'll never catch me doin a deal, I'm too good at it. Plus the new cats I got on my side have a good eye for cops, and even personally know some of our finer undercover officers. Small towns, gotta love how secrets don't stay secrets.
In first grade they looked at me cuz they wondered if I knew English, but now my teachers looked at me cuz they wondered if I was strapped, and that was a valid question cuz I often was. I usually had the sense to leave it out in the car though. I had my brass knuckles in my pocket still, and my best knife in my backpack, but still right where I could reach it quick. I say my best knife cuz it was the one that barely needed more than a light flick to pop out, plus it was still sharp. My others ones wear down from constantly throwing them at the wall in Tek's basement when we were havin our little contests. Damn, maybe we do deserve to be looked at like apes in the zoo; we act like fuckin primates, throwin our tools to establish dominance. See, Tek and I run the crew up here, and yeah, we're a small town, but the fact that Gorin is number two in the country for coke had a lot to do with us. (Gotta love how the old people still think the town is clean). I bump into Jerry in the hall, that cracker used to be my best friend, now he's a preppy and I don't know what the hell happened to him. I still see him every couple weeks when he's goin to a party and needs weed or a couple lines worth of coke, kid tried to write me a check last time.. he's gone a long way from the straight laced momma's boy he was 7 years ago. Maria's at her locker fixing her hair, got caught in one of her big ass hoops again. My stupid sister was ghetto fab in a town with no ghetto. Well ok, so we lived in the ghetto, but really that was about it. Not many of the rest of the kids, ESPECIALLY the white kids, which was prolly a good 95% of this damn town, even got why we lived there, like we chose it.
That's where Glandy, Ernie, and this new cat Glandy calls Barnabas come in, they don't seem to care that I'm the most wanted unknown convict in the state. Glandy understood the ghetto too, no way he woulda chosen it, kid wants way too much from life. But that's probably cuz he doesn't have much time left, his mom had HIV when he was born, and he's had a pretty rough history cuz of it, people teasin him and doctors always pokin him and giving him drugs and shit. He's a nice kid though, I don't even know why he hangs with us, he's "born again" and all that, way too righteous for my taste, but he's never done anything for me not to like him. And ernie... well... that dude's a wigger pure and simple, there's no better way to put it. I'm not sure if it's cuz of all the fights he's been in but he's more whacked out then most the cats I sell to. And this new kid, Barnabas. I'm tryin to figure him out still. I know his brother kinda, played baseball with him back before I got my "job." the brother's an ass, got too into the game, got mad when it didn't go well. I never understood that, at least not in sports, but then again I rarely lose. I'm a big guy, I get picked a lot. 6"8' with a nice toned 300 frame, I'm a goddamn beast, and I know it. What was I talkin bout? yeah, Barnabas. Kid laid down some funny rhymes for us the other night at Glandy's. Made me laugh picturing his white mom hearin him. I see her around a lot, goes to church with Maria and she always waves at me when I go pick my sis up from that youth group on wednesdays. She's nice but I am pretty sure she'd never want a guy like me around her kids, tattoos or not. Anyway, this new Keebler cracker had some rhymes, plus he whipped that car around pretty fast when Glandy let him take his car around the block to get us some more pop; might have to give him a try at the next race. Where the fuck is my next class!? Maria would know, where the fuck is she!? Ah, over there talkin to that Jeff kid. Kid thinks he's badass cuz he can dunk. Let's see how badass he is when my bicep's leaning against his locker and as I give him my best "why you talkin to my sister" smile. Dang, Maria beat me to it, huggin him quick before I can get to him.
"Ninyo, you know you have math in the east side right? That's on the second floor on THAT side" Smartass, if she wasn't my sister and a girl I'd have slapped her for treatin me like i was dumb. But then again I didn't know where my class was, but she couldn't know that.
"yeah I know, I was seein your new boyfriend, another white kid thinks he can act tough cuz he can play a black sport"
"as opposed to a spic who thinks he can act tough cuz he's the biggest ass in our town and he's smart enough to stay away from traffic cops?" Now she's gettin on my nerves.
Whatever, I roll my eyes and nod at my car out the cafeteria window, "see ya at 5"
We got done with classes before three, and I usually skipped the last one, but she knew I'd be dealin for at least an hour after school, when all the jocks got out of practices or the druggies needed a weed upgrade. Plus she had that dance shit after school. I didn't get it, it wasn't cheerleading, ballet, or the kind of dancing ya see in those club videos or even Saved By the Bell after school shit. It was like a mix of reggaetone and 30 minute ab workout commercials with that fucking gay white afro guy. I didn't know why my baby sis would do that shit, I've seen her dance for real. Hate to say it but my baby sis can work it, and she downplays it by square dancin to Britney Spears.
Anyway, I'm gonna go see if I can sell a dime bag while I light up the cuban I've been savin since Tuesday.
GPOV
I HATE that I can't be normal, even now. I know why I don't need health class, I mean, I live it everyday, but do I really need to skip the WHOLE class? Can't I at least watch the other guys play ball after I take my meds? At least I get another hour to do my math. Ah, but God was good, and at least Barnabas would come talk to me for awhile after his band lesson. He hated his Honors Comp class (somethin we had in common) and he'd come encourage me and make me smile some before I took my next round of meds. That's why I called him Barnabas in the first place; I liked his real name, good Christian name, but Barnabas was the "son of encouragement" in the New Testament. He was somewhat popular, at least among the people he cared to be popular around. He wasn't about to try and hang out with the burnouts, drinkers, or jocks. He was the cool theatre guy who also happened to like rap music, and he knew a lot about the Bible, which was our usual talking point. He went to church with Maria, which always made me smile to think about. Maria looked like the kinda rough chick you saw sayin racist things like "I cut you foo" in stupid BET style movies, but she loved church, and Jesus, and never wanted to hurt anyone, and she was FAR from being one of those easy chicks. I hated that label for any girl, especially when it wasn't deserved. Maria was gorgeous, that was easy to see. If God were to grant me healing from AIDS, I'd definitely like to date her. But he did make me content with myself and Mar was a great friend.
When will that bell ring? I don't wanna just sit here and wait for lunch, maybe I'll read Mark today. Oh yeah! Tonight's fight night with Jose. I have almost a whole hour to kill before my math class, and it's not like the teachers ever stop the kid with AIDS from driving off campus; maybe I'll go get some pizzas and snacks for the guys, Barnabas said he'd come too. WWE was the one sport I liked to watch. It got that violent manly desire out of me without actually hitting anything (which can be annoying some days, but blood is too big a risk for me) and I was always aware that it was fake, which made me feel better about the fact I'd never be able to play a sanctioned sport.
Out in the parking lot I wave over at Jose, and shake my head, he's smoking that cigar he's been talking about. I'm kinda ashamed that we both act like he doesn't deal, but I try to love on him enough without approving of his activity. I put in some Skillet and head to Wally World for some snacks and see if they have that Red Dead Revolver game that Barnabas loves so much for cheaper than 15 bucks.
BPOV
I HATE Comp, my crazy lesbian teacher hated me back. I was so glad to have Nena and my two bros in that class, there's no way I could handle it alone. She really was a scary big boned lesbian, I wasn't making that up. She was open to most of the school, especially that new Gay Straight Alliance group. And since Miss Johnson knew I was pretty active in my church (at least active in the fact that I went to it) she also knew I didn't approve of her life choices. And so I made it a point to use as many Jesus referrences or Bible verses I could, especially since the principal told her she can't get mad at us for using our religious opinions on opinion based papers. Josh and Chase were in on it to, and that made that class just the few notches more fun to make it bearable. Plus I took my weekly band and choir lessons during that class, so I had two twenty minute breaks from it, and my lunch period split the damn thing in half, so I only ever had to listen to her voice for about forty minutes a time no matter which day it was. Dang, Glandy wasn't at his spot today like he usually is after my band lesson, but he did mention somethin about an extra appointment, and the wrestling thing was tonight and I know he goes off campus for lunch on days he would have health if they made him take it. Man, i can't even remember when we met, but it's been since like first grade. He loves Jesus more than anything, but he's not one of the weirdos like on that Mandy Moore movie, he just makes you realize what life's about. Plus he's always super happy, and that's fun to be around. He knows almost everything about me, and I about him. We're more brothers than Charlie and I are. He even loves some cool bands and superheroes. Man, one night we stayed up til around 4 am with the other guys, playing Axis and Allies and watchin all the old Superman movies. The last son of Krypton was the favorite of both of us giant nerds.
Well I'll just go back and sit by my baby and hope Johnson doesn't call on me for the ten minutes we have til lunch. I sit back down and hold my girl's hand and make Josh laugh at the drawing I made during the first half of class. It was a big elephant with a bunch of democrat stickers and a bunch of birds with oversized left wings flying around it. there was even a big pile of weed behind it. Josh snickered at it, and wrote his own addition to it "Is this Johnson?" was the caption along with a newly added rainbow and an "I 3 F's" sign on the crackhead beast. I laughed and gave him some knucks under my desk. Nena elbowed me, upset at our immaturity, but then laughed at a second look at our creation. Chase looked back, and I motioned that I'd tell him at the bell, which in typical Growing Pains style, rang about four seconds after that.
Lunch was one of my favorites, Spicy chicken sandwiches. It's just a tyson chicken patty with some kind of hot sauce on it, but it made me want seconds and always meant Nena would get an icecream sandwich for us to split cuz the sauce was too much to handle after awhile. She was such a sweetheart that way, always thinkin about how to share things or find ways to cuddle or hold my hand during school. My folks wouldn't appreciate the fact that I've made out with her in school, but I always thought it was cute and we never did more than a few minute long kiss here or there, not like that Jeff guy I saw with Maria today and Margaret James last week.
I can't imagine Jose will let that happen. He's pretty b.a. but he still treats his sister like a gentleman, or at least with the thug's version of chivalry. He seemed pretty cool. I'm pretty sure Glandyator wasn't joking about him being a dealer, but he was nice to me, hopefully he figures out he's gotta do somethin else before he gets caught. At any rate, I was looking forward to seeing his gorgeous ride tonight at Glandy's. 1969 Chevelle SS, orange with the double black running down it, unintentionally the colors of our highschool. You can tell he's put a ton of work and time into that machine. The rims aren't flashy but obviously not stock, and they're crisp, always shinin. I caught a glimpse of the interior yesterday after football practice and wished i could have asked for a ride as opposed to taking the work truck of my family, appropriately named "Bertha", but a sweat and grass covered body inside Jose's whip would have been a deadly sin. It made me hate my truck even more. Normally mom and dad let me take the Suburban, but on days when mom worked I got pinned with Bertha. We could afford a nicer car, as evidenced by the one that Charlie took with him to college, a wicked 2003 Grand Prix GT that dad bought just the year before. So it just sucked that I had to drive the stupid truck. It worked, well... the wheels worked and the engine rarely sputtered, and the windshield wipers almost worked too well. They would decide to turn on randomly down the highway, or when I hit an exceptionally awkward pothole. And sometimes my beloved Bertha's engine wouldn't shut off for a few minutes after I turned the ignition off. The heat didn't work, the radio didn't work but the speakers did; that didn't do me any good though as there aren't any good rap albums I can find for a 19-some-decade-or-so-before-I-was-born 8 track player. I coveted Jose's beauty. The purr on that kitten made the hair on my neck stand up, my knees go weak, breath come in short bursts and tingly goosebumps like crazy. If ever there were a car to makeout with it'd be that one. Nena should be jealous that I'll be eye-sexing up another tonight.