Chapter 1
Inside Wuncler Park in downtown Woodcrest, the local basketball court was the sight of some friendly competition. 11-year-old Riley Freeman checked the basketball to his best friend and partner-in-crime, 11-year-old Cindy McPhearson. "Game on nigga!" he shouted at the blond white girl. Cindy grinned and moved forward in a sly way, avoiding Riley's attempts to cut her off. "Am I just too fast fo yo ass, Reezy?" she taunted. Cindy attempted a dunk but missed. She recovered immediately and laid the ball up before Riley could even protect the hoop. "Damn boy, that's now 12 straight games where I've beaten yo ass!" Cindy declared with pride. Riley scowled.
"Man, I be just trippin'. I ain't on my game today."
"That's what you said yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that! Face it, you suck! I be all up in yo ass, winning. Money flows, I glow nigga!"
"Pfff. Whatever nigga" Riley muttered before walking off of the court and sitting on a bench. He sighed and took a swig from his bottle of red Gatorade. He and Cindy had just recently started sixth grade. Cindy went to a separate middle school than Riley. Riley was at Woodcrest Central and Cindy was at Woodcrest South. Riley intended to make Woodcrest Central Middle School's basketball team once he reached seventh grade. Right now, he felt uncertain about that goal.
"Hey Reezy, you might want to think about finding another sport dawg. Ball just don't seem to be your game. Never seems to have been." Riley hung his head and thought about Cindy's suggestion.
"Man, well what do I do instead, C-Murph? There ain't a lot of other real sports for real niggas like Young Reezy."
"Well, there's football."
"Eh. Too lazy."
"Tennis?"
"White boy sport."
"Gymnastics?"
"Gay."
"Soccer?"
"I don't wanna run around like some bitch nigga, chasing a ball."
"Swimming?"
"Nope."
"Baseball?"
"Fuck no. Too much like kickball."
"Wrestling?" Riley finally looked up.
"So…. WWE shit, right?" he asked.
"Hell no! I mean real wrestling! Fuck WWE, that's fo' faggots. I'm referring to scholastic wrestling. World's toughest sport too!"
"Toughest? Man, it don't sound that tough."
"Trust me nigga, I know it is."
"How would you know?"
"I'm a wrestler." Riley stood up, surprised.
"You? You're a bitch! You can't wrestle! I thought it was a dudes-only sport!"
"No, fuck you bitch. Plenty girls do it. It's great! You should try it. I'm wrestling this year at Woodcrest South. Maybe our teams will see each other."
"I thought you was gonna be shootin' hoops."
"I can still do that. I wanna wrestle this year though. This'll be my third year so I really wanna do well."
"Man, I don't like the sound of wrestling. It sound gay."
Cindy frowned at Riley's remark. "Just because I'm a wrestler, don't mean I'm gay. I'm just tough and I like whoopin' dudes' asses. Just try it. Maybe you'll like it" she suggested.
"Hmmph. Fine. I'll try it. But that don't mean I'll actually wrestle. I'll just give it a go. And if I think it's gay, than I'm out."
"Fine by me nigga. See ya later." Cindy picked up her gym bag and her basketball and left the court. Riley paused in his own packing. Recently, he began to note what felt like puberty starting to happen. As a sixth grader now, he had already grown to be about 4' 11 and weighed about 95 pounds. What also came with puberty was a stronger interest in girls. What made Riley pause was Cindy. He watched her walking away and noticed that her butt looked nicer than usual. It appeared to be getting more curved from what Riley could see from his vantage point. Riley grinned, thinking that Cindy's body was probably changing too. He then finished packing and walked back home.
Riley had just walked into his house and closed the door, when almost as if on cue, his grandfather, Robert Freeman greeted him with a string of commands. "Boy, where you been at?! It's 5:30 pm and I wanted you home from school at 4:00! Whatever! Just sit yo black ass on the couch. I need to have a talk with you and your brother." Riley scowled at Robert, set his bag down, took his shoes off, and sat down next to his older brother, Huey. Huey was now 13 years old and was in eighth grade.
"Where have you been? I thought you had a history project to work on" said Huey. Riley laughed at his afro-haired, older brother's question.
"Nigga, you think I'm gonna work on some gay project? Hell no. I was shootin' hoops with C-Murph at the park because I'm a real nigga."
"And I'm sure you lost. As usual" Huey remarked.
"Nigga, shut up! You gay!" Riley shouted, glaring at his brother.
"Alright boys" Robert said when he finally entered the living room. "It has come to my attention that neither of y'all are involved with anything at school. Boys, what the hell is wrong with you?! Middle school social life prepares you for experiences in high school. With you 2 doing nothing, I'm worried I'm going to get loser grandchildren in high school! Even though you both are already close enough to being losers in my book. So, get involved at school! Join a club, start a club, join a sport, join a music or theatre group! Make new friends. I don't care! Just do something with yo damn lives, damn it!" Granddad took a breath of air into his lungs. "Thanks to this town being white as snow, we live in an amazing school district! That means y'all got no excuses to not have amazing lives!"
"Ummm Granddad" objected Huey.
"What?!"
"I'm in a club already."
"Oh? Which one? Chess club? Art club? Spanish Club? French Club?"
"I am the president and founder of the first ever 'African-American Interest Club'" Huey said with some pride and dignity.
"Haha nigga you gay!" Riley shouted.
"What the fuck kind of club is that?" demanded Robert.
"We discuss issues and interests that are on the minds of African-Americans across America. We also discuss how those interests could be met and how those issues could be solved. We're short on members and we have funding issues unfortunately."
"Hahaha! 'Short on members'? Nigga, you and Jazmine are the club's only members! That's so lame man!"
"Hey boy, you want to know what's really lame?" asked Robert.
"What Granddad?"
"The fact that you are not involved with anything at school! Man, if you keep this up, you'll be a pot-smoking loser by the time you're in high school!"
Riley thought for a moment. Then, he remembered Cindy's suggestion. "Nah Granddad. Imma get involved at school this year. I'm gonna join wrestling! Yeah! It just hasn't started yet! Give a nigga some time."
Huey turned in Riley's direction and raised his eyebrow. "You. You're joining wrestling?" Huey asked with some astonishment in his voice. "You're probably the most unlikely person that I know of who would join such a sport."
"Man, how hard could it be? Cindy's a wrestler. She told me to try it so I am. Face it, if a bitch can do it, so can a real nigga like me."
"Well, wrestling! Good for you boy! I should have wrestled back when I was a kid. I was just scared. Wrestlers are some tough ass motherfuckers" remarked Robert.
"Really?" Riley asked. He liked the idea of being called a 'tough-ass motherfucker'. Almost sounded like 'real nigga'.
Robert turned to Huey. "Looks like you might have to join something else boy. This Colored Folks club might not cut it if ya ask me." Huey scowled at his grandfather. Soon, Robert left the living room and went upstairs, leaving Riley alone with Huey. Huey noticed Riley still reminiscing about the concept of being a 'tough-ass motherfucker' thanks to wrestling.
"Riley" Huey said. Riley snapped out of his daydream.
"What, bitch?" he asked.
Ignoring Riley's remark, Huey went on to say: "Wrestling is a tough sport. Actually is the toughest sport out there arguably."
"What! I though basketball was the toughest sport! LeBron James and all them niggas are as tough as they get!"
"Just wait till your first wrestling practice. Then, you'll actually know what the true definition of 'tough' is."
"Whatever nigga" Riley muttered before going upstairs and purposely skipping work on his history project.
The next day, Riley went to Woodcrest Central's activities office and signed up for wrestling. It was already the end of October and wrestling season was going to start in about two weeks. Huey advised Riley to start preparing himself and typical of Riley, he didn't listen. Huey told Riley to get some running in throughout the week in order to improve his cardiovascular endurance. "Wrestling has a lot of cardio. A lot of strength. A lot of everything" Huey had informed his brother. Eventually, Riley decided to lift three times a week after school. He mainly focused on bench press and bicep curls. He still wore his signature wife beater and liked to think his biceps were really starting to take shape. He would have kept playing basketball at the park but due to his lifting, he did not have as much time for it. He also noticed that Cindy wasn't really at the park anymore.
Around the beginning of November, he got a text message from her saying that she was already beginning to train for wrestling season. Riley replied, calling her a pussy and that he was going to wrestle. She replied "good" and that was the least he heard from Cindy for a while.
