When Jazmine Met Huey

Disclaimer: I own nothing… at all.

"Can we get a pit bull?"

"No."

"A Rottweiler?"

"Hell no! You ain't getting no dogs so you can leave them to shit all over the place and eat up everything!"

"Aww, com'on Granddad!"

Huey drowned out the argument between his brother and Grandfather to drink in his surroundings.

Woodcrest, a.k.a. White Man's Land, was everything he'd pictured it; clean, peaceful, and….white. The polar opposite of Chicago. Of all the places Granddad could've retired, this was probably the worst if he was looking for a friend or an accomplice to his revolution. But it was the best place for spreading the word to white people.

Huey looked at the clean two-story houses surrounded by large oak trees and huge lawns. There seemed to be little white children playing in every yard with other little white children. Not a single one even looked black.

Wait.

There's one.

A portly extremely black man was sitting in a mail truck. Huey strained to see him over the shoulder of his seat as they passed him. The man apparently saw him and greeted him…with only one finger. Wasn't that great? The only black guy in the neighborhood is an asshole.

"This is it!"

Granddad pulled into a massive house, kinda like the ones during slavery. More evidence of this being White Man's Land.

"Wow, Granddad. It's so big! My birthday comin' up. Why can't I get a dog? It's not like there ain't no room," the 7 year old asked crawling out the backseat. He had a point though. With the size of this house, they could have three dogs AND a cat.

"No! Stop askin' about it. We're not gonna act like niggas in this new neighborhood."

"How is that actin' like a nigga? I jus' wanna pit bull."

"No nigga dogs! And that's final!"

"Man," Riley exclaimed walking to the front door behind Granddad and Huey.

01010101010101010101010101

"I don't care!!"

"Jazmine, honey calm down," Tom said to his exploding daughter. She had just come back from the pool fuming at her mother, who had retreated upstairs, mentally drained.

Apparently, her 'friends' at the pool were making fun of her poofy afro, which she wore unleashed and free in all her 70s glory. When she tried to put on one of her swimming cap, it snapped off and slapped one of the girls in the face. The girl screamed at Jazmine and called her 'a stupid mixed breed'. Hurt and confused, she ran home, not caring that the pool was a quarter mile away from home. When she banged on the door soaking wet, she immediately started chewing her parents out. It was their fault after all. Why'd they have to have a kid that was so…different!

"No! I'm sick and tired of living here! I can't even swim now because of those stupid kids! Why should I even be here if no one looks like me! Are you sure I even exist?! Are you lying to me?! Am I just a little experiment robot?!"

"Jazmine! You you're perfectly normal. We love and care about you. What makes you think we would do something like that?"

"How come I don't look like anyone else?! Why didn't you get someone who looks like you and Mommy gets someone who looks like her?! Why did I have to be born?! I HATE YOU!!" she screamed tears streaming down her face in pure angst. Her feet throwing her legs into high gear out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Tom stayed behind, knowing exactly where she was going and gave her time to herself.

010101010101010101010101010

'It's not fair! There's nobody around here with an afro and light skin," she thought to herself as she kept her rapid pace to a place of peace. There was no way they could comfort her; they were both surrounded by white people who defined who they were and accepted them. She was indefinable mulatto who couldn't seem to find her place among white people and didn't have any black people to connect to. Torment was her only friend and it usually gave her massive headache.

Her head was clouded and fuzzy from crying and running all over the place and there was only one area where she felt safe and had time to clear her thoughts. It was especially her secret place whenever she fought with her parents, which was often these days.

The hill.

It was the grassy knoll that gave an outlook of the entire town when she didn't feel like seeing anyone in person. Perfect sun rises, sunsets and starry skies descended upon it. And to top it all off was the tall, sturdy tree that gave her shade, solace and best of all, company. It was hers and only hers.

'Wait a minute.

Who…'

She saw a small leg peeking out from behind the tree as she ascended the grassy mound. Who thought they could just come and intrude like this?! All of the kids in Woodcrest stayed in the lawns and parks! Well she'd show them!

"Hey! What are y-," Jazmine started as she finally reached the other side of the tree as a pair of wine-colored eyes stared back at her and her enormous afro. She would've thought he was going to laugh at her. She would've thought he was going to get scared and run off. But…

He had the exact same hairstyle she did.