So you already know the story. A typical college girl from Stilwater becomes the absolute authority in Stilwater to being an international celebrity to being the galactic empress. Hard to believe, but yeah...it's totally a real thing. Now how did I get into this shit to being with? It actually started one night in the fall of 2006.
I was doing a little research here and there for a report that I was doing for a class I was taking, so I decided to take a look at Saints Row, a neighborhood that was collapsing under it's own weight. Now I know, what the fuck Laina, didn't anyone tell you not to travel to dark and dangerous places at night, Saints Row being one of them? I actually wanted to make an impression of the work I wanted to do. I kind of wanted to do reporting then, like Jane Valderrama for example; she does a fine job doing what she does, and we've met on occasion. Not the safest of jobs, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself, am I?
So I was walking among the streets of Saints Row one night. One of the few times at the time where I saw the bowels of society for what it was, but that was only the beginning of it. While I was approaching a corner, I overheard some people talking about a particular piece of graffiti on the walls. Three guys clad in yellow with unpleasant looks on their faces. I could have expected them to critique the art, since it did look quite shitty after all, but it was something I didn't really comprehend until this moment. One of the guys said out loud and clear, "Fuck the Rollerz". The guy that stood next to him began addressing the third guy in yellow, "Lavar, you gonna let those bitches disrespect us?". Lavar responded, "Shit, whatchu think?" before going forth to began painting on the wall.
I saw this as an opportunity to document what was happening before my very eyes, so I pulled out a camera to snap a few candid photographs of these guys before a group of guys wearing blue walked up to them. "The fuck you think you doing?" asked one of them before one of the guys in yellow responded, "Just being civic-minded is all".
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, some dumbass cracker went and shit on all over this wall. We just cleanin' it up"
As one could have expected, everything dissolved quite fast. I kind of formed the assumption that these two groups were rival factions; gangs to make something straight forward, kind of like my business, but that's something for another day. I sort of knew about the guys in yellow, those were the Vice Kings, the gang that once originated in Sunnyvale and steadily rose to power over the years. The other guys I had no fucking clue who they were. All that really mattered was that fists and bats were flying and people were permanently blinded during this little scuffle of theirs. I was too busy taking photographs at the time until a car pulled up near the corner. Music blasting, nines and AKs, guys wearing the color red, simply put these were the notorious Carnales that I learned about in school.
If there was one line that reminded me of this moment, there was a guy that said "Hector says, buenas noches". In a second, I was caught in the middle of a firefight among three rival gangs. I quickly ran for cover as blood began to splatter everywhere. All photo capturing ceased as I peeked around a corner; the bodies drop to the ground in countless numbers. When I decided to run from the area, the red car ended up speeding towards me; the drivers shot down as they made an attempt at escaping the fire of an assault rifle. I managed to dive out of the way in the make of time, but at this moment, I thought I was going to die. My body was frozen as one of the guys in blue walked up to the lifeless body of a Carnale, the rifle held up with one arm, little pockets of blood splattering out as the bullets made impact. One of the Vice Kings walked up and shot the guy in the head before slowly walking up to me. I crawled back to the wall in fear of this man, holding a nine straight to my head.
"Wrong time, wrong place bitch".
I was surely going to die right here. Eyes shut, I braced for the sudden explosion, the last sound that I would hear; a bullet going who knows how fast making sudden impact with my head and that would be the end of Laina Renee Rosenhaus...unless such a thing was supposed to happen another day. This was only the beginning of everything. I opened my eyes and a seemingly middle-aged African-American man wearing purple and black was looking into my eyes, extended his hand and said "You okay playa?". Julius Little, the one guy that started this ride down the rabbit hole in the first place. Leader of a crew I had yet to hear of until this very moment, the crew that I would reside with for life going onwards...a little ahead but let's keep this going shall we.
The car nearby had already caught fire, the bodies engulfed in flames as Julius pulled me up from the ground. "Julius, let's move" the guy who accompanied Julius said as we all moved away from the vehicle. I was a little hurt physically, but nothing to the scarring I had mentally, traumatized if you may add. I felt the explosion ripple through my skin as I lost footing, holding up against Julius' leather coat to ensure that I didn't fall. I was placed down at a nearby wall after we were a safe distance from the car.
"That don't look so bad, you should be fine". At that point, I was sure I wasn't going to be. For the sake of everything, I almost died. Okay I would become, but at that point, I was unsure of what I should do. Julius pointed behind him and introduced me to the other guy; "That's Troy; You can thank him later". In short, Troy was there in the make of time to save my life. Now that I brought it up, he kind of saved my ass a bunch of times, but that's something for another day.
"The row ain't safe no more. We got gangs fighting over shit that ain't theirs...and you in the way, they don't care if you're representing or not."
"Julius, this is no time to recruit", a seemingly concerned Troy said to Julius.
"We need all the help we can get, son"
"No, we need to get our asses outta here" For a fact I would have agreed with Julius, since who would have known what could have happened the next moment. What if a bunch of Vice Kings or Carnales came by and shot us all down?
"In a minute." And now the suspenseful part starts...at least for me it had started. "Look, the row has got a problem. Come to the church when you want to be a part of the solution". After Julius got what he wanted to say out of his mouth, he and Troy left the scene, presumably to this church he mentioned to me. While I looked at these two figures walk away from me, I was slowly picking myself off the ground. Up against the wall I found myself heavy breathing. I literally almost didn't escape death, and it was Troy that I would have to thank for that. Still I was shaken at the fact that I had a gun up to my head, but believe me when I say that it could have been worse. I at least got out of the situation with a few bruises, so I hoped that the next day would be as fine as the rest of my life prior to what happened. I walked up to my camera only to see that it was in bad shape, kind of like my mind was; I may have said this for the thousandth time right now and I don't want to bore you people by saying that I was traumatized by having a gun placed to my head.
Long after Julius and Troy left my location, I called up an Eagleline Yellow to take me back to my place in the suburbs. I could have sworn I cried myself to sleep once I got there. To bring everything together, that was the night that eventually started me on the path to becoming a galactic empress, but who would have known then that I was in for such a surprise. Of course if it wasn't for me, everything that happened could have been avoided in some fashion, but I fail to believe such a thing could ever happen.
Fast forward to the next day, a warm fall afternoon and the day where destiny started to take course. Call it whatever you want, but it's still my story and I'm saying this began my rise to such great power. So I woke out of bed that day replaying the events from the previous night in my head over and over. It was the weekend and the only thing I could think about was what happened; (again) a near death situation where a Vice King put a gun up to my skull and when I thought I was going to die, a guy named Troy came to my aid. I remembered what Julius said to me after he and Troy saved my life, "Come to the church when you want to be a part of the solution", I remembered the words as clear as the moment when I was almost killed. I thought it would have been cool to join a movement to make a difference, but little did I know about the thing I was about to get myself into. Even though part of me wanted to reluctantly steer away from the row as much as possible, I wanted to see what those two guys were all about. I dressed myself in my usual getup at the time, which was jeans, tank top, and a slightly worn out black hoodie and once again took the taxi to Saints Row, where poverty ran rampant and apparently, so did gang activity.
There were already a bunch of guys in purple gathered in front of the church steps once I got there. The church itself was an abandoned building that was seemingly in ruins, covered in graffiti from every angle and every window seemingly boarded up. The grass in the cemetery was a bit overgrown, covering a good amount of the tombstones stricken into the ground. At the top of the stairs stood Troy, with Julius coming out of the building to address the crowd. I looked on from the arch as Julius began speaking to us all.
"Every motherfucker here knows what we need to do. Now those bitches be riding around here thinking they own these streets. I don't care what flags they're flying; Rollerz, Los Carnales, Vice Kings, no one is making this nigga scared to walk the row. We about to lock this shit down right now."
As expected, everyone seems to agree with the words coming from their leader. I even overheard one guy in particular say "Fuck Yeah" among the overwhelmingly high response. This guy is very important, but I rather to introduce you to him at a later time. Anyway, he was one of the few guys who noticed I was looking on, so what else could he have done than to put me in the spotlight.
"Who the fuck's this?", This guy said presumably to Julius. Guy wore glasses and had a pretty shitty haircut...also, Asian-American.
"Troy and I found her. We're gonna see if she'll ride with us."
"Julius, if she wants to roll with the Saints, she gotta be canonized"
Troy then looked over at Julius while I was looking on, dumbfounded and a little stricken with fear. I didn't know what the fuck was a canonization. Possibly some sort of initiation I guessed and I'm pretty well versed with initiation. The first impression I got was that this was going to be some sort of movement, but to think of it, I thought it would be cool to join a gang. Maybe that is why I probably went with everything and didn't really leave the location. Still, I was a little confused at what a canonization was. Little did I know it would be me having to fight a whole bunch of gang members.
"Aye, he's right Julius. Everyone had to do it."
What happened next was that I saw a bunch of people slowly walk up to me. Maybe this was it. Maybe this would be where I die. Maybe not, It's just initiation into the crew, just like almost every group that had such a thing, except it involved me getting beat down. Of course I could hold my own if it was only one person, but a bunch of people of both genders was overkill I thought to myself. Julius looked upon me and said, "You ready for this playa?".
I was too busy thinking when a fist smacked me in the left jaw. As off guard I was, I stumbled back until a guy pushed me towards someone who was in the middle of taking a swing. I was able to dodge that punch and the one that followed. as any good fighter would, I followed up with two of my own punches, with the end result being favorable. The girl fell down to the ground and here came two guys to take me on. I either was going to get out unharmed or a bloody mess, but the only thing set on my mind was fighting all of these guys trying to beat me down. Every blow, either to me or someone else seemed to push me forward each time, almost like I was born with some killer instinct or something like that. Even though i was knocked down here and there, I managed to defeat just about everyone.
With the last guy on the ground, I mounted him and rapidly punched him in the face until I was held back by someone. I was about to hit this guy as well until Troy told me to stop. My face was kind of covered in blood after this canonization. Some of the members applauded me for my work; that is when I knew all of this was over, and the real fun was about to begin for me. Troy came over to me and said, "You earned your colors today", shaking my hand in the process. I felt a hand touch my shoulder as I looked behind me. I didn't know who this guy was at the moment but he was in a congratulatory mood as was Troy. adding to what Troy said, this guy told me, "That's some impressive shit. The only other Saint who kicked ass like that was Johnny".
This would be the time that I introduced you to that guy with a shitty haircut that I mentioned earlier. He is the one and only Johnny Gat, the only other person who is just as, or even more badass than I, but more about him later since I don't want to spoil any good parts. I remembered him saying "Shit took me half the time", referring to his canonization back in a time I don't even know about. Fact of a matter is I was now a member of the Third Street Saints. Even Julius officially welcomed me with the gang, complete with a fist bump.
What continued was business as usual before my canonization took place. Julius began addressing us all once again with how we're gonna take back Saints Row. "Now let's get down to business. If we're serious about taking back the row, we gotta let those motherfuckers know what time it is. Now you break it down, and it's all about respect. Get enough of it, they're gonna back off, and we're gonna move right on in. We got some friends in town that could use some help. Give em' a hand. 'Course...you can drop any motherfuckers flying the wrong flag...so as long as word gets out that the Saints is on the Row, I don't give a damn how you do it. You feel me?"
After the talking stopped, the crowd dispersed and went their separate ways. I stayed around for a while since I didn't really know what exactly to do. I was new at this gangbanging stuff, and maybe some of the others were as well, just that I only have fighting as my only weapon. How the fuck was I supposed to clear out Saints Row when I don't have access to such equipment the other gangs had at disposal? Of course the one defining moment from the previous day was the guy putting a nine to my head, but I'd be lying if I didn't see sub-machine and assault rifles. It was enough firepower to cause a car to catch fire, so it's definitely not kid material they're playing with. How was I going to get access to a gun? How am I going to find people associated with a gang other than the Saints? I was in need of assistance from someone who was higher-up in the organization for the reason that I was unfamiliar with banging, not to mention the area was unfamiliar to a suburban girl like me. Luckily for me, Troy helped me through the trials to becoming a formidable opponent for the other crews riding around the Row.