A/N: ATTENTION! THERE IS AN IMPORTANT POLL ON MY PROFILE THAT IS RELATED TO THIS STORY! GO TO MY PROFILE AND VOTE IMMEDIATELY BEFORE READING!
Hi, everyone! It's almost summer! Aren't you excited? Thank you guys so much for your undying support and hilarious comments! Below, you can find the answers to the questions you left for me in the comments:
Q: What happened to Cairo?
A: I don't know, I guess we'll have to find out...
Q: Where's the rest of the cast (ie: Riley, Cindy, the Dubois couple)?
A: Cindy and Riley will appear later in the story, but the Dubois' will be covered in this chapter, and you'll get to meet a new character! :)
I DO NOT OWN THE BOONDOCKS!
~Jazmine~
Today had been going fairly well, much to Jazmine's surprise. Perhaps, the night before with Hiro had given her the emotional support she needed to carry on through the next day? Then again, it was Friday, so she would've been happy either way. Things were still tense between her and Huey; the same went for Chia and Caesar, so the two girls had been avoiding the boys for the whole day, like they had done yesterday.
Currently, Jazmine, Chia, and Hiro were talking, laughing, and enjoying a peaceful lunch at Shiano's, as usual.
"So, Chia," Jazmine began, after they all had just finished discussing Hiro's upcoming party on Tuesday. She looked down at her lap and fought off an oncoming blush. "Yesterday, Hiro and I-"
She was interrupted by the ringing of the bell above the front entrance of the restaurant, signaling the arrival of more customers. And low and behold, it was the boys that she and Chia were the least eager to see. Jazmine's eyes were dancing around nervously, and they accidentally fell in line with Huey's. She immediately knew she wasn't ready to face him. As soon as he started approaching her to apologize, she rose up and briskly made her way to the bathroom.
~Huey~
Hiro stood up and blocked Huey's path to Jazmine before he could catch up to her. Chia, too, wanted to join Jazmine in the bathroom and avoid Caesar, but she felt that it was necessary to tell him what was going on and stop acting peculiar around him.
"Wassup, Huey?!" Hiro excitedly greeted the afro'd young man. He gave him dap and pulled Huey into a hug. "Where ya been?" Huey sat down next to him, while Caesar joined a skittish Chia in her seat.
"Not doing much," Huey replied, preoccupied with thoughts of Jazmine. "So, what's up with you?"
"Same, as usual," Hiro replied. He smirked and threw his arm around Huey's shoulder, pulling him closer to whisper to him, "Jazzy seemed a bit alarmed, just now, when you and Ceez came in."
"Yeah, we had a little misunderstanding," Huey explained vaguely, looking down with shame. Caesar furrowed his brows in confusion at him, confused as to what he was talking about. "I want to talk things out with her," Huey continued.
"Speaking of talking things out..." Chia chimed in as she peered up at Caesar. "Could we talk outside, Caesar?" He nodded and followed her outside to talk about their own situation.
"Anyways, I'm sorry, buddy, but I don't Jazmine's coming out of that bathroom until she knows you're gone," Hiro chuckled.
"Why do you seem chill about this?" Huey inquired with suspicion.
"Because it's not my problem." Hiro shrugged, then that damn smirk appeared on his lips again. "In fact, it gives me an advantage."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing," Hiro snickered. He then rose up from his seat. "I think Jazmine just wants her space from you, is all. She's really mad at you right now." He made his way over the door of the women's restroom door and knocked on it.
"Yo, Jazz!" he called to her through the door. "Huey's gone!" Huey couldn't help but feel hurt as Jazmine subsequently peeked her head out of the bathroom door, huddle under Hiro's arm, and happily exited the restaurant with him, without even noticing that the revolutionary was stillthere.
When they were gone, Huey stood up, sighed, and made his way out of the restaurant, passing Caesar and Chia on the way to his car.
Hiro's changed, he thought, feeling a mixture of pain and suspicion.
…
It was almost time for his next class to start. He was already venturing through the Language Arts building to get to his english class. He was in the same hallway as Jazmine's next class when he heard yelling from her classroom. He inched closer to the class, peeking his head around the corner of the threshold of its door to investigate the situation.
There were a group, made up of black and Latina girls, standing at one large table, and preaching about their views on racial discrimination in American high schools. The rest of the class surrounding them could only sit there and endure their awkward exclamations, targeted at the white (and half-white) demographics of the class.
"It doesn't make any sense!" one of the angry girls exclaimed as an ashamed Jazmine sat next to her. "How come a lil' white girl can get away with wearing booty shorts in high school, but all the black and latina girls had to dress like nuns just so we wouldn't get written up?!"
"I know, right?!" another girl agreed. Then, she motioned towards Jazmine, who was (inconveniently) wearing a crop top and skinny jeans. "If I got caught wearin' what she's wearing, I would've gotten thrown outta class!"
"Mixed kids always get off easy," a third girl chimed in, sucking her teeth. Jazmine gulped and kept her eyes down with embarrassment. "They're all treated like they're so special," the other ignorant girl complained.
Huey clenched his fists with anger at this and walked inside, deciding to intervene before this was taken too far.
"Actually, that's not the case," he interjected into the heated discussion. "Multiracial people experience discrimination just like other black and latino people." At first, the girls were caught off guard at his entrance, especially Jazmine. Then, one of the girls stepped forward with doubt in her eyes.
"Oh, yeah?" she inquired, skeptically. "Because almost every biracial person I've met has been treated better than non-mixed race people, specifically black people."
"And latinos," a latina chimed in from the background.
"A survey was recently taken, covering the topic of biracial discrimination," Huey said. "61% of the participants reported having been subject to racial jokes and slurs, 57% said they've received poor service at restaurants and other businesses because of their ethnicity, and 41% said that they were unfairly stopped by the police because of their mixed race. Not to mention," he glanced over at Jazmine during his 'drop-the-mic' moment, "this young woman here seems very uncomfortable about you ignorantly bashing her demographic as if she's not even here."
The girls were unable to come up with a rebuttal, due to the professor's entrance.
"I see we're having an interesting debate here," the professor commented, acknowledging Huey with a nod. "Have you ever considered joining the debate team, sir?" he asked Huey.
"I actually have been apart of the debate team at Wuncler High and the debate team at the 'University of Illinois at Chicago'." Huey saw Jazmine roll her eyes at his boasting out of the corner of his eye.
"Interesting," the professor said. He held his hand out to shake Huey's. "I'm Professor Davis. Come see me around sometime, and maybe we could have a nice discussion about current events."
"Huey Freeman," Huey introduced himself. "I'd love to."
…
Unfortunately, it was now time for Huey to endure his last class of the day. The good part was that he could go home afterwards. The downside: Pyra…
"Hey, I thought everything was cool between you and Jazmine," Caesar said as Huey sat down between him and Pyra.
"It's fine. We just had an argument is all," Huey replied.
"Who's Jazmine?" Pyra asked, her voice nauseating to him.
"She's just a friend," he said. Pyra squinted her eyes at him, skeptical of the truth in his words.
Just then, his phone screen buzzed and illuminated with a text from the redhead herself. He fished into his pocket to read it.
Today 1:29 PM
Jazmine: Thx.
To Huey, the text was a small victory. He fought off the urge to smile. But for Pyra, it was a loss. She fought off the urge to snatch his phone from him and chuck it out the window nearby before he had the chance to reply to this mysterious 'Jazmine' girl.
Me: Np
"Tell me what this 'argument' was about," Caesar demanded of Huey in a whisper. "It had to be more than an argument if she ran away from you." Huey rolled his eyes.
"Jazmine's always been sensitive and skittish. Don't worry about it," Huey said, urging his friend to stop digging for information. Caesar narrowed his eyes into slits at Huey and leaned back further into his seat, signifying that he was still onto him.
…
~Jazmine~
As the redhead relaxed in her apartment with Chia, she felt somewhat guilty about running away from Huey earlier at Shiano's. Perhaps, she should've just settled her differences with him right then and there? Instead of allowing her feelings to get the best of her, as usual, she did what she typically did when she was overwhelmed by her emotions: she made herself comfortable on the floor and wrote a song.
'You hurt me and I take it
I don't fake it
Because of you, I was awakened
My heart doesn't want these to be your true colors
Because we used to care for each other
Like sister and brother'
"Jazmine, you better come clean and tell me who you keep writing all these love songs about." The ginger was reaped from her deep focus and directed her attention to Chia, who was now sitting across from her on the floor and reading her lyrics.
"This isn't a love song."
"Well, it's a song about heartbreak, which can be a result of love. I know it can't be about Hiro, so is it about that ugly afro guy?" Chia inquired. Jazmine fought off the urge to laugh at her insult.
"Chia, that's so rude!"
"OK, he's not that ugly. Is it about him, though?"
"Um…" Jazmine's eyes danced about as she contemplated an answer. "I guess my subconscious may have been focused on him while I was writing this, but the lyrics specifically say: 'Like sister and brother', not like lovers, so that proves that Huey and I were never romantically involved, and never will be," Jazmine said with a smug grin.
"Uh-huh, sure," Chia replied with doubt in her voice.
"So, did you tell Caesar what was going on?"
"Not completely," Chia murmured, her eyes sliding down to the floor. "I just told him that things were still OK between and…" -her cheeks became a light pink- "that I'm open to going on a date with him." Jazmine gasped and squealed with joy, pulling Chia into a hug.
"Oh my God, that's amazing! I can't wait to see what your kids look like!"
"Don't start, Jazmine," Chia laughed. "We're just testing the waters with each other."
Ring! Ring! Ring!
They paused their conversation as Jazmine grabbed her phone from the coffee table and saw that Nicole was calling her. She shushed Chia and answered the call, putting it on speaker.
"Hello?"
~"Jazmine, have you heard?!"~ Nicole asked (practically shouting) with immense excitement.
"Heard what?"
~"Your story is on the New York Times Bestsellers List!"~ Nicole exclaimed. Jazmine let out an uncontrollable scream that could've been heard by all of Downtown Woodcrest, then she clapped her hand over her mouth and pulled Chia, who was equally elated, into a suffocating bear hug.
"I-I don't know what to say! Thank you for all of your help!" Jazmine said, trying her best to hold back her tears of joy.
"Thank you, Jazmine! You are a truly talented young woman, and your work deserves the recognition it's receiving. So to celebrate, I'm hosting a party in Woodcrest at the Marriott next week. Unfortunately, I have to go to a boring meeting right now, but I'll send you an email with the details. Congratulations, sweetie!"
"Thank you so much, Nicole!" The two said their farewells and hung up the phone.
"This is mindblowing! You actually did it!" Chia exclaimed.
"I know! I can't believe it!" Jazmine rose up to go get her purse and keys. "I have to go tell my parents!"
"You can't just call them?"
"I want to tell them in person. This is a special day!"
…
~Huey~
When Caesar and Huey returned to Woodcrest, everything was basically the same as when they left: Granddad was still crabby, promiscuous Granddad, Ruckus was still racist old Ruckus. The only anomaly was that Jazmine had moved out of her parents' home...and it had really taken a toll on Tom. When Sarah saw this, she bought him a puppy in an attempt to cheer him up. It worked for a while, but then Tom fell back into the slump that his daughter's absence had caused. When Sarah had an idea to take him on a vacation, they hired a dog-sitter, named Trixie. Weirdly enough, it wasn't the vacation that brought Tom happiness, it was Trixie. Her innocent behavior and youthfulness was enough to fill the gap that Jazmine had left because in a sense, Trixie reminded Tom of Jazmine. Sometimes, Sarah wondered if Tom had a perverted connection with the young, beautiful dog-sitter, but she was reassured that this wasn't the case when she remembered how guiltless her pitiful husband was.
Huey and Caesar had just came home from college. Meanwhile, Tom and Sarah were conversing with Robert in the living room. Thankfully, Kyoto was out shopping with Granddad's money (because she was a gold digger, in Huey's opinion). Caesar was receiving help from Huey on a history project when they all heard a car pull up next door. Huey peered out the window to see that it was Jazmine and Caesar's crush who were parked in the Dubois driveway.
"Tom, Sarah, you have visitors," Huey notified them from the kitchen window. The Dubois' rose up from the couch and went to see what he was talking about. Tom was the first out of the front door. When he saw Jazmine stepping out of her car, he was overwhelmed with elation and sped over in tears to greet his daughter.
"...My baby!..." Tom exclaimed in between sobs as he tackled her with a hug. "Promise me you'll never leave me again!"
"Dad, I missed you too, but this is embarrassing! Calm down. We just talked on the phone yesterday. You call me everyday," Jazmine whined as Chia laughed at the scene Tom was making. Sarah joined Tom and hugged her daughter as well.
"Jazmine, sweetie, you're home!" Sarah chirped.
"Yup," Jazmine said, prying her emotional father off of her. "I sure am." She gestured beside herself at Chia. "This is my friend, Chia." Chia greeted both of Jazmine's parents with a polite smile and a 'hello', then Jazmine continued, "We have some very exciting news for you."
"That sounds great! Let's go get settled inside first before you tell us," Sarah insisted.
Inside the Freeman household, Jazmine and Chia were greeted by Robert, Huey, and Caesar. When she was done saying 'hi' to Robert, she and Chia joined Huey and Caesar in the living room. Chia and Caesar got lost in their own separate conversation, leaving Jazmine and Huey to talk to each other. Both were hesitant to say something to one another and start a conversation, but Jazmine stepped up and began:
"Um… Thanks again for what you did earlier," she said, avoiding his eyes. "I'm sorry for running from you at Shiano's." Huey shook his head at her apology, feeling that it was totally unnecessary. He stood up and motioned her to follow him into a secluded hallway next to the staircase.
"Please, don't apologize. This is my fault, completely," he admitted, fighting to hold direct eye contact with her. "I shouldn't have acted so irrationally that night."
"Well, I shouldn't have been so ignorant to the fact that police brutality is real and it happens to unfortunate people of color everyday, not to mention that this is a predominantly white neighborhood where racial profiling is more likely to occur," Jazmine confessed. "You had a reason to be angry about what I said."
"Most of that may be true, but I had no reason to lash out at you like I did, and I don't want you to think that I was right for doing so. I'm sorry," he said. His eyes grazed the floor.
"It's fine," Jazmine reassured him. She opened her arms for a hug. Once again, she was enveloped in his arms, allowing his warmth to consume her like a blanket. And the bond between them, that he didn't know he missed, was restored. Although they'd made up, something was still wrong, and it'd been irking him since that afternoon. What did Hiro mean when he said Huey had given him "an advantage"? When the hug ended, Jazmine was still curious about his intentions that night they were confronted by the police. "What made you so angry that night?" she asked. Already expecting the question, Huey gave her an answer he'd perfected just to give her.
"I had a horrible experience with the police, recently. It's difficult to talk about, but I promise it'll all make sense soon."
"UMPH!"
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of loud thumping and a pained, feminine squeal coming from the staircase next to them. They looked up to see a girl, about their age, tumbling down the stairs and landing flat on her face, then they immediately ran over to help her.
"Are you alright?" Jazmine asked the disoriented girl as she and Huey lifted her up.
"Is everything alright in there?!" Granddad yelled from the kitchen.
"Yeah, Trixie just fell down the stairs...again," Huey muttered under his breath.
"Goodness, I'm so clumsy!" Trixie commented, dusting herself off. "Thank you both for helping me!" When they first met, Huey found Trixie quite interesting at first glance. She was eighteen and a college student just like the rest of the group, but she had a young, naive, and humorously goofy atmosphere about her. She also had glowing syrupy skin and voluminous black hair that was styled into adorable ringlets that she wore in a side-swept fashion.
"You must be Jazmine!" Trixie said upon meeting the redhead. "Your father is always talking about you."
"Well, uh, I don't talk about Jazmine that much," Tom bashfully lied from the dining room.
"But you always are!" Trixie argued. "You're always saying, 'Oh my baby, Jazmine!' 'How will I live without my baby?!' 'I hope my sweet, sweet daughter is okay'-"
"Alright, alright, alright!" Tom said, embarrassed by Trixie's revelation.
The young adults rejoined Caesar and Chia on the living room couch.
"So, are you a friend of Huey's?" Jazmine inquired. Huey wanted to laugh at this assumption; in all honesty he thought Trixie was fairly attractive...on the outside. If she was a little more intelligent, maybe he would've fallen for her.
"Yes, but I'm also your parents' dogsitter," Trixie answered.
"Oh, yeah," Jazmine sighed. "I forgot my dad was so upset about me leaving that my mother bought an actual dog just to cheer him up."
"Your father really loves you, though," Trixie replied, a hint of heartfelt pain in her eyes. "You're so lucky."
"Yeah, I guess so. I've seen overprotective dads before, but my dad is one of a kind," Jazmine said, slight humiliation in her voice.
"Dinner's ready!"
Everyone grouped into the dining room at the dining room table to enjoy a delicious meal consisting of a caesar (no pun intended) salad and soup.
"So, as you know, I've been training with a professional author to become a published author myself, and…" Jazmine trailed off to build anticipation.
"Yeah?" Caesar asked.
"My story is on the New York Times Bestsellers List!" Cheers and clapping arose all around the table. Sarah had to restrain Tom to keep him from getting up to give Jazmine another bear hug.
"That's amazing, darling!" he praised her.
"We're so proud!" Sarah chimed in.
"Yeah, I can't imagine having a book on the Bestsellers List," Granddad added. Then, he though for a moment and lost himself in his own fantasies. "Actually, I can. My book would be called, The Mystical and Promiscuous Sexual Escapades of Civil Rights Hero: Robert Jebediah Freeman, and all the sweet honeys' would come flockin' after I get it published."
"Uh, that sounds good, Granddad," Huey awkwardly said, then he looked next to him at Jazmine. "Congratulations, Jazmine. That's an amazing achievement, and we're all extremely happy for you."
"Thank you, Huey," she nervously giggled, bashful from all of the attention.
Ding! Dong!
"That must be Kyoto," Granddad said, getting up to get the door.
After the door was opened, Kyoto fell straight through the doorway, now lying unconscious on the floor.
"Kyoto!" Robert exclaimed. Panic quickly spread the room like a virus as everyone rushed to see what was wrong with the unconscious woman. Both Huey and Caesar exchanged concerned looks with one another, both having a hunch that they were the reason that Kyoto was in her current state.
A/N: ATTENTION! THERE IS AN IMPORTANT POLL ON MY PROFILE THAT IS RELATED TO THIS STORY! GO TO MY PROFILE AND VOTE IMMEDIATELY!
The madness just never ends, does it?
What's wrong with Kyoto?
Why do Huey and Caesar think they may have caused Kyoto to end up unconscious on the living room floor?
By the way, what do you guys think of Trixie? I had a lot of fun brainstorming her character lol
And the that we all have still lies: what happened to Huey and Cairo?
Like, fav, review! Thx for reading! See you all next weekend, friends!