CJ arrived on his street and pulled up in front of Ryder's house. He hopped off the bike and ran to the front door.
"Yo Ryder!" he called to his friend knocking on the door.
No answer.
CJ saw that the door was open and turned the knob. "Ryder?" he called entering the house. "You in there?"
He entered the kitchen and finally saw Ryder standing by the pot in front of the stove cooking something that was strong.
"Hey, Ryder?" he called. "What the hell you doing?"
"Nigga, I couldn't find that wet I buried," Ryder told him. "So I'm making my own. It's easy, fool.
"Oooh!" CJ said fanning the stench out of his face. "That's strong."
When he saw that Ryder was trying to turn up the flame, he quickly pushed him away. "Man, don't do that!" CJ said. "You'll sauté the both of us."
Man, where the fuck is Lisa when you need her? CJ thought.
He wasn't upset though. Because even though his friend was a total pothead, he was at least still on Grove Street's side and opposed to the Ballas. There was nothing that could ruin this evening.
"Morning boys!" he suddenly heard Tenpenny shout out.
Shit! CJ thought. Spoke too fucking soon!
Ryder glanced at the doorway to see Tenpenny, Pulaski, and Hernandez walking inside the kitchen looking very annoyed. "Man, who you calling a boy, fool?" he shot back at the cop.
"What should I call you?" Tenpenny asked facetiously. "Midget?"
Ryder didn't like it when people commented on his short height. He was 5'3", just four inches shorter than CJ and the shortest of his gang, and he always showed blatant fury whenever anyone would bring it up.
"How about prick?" Pulaski added.
"Prick..." Tenpenny repeated.
"Yeah, prick works," Pulaski agreed as he and the other two cops walked closer to the two Grove Street gangsters.
"Man, fuck you," Ryder told them getting back to his cooking.
"Bitch, get outta here," Tenpenny barked shoving Ryder out of the way.
He took a whiff of the cooking. "Mmm... Smells good," he announced. "What's cooking? Where's mine?"
Ryder just stared at him in a rather confused matter. CJ knew that something was up when a stoner like Ryder is confused as to why someone would want some of his sherm. But then again, this was Tenpenny he was talking about here.
"Man, just chill out, a'ight?" Ryder grumbled shoving Tenpenny out of the way. "Move!"
Ryder reached for the bottle of sherm on the counter. "Here!" he growled silently. "Don't be sweating me, motherfucker."
"Mmm, my wife loves this stuff, man," Tenpenny said.
So apparently, his wife is a fucking crack addict? CJ thought to himself. I'm surprised this asshole even has a wife to begin with.
Tenpenny then handed the bottle to Hernandez as Pulaski chuckled. He then turned to CJ and Ryder. "Anyway," Tenpenny started to explain, "there's a train gonna make an unscheduled stop just down the way. It's got a, how you say, "little something something" on board for you boys. Square business, man."
The cops then turned to leave. "Catch you later, homeboys," Pulaski told them mockingly. Whenever Pulaski used the term "homeboys", it was his way of using it as a euphemism of racial slurs against the gang.
Ryder, of course, caught on to the implicit insult. "Asshole," he called out.
Tenpenny then turned back to face CJ. "Oh Carl," he said. "Try not to kill any more respected police officers. Please?"
"Crime has certainly gone up since you got back, kid," Pulaski added. The cops then turned to leave.
"Just doing my part for the community," CJ called out to them.
"Your train's gonna be there in five," Tenpenny called from his way out of the door.
CJ scratched his head. He wondered why Tenpenny wanted him and Ryder to catch a train. The cops were just around trying to make CJ more miserable than ever. But on the plus side, at least he didn't have to deal with the police officers again.
After a while, Ryder and CJ walked out of the house, with the former talking the passenger's seat of his own Picador. CJ took the driver's seat.
"You drive, CJ," Ryder told him. "Seeing you as Mr. Driver and all."
"Ahh, not your shit again," CJ groaned as he started driving. "Don't give me a hard time about my driving, I ain't got the energy for it, man!"
"Well don't go roll the damn car over and blow us all up in flames then," Ryder shot back.
"I ain't rising to your shit, man," CJ responded.
"Good!" Ryder replied as CJ drove to East Los Santos. "Means you'd concentrate on the road then."
CJ just chuckled "You love to give your homies a hard time, huh?" CJ said grinning.
"Just trying to keep my soldiers alive, nigga," Ryder told him sounding more laid-back this time.
"By nagging them to death?" CJ asked turning to face Ryder.
"Watch the road, motherfucker!" Ryder shouted pointing straight ahead of the road. "THE ROAD!
CJ didn't say anything and just complied to Ryder's demands. While he was admittedly getting fed up with Ryder constantly berating him, he tried his best to keep his cool and not let a few insults get to him. After all, he had been treated far worse by other people.
CJ and Ryder finally made it to the railroad by East Los Santos, with the lines dividing Jefferson and Las Colinas. "Yeah, here we go," Ryder whispered as the two of them spotted the Vagos, who had ambushed the train before them.
"That's our train alright," CJ said, "and it look like some northside Vagos got it first."
So CJ and Ryder ran up to the train and fired their machine guns at them. After the two of them killed the Vagos, only to look behind them to find a Ballas' Admiral pulling up front.
"Oh what's this, we got Ballas trying to crash the party?" Ryder said as he rolled to the right side and fired at the gang.
"Look like Tenpenny told every gang in South Central," CJ said as he assisted Ryder.
"Man we gonna smoke them Balla assholes!" Ryde said as he and CJ shot down the Ballas until they were all gunned down. "Go check out the train, CJ!" he later demanded.
So CJ ran to the train and climbed the back cargo, only to have the train moving.
"Damn, what is that?" CJ asked as the train started moving.
"Chill out, fool!" Ryder called as he got on the back of his Picador, which was being driven by a Grove Street member. "We're gonna be right behind you! Throw me some boxes, CJ!"
CJ grabbed one of the crates from the cargo. They were heavy, but CJ was able to lift them carefully. He tossed it to Ryder, who caught it with ease.
"Damn, not so hard!" Ryder yelled.
CJ picked up another crate and tossed it to Ryder. "Nice throw, fool!" Ryder shouted.
CJ repeated the process three more times. "Bull's eye!" Ryder shouted. "Keep it coming!"
The train moved even faster, and the Grove Street member continued following behind. CJ tossed three more crates to Ryder one by one. "Oh yeah!" Ryder shouted. "And another one!
CJ then tossed the final crate to Ryder. "Okay, CJ, that's all I can carry!" Ryder shouted as the driver of his Picador came to a stop.
CJ sighed in relief as he hopped off the train. "Hop in the car and stamp out, fool!" Ryder ordered.
The Grove Street member slid over to the passenger's seat and let CJ take the wheel. Just then, CJ heard police sirens.
"Man, we got one-time on our tail!" Ryder shouted.
CJ drove through Idlewood to shake off the police car chasing after him. Ryder saw the police car and fired his machine gun at the chasing vehicle. "I'm getting' tired of this!" Ryder shouted. "Fuck off!"
Through Idlewood, CJ finally made his way to the Paint 'n' Spray shop just in time to avoid the cops. After finally losing the cops, CJ backed the car out of the garage and made it onto the road.
"Head back to Grove Street, fool!" Ryder demanded.
So CJ drove out of Idlewood and across the tracked to Ganton. He came to the street under the overpass and made it to his own street.
"Damn, homie, your stuff was tight!" Ryder told CJ.
"You too, homie!" CJ said. "Don't forget our homie here. He helped us too."
CJ gestured to the Grove Street member sitting adjacent to him. "Hell yeah!" the latter replied.
"LB's coming over to stash the shit," Ryder said as CJ backed up into Ryder's driveway.
"You know what, Ryder?" CJ told Ryder as he hopped out of the vehicle and faced him. "I think Tenpenny set us all up. He tried to get us killed by ambushing us at the railroad tracks."
"Jeah?" Ryder replied. "Well his plan failed miserably. Guess that motherfucker didn't anticipate me and you being natural robbers and ice cold killas. He underestimated you and me – the kung-fu genius like me and the ice cold whipper snapper like you, homie. Keep this up, and you might earn my respect back for you, CJ."
"Okay, later then," CJ said.
"For life, CJ, for life - you heard?" Ryder told CJ.
"For life, homie!" CJ replied. "Grove for life!"
He walked away and headed to his house. It was now 9:01 PM, and CJ wanted to get his rest. So instead of walking upstairs into his mother's bedroom, he fell onto the sofa in the living room.