Jazmin Dubois…

Huey came at me first, he shifted to his right and swung, I dodged it but he got my ankle with his foot and I was down, I quickly recovered and found my center. He was fast, so when he came at me again on my left side but I saw his other fist move so I dodged right and blocked his left hand with my right by grabbing his wrist pulling it forward using the momentum to lift my leg and kick him square in the jaw. He was behind me so I quickly moved to where we were facing each other again.

"Not Bad." He said getting back up. I didn't wait for him to recover though so I immediately charged at his right then faked left to hit him in his side, but he blocked that then I tried going for the other side but faked and swung my leg to knock him back down. He hopped back to his feet quickly coming at me, kicking at my side, I back flipped and evaded the hit and to get some space between us, he charged at me again hitting me on my right and grabbing my leg that was kicking at his side but I hopped up did a twist in the air hitting him in the other jaw now, and freeing myself from his grasp.

"C'mon Huey, You can do better than that right?" he came at me jumping in the air and send a kick to my face that I just didn't see coming, the hit to my jaw hurt. I had to stop myself from cursing, we had about one more min and I wanted to get him down. I charged at his left hoping to fake right but he dodged right and caught my arm and spun me around so that my back was facing his front, my right arm behind my back. He was taller than me so I went for his ankles but he wouldn't budge so dropped all of my weight and flipped him over my shoulder using his weight against him. I charged and straddled him punching him in the jaw on the right and then the left then he grabbed both of my hands and wrapped his legs around mine and rolled over so that I was on my back and he was about to punch me on my left but a bell rang.

"Excellent, you have an amazing form and sight." Iroh said walking towards us, "I can't wait to see your sister fight, and you say she is better than you. I'll see you Monday at 6 and we will end at 10pm until school starts back up again and again on Thursday same times."

I was still on the floor under Huey when I said. "Amazing see you then." Iroh walked away, and then I realized Huey was still on top of me. He must have realized the same thing at the same time because he immediately got up, and grabbed my hand to help me up.

"You're better than I would have given you credit for." He said looking into my eyes, I smiled at him.

"I am just full of surprises aren't I?" He looked at me some more, and I saw the clock behind his head. It was almost two and I didn't need to be at the shop till three so I looked back at Huey. "You want to get something to eat with me I'm starving."

"Yeah, there is a vegan restaurant across the street from the school called 'soy beam'."

"Sure, anything is fine with me." He then turned to go put back on his street clothes. I went over to my phone and saw I had a message from Yazzie.

'Dance and gymnastics classes on Tuesday Friday and Saturday Tuesday and Friday from 11 to 3 and Saturday is from 10 to 8pm, '

"Cool beans at the dojo on Monday and Thursday from 6pm to 10pm." I texted back and then Huey and his afro came through the door, black shirt and scowl and all. He seemed to be deep in thought but of course with Huey you can never tell what he is thinking, he looks at me and says, "lets go." We walk to the car and for the most part he is quiet. When we get to the restaurant that is directly across the street from the school, it must be new because I have never seen this place before.

The inside was cute, pictures of vegetables and murals of the history of veganism, but it was quite with a few people working on laptops. Huey orders for the both of us, which I don't mind since I wouldn't know what to get anyway, but he also pays for me as well, which is nice. When we sit we dive right into the salads in front of us, we haven't talked since we left the studio and it's kind of awkward so I say, "you are much better than I thought you would be."

"I'm full of surprises aren't I?" he said back without missing a beat.

"What's your favorite color?" I ask him

"Why?"

"Just answer, please." I looked at him with my green eyes. I didn't even do it on purpose; I just do that when I want something. He looks unfazed but he doesn't show a lot of emotion.

"Green, but ummm mostly black." Was this Huey nervous? Why was he nervous, this is interesting?

"How long have you been doing martial arts?"

"Since I was four, I started at this little studio in Chicago."

"Are you from Chicago?"
"Yeah."

"When did you move here?"

"When I was 8, granddad moved us out here."

I wanted to ask why but that seemed rude, so I stayed with lighter topics while we were eating. I laughed at his rants and I even got to see one of his dimples when I was talking about my 6th grade recital, when I completely busted my ass in front of like three hundred people. My phone beeped and it was about 15 minutes till three, I didn't want to but I do have to get to dads shop and help out.

"You have to go." He said it wasn't a question.

"Yeah, I need to go to my dad's shop and help him I got to be there by three." So we cleaned up our plastic bowls and headed out the door. He looked at me as he opened my door to the truck.

"I'll see you Jazmin." He said "I am going to run, so I'll see you later."

"You sure I don't mind-"he cut me off

"I'll see you" he said then walked away, that booty bouncing. Huey has a really sweet soul I can tell, that much about him. He loves his brother and would do anything for him or his grandfather.

Getting to the shop I see three figures in the big window. One is clearly my father and since I am 99.9% sure I am in the car, the next one must be my sister but, the blonde one I didn't know. Yazzie sees me pull into the small parking lot in front of the shop and next to dads car she runs out, the blond girl who is absolutely stunning, walks out with her.

"Jazzy, have fun with your new BOOOOOOOOooooo." She said, I rolled my eyes getting out the car.

I blushed profusely, at that moment I just so happen to remember that Huey was on top of me during the spar. "Shut up, hoebag. Who is this beautiful lady?" I said hoping to distract her from my blushing face.

"Aye what up nigga, I am Cindy McPherson aka C-Merph aka C murdah." She then flipped her long blond braid over her shoulder. "but you can call me Cindy." Cindy was gangsta fabulous, wearing a t-shirt with snoop dogg on it with blue jean short shorts with rhinestones on it and a big gold chain that read, "C-Murph" she has big blue eyes and diamond studs in her ears. "Aye that's dope yah looks just alike, But yo eyes man they go on forever." She said staring at me.

"Thanks Cindy, you can call me Jazz, or Jazmin." I said

"Cindy goes to the dance studio with us next door, she is also going to help dad in the shop, and she got mad skills."

"Yeah , I'm gonna be braiding bitches hair, and I can do a mean press and curl"

"Welcome to the family Cindy." Then her dad comes out.

"Girls I could use some help in here. Oh Jazmin come see, it's a bit of a fixer upper but I think it has a ton of potential." I excitedly walked through the doors to the shop and it was long and narrow. It seems to have been a beauty shop previously because there was already like six sinks and hella outlets. It was dusty and dark and this terrible green and beige color, but it does have potential.

"So, what do you think?"

"I think this place is going to be fabulous. We should get some artist to draw up a mural and put it on the walls and hard wood floors, this tile has got to go-"I looked around; they were just looking at me. "Are none of you going to write this down." Then Yazzie took out her phone while dad and Cindy started sweeping. The rest of the night ended off with us dancing around in the space and just cleaning, me throwing out ideas and all of us just collaborating.

Cindy is a smart girl, she is brilliant when it comes to the whole knowing how to get stuff, and apparently she is very connected for a 15 year old. I like her a lot, she meshes well with Yazzie and I, she and Yazzie has tons of things to talk about between their love of sports and rap music, but I never felt excluded. We all talked and laughed more than we have in months. But even with all the distractions I couldn't help but think about a pair of wine colored eyes.

Huey Freeman…

I was just sitting here, under this tree looking over Woodcrest like some weird vigilantly, I felt myself being able to understand someone like batman. Lonely and misunderstood. Not really fitting in anywhere. But I am not batman, I am not in a cape, nor do I want to be, nor do I want to save this town but, batman you know.

It was at this moment I decided I shouldn't be smoking weed, but I didn't care. I hear a guitar, next to me and look over at Ceasar, his guitar in his lap he was strumming but not really playing anything, Ceasar is my best friend in so many words. We moved here at the same time, him from Brooklyn and me from Chicago, he had long dreads and dark skin, his parents were Jamaican and they owned a store in the mall. We clicked, when we first met I was sitting alone on the playground at the elementary school, reading a book about Martin Luther King jr he came next to me and sat there. We didn't talk we just sat there, and this happened every day for two months when one cold day in November under this same tree, he asked, "What are you reading?"

"I am reading about great African American leaders of the 1920s."

"Why?"

"So I can become one."

He sat for a second, nodded and said, "Cool"

And that is how it happened.

He is now sitting there patiently, he knows I called him for a reason, but I haven't said anything since he got here almost an hour ago. But he continues to play with the guitar in his hands, not saying anything and sighing every 35-40 seconds. Ugh he is so annoying. I exhale and he looks at me and finally puts the guitar to the side.

"You finally going to talk, Huey or did you really call me for no reason?"

This little fuck. "Okay, I just don't know what's wrong with me."

"I am still trying to figure this out myself, now specifically."

"Okay so this girl." I didn't get to finish, Ceasar gasped like he saw some alien come from the sky.

"What? I never thought I would live to see the day." He started grabbing his chest and breathing deeply. "You are going to give me a heart attack; you are having a girl problem?"

"it's not a problem, more like a complication."

"And who is this girl? Please tell me it's not Maya. It's Maya isn't it, that girl has been after your dick since middle school."

I rolled my eyes, "it's not Maya."

He looked at me expectantly, "Well who is it? Is it someone I know?"

"No, she just moved here from California with her sister and father. Her name is Jazmin."

"So you like her." I really didn't know, I have never really liked anyone like that, is this how it felt? Being all nervous and confused and wanting to smell someone this bad. I mean the girl smells like coconuts and lime and the color pink. I had no idea that the color pink even had a smell until she walked past me.

"I wouldn't say that, but she does fascinate me and she smells like pink."

"What does pink even smell like."

"Jazmin, she has really deep green eyes, and curly reddish blonde hair and an ass that would make me thank god." He was staring at me; he needs to stop because it is freaking me out. "Dude, you are freaking me out."

"Well that makes two of us. Huey I can't believe you have a crush on someone. She must be one hell of a girl." He said laying back down on the tree. "So what happened?"

"What do you mean, nothing happened." Then I thought about the spar and her hips on my stomach when she flipped me, my jaw still hurt. She was so light but I could feel every muscle in her thigh.

"No, something definitely happened, spill."

"Well she is into martial arts and she is going to be training with me and Iroh, but Iroh wanted us to spar, and she almost beat me." I left out the whole straddle part, I already don't want to talk about it and that would have been awful. Ceasar knows how I am about martial arts and if someone could even get a solid hit on me it would be amazing.

"Oh now I definitely, have to meet this girl. The Domestic Terrorist being beat, by a girl."

"She is super strong to be so tiny, if I would not have flipped us over she would've had me for sure. But my record still stands." I sighed, "And we went to soy beam, and we just talked till she had to leave. Then I walked here called you and now we have made it full circle."

"Anything else I need to know?"

"Oh I almost forgot, she has an identical twin sister named Yazmin, and their dad is opening a beauty salon off market, right next to the dance studio apparently."

"She has a twin sister? How do you tell them apart?"

"Jazmin has these beautiful deep green eyes, like really green while Yazmin has light silver green eyes. You will know immediately when you see them."

"So I do get to meet them."

"You are a nuisance." I say siting back on the tree, he grabs his guitar and starts strumming a tune I don't recognize, but it is very mellow. As the sun hangs in the west, making the sky a kaleidoscope of colors I couldn't help but think about those beautiful green eyes