Tic, tock, tic, tock: the clock on the off-white brick wall taunted Chai from afar. It was her senior year at an entirely new school. Her new teachers were boring, and strict. Her classmates were far from appealing, and her first day there had already been a nightmare. Tic, tock, tic…and there goes the bell.

"Okay, class, once again I'd like to welcome you to Advanced Placement Studio Art. I look forward to seeing your bright, shining faces tomorrow. We'll begin the first unit first thing," beamed her teacher, Ms. Benoit. She seemed to be the only nice teacher Chai had (though, it was an ART teacher, who could expect anything less than great?). She quickly gathered her belongings and made her way out the door, turning down the hall to find her locker. She opened it and stuffed her art supplies inside, removing her ratty looking Trigonometry book, and her calculator.

Chai had to be a very lucky girl. If her hand had been in her locker, she would have some broken fingers because not two seconds after she stuffed her book in her oversized tote bag, and found a safe place for her calculator, her locker came crashing closed.

Riley Freeman's body was thrown into her locker with such a force, it left a small dent where he hit his head.

"Punk ass bitch! Try to hustle me again, I dare you," A bigger, much stronger looking boy threatened.

Riley opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get himself in trouble, he found himself being pulled away by his new neighbor.

"Aye, bitch, what are you doin? I was 'bout to kick that nigga's ass! Then you gotta pull me away and shit… You don't know me!" He protested, trying to escape her grip.

"Boy, you wouldn't know what to do if that dude really started somethin. Did you see how much bigger he was? And don't gimme no excuses, neither. Last thing I need is for your sorry ass to get thrown into my locker again. You coulda broke my damn hand. Now, where's your brother? And WHAT THE HELL DID I TELL YOU ABOUT CALLIN ME A BITCH?" Chai found Huey with a group of people further down the hall. Upon her arrival with his little brother, he sighed. He hoped this girl wasn't expecting to make friends with him. His friends, however, welcomed her with smiles. "Uh, hey," Chai started sounding nervous. "Keep your brother out of trouble, alright? Trynna be a hustler…" she trailed off and pushed Riley toward the small crowd.

"'Bout damn time you let me go. Actin like you was the police or somethin..." The younger freeman crossed his arms and looked away from everyone.

"What'd he do this time? Riley, you fightin again?"

"No, I was-"

"You were getting your ass beat again, weren't you? Are you still Trynna hustle niggas? When you gonna learn you ain't a hustler, nor are you any kind of gangsta?" Huey smacked his younger brother on the 

back of his head. "You better get to learnin before you get yourself killed." Then, with a pointed look at Chai he added, "Don't worry about him. He's used to getting his ass beat anyway. But thanks, anyway."

"How do you know Huey and Riley?" inquired one of Huey's friends. She was a pretty mixed girl, around the same height as Chai, maybe a little taller. She had two gorgeous emeralds for eyes, and long, straight blondish hair.

"I live in the house across the street from them. I'm Chai."

"Chai like tea, Chai?" Asked a blonde headed white girl with pretty blue eyes.

"Yeah, just like the tea."

"Well nice to meet you, Chai," smiled the mixed girl. "My name's Jazmine. You're my new neighbor, too."

"And I'm Cindy," said the white girl. "And the one with his iPod up full blast is Caesar." She pointed to a tall boy who was standing behind Huey, sort of hiding behind Huey's afro. He offered a sort-of smile as a greeting and bobbed his head to whatever he was listening to.

"Well, it was nice meeting you guys," Chai said, turning.

"Hey wait! We were just about to go to the park, do you wanna come?" asked Jazmine, but Chai was already gone. "Oh…nevermind. What's up with her?"

"I don't know. She's probably just shy or somethin. I wouldn't take it personally or anything."

Later that evening, Jamine DuBois left the Freeman residence and crossed the street. She decided it would be nice to drop in on their new neighbor and rang the doorbell. Chai's father opened the door.

"Hello, is Chai home?" She asked, sheepishly.

"Who- oh, you must mean Jolie. Sure, young lady, right this way." He smiled, letting her in. "Do you know my daughter from school?"

"Sort of. I met her today at school, but I live down the street a little, and my best friend lives across the street. I met her through him." Mr. Costa lead Jazmine through the kitchen and knocked on the garage door.

"Just a second!" came his daughter's muffled reply.

"You have a visitor!"

"A what? Who?"

"It's me, Jazmine!"

"Oh, you can come in if you want." So Jazmine turned the doorknob and stepped inside. She was greeted by paint fumes and music. Chai stood near what appeared to be a freshly painted concrete slate, can of spray paint in hand. A magnificent Che was stenciled on the concrete. His mouth had a red x over it, and over his eyes was a censor bar, but it was still obviously Che Guevara. Words made up the background of the stencil. Those words made up a famous Che quote: "Silence is argument carried out by other means."

"Oh no, not another one..." Jazmine teased, smiling. Chai took off her mask.

"Another one? What does that mean?"

"Nothing, I was just kidding. Huey's pretty in to revolutionary movements and stuff like that. It's probably why he never looks happy."

"Oh. That's cool. I haven't really communicated with their family much. Anyway, what brings you by?"

"Nothin in particular, I just thought I'd stop in and say hello. I like making new friends."

"That's nice of you, thanks."

"Don't mention it," the mixed girl beamed. "Well, I'd better get going. My parents would be mad if I missed dinner. Here's my number if you need anything! Call or text, it's your choice." She handed Chai a small slip of paper. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. We have the same Anatomy class." Chai pressed a button on the wall to raise the garage door.

"Alright, I'll text you some time. Thanks again for stopping by." She waved goodbye to Jazmine, who was already making her way down the driveway. Yelling could be heard from across the street, along with the sound of crashing objects and screaming.

"Well," the young artist thought aloud. "It ain't my problem."

Sooooooooo, sorry it's kinda boring. I'll make some conflict I promise.
But whatever, thanks for reading if you did.
If you're reading this, your names probably Kelsey.
HA, whateverrr, review! please. thanks.

Jasmyn