Fifth grade for David and Azimio now.. Thanks for reading! Super excited to keep going with this y'all. Xx Sierra
"Are you doing football this year?" David asks his friend, Azimio, as they bike towards the park. They're supposed to meet Tyler and Travis there to play soccer for a little while. "My dad really wants me to do it, and you know how he is!"
Azimo pedals faster, flying past his friend in a blur. "Yeah man!" he shouts over his shoulder, "I already had my momma fill out the form! You better do it too!" He squeezes his breaks hard as he skids up at the park entrance, almost causing David to rear-end him.
"I guess I'll do it. It's going to be pretty fun, dude," David says, pushing his kickstand down. Tyler and Travis are already kicking the ball around in the same field that David met them two years ago. They hop off their bikes and join in the game. It's kind of chilly out, unusual for the third week of school, so the boys are all wearing light jackets over their t-shirts.
David has just scored a goal when some kids walk up. They're older than the boys are, definitely high school kids. One of them is smoking something, and he passes it to one of his friends. Travis leans towards David and whispers "That's weed. I've seen my older brother smoke it. It's a drug." He sounds scandalized.
The older boys say something to each other, bursting out in laughter. They go sit on the swings at the playground, pushing each other around and passing the weed around every so often. One boy drops it and stomps it out. The four younger kids can't stop watching them. They're entranced by the sheer coolness of it. They say something, motioning to the kids and laughing. One of them stands, and walks to where Azimio is standing, awestruck.
"What are you looking at, nigga?" he says loudly, turning towards his friends on the swings. "You never seen kids smoke a joint before?"
Azimio looks at the ground, unusually silent. The older boy starts in again. "I said… what are you looking at, nigga?"
David's never heard that word before. He doesn't quite understand why Azimio has gotten so quiet. Since his friend can't seem to speak up, he decides to. "Hey, you wanna leave us alone?" he jumps in.
"I believe I was talking to your little nigger friend here, you chubby fuck," he responds, pushing Azimio's shoulder. "Are you deaf? I fucking asked what you were looking at."
David does know that word. He's head his dad use it before. Fuck. It rolls in his brain, trying to connect with a meaning. It's an angry word, that he does know. "Azimio, let's go…" he suggests, trying to minimize interaction with these boys. Tyler yanks on David's shirt.
"David, stop," he hisses. "This isn't our business."
Azimio finally looks up, a fresh kind of anger on his face. "What did you call me?" David's never seen him look like this. It's almost scary, to see this kind of a look on his friend's face.
The older boy turns to his friends again, laughing louder than before. One of the others walks over, with another joint in his hand. He takes a long pull from it and hands it over to his friend. He's shorter, just barely taller than Azimio. "I think my friend here called you a nigger, boy." He takes another step towards Azimio.
"Azimio, seriously… let's go," David says, glancing at Travis for help. He doesn't like the feeling of the situation. The boys back away towards where they parked their bikes, not daring to turn their backs. When David feels the rubber tire bump on the back of his knees, he finally turns around. They take off quickly, not daring to look back. The last thing they hear is one of the boys yell out "Next time, nigger, next time."
They only stop pedaling when they get to Tyler's front yard. They go around back and sit on the porch. David notices that Azimio still looks angry. Tyler runs in, and comes back out with his older brother. David looks up at him and asks the question he's been wondering this whole time. "Ian, what does nigger mean?"
Ian's facial expression grows serious. He glances at Azimio and bites his lip. "Who said it?" Tyler explains what happened, and Ian looks almost as angry as Azimio did. "What did they look like?"
Tyler describes the two boys who had come close enough for them to notice, and Ian shakes his head. "I know them, unfortunately. If they bother you again, come get me." Ian plays soccer and he works out almost all the time. He turns to Azimio, and lowers his voice. "You know what it means, don't you?" Azimio nods and David asks again what it means. "It's a really bad name for a black person, David. It's a bad word," Ian explains.
After a little while, Azimio and David leave to go home for dinner. They bike in silence, going the long way home so they don't have to go past the park. They bike in silence. Azimio stops suddenly, about a block away from his house. "Dave…" David looks at him in concern, and lets him get his thoughts together. They sit down on the curb. "I've heard the word before; I understand what it means but… I've never had somebody call me…"
David interrupts him. "Azimio, who cares what they say? They're idiots. C'mon, dude. You're awesome. Why would anybody say something about your… skin color anyway? Why does it matter?" He's genuinely confused.
Azimio looks at him like he's stupid. "Haven't you heard of racism, man? People do care about skin color. They care enough to call people like me names, and hurt us. Grow up!" He shakes his head, standing back up to get on his bike.
David grabs his wrist. "They're wrong though," he says, still confused. He gets back on his own bike, and starts to pedal back home. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Remember, if you see those guys again, tell Ian."
The next day, Azimio and David both tried out for football at their school. It was an intermural thing, but it would give them a special try out for middle school football the next year. Football was the first time David really felt included somewhere, since he had moved around so much. It was really the first time anyone had made him feel special, aside from his own mother. Through the rest of the year, David and Azimio won every football game, and hung out with other guys from the team at the park. Ian never had to come up against the older guys, because David and Azimio never saw them again. David found himself highly sensitive to words like the n-word, after that. Even though this was the first time he experienced racism, it most certainly wasn't the last.