Sierra, once the girl of my dreams, who used to be so crazy about me, who wanted to be my girlfriend, yep the same Sierra had somehow got word to what seemed like the entire freshman class of Fairley High and let them know that Nyl Person, Fairley’s bulldog wonder on the basketball court, was homeless and flat broke. To add insult to injury, I heard several kids whispering and talking about me living on the streets. They were laughing and they started “free styling” about me being homeless. I won’t repeat what they said because it’s too foul, even for me to say but I can tell you this, I felt like joining Momz, because anything was better than living the life I was living. I don’t know how I made it through my classes that day. Anyhow, things continued to go downhill, especially after Zach stepped to me after our American Government class, talking about what he’d heard about me.
“Yo, bruh, what’s up with what Sierra put on FaceGroup about you living on the streets and eating from a soup kitchen? Did you see it? That shyd...I mean that was foul, bruh, what she did to you. What you do to make her go off on you like that?”
“I ain’t did a thang to that girl, but I ain’t thinking about Sierra or what she put on FaceGroup. I know she betta back up off me though ‘cause my name don’t need to be coming out of her mouth unless it’s something about hooking up with me. You know what I’m saying?” I spouted to Zach, pretending like I was cool and had everything under control. LIE. “That girl is crazy.”
“I thought she was straight, but now she acting all wicked bad, bruh.”
I nodded and started walking ahead of Zach.
“Bruh, I know hitting on girls, ain’t cool, but ain’t nothing wrong with cussing her out for lying on ya,” says Zach.
I stared at Zach and I guess I looked crazy or something ‘cause he backed up and gave me a weird look of his own. I flashed my hand to let him know that I didn’t wanna hear what he was saying. But he obviously didn’t catch the hint ‘cause he kept on running his mouth.
“Bruh, why you ain’t sayin’ nothing? Whuzzup, with you, Nyl?” he asked me then he finally stopped talking, but before I could tell him the real deal, he started running his mouth again. “I know she lying.”
“Look, shut up, will ya? Come on, fool, let me tell you what’s up.” Me and Zach walked toward the B building. We both had a free period. I decided to go on and tell Zach about what was going on. It was like I had to tell somebody the truth ‘cause it was like all of a sudden I was tired of keeping my life a secret. And I thought if there was one somebody I might be able to trust, it would be Zach. He would understand. For now, I guess he was my one true friend. That was another thing I hated about us losing our house and going to a new school; I left behind all of my old friends. At first, when I still had my own phone, I would text them but now that I didn’t have the phone anymore, I had lost all of my Contacts so one by one I stopped hearing from anybody.
I had told myself not to ever tell anybody about what I was dealing with, but to be honest, these past few days were about to get the best of me. So, I said to hell with it and I told Zach about my living situation and that what Sierra said was true, and that I lived in my Pops’ Yukon.
“You live in y’’allz car and eat food at one of those places that pass out food to crackheads and bums? Yo pops ain’t got no dollars either? Oh, snap,” Zach said, hunching over and slapping his pant leg. I could tell from the way his voice sounded, like he was trying to keep from coughing, that he was really trying to keep from laughing.
Dang, I had screwed up by telling him. Boy, was I pissed. How could I have been so stupid? I bit on my bottom lip so hard, I tasted blood, and my balled fist hit the wall next to one of the lockers that lined the hallway.
This guy was supposed to be my friend and here he was acting worse than Sierra. “Bruh, what’s up with you? You laughing at me?” I said between my teeth. I was furious. “Ain’t nothin’ funny.”
“Ain’t nobody laughing at you, bruh. But I can’t lie; I can’t believe you homeless. But I see now; that’s why you can’t ever go hang out with us on the weekends. And you don’t have a cell phone, no internet, nothing. I just thought your pops be tripping though, but you, you homeless. Dude,” Zach shook his head and placed the back of his hand over his mouth before he looked down at the ground. “You gotta admit, that this is wild, bruh.”
This time I know I saw Zach crack a smile and I felt my anger rising to the point where I wanted to explode. I had never felt this mad, this quickly in all my life.
“Shut up! Shut the hell up,” I yelled at Zach. If Momz was alive, she would kill me if she heard me cussing, but I couldn’t help it. Plus, was hell really a bad word when I just heard the pastor say it yesterday? Shucks, I’ve heard far worse than that, and I have to admit I was so mad that I lost it, and I started cussing Zach out, and you better believe I was using far worse words than hell.
Next out of nowhere, here comes loud-mouthed Sierra. She looked at me like she was disgusted, like I was really some poor guy standing on the side of the street with a sign on my neck saying ‘will work for food.” I watched as she started whispering something to her friends and they started laughing,
“Nyl, I don’t want a boyfriend that lies and lives on the streets of Memphis.” She laughed.
One of the females who was with her said, “Girl, that’s a shame. I didn’t know his daddy was on crack?”
“Crack? What was she talking about? My Pops didn’t do drugs. Now this was really going too far.”
“I bet he lives under that bridge on Third Street where those homeless bums live,” Sierra kept on running her mouth.
I was about to snap. Okay, so she wanted to go there. Well, she had pushed me enough. This was one time that I wished she was a guy ‘cause I would have knocked that grin off her face. Since I couldn’t hit her, I chose the next best thing, in my opinion, and that was to hurt her with words. If my words could kill, she would be dead on the spot because I called her every name I could think of and then some. Ole people talk about sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt. That was the biggest lie I ever heard because Sierra looked like the words I was spitting towards her, Zach, and the whole crowd that had started gathering, could kill her dead. But, I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything or anyone anymore. If they called themselves my friends then I didn’t need enemies. I let loose and I couldn’t stop.
“You ain’t nothing, Sierra.” I could see a group of kids standing around whispering, some laughing and some was videoing us on their cell phones. Man, this was something else that was going to be posted all over FaceGroup and Tweetgram.
“I bet you didn’t tell your stupid friends that you kissed me and I almost threw up ‘cause your breath smelled like a backed up toilet. And you know something, I was thinking about kissing you again, but I said hell naw, ‘cause that’s when I smelled the exact same thing.”
I looked around at the crowd, and just about everybody was laughing, so I kept on checking her. “Hey, I’m telling y’all, miss perfect over here, who wants to make fun of other people’s misfortunes, her breath was rotten. I may not have a house, but I wonder if she owns a toothbrush.”
Sierra’s mouth flew open and she went from laughing to her eyes bulging like she couldn’t believe what I had just said. I kept on checking her; making up as many harsh lies as I could think of; all the way up until I saw her eyes turning red and filling up with tears. I knew I had her then. I had hurt her, and to tell you the truth, I was glad.
Sierra’s friends and the rest of the crowd started laughing at her instead of at me. Some of them held their noses and moved away from her like her breath really was stanking. Sierra turned red and I knew she was getting ready to cry. When she started crying, it made me feel powerful, like finally I was in control. Good, I was glad I made her cry. I screamed, yelled, and cursed at her some more until Zach started up again.
“You wrong for that, bruh. I ain’t saying you shouldn’t be mad for what she did, but you didn’t have to make her cry. She can’t help it if you having to stretch out on the back seat of a car instead of a bed,” Zach screamed back.
“Man, shut up talking to me,” I yelled back and took a step toward him, ready to fight if that’s what it came down to. And that’s what was going to happen if he didn’t stop coming at me like I was a little punk or something. “You gone find your lights being knocked out, bruh, if you don’t back up off me. And her,” I said and looked back over at Sierra, “she got exactly the cussing out she deserved.” Sierra still looked hurt. I was fed up with this scene; so I turned and walked off. I didn’t have time for no more of this crap. Forget Sierra and Zach; both of ‘em could never say another word to me.
“All this time you been fronting like you somebody you’re not,” Zach said as I walked off. At first, I shook my head and kept on walking away, but Zach being Zach, couldn’t shut his dang mouth.
“Why didn’t you tell the truth, bruh? We woulda understood.”
This time, I stopped and turned around to face Zach and the crowd. “I said shut up! And you know what, bruh. Stay out of my business. You don’t know nothing about me.”
“I know you standing here shooting off at the mouth like you gone bad or something, but you need to back off, bruh. Take that stuff back to the car you brought it out of or the bridge you crawled up from,” Zach said and started laughing. “You don’t scare me.”
I started walking back toward Zach. I got up in his face and yelled right back at him. “And you don’t scare me. So, what’s it gone be?” I asked, ready to knock this guy to the next world.
“Sierra say he lives under that bridge on Third Street,” I heard somebody say.
“That’s wild,” another someone said.
“He lives with his daddy, sister and I heard they got a homeless dog too.” Somebody else broke out laughing.
“You know his momma dead…”
“I bet he lives in that broke down Denali his daddy be picking him up in.” They continued to gather around me, whispering, talking loud, and laughing.
Seemed like Zach was laughing louder and louder every time somebody said something about me. This guy was foul; and this was supposed to be cool or something? Zach of all people was laughing at me like it was nothing. I don’t know what happened next, all I know is I lost it; I started pounding Zach until suddenly I heard loud voices screaming in my ears and hands were pulling at my clothes.
“Stop it, stop it right now,” Ms. Glasgow said. Ms. Glasgow and Mr. Wooten, the math teacher stood in the middle of the crowd that had gathered around. Zach was getting up off the floor with a bloody nose and his white uniform shirt was splattered with blood. I looked down at myself and saw blood too. I felt my nose, nothing. Zach’s right eye looked like a giant baseball was sitting on it; it looked squishy like jello.
“To the office…NOW,” Ms. Glasgow ordered me.
“You too, son,” Mr. Wooten barked and pointed at Zach who looked at me with a frown on his face and a swollen jaw. I returned his frown with one of my own. I don’t know who Zach or any of these kids thought I was, but I was not about to be the next kid being bullied. I didn’t care what my situation was, I wasn’t having it and if I got suspended for it, well whateva. I did one of those stroll type walks to the principal’s office like I was my boy Chris Brown and dared anybody to mess with me.
When we got in the office, we were both told to sit down and wait until Principal Myers called us into her office.
Ms. Beasley, one of the school secretaries, asked me and Zach for our parent’s phone numbers, so she could call and let them know what had happened. I gave her the number to the free phone because I knew that way she wouldn't be able to get a hold of Pops. It was tucked inside my backpack and I had it turned off. All she was going to get was the automatic voicemail message.
Zach was sitting across from me on the other side of the school office staring at me. He was holding some toilet tissue up to his nose and I could see a little blood, though not that much, on the toilet paper. But, hey, he had brought it on himself. He shouldn’t have been talking all of that smack and laughing at me, and then neither one of us would be sitting in the office. I stared right back, looking him dead in his face. He needed to recognize that I wasn’t the one to be pushed around. No, not Nyl Person. I may be homeless, and living in a car, and I may be broke (on all flats), but scared, no that ain’t Nyl Person. Never have been. Never will be ‘cause real men don’t cry and they show as hell don’t back down.
One thing I was scared about and that was getting suspended from school. Pops was going to go off if they suspended me; and there’s no way I can play on the team either. This was all Sierra’s fault. I hated that girl.
I kept sitting in that hard chair thinking about what Principal Myers was going to do. Sometimes she was pretty cool, but then there were some days Principal Myers was just mean.
I waited and waited for Principal Myers. Free period was over and the next period had started, and she still hadn’t called me or Zach to her office. What was taking so long? School was going to be getting out soon if she didn’t hurry up.
“Nyl, do you have another number for your father?” Ms. Beasley suddenly asked.
I shook my head. “No, ma’am.”
“What about on his job? What’s that number?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, and this time I was telling the truth because not only did I not know the number, I didn’t know what job he was working this week or where it was.
Ms. Beasley did something funny with her lips, shook her head at me, then started messing with some paper on her desk. Right after that, Zach’s momma came in the office. I couldn’t believe it was Zach’s momma. Man, her body was stacked in all the right places.
“What happened?” she asked Zach as soon as she walked in the office and saw him sitting on swoll. When she saw blood caked on Zach’s nose and spilling out on his shirt, she turned around and locked eyes with me. “What happened to my son,” she looked back over her shoulder and asked Ms. Beasley. “What is going on?”
Ms. Beasley got up from behind her desk and came up to the office counter. “Please, just try to calm down. Are you Zach’s mother?”
“Yes, I’m Mrs. Parks. I’m sorry for not introducing myself, but I’m upset seeing my son like this.” She looked back over at Zach who was the quietest I’d ever seen him.
That’s what he gets, I thought.
“I’m sure you are, and I do understand,” Ms. Beasley answered and then looked over her wire-rimmed glasses at me with a frown on her face. I quickly looked off. “Mrs. Parks, Principal Myers will be with you shortly. Please have a seat,” Ms. Beasley told her.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Parks answered and then she sat down next to Zach and started talking to him. She examined his nose, jaw, and eyes while I heard him telling her stuff to make himself look like some innocent victim, pretending like I had started everything. She looked at me again, folded her arms across her chest, and squinted her eyes.
Zach’s momma looked like she had walked straight off one of Weezy’s videos. It was weird hearing her talk because she sounded way different from the way she looked. To me, she looked ghetto good but she sounded like a businesswoman.
I couldn’t help it; I laughed, not loud where Ms. Beasley and Zach’s momma could hear me though. I couldn’t help it. Mrs. Parks booty length blonde dreads swung from side to side when she was talking, her long colorful nails pointed at Zach then at Mrs. Beasley and then at me. I swear her nose was so wide it looked like a bull could stampede through it. Her lips were tight, and I saw that her fists were balled up. I’m not going to lie, if looks really could kill, I would definitely be six feet under, because after Ms. Beasley explained to Mrs. Parks what had happened, and that I was the one who beat Zach up, that lady looked like she was a gangbanger about to pop a cap in me.
Rather than let her know that she was scaring the daylights out of me, I glared back at her like I was grown myself, knowing full well that if my Pops could see me, he would punch me from one side of the room to the other for what he would say was me being disrespectful, especially to a woman. But Pops wasn’t in my shoes, and I felt like it was because of him that I was sitting in the principal’s office in the first place. Yeah, Sierra was to blame too, but she wouldn’t have had anything to tell if Pops didn’t have me in this situation in the first place.
Me and Zach had the chance to tell our side of the story. Of course, Zach lied and told them that I just up and started beating him up because he was trying to keep me from hitting Sierra.
“Mr. Person, you know that there is zero tolerance at Fairley High. That goes for you too, Mr. Parks,” Principal Myers said without batting an eye.
We both nodded.
“But it wasn’t my fault, Zach is lying,” I told Principal Myers.
“What part is he lying about, young man? Are you saying you didn’t hit him first?”
I shook my head.
“Are you saying that Ms. Glasgow and Mr. Wooten are lying about seeing you pounding this young man, too?”
I shook my head again. I couldn’t think straight. “No, I’m saying that I wasn’t gonna hit Sierra. I would never hit a girl.”
“So you’re saying it’s all right to assault another student just because he’s a boy? Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Person?” And Zach hadn’t made it any better, sitting over there like none of this was his fault.
“Mr. Person and Mr. Parks, both of you are suspended.”
“But, Principal Myers; it’s not fair,” Zach finally spoke up like he’d just grown a pair of baby balls or something. “He started everything. I promise you he did. Sierra and a lot of the other students can tell you that he did.”
“You know you’re lying, you and Sierra. Sierra posted those lies on FaceGroup and Tweetgram and it’s like everybody at school is walking by me calling me names and making jokes. Plus, you’re the one who kept on running your big mouth,” I said to Zach.
“Quiet. Both of you,” Principal Myers ordered.
“You heard her, Zach, shut your mouth,” Mrs. Parks told her son. “I’ve told you about your mouth. Now look where it’s gotten you. Son, there is a time and a place for everything. A suspension? Your sisters and brother have never been suspended. This is not good; not good at all, Zach.”
Zach didn’t say a word. I saw tears in his eyes. Sissy, I said to myself.
“I want you to know we take cyber bullying very seriously around here too, so I will be looking into that as well. And Zach, as for you, I hope you learn from this,” said Principal Myers. “You’re suspended for five school days. You will not be allowed to return on the school campus until after you’ve gone to the Board and had the suspension cleared.
Mrs. Parks rolled her eyes at Zach and at me. “I told you about hanging around with the wrong crowd,” Mrs. Parks fussed as she and Zach stood up.
She was talking about me like I was some thug or something influencing Zach to do something wrong. She didn’t know a thing about me.
Mrs. Parks and Principal Myers exchanged a few more words about the suspension and then Zach and Mrs. Parks left out the office.
Principal Myers sat upright in her chair, her big round belly touching the desk and her arms were folded across two breasts that looked like two giant boulders sitting on her chest. Her rough looking skin reminded me of an alligator and her voice sounded deeper than Pops’ baritone voice.
“You’ve been in this office all this time and you still refuse to tell Ms. Beasley how to reach your father. And these emergency contacts, their numbers are no longer in service. Young man, you better tell me something because you are in serious trouble.”
“I told you, my Pops can’t take his cell phone with him on his job. And I swear, I don’t know how to get in touch with him because he works different temp jobs.”
“Excuse me, Principal Myers.” It was Sierra. You wanted to see me?” she sounded all sweet and innocent.
What was she doing here? Dang, I remember, she works in the office during her free period. She came walking in like she was Queen Rihanna. Dang, why does she keep showing up and messing things up? She was nothing but a big mouth fake Rihanna wannabe who loved stirring up trouble and confusion.
“Yes, please, come in and have seat,” Principal Myers looked away from me and zeroed in on Sierra.
Sierra’s big smile turned into a frown. She looked really worried. I guess she knew she was in trouble too. Good for her.
“Ms. James, I have heard some disturbing news about you. I must say that I am really disappointed, because if any of it is true, you are in some big trouble. I hear you posted some nasty, cruel things on FaceGroup and Tweetgram about Mr. Person. Please, tell me that it isn’t true.”
Sierra cut her eyes at me. I could tell she was mad, but, hey, she got herself in this mess. She should have kept her big fat mouth closed.
“Principal Myers, I did, but I took it all down almost as soon as I posted it. And I’m sorry I did it.”
“That doesn’t help me. Everybody already saw it and they’re talking about me.”
“Mr. Person, please be quiet until spoken too,” Principal Myers told me.
“Principal Myers, I know for a fact that Nyl does not have a place to live. He and his father and little sister are homeless, and that’s the truth.” She sounded pitiful while talking to Principal Myers, and all the time she was giving me the evil eye look. I called her a female dog under my breath, and she acted like she heard me because then she really cranked up her story to Principal Myers. “They eat at the homeless kitchen at St. Mary’s, you know the one where me and some of the other cheerleaders volunteer every quarter. I’m just saying,” she added, then flashed a smile at Principal Myers like she was really trying to help.
If it hadn’t been for her running her mouth and posting my business on FaceGroup then I wouldn’t have fired on Zach. Thanks to Sierra, my life was going downhill fast.
“Is she telling the truth? Is your family homeless?”
Why is this lady calling me Mr. Person? I am not my father. Principal Myers always does that for whatever insane reason. I didn’t say a word in response, just sat there trying to tune her out because I could tell she believed Sierra anyway, and she believed Zach when he said he was trying to defend Sierra from me. So, hey, I felt there was nothing for me to say and there was no use telling her anything.
“Mr. Person, I asked you a question. Are you homeless? Where do you live?” Principal Myers adjusted her oversized body in her chair, cleared her throat, and then leaned forward, resting her rusty looking elbows on her desk, then placed her chin in the cup of her manly looking hands. She glared at me like I was a t-bone steak and she was ready to eat me. If I wasn’t in so much trouble, I would be rolling on the floor laughing, but I cleared my throat and then considered my next words.
“Uh, no, ma’am,” I went on and answered. Maybe she’ll let me go if I tell her what she wants to hear, I thought.
“Are you saying that Ms. James is telling a lie? Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Person?”
Dang, woman, can’t you hear? I said it was the truth. “Yes, ma’am,” I stuttered. We just moved to a new apartment.”
“Is that so?” she looked at me like she thought I was lying. Then she turned back to Sierra. “Ms. James, you are being suspended for one week. Now, please, leave.”
“But, Principal Myers, I said I’m sorry, and I took all that stuff down. I didn’t mean to do it. I promise I didn’t,” she cried while I laughed on the inside.
“I said, leave. I will be in touch with your parents. I know they are not going to be happy about this. What you did is called cyber bullying, and that, young lady, is a serious offense, almost as serious as assaulting another student,” Principal Myers said and cut her eyes back at me. “Now, please leave, and close the door behind you.”
Sierra jumped up out of her chair and ran out of Principal Myers’ office in tears. Serves her right.
“Well, Mr. Person.” She looked almost like she was feeling sorry for me or something. “There are programs in place for students who are homeless. If you had come to me, or gone to see Ms. Camel in the guidance department, I’m sure we could help you and your father. But it looks like I have no other choice. I’m going to have to report this to CPS, Child Protective Services, and since I have no way of reaching your father, I’m going to have Sgt. Daniels to take you to Juvenile Hall.
Dang, what was I going to do? Pops would have to go to the Board of Education to get the suspension cleared. I already knew he was going to be furious. Taking off work to get a suspension cleared could mess him up on the job he was trying to make permanent on. But now she was talking about sending me to juvenile like I was a criminal?
“I want you to know that regardless of whether you are homeless or not, your behavior has been unacceptable. There are better ways to resolve conflicts, Mr. Person.”
“But, it didn’t go down like what you think, Principal M─”
She cut me off before I could get the rest of my words out. “According to several of the students, and of course Ms. Glasgow and Mr. Wooten, you assaulted Zachary Parks, and you used some offensive language toward Sierra James to the point where she was in tears. And, I have to report your living situation to Juvenile Court. I cannot have any student living on the streets and eating at homeless shelters. Not under my watch.” She went into some long, drawn out, boring, and totally unnecessary spill about her career as a teacher and principal and yada yada yada.
“But, Principal Myers, if you just let me go, I promise to tell my Pops what happened when he comes to get me. And I’m telling you, Sierra is lying. We do have a place to live. Please, don’t send me to juvenile. The only reason I hit Zach was because he was talking smack and talking about me and my family. I didn’t mean to hit him; it was like a reflex. And Sierra, well ever since Sierra saw me, my little sister, and my Pops at St. Mary’s, she’s been telling everybody.”
“Were you at St. Mary’s?” Principal Myers asked me.
“Yes, ma’am, but not because we’re homeless.”
She shook her head and picked up her phone. “I cannot put my career on the line for you or anybody that’s in the wrong, Mr. Person. You have to suffer the consequences of what you did. There’s a way to handle problems without fighting. Hopefully, this will teach you that you have to learn to handle your anger in a more positive manner.”
“But, please, you can’t send me to juvenile. What is my little sister going to do? How will my Pops know where to find me?” Please, Principal Myers.”
“I have a professional obligation to report this. If I allow you to walk out of here when I know you’re homeless, I could lose my job, Mr. Person. Plus, I wouldn’t rest tonight if I knew you and your little sister were sleeping out on the streets as cold as it is. The good Lord would never forgive me.”
I wanted to say that the ‘good Lord’ wouldn’t have a problem with it because he seems okay with us living outside so far. What’s a few more weeks?
“I’m begging you, Principal Myers.” This time I couldn’t hold them back any longer. This time they forced their way out. The tears came running down my face. Men may not cry...but boys do.