"What are you afraid will happen? What terrifies you so that your blood becomes glue and you refuse to move? Let life happen, let it tear you to the ribbons and then, when it does, and it will, watch the way they dance in all the wind."

~Tyler Knott Gregson

Prologue

Jazmine groans at the sound of her alarm going off and once she's opened her eyes she just lays there staring into space for a second before reaching over and turning the alarm off her fully charged phone. Not wanting to get out from under her covers she sits for another couple seconds before forcing herself to get up.

Jazmine slides on her pink fluffy slippers and drag her feet slowly all the way to her bathroom and turn on the shower. As the shower warms up she moves to the sink and begin to brush her teeth while leaning one hand on the counter-top tapping her nails against the white marble to a tune that's stuck in her head. She finishes brushing, but continues to stare at her tired reflection. She wouldn't be this tired if she wasn't on the phone with Cindy all night. The mulatto shrugs as this thought passes through her mind. Who is she kidding? She probably would've been tired even if she didn't spend all night talking with Cindy about how excited they are about their junior year of high school.

Her eyes drift up to the sight of her messy hair from tossing and turning all night in her sleep and twist a strand of strawberry blonde hair around her finger before stripping out her pink pajamas and hoping in the shower. She showers for approximately twelve minutes while humming the unknown song in her head and spends the last ten minutes washing her hair with her special shampoo and conditioner. This stuff surprisingly works miracles on Jazmine's hair and what makes it even better is that her best girl friend makes it just for her. Cindy came up with this hair serum or as Huey call it "concoction" when they were in the 7th grade. Cindy has always taken interest in hair and beauty since they started 6th grade even going as far as to learn how to braid, twist, and lock hair.

She mostly learned from Youtube tutorials, Huey and Riley's Aunt Cookie when she would visit and sometimes braid Riley's hair and Caesar's mom. They all were basically her test dummies (minus Huey) and she eventually perfected her skills. By the time they entered 9th grade Cindy was charging kids at their school forty dollars or more to do hair and makeup, she's now trying to learn how to do eyebrows. Jazmine smiles to herself as she remembers the day Cindy started gathering ideas on how to help her with her hair.


Flashback:

"OMG, that's her," Vanessa whispers.

"Who?" Cherise asks after twisting the cap of her lip-gloss closed.

"Yeah, who Vanessa?" Rebecca asks as well filing her nails.

"That girl with the ratty hair."

"With all the frizz?" Rebecca laughs briefly stopping her filing to look at her two besties. "Humph, I'm surprised she can even fit it in a hair tie." All three girls laugh out loud while staring at the mulatto.

Jazmine continues to wait for her mom while also trying to keep the oncoming wave of tears at bay. She tries to distract herself by playing a game on her phone, but the continuous laughter two tables from the girls staring at her two tables away makes her bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from bursting into tears. Why did they even stop in the food court to eat anyway? Huey says 99 percent of everything here is bad for you, and as always he's right. Jazmine looks ahead at her mom's blonde head as she talks with some guy as she waits for their Chick-Fil-A.

She looks cheerful and Jazmine was too approximately ten minutes ago before she sat down. Jazmine subconsciously reaches up to twirl a strand of her curly hair and immediately drops it remembering that Christie, Rebecca, and Vanessa are watching.

They're on the cheerleading team for Woodcrest Middle School "The Pink Sparkles" and are the most popular girls in school. Jazmine tried out last year after practicing all summer with a reluctant Cindy helping along with Mrs. Mcpherson who was a former professional cheerleader only for Christie who is cheer captain to say that she wouldn't make it because she wasn't cute enough. She stressed that nobody wanted to see an overly furry little squirrel on the team. Vanessa and Rebecca bursting into laughter and agreed with her decision. And Jazmine never tried out again.

She never told anyone about that and always avoid the topic whenever her mom suggests she try again. Not wanting to give them any more reasons to pick on her Jazmine drops her hand and instead taps her pink nails on the plastic table. Suddenly, she feels a tap on her shoulder that makes her jump at the sudden touch. The curly haired girl looks up at Christie who has her plastic smile pasted onto her pink lipgloss lips that Jazmine has seen her wear whenever she says something particularly mean and condescending to someone.

"Hi Dubois, what brings you to the mall today?" Jazmine wants to ignore the girl, but the vicious smile on her face expresses that wouldn't be the best idea.

"I had a girls day with my mom."

Christie flips her straight platinum blonde hair over her shoulder, "Oh, really? Well, that's great." Christie glances at her table then back to Jazmine. "I heard that you might be interested in joining the cheer squad this year."

"No, I'm not trying out," Jazmine mumbles.

"What was that squirrel?"

"I said I'm not trying out."

"So are you calling my sources liars. I hope not or I would have to assume that you have insulted my friends." Jazmine doesn't say anything and Christie continues, "Well," She starts again, "a little birdie told me that they saw your mom talking to coach Amy about letting you try out. Again. I heard she was desperate. Must have been really fun telling her how you didn't make the cut last year, right? Seems like you'll be going for another round of fun very soon."

Christie beckons Rebecca and Vanessa forward with her head as she moves closer to the mulatto leaning all up in her personal space until Jazmine can feel the girl's breath on her lips.

"You're not going to try out are you?"

"N-no," Jazmine stutters out nervously, needing Christie to move back. Her nostrils filled with peach perfume.

"That's right, because no one wants to see a little rat like you. You are a nobody and its going to stay that way. If you even come near that gym next week after school we will see to it that you be outcasted," Christie says not even trying to cover her evil words with her sickly sweet tone anymore. She's still close to Jazmine and it's uncomfortable. The platinum blonde looks Jazmine up and down before boring her blue eyes into her green ones in a way that Jazmine can't help, but find...strange.

After a moment Christie most likely senses how close she is to the mulatto and moves back, brushing her hands down her short pink skirt. "Oh, and do not even think about convincing your precious mommy to talk to coach again or the consequences will be worse." Jazmine nods out of fear and resigned embarrassment.

"Look at her, she looks like a fucking deer in headlights," Vanessa comments. "She kinda looks like her mom actually."

"No way, I still believe they found her in a dumpster or something equally petrifying. I mean look at her friggin' hair it's been like this forever. She's definitely not related to that, " Rebecca says in her nasally voice as she points her perfectly filed finger toward Sarah. Rebecca laughs, her pale fingers running through her dark brown hair as Jazmine's embarrsment increases.

The only reason why Rebecca was even feared was because her sister is 'dating' Ed Wuncler III and she says that if anyone messes with her that she will tell Ed who will then tell Mr. Wuncler and ruin their lives. But from what Riley said last month is that the redhead in his words is "fucking all type of bitches."

Plus if Vanessa really knew Ed like Jazmine does she would know that he wouldn't run to tell his grandfather on anybody because he doesn't need to. Especially since she's seen first hand how crazy Ed can get. Although, Jazmine knows all of this she doesn't say anything and instead stands up, her plastic chair making a loud screech against the tile floors. The three girls don't even move to let her pass and as she maneuvers between the girls Jazmine feels something cold and thick splash on her jeans.

"Oops," Vanessa says before throwing her now empty milkshake cup at Jazmine's pink converses.

Jazmine tries to hold it in, but the tears begin to fall as she gives out a pitiful wail before hurrying towards the bathroom. Inside, Jazmine bypasses the women looking at themselves in the mirror, texting and talking and hurries into an empty stall. She cries silently and grabs a wad of tissue to blow her nose. After wiping her eyes until they were burning she buries her face in the sleeve of her pink sweater, waiting for her head to stop thumping with pain.

Once she's stopped crying and has somewhat pulled herself together she exits the stall and throws her used tissues away, ignoring a few curious eyes and proceeds to clean the milky substance off of her pants and bending down to clean off her shoes.

Once she's done and exits the restroom she's met by the sight of her worried mom. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"Yes, I'm fine mom," Jazmine replies monotonously.

"Oh, okay, I got our food. A large deluxe chicken sandwich, fries, nuggets, and lemonade." Sarah shakes the bag hoping to make Jazmine smile at having gotten her favorite, but the girl's stiff expression doesn't change.

Jazmine stares at her full bag of food her appetite dissolving as she's reminded of how much she eats. She inwardly cringes at the memory of Christie commenting that her butt would probably be too big to fit in the cheerleading skirts. Jazmine doesn't express her disgust and instead nods taking the bag, "Thanks." Jazmine hurriedly began leading her mom toward the mall's entrance so they can leave, briefly giving out a "no," when her mom asks if she wanted to stay and eat.

Inside the car Jazmine barely touches her food and mostly drinks from her lemonade because this does not have that many calories, right?

"Mom, did you talk to coach Amy about me trying out for the cheerleading team this year?" The curly haired girl asks not bothering to beat around the bush.

"Uh, yes," Sarah replies as if she had to think about it. "Why?"

"I did not ask you to do that."

"You didn't have to, I know how much you wanted to join and you looked so down when you didn't last year so why not-"

"No," Jazmine says tight-lipped.

"No? And why not?"

"I just don't want to anymore."

Sarah sighs as she turns on her right blinkers. "Don't be discouraged from your first try, honey. Maybe this time you'll finally make-"

"I said no mom!" Jazmine practically yells at Sarah. "I don't want to anymore."

"Okay," Her mother says after a beat sounding a bit reluctant to do so. "I just don't want you to miss out on a great experience. I used to be a cheerleader from junior and throughout college it was-"

"Fun. I know mom, it's just not fun for me anymore," Jazmine lies. "Can't you just understand?" The young teen leans her head against the car window, her body turned away from Sarah.

"Yes. It is your decision, and I-I'm okay with that."

"Thank you," Jazmine replies, glad that she successfully was able to get her mom off of her back.

As they pull closer to Woodcrest Jazmine asks her mom to drop her off at Cindy's house. When they arrive and Sarah pulls to a stop Jazmine hops out of the car with her bag of barely touched food and begin to walk up the steps to her best friend's house. After ringing the doorbell once and using the gold knocker twice Jazmine turns around and waves goodbye to her mom as her silver Hyundai Tucson pulls away and drives presumably down the street.

The door opens a second later by none other than Cindy Mcpherson herself clad in a pair of red shorts and a plain white v-neck, her long blonde hair in a high ponytail. As Jazmine walks in she hands her the bag of food which Cindy takes gratefully with a wide smile. They talk, watch TV, scroll Youtube for videos and jump on Cindy's trampoline for a while until they find themselves in Cindy's room staring at the tray ceiling and red covered walls while lying on Cindy's canopy bed.

As they lay there Jazmine can't help, but think about what happened at the mall earlier. Cindy did a good job of cheering her up as usual, but it's still messing with her head. She wants to twirl her hair around one her fingers, but refrains from doing so and sighs for what feels like the thousandth time today.

"Okay, what's up Jazzy?" Cindy finally asks.

"Nothing," Jazmine says but goes on to talk to her bestie and Cindy smiles while still laying on her back listening because she knew Jazmine would talk. "I wish there was a way that I could make my hair more manageable without losing my curls." Jazmine figures that Huey wouldn't be so upset if she still kept her curls, right? The teen sighs once more feeling conflicted.

"You know what, lets see." Cindy situates herself behind her and Jazmine sits still as Cindy undoes her puffy ponytail. It was becoming harder and harder for her mom to try different styles and so most of the time Jazmine just throws her hair in a ponytail or two and goes on with her day, but she wants to try something new.

Cindy plays with her hair for a moment before putting my hair tie back on. The blonde then goes over to her desk and grab her red laptop and begins her search for DIY hair recipes and different type of products that could work on Jazmine's hair texture. They watch a few Youtube tutorials and DIY videos before Mrs. Mcpherson takes Jazmine home in time for dinner.

This goes on for weeks of Cindy buying certain products, mixing them, and trying it out on Jazmine's hair and none of them really worked. A few mixtures dried out her hair, A few more were too oily and Most of them did not last long enough. Just as Jazmine was about to give up on her hope of ever having the type of hair she's always wanted Cindy called her over one hot Saturday and pushed a white bottle in her best friend's face.

"Uhm, Cindy what is this?" Jazmine asks taking the bottle in her hand.

"The golden key we've been looking for. I stayed up all last night and I finally feel like I got it this time."

"Okay, well, let's try it out," Jazmine says, always the optimist.

15 minutes later Jazmine drops the crimson red towel that was wrapped around her head. "How does it look?" She asks Cindy as she watches her blue eyes and smile widen.

"Jazzy, girl…" Is all she says as she pushes the mulatto toward the full length mirror in her room and Jazmine is. Speechless.

Tears fill her eyes as she notices the long smooth curls cascade down her back it looks amazing, it's everything she's ever wanted. Jazmine turns around slowly and Cindy and her scream in unison, jumping up and down.

Later that day after Cindy and Jazmine went with Cindy's mom to run errands and eat ice cream the girls head over to the Freeman residence where Riley and Hiro were busy playing a basketball game that Jazmine can't really remember the name of. Something with numbers? Caesar is texting on his phone and Huey as usual is reading a book.

"What's up bitches!" Cindy announces as she enters the room.

"C-Murph, what's happenin'" Riley greets as he continues to mash buttons on his controller.

"What's poppin ma," Caesar greets looking up from his phone to smile at Cindy.

"What's up C," Hiro greets quickly his eyes not looking away from the screen. A few seconds later he stands up and cheers much to Riley's chagrin and claims of cheating. Hiro ignores the boy and gives Cindy what Riley calls "dap". "What are you doing here," he asks as he switches places with Caesar because Riley is not going to get up until he wins a game.

"So a nigga can't hang with her dawgs no mo? Damn."

"No, you straight, but I thought you was hanging with Jazmine," Riley comments.

"I am." Cindy sits up from her kicked back position on the sofa next to Hiro. "Jazz, why you hiding girl?" Cindy asks and everyone's attention immediately shifts to the young teen standing in the hallway effectively making her heart jump anxiously as she waits for their reaction on her new 'hair'.

"DAMN!"

"Lookin' fly Jazz."

"You look nice Jazz."

"Thank you guys," Jazmine says with a smile before her eyes finally meet the dark maroon ones staring at her. "So, what do you t-think Huey?" She asks as his eyes bore into hers.

"I think your hair looked better the way it was before." Jazmine's heart plummets and she instantly feels her eyes fill up with tears. Great, Huey hates her hair, her own best friend. She feels like she's betrayed him in some way.

Huey never had a problem with her hair and even defended her whenever someone commented something negative about her hair. He even wanted her to embrace her curly afro, but Jazmine just had to go and make Huey look foolish.

"But," Huey continues as he stands up and walks past her, "it looks...good." Huey makes his way down the hall and upstairs and Jazmine is stuck in place. Eventually Jazmine sits down on the other side of Hiro and stares at the TV screen without actually watching what's going on as her mind begins to wonder. Huey likes her hair. She didn't disappoint him. HUEY likes her hair! And here she was worried that her best friend would hate her forever and ever, but-

"Jazmine!" The young teen is snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her name being called and instantly jumping up and making her way upstairs. She doesn't have to give an explanation because everyone's attention is focused on the game.

Jazmine goes upstairs and inside of Huey and Riley's shared bedroom and flop onto her back next to Huey as he reads. He doesn't say anything, but Jazmine proceeds to to talk about any and everything with Huey adding in his opinion and bits of info every now and then.

And that's how she spends most of her day with Huey reading and her watching him read while she talked. They were occasionally interrupted by everyone else and Jazmine was tempted to join them in their shenanigans downstairs, but she didn't. She never does.

End Flashback


After she's dressed in a pair of light blue jeans and a soft pink crop top with flowers in the shape of a heart and a pair of matching soft pink converses Jazmine moisturizes her hair and brushes it quickly. She grabs her keys and hurry downstairs towards the kitchen where she sees her mom in a cute pinstripe pants suit already pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Hey mom," Jazmine greets and sits at the kitchen island for a moment just watching her as she busies herself with other things. With a sigh Jazmine stands up. "Bye mom," she mumbles and begins to make her way back out of the kitchen.

She stops at the sound of someone clearing their throat and turns to around to see her mom looking at her with a raised eyebrow while pointing to the strawberry and pineapple smoothie that Jazmine lives for. She remembered.

"Thanks mom," Jazmine says and Sarah smiles before returning to whatever it was that she was doing and saying on the phone. Jazmine grabs her backpack from where she left it in the living room and then proceeds to go out of the front door and across the street to the Freeman residence. She rings the doorbell and does her usual cheery knock and the door opens to reveal Mr. Huey Freeman himself.

"Hi Huey!" The overly happy girl greets as she walks past him into the house. Huey rolls his eyes. "Are you ready for school?"

"No," Is all Huey says as Jazmine follows him into the living room.

"Why not? It's our junior year!"

"Whatever."

"Huey!" Jazmine hears Riley call from most likely upstairs. "You seen my red and white Jordans?"

"No," Huey shouts back, flipping through TV channels before quickly settling on the news. Jazmine just sits in her normal spot next to him as he reads the paper and after awhile she gets bored of watching two people practically screaming at each other on CNN and reach for the remote.

"Don't," Huey says not looking up from the paper and she glares at him even though he can't see it. Ultimately, she leans back in a huff, silently pouting. She doesn't have to pout for long as she notices Huey finally puts down his paper, clicks off the TV, grab his book bag and car keys.

As she follows him to the door she takes in his outfit. He looks immaculate as usual in a white shirt, black jeans and all black Jordans. "I'm leaving Riley," Huey announces as they walk out the door and to his black Audi A4 and Jazmine easily slides into her favorite and usual seat which is right next to her best friend. As she puts her seat-belt on she sees Riley finally exit the house wearing a red Nike shirt, jeans and apparently the red and white Jordans he was looking for.

"Take a picture," Riley says and Jazmine rolls her eyes. "I know, I look fresh, as always."

"As fresh as a pack of Ramen Noodles," Huey comments causing Jazmine to burst into laughter.

As he enters the car he flicks the teen girl's ear and she groans in pain and annoyance, "Riley!"

"Do not. Start," Huey says glaring at both Jazmine and Riley before starting up the car.

"Start what?" Riley feigns cluelessness to which Huey narrows his eyes at him in the rear-view mirror as Jazmine rubs her sore ear. "A'ight, just drive nigga," Riley says at last, pulling his phone out his side pocket.

Huey turns on the radio and music instantly starts pouring in through the speakers from his connected phone as he drives. Jazmine gasps as she hears the familiar song play. This is the song that's been in her head all morning. She sings along to the opening lyrics before turning to Huey as he stops at a red light.

"What song is this?"

"All week by OVT," Huey answers, his eyes not straying away from the road.

"Okay, I like it," Jazmine is all says as listens to the lyrics pretending she can relate to the song. Pursing her lips she looks at her best friend and she doesn't have to pretend too hard.


Hi everyone, thanks for reading! Please review, I want to know what you think about this chapter.

~T.