We reached home, leading to Aunt Riana and Nodelyn researching my cut like they found the new mummified king of Egypt. I brushed them off and ran into the little ones. Lola and Phillip accosted me in the living room, by my knees.

They were quite bashful I must admit, plus the attention was great for my spirit.

“What you bring back for we?” Phillip asked.

I was supposed to do that? “After you never tell me.”

Lola pushed my knee and said, “You go left we and nuh bring we nothing, you mean.”

“Left you? Me confused,” I asked.

Nodelyn said, “I told them you went to the city. I guess they thought you were going away for a long time.”

The idea of that was annoying in of itself. “A you a scare them not me.”

Nodelyn frowned and said, “We were here worrying, so what you expect us to think.”

“That me good?”

Riana snickered, while Nodelyn replied, “Alright, alright. We done talk to you.”

I left and parked myself on my bed. Thank goodness, I was not disturbed until I was ready to wake up which was late in the evening of the next day.

I got ready and freshened up. Donavan was going to have my head for being late, but I cared little about that. My salary was not that much to warrant that level of loyalty.

I touched the cut on my face. A sigh escaped me for I wished Nodelyn hadn't embarrassed me back at the field. Vannessa had to see that. Rage crackled into my tight fingers. Why had they cared if I was late or injured?

I snorted in disdain, for I knew there were just watching me and keeping track of me for father dearest. If I died, they would not have came to my funeral.

I sat on my bed. One thing that bothered me, was that Driver Boy's words.

Had he known? Donavan and he were friends. My jaw clenched. I fiercely blew out through my nose in disgust at the remembrance of his ugly face.

I came out to Nodelyn and loud whispers.

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By the time I got outside, I saw Kimini? What was the baby father of Lola doing here? He was standing in front of Nodelyn. Kimini was tall, almost my height. He had a round face that complimented that short slim dreadlocks that coursed his forehead to the back.

The sun barely penetrated his dark skin and the red polo shirt made his dark features more pronounced. Add the navy blue jeans and the slippers and he looked like a modern day yard-man.

He turned and waved at me. “Yo whe gwan my youth?”

I gave him a nod. He turned to Nodelyn and made an exaggerative wave of his arms.

She seemed unfazed with a flat line of her lips.

He whistled. “Come in Lola!” She came out in her little pink dress and school bag. To me, “See you man.”

He left and Nodelyn asked, “Going to practice?”

Part of me wanted to ask what Kimini was saying to her. Better to leave it alone, their past was bad enough in my memory least the tip of my tongue. “Yeah, we have a match in the next few days.”

“Good, do your best and no come back a mangled wreak.”

I curled my lips in disapproval. “I won’t.”

Nodelyn nodded her head and went inside. I went to training and found myself practicing zone runs. Why was my job getting more complicated?

I was not being paid enough for this, but I had little choice in the matter. The sun kept reminding me of its vicious hatred of me.

Everything seemed to hate me. It was one of the things I had to accept. I looked around at the players. They could praise me all they wanted, because I knew deep down I was never going to be accepted amongst them.

People were fake like that. My eyes shifted over to Donavan who walked by. I said, "Hey."

Donavan yawned and came over to me. Sweat rolling around his temple, he said, "What's up?"

"Whe' you tell that Driver?"

His eyebrows furrowed squishing the sweat into broken moisture. "Who?"

"Your friend man, the short boy whe' carry we."

His eyes widened. "Oh, what about him?"

"Dog, stop act innocent. Why he said that yesterday?"

Donavan said, "Because you do often frequent the road? I don't know." His face depressed as he rocked his head. "And just so you know. Nobody except me, you and Nodelyn know, build. I never said anything."

I kissed my teeth. "Yeah, yeah—"

"Look, don't worry about that. It's nothing, trust me. He doesn't know, alright? Focus on the game this week. We need you to help us win.” He did an exhilarated pump of his arms. “We are so close to getting to the league! I can feel it, we—" The rest of his words were crushed by the dense pressure of my dead dying brain cells. Who cared about that damn league or whatever it was?

I stared at that grin and all I could think was this John Crow was lying. Whatever, it was not like he was going to keep his mouth shut anyways. No one was loyal, and I knew if I made a mistake and lost them a match they would never forgive me, such was life I guessed.

I turned and made my way to the scrimmage. My eyes floated over my teammates to the endzone at the end of the field. All that other stuff was unimportant.

What mattered was being in the endzone. That was where I felt alive, even if for a second.

Mini-Glossary

Build - Wait