The Diary of Aaliyah Anderson Read online

  I just have no idea why these thirsty, lame, hating, irrelevant females have such a problem with me but just love D. I am his sister, after all, and I come before all of those attention seekers. I’m gonna be here through his ups and downs no matter what. So they need to fall back! The worst thing about it is that I don’t even know these females! They hate on me just because I’m me!

  Since D walked me to school, he had to sign me in at the “student holding area” (which is the lunchroom with a fancy name tied to it). When we walked in, ten girls literally came up out of nowhere trying to give him hugs and talk to him. In a way, I was a little jealous.

  I’m not even gonna flex. I like the spotlight. I wanna be seen and heard. When all these girls rushed at him, D’s attention was turned off me and I didn’t like it. I mean, he was here to sign me in. But, I’ve grown to realize everything isn’t centered on me and I understand D was really popular when he went here. That wasn’t my problem though. My real problem was when Latasha and her li’l’ crew came up.

  I have absolutely no idea how we started not liking each other. Even though we had gone to the same school since 3rd grade, I’ve never really interacted with her. We have a few mutual friends, one in particular named Allison who’s like a sister to me. Who cares if she’s white? Allison has such a fun personality and she’s loyal. I can talk to Allie about anything and she can relate to it. It’s nice to have someone to talk to that’s going through the same things I am.

  Anyway, since Latasha was friends with Allison, I assumed she was cool.

  I thought wrong…..

  It seems like the day she found out D was my brother, she started hating. Latasha and her fake, two-faced friends have had beef with me for years. They’ve lied on me and tried their best to embarrass me and destroy my image and self-esteem, but I’ve always had one up on them since I’m D’s only li’l’ sister. They can hate all they want to, but at the end of the day, that won’t change. If they have a problem with it, they can come see me. I try my best to keep it classy, but I do get off!

  I’m not gonna lie, Latasha is very pretty. Like me, she’s an athlete and she keeps herself in good shape. She can dress and she’s also very talented. As the co-captain of the Clarkson’s cheerleading squad, which is like the best cheering team in the state, she has to be. I like to always see the good in people even though they don’t bother to see the good in me. But, that still brings up a fantastic question.

  Why does she hate on me so hard?

  It’s not like she’s at a loss for anything. We are both popular and have no problems attracting attention from guys. Plus she doesn’t have an older brother, cousins, and a mom who are successful that make expectations even higher than they normally would be.

  But, I guess that’s life.

  ♠♠♠♠

  Mrs. Conner

  What’s the deal with old, black teachers? They’re always so nasty, grumpy, mean, and rude. Now, I’m not talking about every older black teacher, but the ones at Clarkson have a major problem. I mean, it’s not my fault they have to get stuck with bad attitude-having teenagers for one hundred and eighty days out of the year. That was their choice. They didn’t have to be teachers. They could’ve been Black Panthers, civil rights activists, members of the NAACP or something. Instead, they wanna get attitudes and be difficult with us students.

  These teachers swear they want us to succeed and use the opportunities that our ancestors fought for, but then they snap on us, tell us we aren’t gonna be anything, and write us up for the stupidest stuff.

  Perfect example: Mrs. Conner.

  Mrs. Conner is my homeroom teacher and I already know we’re gonna have problems. She’s sixty-five years old, skinny, extremely conceited, and claims to have marched with Dr. King during the Civil Rights movement.

  I doubt it though.

  With how she acts, they probably would’ve marched against her. My momma always tells me to respect my elders, but with this lady, it’s hard. To me, no matter how old you are, you have to show respect to get it.

  Mrs. Conner and I got into it before I even went in her class. I was on the 8-1 hall catching up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen the whole summer when I saw my girl Allison. I immediately ran up and hugged her. Since the 8th grade classes were randomly split up in groups this year, I was afraid that we wouldn’t see each other. I felt way better knowing that we’d be in the same classes all year.

  “What’s up, ‘Liyah? I haven’t seen you since the end of last year! Where’ve you been?” she asked me with a bright smile.

  I simply replied, “Everywhere D’s been, pretty much. He does some interesting things though, so it wasn’t that big of a problem.”

  Most of my friends have crushes on D, but Allison seems to have a huge crush on him! Whenever you’d say his name, Allison would blush. When he was around, she’d blush and have a permanent smile on her face. Usually when girls have a crush on D, I sort of get defensive.

  Even though he’s my big brother, I’m protective of him when it comes to dating because I know how heartless and self-centered we can be. A lot of girls think they’re slick and just wanna associate with D because of his popularity. Yeah, more girls, like Allison, see him as their dream come true, but some of these girls are dirty like that.

  But with Allison, it’s really cute!

  Before we could even finish our conversation, Mrs. Conner came up and started messing with us.

  “Instead of having a conversation in the middle of the hallway, you should get to class before you’re late.”

  In my mind, I was thinking a whole lot of bad, negative thoughts like, This lady knows that the bell just rang like one minute ago, and This man-lookin’ woman needs to step out of my way before we have a major problem. But I kept it cool.

  I looked down at the watch Momma gave me for my birthday last year. It was a watch with actual diamonds in it that I always saw on the shopping channel. It was around $5,000! She bought it for me because she was in Philadelphia at this huge conference for journalists around the time of my birthday. As I said, I don’t get to see her much but she always tries her best to make up for lost time. And that means something to me.

  But I’m getting off topic…

  I looked down at my watch and said, “It’s only seven fifty-five; the late bell doesn’t ring for another five minutes.”

  She looked at me like I was crazy. “You need to tone that attitude down and realize who you’re talking to, little girl! I know what time it is.”

  I know she didn’t just call me a “little” girl! Yeah, I’m only five-three, but I’m definitely not “little”. I’m almost in high school! How am I little when I’ve got more meat on my bones than her? Her body is made like a shoestring! How am I thicker than her and she’s decades older than me?

  All of a sudden, she started looking at me with wide eyes like she had just discovered something. It was real nasty because her eyes were all crusty and dirty. She needed to wash her face!

  “You’re Aaliyah Anderson, Damon Anderson’s younger sister?”

  I nodded. She started stroking her chin. It looked like she was growing a goatee! You could braid her chin hair. It didn’t make any sense! She probably has more hair on her chin than most of these bald-headed girls walking around Willowsfield thinking they’re cute with these colorful weaves and unnecessary hair extensions.

  “Damon was one of my favorite students. He passed my history class with a perfect grade! You have some tremendous standards to live up to and popping an attitude, trying to get smart with me, and coming late isn’t gonna help you do that.”

  What attitude?

  I still kept my cool. “We aren’t even late though. This is our homeroom. How are we gonna be late if we have five minutes and we’re like an inch away from the class?”

  She pretty much ignored the true statement that I just made and said, “In my class, we go by the philosophy of being diligent. If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, y
ou’re late. Now, I suggest you get in my class right now before we have a major problem. I don’t care who your brother or mother is, I demand respect!”

  I swear, I was about five seconds from telling this woman off, but I still held it back. I didn’t wanna get in any trouble before the day officially started. I sighed and walked into her class with Allison.

  As we walked through the door, Allison whispered to me, “What’s her problem?”

  I just shrugged and said, “With her as our teacher, it’s gonna be a long year.”

  Things got worse when I got my schedule and found out that I had Mrs. Conner for two periods. In addition to homeroom twice a day, I have her 3rd period right before lunch. Allison has to suffer with me too. Why couldn’t we be in Miss Washington’s class? She’s a new history teacher that I heard was really cool. I saw her in the lunchroom later on in the day. She looks super young!

  I doubt Miss Washington will have any problems out of the boys in her class. She’s light-skinned with long, straight, flowing, jet black hair, but the most noticeable thing about her is her body. Miss Washington is a teenage boy’s dream teacher. She puts Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj to shame! As I said, I like to see the good in people. The only person I can’t see the good in is Mrs. Connor. Is there any good to see in that wicked witch?

  ♠♠♠♠

  Jakiyah Lewis

  My other bestie Jakiyah seems to always get in some awkward situations. This crazy girl here can’t keep her mouth shut for anything and is always messing with someone. Sometimes, I don’t even know how we’re friends. We’re total opposites.

  ‘Kiyah is loud, rude, and super dramatic while I tend to keep to myself and try to act mature. She’s always trying to crack on and embarrass people too. That’s so childish to me! Even though she’s one of my closest friends and I love her, I have to tell the truth. I keep telling her what goes around comes around, but she won’t listen. Honestly, I like to take into consideration what other people are going through before I judge them. ‘Kiyah doesn’t even care.

  For example, she was cracking on a boy that had a little sour smell on him in our 4th period class last year. ‘Kiyah had everybody rolling. I even laughed. But I then found out that the boy was going through some hard times at home.

  Both of his parents died in a car wreck when he was ten years old. He now has to live with his seventy-five-year-old grandparents and look after his five other siblings. Both of his grandparents are retired so he had to go get a job to put food on the table for his family. Obviously in between caring for his family, he didn’t have time to go to the mall to buy some fresh clothes. He really doesn’t even have time to take a bath. He’s too busy trying to provide for his brothers and sisters!

  With me being the caring person I am, I found out about his situation and felt bad for laughing at him. So I talked to my mom about everything and we actually got a chance to help him and his family. She held a five-on-five citywide street basketball tournament this summer hosted by Willowsfield University, which she’s now on the board of directors for.

  All the proceeds went to helping out the family financially. We got a huge turnout too. I loved the expression on their faces when we went down to their house and gave them the money. They were so happy! After that, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I reached out to a person in need and helped them get on their feet. Who wouldn’t feel accomplished doing that?

  Another thing ‘Kiyah does is run her mouth too much. It’s cool to be confident and not back down from anything, but don’t talk yourself into drama! Jakiyah has three high school girls wanting to fight her.

  “Are you serious?” I asked her when she first told me. We were in the hallway during the 1st to 2nd period class change. Jakiyah is in cluster 8-2, which means I only get to see her a few times throughout the day.

  When Allison saw ‘Kiyah coming, she immediately went over to talk to Latasha and her cheerleading crew. Allison and ‘Kiyah don’t talk all that much. Allison will speak to her since she’s a mutual friend of mine, but she doesn’t like how she acts. When I told her the whole story over the basketball tournament and where the idea came from, it definitely made Allison wanna avoid ‘Kiyah. She’s really similar to me.

  “Yeah, girl, but you already know how it is. Any of them can catch one!” she told me, getting angrier every second she thought about it.

  The whole situation is crazy. It all started over a mistimed, misplaced Facebook comment. There was a fight video that was posted in late July with two of the high school girls that wanna fight ‘Kiyah fighting each other over a boy. The boy wasn’t even worth fighting over either. He’s a fat drug dealer that’s like seventeen with a receding hairline.

  The only way I’d fight over a guy is if we’re really close. As of right now, the only guy I’ll fight anybody over is D. I don’t even fight anymore though. Back when I lived in Riverstone Creek, I was hell on these fake females! They’d wind up in the hospital messing with me!

  Nowadays, I like to keep it classy. But, even if I was like I was back a couple of years ago, I definitely wouldn’t fight over an ugly, brain-dead, high school dropout. You wouldn’t even catch me with a guy like that. I have places to go with my life, and being with someone who doesn’t share my ambition will only hold me back. None of these girls think like me though. If they did, this whole drama wouldn’t even have happened.

  Anyway, ‘Kiyah got on her Facebook page, went to the video, and commented:

  “SMH, y’all look hella thirsty fightin’ ova Dominique’s ugly azz. He cheatin’ on both of y’all anyway. #stepyagameup!”

  Forty-five minutes later, the video comments turned into a major war of words. ‘Kiyah got into arguments with both girls that were fighting with each other and Dominique. Now those two girls and Dominique’s younger sister want to fight ‘Kiyah.

  All over one Facebook comment!

  It seems like Facebook is starting to slowly become Myspace 2.0. It started off cool, then you let ratchet people get a profile and things went crazy! You got people getting killed over Facebook drama now! I have a profile too, but I barely get on. The only time you’ll see me logged onto Facebook is when I’m posting some pictures or wishing someone a happy birthday. I barely accept my friend requests. It’s just too much drama!

  Speaking of friend requests, why would you be friends on Facebook with someone you don’t like in real life? That’s asking for trouble. On Facebook, I’m not friends with Latasha or any of the people she hangs around, minus Allison. We have problems in person; why would that change on the internet?

  People try and say the reason they friend people they don’t like on Facebook is to see what they’re doing and if they’re talking about them. I guess they don’t realize how nosy and paranoid that makes them look? People take Facebook way too serious and I’m just being real.

  ♠♠♠♠

  Eastside Rydahz vs. King Street

  The drama just continued when a whole entire crew of 8th grade Rydahz from my cluster tried to fight with some Mexican King Street gang members from 8-3 over some weed during 4th block. The Rydahz and King Street are the two most well-known gangs in the city. They have a major problem with each other, too. The beef between these two gangs started back in the mid 1970’s!

  This situation is a perfect example of why Willowsfield is one of the most violent cities in America. The story of the Rydahz/King Street situation is like an urban classic in Riverstone Creek. People have even written self-published books about the drama between these two gangs, although they didn’t sell well and they weren’t as good as the stories that were going around the ‘hood back when I was little.

  From what I heard, the feud started when Armondo Hernández, one of the four founding members of the King Street Gang ,supposedly murdered Jamal Farmer, the guy who started the Rydahz. Before the murder, the Rydahz and King Street were cool with each other. Armondo and Jamal actually were great friends. But all that changed quickly.

  The Rydahz, wanting rev
enge for the death of one of their OG’s, started pulling drive-bys on different King Street members and everything started getting out of hand. Shortly after, Armondo was murdered. Then, shots were being fired everywhere around Willowsfield and innocent people were getting hurt.

  After three decades of violence, the truth finally came out. Officer Ronald Cleveland admitted to killing Jamal in 2006. He was a crooked, racist, white supremacist police officer that had documented problems with the Rydahz dating back to when he was a rookie officer and the Rydahz were first made back in the late 1960’s. After a run-in with Jamal and the Rydah crew during one of their annual block parties, he finally had enough.

  What makes me angry about this whole situation is the actual story behind the murder. Jamal was creeping with Armondo’s sister the night he was killed. Two days before that, he started fighting with her actual boyfriend. People didn’t even use common sense back in the seventies. If he had just stopped messing around with her, all this wouldn’t have happened. But I guess what she was doing to him was worth dying for…

  Anyway, Jamal Farmer was in his car riding back to his apartment after he was done with her on the eastside of Willowsfield, which was Rydahz territory. Ronald Cleveland, who knew exactly where Jamal was, rolled up on the side of him in an all-black pickup truck with tinted windows at a red light on Fulton Avenue, which was King Street territory. He rolled down his window and sprayed bullets at Jamal’s car. Obviously he wasn’t a good shot since only two bullets hit Jamal. One hit him in the left shoulder while the other bullet, the deadly bullet that changed the whole street game in Willowsfield, went straight through his head.

  Nobody knows what made Ronald Cleveland confess, but everyone agrees it was stupid. From what I understand, he tried to come up off the whole thing. He tried to get a major book deal out of the whole controversy, but everybody in Willowsfield was going crazy. It instantly fell through. He put the Willowsfield PD in an awkward position because if they found a way to let him off, they risked the possibility of a full-blown riot, Rodney King 2.0, probably worse, because these are street guys that don’t give a care about anybody but their set. And the definitely don’t want them to unify!