Tha System (eBook)

Chapter One

1995

Beep, beep, beep was the sound of the annoying alarm clock his grandma had brought him to make sure he got up on time for school. Therefore, life hadn’t been the same ever since for fourteen-year-old Trevor Green Jr. He quickly hit the snooze button and found immediate relief as he dozed back off into the sweet slumber he had been so peacefully enjoying. This was short lived, however, when he heard his grandma yelling from what had to be the kitchen.

“Okay, okay Big Mama I’m up already,” Trevor answered closing his eyes as soon as the lie left his mouth.

“Boy yo ass sound like you still in bed. You got fifteen minutes to be brushed and washed for breakfast or yo lil ass ain’t eating this morning,” Big Mama said as a warning.

He smiled because he knew his grandma would never purposely deny him a chance to eat. When it came to his wellbeing, there wasn’t a thing she wouldn’t do to make sure he was straight. Nevertheless, he wasn’t no fool because she didn’t play when it came to disrespect. She had long since shown that she could be a stern disciplinarian if tested. Even though he was now a teenager and was taller than her by a few inches didn’t change the fact that he knew how far to push before she literally got on his ass. Acting upon instinct, he got up just in time to start making his bed as if he been up to see her push the already cracked door all the way open to peek in on him.

“See, I told you I was up,” Trevor said smiling.

Shaking her head while smiling as well, Big Mama replied, “Okay, this time you are up, but don’t act like I ain’t never caught yo lil ass fast asleep like you ain’t have school that morning.”

“I still don’t see what’s the point of me going to school when they don’t teach us shit but some punk ass white man’s lies,” Trevor said.

“I told yo ass about cussing when talking to me, but school is a steppingstone son. One you are going to need to get ahead in life Junior,” Big Mama said with a very serious look in her green eyes as she stared at beloved grandson.

Putting his arms up in submission, Trevor said, “Okay, you win Big Mama when you say it like that how can I argue. It ain’t like you was going to let me win anyways. But I know you still salty from how I did you last Saturday in Spades.”

This brought a huge smile to his grandma’s beautiful caramel colored face. As she started laughing, she told him that they were going to for sure have to run that game back. He couldn’t help but laugh also because he knew his super competitive grandma could be a sore loser at times and was known in the streets as a real shit talker especially throughout the gambling shacks and bingo halls she like to frequent. She was good at what she did which resulted in her making a nice side hustle out of her favorite pastime.

He quickly finished getting dressed and cleaned up his room which he made sure to keep in orderly fashion because Big Mama would throw a fit if he left his room in disarray. His outfit selection wasn’t difficult to put together because he went with his usual of black-on-black. It wasn’t shocking either when his grandma looked at him and shook her head at his choice of clothes. She had told him on more than one occasion that she was going to make him liven up his wardrobe, but she was a product of Broadway too. Therefore, she knew why he stayed in all black even though she didn’t approve of it. At only forty-six years old, she was a young grandparent of teenaged grandkids which wasn’t rare in the hood and was one of the few well respected female O’ Gs. The streets widely knew her as Lady G Luck.

Trevor was a legacy because he was a true South Side baby which was the part of Phoenix, Arizona that was known as the Valley of the Gun. This was where the heat could just as easily be felt blazing when gunshots got to bursting like direct sunlight hitting skin. It wasn’t an easy lifestyle living as a young Gangsta in the ‘Nineties especially with so much gang warfare going down in the streets, but he had long ago embraced it because this was the only reality that he knew. He had grown up in the South Phoenix neighborhood controlled exclusively by the Broadway Gangstas aka the Way that ran down Broadway Road from Thirty-second Street to Twenty-fourth Street. His hood was a South Side original and had a notorious reputation for being ruthless. Therefore, every other hood knew what to expect if they crossed path with the Gangstas, but all this fear didn’t come without consequence because enemies still lurked and homies were still being killed as well as killing. The streets were a concrete jungle and only the strong survived in the jungle. He was a survivor and planned to be the strongest.

He made sure to get on his sister Trevina’s nerves before he left the house for school. He teased her that if he didn’t do anything else good, at least he had mastered the art of pissing her off. She had threatened to punish him later when Big Mama wasn’t around which he didn’t take serious any more since he had outgrown her almost six months ago and now was the tallest person in the household. He stood awkwardly at five foot seven which made him have to look down on her five foot three frame. However, he still entertained her by acting like he was afraid of her threats.

Nevertheless, he was thankful to have his family. His grandma had raised them every since they were little. Her son which was their father had gotten locked up for a murder ten years ago. This had resulted in him receiving a life sentence at only eighteen years old. Consequently, this had also left their seventeen year old mother who had been still a kid herself suddenly stuck with two very hungry mouths to feed. Not long after that, she developed an addiction to crack cocaine which she eventually ended up feeding more than her kids.

He still remembered the last time he saw his beautiful mother. She had taken them along with her to some apartment complex on the East Side when he was barely five years old and his sister was six years old being that she was only ten months older than him. She had left them in the car to wait for her and had gotten them to behave while she was gone with a promise to take them to go get all the ice cream they could eat if they could just sit still until she returned. Therefore, like two champs, they actually did behave for the most part until the pinkest man he ever seen in a blue shirt with a shiny star knocked loudly on the window to try to get his sister to open up the door. This immediately led to them becoming scared out of their little minds and wailing with fright. Only the calming voice of some equally as pink lady in the same blue shirt was able to finally get a snotty-nosed, puffy-eyed Trevina to open up the door. It took years afterwards for it to register that this was the same day that his mother had gotten beaten to death by some trick too high to care about what he had done.

Consequently, the state had took custody of them for almost a year before Big Mama was finally successful in getting them out of the horrible foster home they had been placed in. Trevor shook these dark thoughts that occasionally plagued his mind. He came across two of his big homies while on his way to school. They looked like they had been hustling all night.

“What’s poppin’ with my young Gangsta?” Nutty G said shaking Trevor’s hand.

“Shit nothing much, just going to school G. But I wish I could come hang with the homies,” Trevor replied.

“Nigga, you know Lady G Luck ain’t gone play with that ass if you ditch school. Shit nigga, I don’t want to be with you when she come looking,” Bogard said laughing, but also serious.

“I’m a grown ass man G. My grandma know how I be moving,” Trevor said puffing his chest out. “Lil Tre Way, so you grown now huh? When you ready G to come get this paper let me know, but until then young Gangsta, you better get that ass to school,” Nutty G said seriously pointing up the road.

Trevor made it to school on time. He was an eighth grader at Palmdale Elementary. He couldn’t wait to graduate, so he could go to South Mountain High School where his sister was currently in her freshman year. Other than his grandma staying on him about school, it was one thing he had to admit that made him go to school which was all the pretty females. They made school bearable because they didn’t shy away from showing him that they liked him, and he just knew it was only going to get better when he went to high school. He already had his sister threatening all her home girls to stay away from him. He wasn’t making it easy either for her because every chance he got, he made sure to talk to them. One in particular that he really liked was a female named Nadine who everybody called Miss Lady because of her bossy nature. She was a fine piece of chocolate that knew even though she was young that she had it going on.

Nevertheless, he had to do the same thing with his homies in the hood who had started to give his sister more and more attention. She had really took a liken to all of this and quickly learned to use it to her advantage. He knew that the Way had a way with being a real dog-eat-dog world and just like he would creep with a homie’s sister, his homies wouldn’t hesitate if the opportunity presented itself to creep with his. So far though, all Trevina did was use her developing female charms to finesse for things she wanted.

“Lil Tre Way, you really think you fly looking like a baby black hole,” his best homie Bobby G chuckled.

“G, I know yo ol’ light skinned half breed ass...