Grade 7 Blood

Grade 7 Blood
The hallway light flickers on and off giving me quick glances at the pool of blood lying just under my right elbow. As I lean forward to check for any movement in the room I can feel the wet sticky stuff on my arm. I suppose I deserve getting popped because I chose to trust a banger who seemed like a righteous dude that wanted nothing but a few dime bags and a couple of caps. God knows I bin doin this for onto 2 years now and I should be ready for this type of thieving idiot but I wasn’t and now I guess I will pay. Shit this money in my pocket is getting soaked with blood but what the hell do I care anyway, I won’t be spendin it where I’m going. My brother told me I was crazy to push, but the damn cash was good and all I ever heard was, “hey your black ass ain’t good for nothing but selling drugs and pimpin’ bitches”. I know the schools don’t say that, hell no! they say that anybody can do anything they set their mind to, but they don’t understand what’s goin’ on outside of class. Venjal, Delman, Chris and the other bangers change their tune when they move out of the classroom and hit the streets. They right away put pressure on me and the other kids that’s just comin up, to get involved and be somebody. Yeh right somebody, somebody who can scare the shit out of another kid, somebody who can spit in a cop’s face, somebody that can carry a wad of 50’s around and buys any kind of candy you want, legal or illegal. On the other side they say you should be able to stay out of trouble if you got a good family and such but that’s bullshit too cause I got a good Mom who watches out for me like a hawk. I just know how to fool her and her being so busy at work and all it really ain’t too hard. Even the basketball games put on at night by the volunteers don’t do no good. I mean they are nice and all that but that shit ain’t never going to stop this gang stuff. Can’t they see it’s the gang leaders and their posse’s who control the streets and suck the new kids into their world without any trouble. Can’t they see that your Mama or Daddy can’t be with you 24/7 and the cops they can’t do much cause as quick as they throw these hard asses in jail some funky judge buys their tears and lets them out, most times the very next day. We all laugh every time a politician or a cop comes on TV and asks for help in solving a shooting or some other crime. What the hell do they think we’re gonna do? Write our own death sentence! Naw this stupid crap ain’t gonna stop until somebody gets balls enough to do what’s gotta be done. Swoop in and arrest all the hard ass bangers, then lock them up someplace far away so they won’t get out for 10 years or so. Then a group of kids can grow up without this gang shit hittin’ you in the face every morning. Boy I’m getting weaker so I guess this is what they call the “meeting” where you check out for awhile. I hope it’s not for long cause I’m supposed to go into grade 8 next fall and I hear it’s a nice thing being in the oldest bunch of kids in the school.