• PROLOUGE
    STIFF
    Silence. Dark. Tears rolling down my face. I cry for the fear growing in my father’s eyes that night. I cry for the screams of my mother. I cry for the loneliness I fell without my parents. I can recall every detail of that night, right down to the minute the man showed up, right down to the second he plunged the knife in to my father’s chest then turned to my mother. I remember the ecsact time the ambulance came to rush my dyeing mother to the hospital. I know the time of death for both my parents, and I know ecsactly how many bullets the mortician pulled out of my mother’s body. I keep replaying that night over and over in my head. I have had no peace since then. I trust no one. I speak to no one. I go thought my day, so routine. I let no one see me cry. I am strong. If I cry I show any weakness I have and if that happens I open the door for people to come in, to see me. That is something I never want. I don’t need people close to me. I am fine alone. I am hard as a rock. I am stiff as a board. That was how so many years ago I received the nickname stiff. My true name is Eileen. I was named after my great grandmother on my father’s side. She was 102 when she died, I was 5. When my parents were murdered I was 14. I live with my mother’s parents now. I do whatever whenever and no one cares. Sometimes I think no one even knows I exist. Because of that I don’t rebel or try to break the rules. There are none to break. And if there where no one would care if I broke them. Everyone tells me I should go talk to a psychiatrist. Ha! I think. Go talk to an over educated p***k who probably couldn’t give a dam about my problems but just wants my money! No thank you. I don’t need someone like that. What I need is some won who will really listen, who won’t laugh if I say something stupid. When that person comes I will speak again. Little did I know that person would soon be here.
    I met her at the park one day. I was sitting on the swing when she walked by pushing her little sister in a stroller. She stopped, looked at me, and said “hey do I know you”. I shrugged. She looked up “OMG you that girl who evywone says won’t talk aren’t you”. I nodded yes. “Wow” was all she said. She looked at me as if to say I understand and walked away. I saw her the next day at school. She came up to me and said “hi again, my name is misty!”








    CRIP
    CH.1
    *ring…….ring*
    “Hello…..yes she’s here, who may I tell her it is?.....ok hold on…misty honey come get the phone….its Jon” “hi Jon”,
    “ Hey baby what’s up?”,
    “Nothing”,
    “Same here, hey do you wanna go see a movie tonight at eight?”,
    “Alright”,
    “Cool, see you then”,
    “Sounds good, bye”,
    “Bye”
    My name is misty miller. I am 15 years old. My blood is blue. This is my story…….
    I grew up in the ghetto, afraid, alone. I had now one but my best friend, stiff. We had vowed never to join a gang. We said all we needed was each other. Then I met Jon. He was mr.tall-dark-andhansome that every girl dreams about. And slowly, as time went on, I stopped talking as much too stiff. Me and Jon did everything together. I was happy. Then one day stiff called. The call went something like this: “ hello” I said, “ hey..its stiff”, “hey girl, how are you?”,” fine now that I have people who really care about me”, “ I don’t get what your saying”, “I joined up”, “joined what stiff”, “ I’m a crip now”, “…..wow”, “ whatever I just thought you should now bye.”, “bye”
    I couldn’t believe what I heard. I cried myself to sleep that night. The next day I got the call from Jon. So we went to the movies. But I didn’t pay attention to it. After the movie we headed out side and were swarmed by a group of about five guys I didn’t recognize, but I knew by red and black clothes that they were bloods. I don’t really remember ant thing from that night except when it was all over, I had two broken ribs, a bloody gash on my head, and Jon was dead. We were attacked because I was friends with a crip. After my ribs healed I knew what I had to do. I called stiff:
    “ Hey….stiff?” “Ya” “ its misty. I have something to ask you.” “k” “what do I have to do to join up?” “ are you serious?” “I’m dead serious” “ok. Meet me tonight at 1987 e. 26 street” “alright, see you there, bye” “bye”
    That night I wore all black and meet stiff. We went inside the house and stiff went to talk someone they all called pimp. I guessed this was the whole gang. There were about 20 people. Stiff came back to me and told me to sit down. Once everyone was sitting pimp started talking. “well everyone” he began “ this won’t be a normal meeting we have a WB (wanna be) here tonight” . he then asked why I wanted to join and I told him what had happened. He said that was a good a reason as he ever heard, so I said “what do I have to do?” , “well, since you already had the s**t beat out of you we’ll let you chose who jumps you in.”
    I knew right away who it would be, I looked straight at stiff “stiff I chose stiff” I said. “ok” he said “stiff you know what to do.” She pulled me out back and before I could blink she had punched me in the stomach. I was thrown back against a wall and she kept hitting me. So I finally hit back I hit her right in the eye. She stopped instantly and said “good, you’re ready”. We went back inside, blood dripping down my face. Pimp looked up smiled and said “ there’s one more thing you have to do.” I looked at him with determination and said “what would that be”, he laughed “ you have to have sex with someone in the gang.” I scanned the room locked eyes with this guy. He black hair and blue eyes. I pointed and said “he’ll do” pimp looked up and said ”his name is cricket” I looked at stiff for approval and from the look she gave me I knew that cricket was her man. And by the look of it she was ready to take me out side and jump me again.
    “follow me” cricket grinned. I followed him upstairs and into a bed room. “wait” I said “I can’t do this your stiffs man and she’s my best friend, it wouldn’t be right”, “I know” he said “ we’ll just stay up here a while and make them think we did something” I smiled ”ok”. So after an hour or so we went down stairs, I looked straight at stiff, she was pissed. I explained to her what happened quietly and she forgive me. That night I became mystery.
    Mystery was a new person, a new me that was strong, independent, brave, everything that misty wasn’t. I never wanted to be misty again. Stiff and were close as can be again, and I was slowly learning, with her help, the ways of the crips.
    CH.2
    My first real fight came about a month later. Me and the crips were walking down the road and all of a sudden we were surrounded by bloods. Pimp handed me a blade and said whatever happens don’t get stabbed. We started beating the s**t out of the bloods when ducky, my brother from another mother came in and he got stabbed. “ ducky” pimp was yelling. Stiff was running towards me telling me to run. Then a since of rage came over me thought out ducky being kicked on the ground, pimp looking at his gang getting the s**t beat out of them and stiff running towards me. I started punching people and kicking people. I didn’t stop till everyone in red was on the ground. Then I collapsed on the ground and cried. Stiff and pimp came towards me when I was knelling by duckey's body. We heard the cops coming and I heard pimp say let’s go, but I didn’t get up. He grabbed ducky and yanked me up and we started running. When we got back to the house we all decided I had earned a new name, tuffy. I earned my new title that night by standing up for my gang. I was appreciative of the new name but did not much like it. So they let me stay mystery.
    We took ducky to the hospital. He had 3 broken ribs, a frachered wrist, and needed six stitches in his leg. I walked to ducky’s room and up to his bed, “ how do I look” he said, “like you just got beat up by a bunch of bloods” he started laughing “FYI I did” we both started laughing but soon had to stop because his ribs started hurting. I stayed in his room all day talking. When the nurse told me visiting hours were over for anyone but family I hesitated then said “I’m his sister” she looked at ducky for approval and he nodded.
    I sat there looking at him “ I’m sorry that the group isn’t here right now, they have a big drug deal tonight and they couldn’t pass it up ‘cause it’s a lot of money were looking at. I was supposed to deal with them tonight but they said no”, “mystery, you’re the best drug dealer in our gang. You rip people of so much”, “I know”, we started laughing “ they are suckers” , “whatever” I said “there loss”. We sat there staring at each other and before I knew it we were kissing. Then the nurse walked in. we pulled away quickly and she glared at us. “I thought she was your sister.” She rudely said to ducky. “i…i…I can explain” I managed to mutter but ducky stopped me, “ no” he said “let me, you see nurse, I love her and were…. Iprefersiblingist” she glared at me and walked out muttering something under her breath. I got mad and harshly said “did you say something miss, I didn’t hear you.” She just walked away. I looked at ducky and we started laughing. “Iprefersiblingist, really ducky where do you get these things?” we both laughed even harder and as we leaned into another kiss pimp walked in. “what are you doing”. We pulled away “pimp I can exsplain” I said, “no” he said” hes going to have to exsplain”, “pimp listen”, “no you listen, whatthe hell do you think your doing?” . and in anger I blurted out “we were just kissing..” pimpshot a deah look at us and said “just kissing my a**” and walked out. I looked at ducky “what crawled up his but and died?”, “I don’t know but it needs to crawl back out”, “I know seriously”. We looked into eachothers eyes and all of a sudden images of jon flashed into my head. I pulled away fast and a tear slid down my cheek. Ducky looked at me “are you ok?” I looke at him and ran out of the room while crying. I ran down the stairs and out of the hospital. I sat down on a banch an tried to pull myself together, the the worse thing that could happen right now happened, I looked up and saw jons parents walking towards me. “hey misty, what's wrong?” his mother asked. I looked up and said “nothing”. I stood and walked away. I walked back into the hospital and pimp was standing there looking at me
    “we are going home and we are going to talk”. I looked at him matter-o-factly and said”after what you just said to me and ducky? No thank you im staying here” . I turned to walk away and pimp grabbed my arm. “get your hands off me” I yelled. And as I turned to slap him ducky walked up. “what's going on here?” he asked. I was scared, so I ran to him. He held me in his arms and asked if I was ok. I told him I was. So he looked at pimp, shot him a death glare, and said “ if you ever put your hands on my girl again I’ll mess you up so bad your grand kids won’t see straight” he looked at me lovingly and we walked away together.