“First serve’s gotta be perfect!”
The kid bounced the ball back to me. I was finally in the A square. It took me weeks to learn the game of four-square but soon enough I could hold my own and compete. I could beat them.
I didn’t know any of these kids at this school. I was 7 years old and my family had just moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles. The whole place was new -- new friends, new games, new words. (At first I thought “hella” was a stupid-ass word)
On my second serve I looked up and noticed a bunch of kids running. I stopped in mid bounce.
All of a sudden the entire school yard of kids started running toward something, screaming.
I yelled at some kid, “What is it? What’s going on?!”
I could see the excitement in his face.
He yelled back, “I dunno! Lets go! Come on!”
We joined this mass of kids swarming together screaming “Yaaaaaaay!” as we all coalesced into a group with a center.
What could it be?!
Whatever it was, the excitement captured every student on the yard. I ran toward that crowd with the hope and joy of youth, ready for something amazing. Why else would we be running?
FREE CANDY. For sure it was free candy. It must be. So I ran faster.
When I got to the main crowd the kids were ecstatic. All of them were jumping up and down with the most precious childhood smiles of excitement. I remember all their faces vividly.
The crowd was shouting something but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
MICHAEL JORDAN?! For sure it was him. Holy shit! I desperately pushed myself through the crowd to get a better view. I shoved a girl named Carla and she fell to the ground.
I had to see what was going on. What was so cool? Why were we all here? Finally, with all of my strength I struggled my way into the middle. They were chanting something. Two words. Over and over.
I didn’t understand the words until I saw.
Gregory and Charles were more crying and scratching than actually fighting.
The crowd shouted “A FIGHT! A FIGHT!” as the boys were rolling on the ground trying to pull each other’s hair and exchanging little fisted scratches. This was the first time I had seen anything like this.
I didn’t understand why people were so happy and I had this look on my face like “what the fuck is wrong with you people?!”
"Is this why we're here?!" I thought to myself
I walked away from the crowd unimpressed. I shrugged it off and thought to myself "people in crowds are dumb"
I went back to playing my game. But when I returned, I realized I had lost my place in the A-square.
