Teen and pre-teen

Part III of a series of posts that begins 2 posts earlier.

Jamaal is thirteen, Shaniqua 12. Both have been attending the special school for 5 years now, although if the truth were to be told, their grade levels have only progressed marginally. Socially however, both have come a long way.

Shaniqua has discovered that her biological standing as a female is an effective tool for getting whatever she wants. She lost her virginity a year and a half ago in one of the bathrooms near the teacher lounge in the school, a place common to sexual adventures and misadventures, and also a great place to get high or even get dead from an overdose. Gay feels the pain of a loss from an overdose to an 11 year old, while others feel the financial loss.

Gay tries her best to cover topics such as safe, condom controlled sex, but Shaniqua lost interest in condoms when she was arrested for misdemeanor theft of a pack of Trojans, so it's better to just have unprotected sex than it is to be part of the Juvy Justice system. That's the mind-set, and it is virtually impossible to change that.

Jamaal is also quite familiar with Juvy Justice system. He's developed and continues to develop a resume that has him on a first name basis with the entire Orange County Sheriff's Department and Orlando City Police. They know of Jamaal's systematic rise in the social system...of his entrepreneurial spirit, his sources, and his clients.

Gay knows it's now or never for Jamaal. It's now or never for all the Jamaals of Gay's school and every other school like it. Both Jamaal and Shaniqua are old enough now that the know about the $500 a month deal, and that knowledge wails as clearly as a smoke detector going off in your home. They now know their value to the home based entities known as mom's or cousins. Gay knows the utter futility of trying to infuse Jamaal with the virtues of graduating from high shcool, then starting at the bottom and moving up in life. To Jamaal, the thought of working at a McDonalds or a Burger King is laughable, especially when he knows given growth and expansion, in 3 years he can have enough "stacks" to buy several McDonalds franchises in cash, the only downside being those three years are spent on an extremely slippery slope, one in which the fall is often times the last thing the Jamaal's of this world will do.

But that is never a thought. BMW's, serious gold chains, and fast women attract the attention of Jamaal. He does things at the school to be sent home as often as he can. School is costing him time, and time is money. BIG money.

Shaniqua, although only 12, is on her 10th boyfriend, and that doesn't count encounters clocked in minutes or perhaps the occasional hour or two. Shaniqua has learned how to use her sexuality, and she is viscious and brutal with it as well. There was the boy who once was her boyfriend...but he went missing one day after Shaniqua saw him hitting on another girl. During the search, police questioned Shaniqua as to his disappearance, but her act was by this time well refined, and she not only claimed ignorance to whatever the facts happened to be, she did so in a manner so cool and devoid of emotion, even hardened veteran officers were unable to detect even the slightest variation in her story. Shaniqua had learned all of her lessons well, unfortunately, none of them were the lesson's taught by Gay.

At this time Gay, although still committed to the Jamaal's and Shaniqua's, had turned her attention again to the newest generations to enter her classroom. More 7 and 8 year olds that needed her guidance and her desperate pleas for their ear. If only one of them will listen, Gay can sleep comfortably at night.

Only one. "Please God," she prays each night. "Let there be at least one."