Poetry Life

I woke up this morning and went through my regular routine of washing up, getting on clothes, kissing mom goodbye, and finally I approached the bus stop with Derek already standing there quietly.

“Hey what’s up?” I said to him from a small distance as I was closing in on him.

“Yo what up?” Derek said as he then looked me in the eyes waiting for good news.

“Alright so Alicia and I made up.” I said acting nonchalant about it before I couldn’t hide the smile anymore. Derek also smiled and extended his hand.

“That’s what’s up!” He said and I took his hand and shook it. Of course we had to do our secret handshake.

“Sorry that things went down like they did.” I said and he replied quickly.

“Don’t worry about man, what’s done is done. I’m just glad to see we’re still the trio.” He said with a smile, genuine happiness beamed from his face. Now I could see the bus coming around the corner in a fast pace so I can tell the bus driver was running a little behind on time. He came to a screeching halt and opened the door quickly.

“You two! On the bus quickly! Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up...” I had to cut him off.

“Alright man, we got the memo.” I said as I begin walking onto the stairs in slow motion up the stairs and everyone on the bus begins spilling over with laughter and the bus driver began rambling so we hurried got to our seats.

“You two are the reason why I hate my job! $10.50 an hour is not enough for me to drive you crazy kids!” He said as his Jamaican accent became evident. We all couldn’t help ourselves from laughing as he was annoyed today. I sat in my usual spot, by Alicia, and Derek sat in his usual spot still spilling over with laughter.

“Dude, that was priceless.” Derek said in between laughs and Alicia couldn’t stop laughing either. It was good to bring a smile to everyone’s face early in the morning. I turned my baseball cap to make it look crooked and glanced at Derek for a moment as we rode on the bus talking about nonsense as usual. And when we got off, the nonsense continued until I finally thought of a meaningful topic to talk about.

“So what’s going on? Is there anything of interest going on today?” I said and Derek looked at Alicia and something told me he had a way of twisting what I say to affect her.

“I was thinking today we can run away from some dogs.” He said and Alicia hit him hard in his arm.

“Real funny dummy.” Alicia said surly. “Are you going to summer school for the fifth time?!” She quipped and in return, Derek gave her a nice thump and she yelped loudly. “Ow! I can’t believe you would hit a girl!”

“Oh you’re a girl? I couldn’t tell the difference.” He said sounding serious and yet you could tell he was joking. He started running towards the school building with Alicia hot on his tail. I ran and followed right after them laughing the whole time. Once inside the building, we stopped running but Alicia did hit Derek whom finally stopped sparking her flame for a moment...note that I said for a moment. Alicia suddenly went in the bathroom and Derek tapped my shoulder.

“What man?” I said and he looked at me for a moment.

“Hey have you seen that new girl?” He started off asking me knowing I was going to be suddenly inquisitive.

“A new girl is here? Man, the last time you said that, the girl wasn’t new; you just didn’t pay any attention to the fact that she walked past you a trillion times in the hallways!” I said and he laughed.

“That’s because I was busy walking the hallway on my way to detention, Einstein.” And his point? He still walked up and down the same dang hallway the girl did. If he was in a jungle, he would have died, not because of animals; it’ll be because he wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking and fell into a deep pit. He was his own hazard. Some times he was as dumb as a box of hair. For instance, one time the police was around and he told everyone to freeze...why in the world Derek thought we were suddenly playing freeze tag was beyond my comprehension. He walks over and taps the policeman and yells, YOU’RE IT!

“Anyway, I’m telling you she’s new. I’ve been paying attention this year.” Derek said as if he read my thoughts. “Her name is Georgia and I’m telling you, that girl is HOT with a capital ‘H’.” He said seriously and gesturing as he spoke.

“For real though?” I couldn’t help but ask now that he said something about the girl and from the way he speaks of her, he sounded as if she was very...hot.

“Yeah, I’m tellin’ you man. I can’t wait to speak to her today. Hey, this might be the girl I’d try to really connect with.” Derek said and I nodded a bit.

“Seriously? Well I hope you don’t tell her how many times you’ve been in detention.” I said and we both gave off a laugh.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” He said and I just had to shake my head on that one. “Matter of fact I wrote a poem for her! Here, here, check this out.” He looked at his pockets and dug into his right one and pulled out a piece of paper and opened it with haste. “Here we go.” He begins as Alicia suddenly appeared out of the bathroom and came to join the hallways with us.

‘My love for you is real love dot, dot, dot.
What’s a chili dog, without the hot?
I really, really, really, really like you a lot
I finally ate the chili dog and it hit the spot!’

Me and Alicia stood there for a moment and I was trying to hold back every ounce of laughter I had in my body. He looked at me and then Alicia for a good review.

“I know that was hot right?” Derek said and I looked at Alicia who eyed me.

“I couldn’t tell if you were talking about the chili dog or the girl.” I said keeping my composure barely as I looked back at him.

“What girl?” Alicia asked as she suddenly looked at Derek with inquisitiveness.

“Georgia.” I said to her.

“Oh yeah the girl every boy just about drools over. Trust me... don’t give her that poem or she’ll smack you simply because it was bad.” Alicia said and Derek looked at me.

“I know what you’re about to ask... I agree with Alicia on this one. You talked about two different subjects in four lines. If you really want her to take you serious, try sticking to only her. No more chili dogs.” I said and he shrugged.

“Well I tried. I have to admit, it sounds pretty bad now that I read it again.” Derek said as the bell rung. Thank goodness. Then it happened...the new girl that Derek was so obsessed over and I could see why. The girl was beyond beautiful, hot, cute, or how ever else you put it. Nice deep brown skin, raven black hair, hazel eyes, and a smile to die for. She gave us a small wave as she passed us and Derek was almost in a trance. Personally I was too because of it being so unexpected.

“See ya’ll in class.” Derek said as he ran off and we followed but slowly.