Zero Degrees Part 1

Chapter 4

1995

After Biology class I met Teena and Peaches back at our room. They only took one class with me, which was Geometry and had funny looks on their faces when I walked in.

“What’s up?” I asked sensing that something was wrong.

“Lorielle was moved,” Teena said.

I shrugged my shoulders. “And? I didn’t f*ck with her like that anyway. The bitch barely even talked.”

“We got a new bunkmate,” Peaches spoke up.

“So? What’s the big deal?” I sat on the bed and pulled out a joint. Buff had a few chickens he was cool with sneak weed in during visitation for me to sell. My pockets stayed fat although we smoked that shit like chimneys in Alaska.

“Ya’ll wanna go behind the dumpsters and smoke this shit?”

Teena glanced over at Peaches. “It’s Chanda,” she said.

Now that was one bitch I hated with a passion. She had only been there for two months and was trying to act like she ran some shit. She had been locked up for beating some chick with a four by four and putting her in a coma. She was in a gang. I didn’t know if she was supposed to be a Crip or what, but I didn’t need a gang. Shit, I was a one bitch army. The way I saw it, that bitch let her beat her ass. She knew better than to bring that shit to me. All she ever did was run her mouth. In my opinion tongue flapping was a waste of time and energy. I saved all of my energy for the fight.

A few minutes later while we were talking Chanda walked her oddly shaped body into the room and cut her eyes at me. She sucked her teeth as she placed her hand on her hip.

“Don’t look at me like that Zero. You ain’t runnin’ shit around here, Okay.” She snaked her neck at me.

I got off my bunk with the quickness, put on my shoes and walked over to check that hoe.

“Don’t call me Zero. You don’t know me like that. My name is Queen Zeaira to you and for the record BITCH, I DO run shit. I’ll beat a bitch’s ass. Now act like you know and shut the f*ck up talkin’ to me!” I spat.

Chanda looked at Teena and Peaches as she shook her head. She then took several steps back because I was close enough to steal on her ass and she must have sensed it.

“Ya’ll better get your girl ‘fore she end up like that bitch I got layin’ up in the hospital.”

Teena stood up from her bunk. “We ain’t gotta tell her shit.”

Chanda just stood there huffing with a screw face. The bitch was already ugly with a mean ass overbite. She was brown skinned, with ashy skin, a big ass bubble like nose, thin lips and a bad acne problem. She hated on me because she was ugly as hell with naughty hair and couldn’t grow any edges. That was exactly what I told the butt ugly bitch.

“You just mad ‘cause your ass is ugly as f*ck with that nappy ass hair! Where the f*ck your edges at? Bald eagle lookin’ bitch! I ain’t got time for that back and forth nonsense. If you wanna fight let’s do it. If you wanna stay in here with no problems I advise you to leave me the f*ck alone.”

She laughed dryly. “Nawl, you better watch your mouth. You don’t know who you f*ckin’ wit’.”

“You got it twisted Chanda.” I shook my head and rubbed my hands together as I took a step toward her. I hadn’t been a fight in a while and needed to release some pent up anger. If she didn’t squash that shit, I would have to release my wrath on her and it wouldn’t be pretty.

“You wanna fight me bitch?” She challenged. I swung and connected my fist with her face. That bitch dropped like a sack of rocks.

“Ohhh, shit! Shit!” Peaches said excitedly as she jumped up and down. Chanda was on the floor out cold as her leg twitched.

Teena laughed. “That bitch’s knocked out snoring.” Peaches giggled as she looked at Chanda laid out on the floor.

“That bitch had it comin’. I ain’t got time for negotiations and shit. Either we goin’ fight or we ain’t,” I said rubbing my knuckles. Her big ass tooth had cut my hand.

We heard the keys jingling up the hall. One of the guards was making his rounds.

“Oh, shit,” Peaches gasped. “Here comes the C.O. Let’s put that bitch on her bunk.”

“I ain’t touching that bitch,” I said in disgust as I watched Peaches and Teena pick up Chanda’s limp body. They quickly placed her on her bunk just as the guard looked inside the room. I appreciated them trying to keep me out of trouble. We pretended to be in a deep conversation as Chanda snored on her bunk. The guard looked in and kept it moving. Teena released a heavy sigh of relief as Chanda stirred and began to groan incoherently like she was drunk. She looked at us and narrowed her eyes for a moment as if it was all starting to come back to her.

Then she said, “All y’all bitches ain’t have to jump me.”

I rushed over to Chanda, but Teena grabbed my arm. I pulled away. Shit, I wanted to finish want I had started.

“I punched you in your f*ckin face!!” I said waving my fist. “If you don’t want me to get on your ass again, pack your shit and get the f*ck out BITCH!”

Chanda jerked forward like she was going to get up. I was prepared to put that bitch to sleep again if need be.

“Stop, y’all ain’t got to jump me again!” She scooted away from me.

“Ain’t nobody jumped your ass,” Teena and Peaches said in unison.

As Chanda packed her meager belongings, she kept mumbling about us jumping her. That shit had me mad as f*ck.

As soon as Chanda was moved to another unit she began to spread vicious lies to her crew about us jumping her. Word was out that she and some girls from her neighborhood were going to assault us with knives. There was tension in the air between us and Chanda’s clique of ratchet ass hoes. I was going to try to get a weekend pass to go to the crib, but I changed my mind. I didn’t want to risk them trying to jump on my girls while I was away.

The next day was a Friday and I was chilling on my bunk reading a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He was a Chinese high ranking military general, strategist that specialized in f*cking up some shit. Peaches was sitting on her bunk as she asked,

“Are you still going to try to get a weekend pass to go home?”

“No, I’m gonna have to put it off. I know I’m gonna have to take care of Chanda’s crew if them hoes try some shit. I guess I’ll get to see Buff and Zeus next time,” I sighed.

“I wish I could go with you to see him,” Peaches said. She’d been exchanging letters with Buff on a regular for the past year.

“He’s been talkin’ a lotta shit lately about what he’s gonna do to me. I’m so horny that I’m ‘bout to lose it in here.”

Teena shook her head. “You look too damn innocent to be so freaky.”

“Whatever. Buff told me in his last letter than Zeus wanna holla at you. Since you’ll be legal and shit when you get out.”

That day we made another trip to the dumpsters and made sure that no one was looking as we ducked behind them and sparked up the joint. We were on some puff, puff pass real quick shit, just in case one of the guards walked by. I hit it a few times before passing it to Peaches. She took a hit and started coughing. I didn’t even respond to what she’d just said, but I had butterflies in my stomach at the mention of Zeus.

“Damn, Buff be sending you some strong ass green,” she said staring at the joint like it was going to explain itself. She hit it one more time before passing it to Teena.

Teena took a puff and coughed too. “This some good shit. I don’t see how you make any money selling this shit, since we always smokin’ it.’

All I could think about was what Peaches had just said about Zeus. “Well, why didn’t Buff tell me that?” I asked taking the joint back from Teena.

“I don’t know. I thought you knew since Buff be writing you too.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “He never did and Zeus is older. He’s gonna wanna have sex.”

“Well, if you like him and he likes you it is gonna happen eventually,” Peaches said like she just knew that it would.

“I don’t know. Does it hurt the first time?” I asked.

“Yeah, I ain’t gonna even lie to you. Some chicks lie and say that it didn’t hurt. That’s some bullshit, but after the pain ends its all pleasure.”

“I’m already f*cked up,” Teena punked out when the joint rotated back to her.

“Me too,” Peaches and I agreed.

I put the joint out and put it in my bra. We returned to the cottages plotting on Chandra and her crew. Growing tired of waiting for something to happen made us decide to pop that shit off ourselves.

* * *

There were metal detectors outside of the chow hall, so we couldn’t bring in our tools. Instead we decided to smuggle in big bars of soap in socks that we’d wrapped around are hands. We sat behind Chandra and listened to her loud ass lie about us jumping on her.

The plan was to wait until the chow hall got crowded, but when I heard that hoe say,

“That bitch Zero ain’t tryna see me be herself! I’ll beat dat hoe’s ass!” I lost it. Unfortunately, the Warden was doing a tour with some type of juvenile advocacy group. I stood up from the table and all I saw was red as I confronted that heifer.

“Bitch, why do you keep lying, talkin’ ‘bout we jumped you. It was just me who knocked your ass out cold and you know that shit.”

A big, manly looking chick continued to grill me as she huffed and twisted her face up. She towered over me and looked like she was pass her 20’s. She had an ugly scar across the bridge of her nose like somebody had tried to bite it off in a fight. Her breasts were huge triple D’s and they kept moving as she made her way closer to me. When she shoved me that was all I needed to get fired up. Ready for war, I took out my soap in a sock weapon. I swung it and hit that big bitch in the head. A dent immediately showed up and part of her hair was gone. She squealed like a pig as she held her bloody head and took off running. Teena and Peaches were standing right beside me when Chandra threw her plate at me. After that it was pandemonium. Blow for blow, toe to toe we beat those hoes asses. Next thing we knew, we had started a full-fledged riot as the Warden stood there watching with his jaw dropped in shock. The people touring the facility took off for the exits.

We were all sent to solitary confinement after the guards came through and sprayed our eyes with pepper spray, because we wouldn’t stop otherwise. Solitary was just a single room with a small cot and wasn’t like the hole in a real prison. We could leave the room for school, but had to eat all meals in the room by ourselves. We only got one hour outside and had our privileges suspended for six months. I kind of missed my girls, but I knew that I’d see them again in less than thirty days.

When we were finally released from confinement we were all sent to different cottages. That didn’t stop us from running shit. Chanda and her crew didn’t stand a chance and stayed away from us. The weed kept coming once my visitation was reinstated. I kept selling it and smoking it with my girls behind the dumpsters. I made sure that Teena had money on her books when her bitches on the outside stopped looking out for her.

Peaches didn’t have any issues with money because her mother made sure that she was okay. She’d told us later that her father had been killed during a carjacking a few months before she got in trouble. Teena’s mother had been in and out of mental hospitals since she was an infant and her father died in a car accident when she was seven. I guess we’d all bonded because of the loss of our fathers. Whatever the common thread was, it was becoming stronger and stronger by the day. They had my back and I damn sure had theirs. We even talked about what we planned to do when we were released. It was funny that all our plans included each other. That shit had me mad hyped. I couldn’t wait until our feet touched down in the free world.