taking about three trains get up there get back and still make it to church to help out”, Divine said as he shared he travel plans with Quan and Jb. they headed to the train station, while waiting for the train, they noticed they were being watched. Nevertheless, that didn’t keep them from clowning around in the station. As their train was entering the station, they were getting ready to get on, the man notices they have candy and yells out to them. “Bingo” Divine thought to himself as he turns to walk toward the man, who showed interest in the boxes they were holding. “You guys selling candy or something? The man asked with a look of hunger on his face. Shaking his head about the dumb ass question, he just heard, he replies sarcastically. “Yeah we’re selling candy, why you want to buy some” the man’s eyes lit up as he reached for his wallet. “Yeah let me get six bars,” he says as he checks his currency, looking in on in disbelief that the man wanted that much candy Quan blurted out. “Six bars! Damn” Divine hits Quan on the arm to signal him to let him handle the candy deal. “Shut up, Quan if the man wants six bars he’ll get six bars” Divine says as he pulls the candy bars from the box and hands them to the eagerly waiting man. “That will be six dollars,” say Divine waiting for the man to give him the money. The man pulls out six dollars and hands it to the Divine, while grabbing the candy bars noticing the boys looking at the map of the subway, he asks, “you guys ain’t from around here are you?” damn was it that obvious Divine thinks to himself and replies. “No! We are just trying to find a few good places to sell our candy, so that we can get new uniforms and equipment for our basketball team. do you know where we can go around here? the man points to a area on a map in the train station letting them know where a few parks
are so they could sell the most candy. “Thanks man” Divine says as he walks back over to Quan and Jb and let them know what train they needed to take. “Good luck you guys,” the man yells out as he heads in the opposite direction. Once on the train, Quan starts wondering why Divine didn’t over charge the man he Questions the transaction while scratching his head. “Damn D, why you didn’t charge him extra, shit you should have made that nigga pay like he weigh” Quan says chuckling, Divine agrees. “I know right, but he was already getting six bars and how we just get out here and start gypping niggas, y’all see he showed us where we could go, now had I charged him more than that we probably be standing back there looking stupid. Come on, this our stop let’s go get rid of this candy”. Once outside they find the area that the man told them about and they make their rounds, just their luck there was some type of game going on at a field they were passing by. Dollars signs fill Divine eyes as he looks at Jb and Qaun. “Are you niggas thinking what I’m thinking? They both respond in unison. “Yes we are”. They walk over to the field and stand by the fence pretending to watch the game hoping someone will walk up to them and ask about the candy. Once again, Quan had complaints. “I know we are not about to stand here all day? he asked as he impatiently waited to make a sell. “No we’re not, Quan but we’re not going to just come out and say, “hey wanna buy some candy! Let them come to us”. Divine said as he assured his friends they were going to make some money. “Hey Jb what do you want to do?” asked Divine. Thinking about the promise they had made to his grandmother and how disappointed she would be if they didn’t show up, he said, “I know I don’t want to get back too late or we are going to hear it from my
grandmother, so why don’t we either say something or leave”. Before they could make a pitch to sell their candy they noticed the game was over and everyone on the field was packing up but there were a few kids that noticed them standing by the fence, so they walked over and asked the three of them what they were doing around there. Quan quickly responded, “We’re selling candy, why you want to buy some?” One white kid eyes lit up and said, “Hold up I’ll run over there and get some money from my dad and I’ll be right back”. The white kid runs over and comes back with twenty dollars how much can I get with this and holds out a twenty-dollar bill. Surprised at the fact, the kid was trying to get as much candy as he could with twenty dollars. “your father gave you twenty dollars for some candy” asked Divine the kid shook his head and replied “ he’ll give me anything I want as long as I don’t go to live with my mom, but that’s a long story y’all going to give me the candy or what?” Divine pulled out the candy bars, “Well for twenty dollars, you will get ten candy bars. What’s your name?” The white kid responded in a very proper tone. “My name is Jeremiah” “Jeremiah! What kind of name is that?” Quan asks as he busts out in laughter. Divine looks at Quan and tries hard not to join in on the laughter and reaches out to give the white kid a pound. “Well Jeremiah, my name is Divine, that’s Jb and the clown over there is Quan. We would stay and conversate but it looks like your father is waiting for you and we need to go, you got a number or something? You know just in case we’re ever around here again and want to hang out with you”. Jeremiah gave the boys his number and ran over to his father to leave the field, his father stared at Quan, Divine and Jb as if he was wondering what his son was doing talking to them. “What’s up with the
white boy D, you trying to be cool with him or something asking for numbers and shit?” Quan asked because he never knew Divine to hang out with any white kids. Divine knew what he was doing and he responded with confidence. “He just bought ten candy bars and he look like he can get money anytime he want it from his father so he might come in handy one day. As they headed back towards the train they realized they had sold all of their candy except for five bars, they made it back to their neighborhood in just enough time to get to the church to help Mrs. Jenkins. While helping at church Quan wanted to really know why Divine was being so quiet he whispered to Jb “Jb what’s up with D, he hasn’t really said anything since we’ve been here, and I’m still trying to figure out why he asked the white boy for his number?” Jb knew Quan was extremely skeptical by his questioning Divine’s actions, he didn’t have a problem with what Divine had done, he looked at Quan and replied. “Divine did say he might come in handy Quan why are you so worried about it, I mean we’re all boys we tight I doubt D is planning to up and bounce on us to go hang out with the white boy” Divine overheard them and jumped in the conversation, “ white boy who Jeremiah? Divine looked at Quan and said wow, you’re still thinking about that, damn I told you that he might come in handy one day and that’s it I don’t know why you’re still dwelling on it”. Quan’s facial expression made it clear he wasn’t buying Divine’s lame response. “I really don’t see how you feel he could come in handy cause he bought some damn candy bars, if that’s the case then the fat nigga who bought some on the train can come in handy”. Quan said as he mocked Divine’s decision. Upset by the mockery Divine stepped to Quan’s face. “you
know what Quan that’s your problem you never try to look towards the future you sitting here talking about candy bars, I’m thinking about something totally different stop being so fucking hot headed for once and just trust me on this”. Divine said, as he was growing tired of explaining his decision. They finished cleaning around the church and headed back to the block, Divine and Jb chilled at Divine’s house while Quan headed home.
****************************************************************** The weeks went by fast and before they knew it they had been selling candy non-stop for a month, When they were done they went to Divine’s house to count everything they saved. Divine pulled out his calculator and began to start count. “Aight Quan before we count the candy money what you got?” Divine asked as he started punching number in the calculator. Quan reached in his pockets and pulled out some crumbled up bills. “Shit all I got is 30 Dollars, how bout you Jb?” Quan asks as he looks over at Jb. “Let’s see the 20.00 my grandmother’ gives me every week outta the money my Mom sends so I got about 80.00, what you working with over there D?” Jb asked as he placed his money on the bed. Divine started counting his cash. “I got my allowance every week and I stashed it, so that’s 100.00,” said Div
ine as he continued to add up their funds. Finishing his count, he let them how much money they made. “okay plus the money we got from the candy, we looking at 3,810.00” excited by the total Quan jumped up and yelled out, “damn yo we did it, we really did it!” Divine joined in on the excitement “hell yeah we did it now we bout to get it fo’real, no one would have ever believed three little niggas from the projects came up in the game by selling candy”, they gave
each other a pound. Wondering what their next move was, Quan asked
Divine what his plans were. “So D what are we going to do now? I mean we should have enough to get something right, yo! My mom said we’re supposed to be visiting my aunt in Philly and I have some cousins out there who always be smoking weed and shit I can ask them what’s up”. Semi-interested in what Quan was speaking about Divine responded to Quan. “So your cousin is a pot head and you think he is really going to tell you where you can get some weed from, yeah ok nigga they going to laugh at your ass or try to rob you”. Divine said as he laughed at Quan’s idea. Quan was quick to let Divine and Jb know he wasn’t no fool, “rob who? You think I’m dumb enough to take money up there hell no, I’m just going to ask him that’s all”. Divine nodded his head and agreed with the plan. “Aight bet, when you go up there just talk don’t let that nigga know all our business I know he your family but shit y’all ain’t close like that and if he talking good see when we can go up there or he can come down here and do business”. Quan was happy Divine was taking him seriously. “That’s cool I will do that, we’re leaving this weekend”.
****************************************************************** The weekend came and Quan had left with his mom to go to Philly. Divine stopped over to Jb’s house to see had he heard from Quan. “What’s up Jb, you talked to Quan?” Jb shook his head no, “Naw D, I hope he ain’t get up there and forget about what he was supposed to check on” said Jb Divine agreed but knew they might have to go a different route. “ well if that don’t work I have something else in mind” said Divine as he thought about going back to Ace’s crib and getting some information from him, just then there was a knock on the door. Jb
looked through the peephole excited to see Quan on the other side of the
door. “Speaking of the devil, what’s up? Quan, damn we thought you forgot about our plans.” Said Jb as he let Quan in the house making sure it was ok to speak freely about their plans to get money Quan asked Jb if his grand mom’s home. “Naw she’s at the church why? Asked Jb Quan felt comfortable knowing they were the only was in the apartment broke down the situation to them. “Because my cousin is here, he drove me down here; you know so we can talk about that thing, he’s in the hallway is it ok if he comes inside?” Jb and Divine let Quan know it was ok for him to bring his cousin into the apartment so he opened the door and signaled him to come in. “yo cuz these are my boys D and Jb and homies this is my cousin Raymond”. They dapped each other up and proceeded to talk about their money-making moves Divine decided to speak first “What’s up? Did your cousin tell you what it is we are trying to do? Raymond let him know Quan shared their lil plan with him. “Yeah he told me, but before we get into that I need to know y’all serious about this shit, cause I’m not with the games and I roll with the big dogs. I don’t get down for the little kiddie bullshit”. Raymond said firmly, Divine could tell Raymond meant business. But he wanted him to know they meant business as well. “No disrespect but we bout the realest niggas you going to see around here and we ain’t for the bullshit neither”. Divine said as he tried to keep a mean mug. The four of the sat down at the table politicked for a minute, then Raymond & Quan took the money and rode back to Philly , Divine and Jb chilled in the crib until they heard from Quan. later that night Quan called them to let them know everything would be ready by tomorrow so Divine decided to head home
and that they would meet back at Jb’s crib since his grandmother would
be at church another night. The next day Jb, D and Quan met up, Quan told them Raymond would be arriving within the next thirty minutes. Once Raymond arrived he honked the horn and let them know to meet him down stairs, he handed them each three grocery bags of what appeared to be boxes of cereal. They went back to Jb’s crib opened up the boxes and realized it was far from corn flakes in the boxes. The strong smell of marijuana hit their noses hard. Divine pulled a few pieces out “damn that nigga Raymond a smooth mother fucker, I like his style, Putting this shit in the cereal boxes”. Divine was liking the situation already, Jb was a little nervous he never sold drugs before and he knew it was a little different from selling candy bars with a lost look on his face he asked. “Okay now what’s up what are we going to do?” Confident they had just made a wise choice Divine smiled and said. “First thing first every crew needs a name, let’s go with G.M.C”. The initials were a no brainer for Quan so he agreed right away. Jb, on the other hand was a little thrown off by the initials, he looked at Divine with a confused look on his face uttering the initials “G. M.C?” Divine laughed and broke it down to his friend. “Yeah Getting Money Crew, now we need some pagers and we need to put this in something so when niggas see it they know it’s us. Quan made a suggestion, “let’s go to the spot on Beverly ave and get some bags from there” Divine shook his head “naw I don’t want no shit everybody got, let‘s get some plain bags and put our own symbol on it”. Quan agreed “yeah that sounds cool, we can go downtown to get the pagers they got some banging ones at this store next to the tattoo spot”. So it was done, the getting money crew was
getting that money. They had decided that their symbol on their bags
would be a dollar sign surrounded by flames, they were doing their thing on a regular basis, being very careful not to get caught by anyone. they went down to the mall and got the latest style kicks to match the t- shirts they had made, along with their hat’s and bandana’s g. m. c was starting to be a well known name around the neighborhood. One day Jb’s grandmother questioned him about his logo on his shirt. “Let me guess good motivated Christians”. She said with smile on her face. Jb looked at his grandmother almost forgetting the candy-selling story but quickly caught himself before he responded. “No, grandma it stands gracefully moving crowds because that’s what we do when we’re on the court everyone knows our name and they cheer for us”. Jb could see the smile on his grandmother’s face but didn’t want to get her too excited because she might offer to take off of work one day to watch him play. So he kept his story very short.
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Time had passed and now g. m. c was two years into the game everything was looking lovely for them, no complaints at all. Quan had moved out of his mother’s house and was staying with Divine. They had grew up they loved the game but they wanted more. Divine’s mom was barely home, she took up some night classes so by the time she came in Divine was either sleep or out with his friends. Denise never questioned her son about anything that he was doing, the clothing, the pager nothing made her think twice about what her son was out there doing, she just figured he was a teenager and getting into the parties, the girls and so on and so forth. She did make it very clear to Quan that she didn’t want no fast ass
girls up in her house and she didn’t want no one’s mama coming to her
house or calling her phone talking bout her son or his friend got their daughter pregnant and she sure as hell didn’t want the cops coming to her house. They understood the rules and they respected them even though they would still have girls in the crib they made sure they strapped up and didn’t leave any wrappers laying around the house. Jb was still living at his grandmother’s he had been a little distant for the past two months because his grandmother was very sick and he had been going back and forth with her to the doctor. His mother had come to visit but she didn’t stay long. She was too much in a rush to get back to her new husband, whom Jb didn’t like very much. Jb knew there was no way in hell he was going to move back home with her if some
thing did happened with his grandmother, even though his mother promised him that once she got on her feet that she was going to send for him. That day never came, she ended up getting married and forgetting the promise, she made to her son and her mother. Mrs. Jenkins had got very sick so the doctor requested that she be admitted to the hospital, a week after being admitted, Mrs. Jenkins passed away. Jb took it very hard the first few days but he knew that he had to be strong and now all he had was his boys to count on. At the funeral, everyone from the church and Mrs. Jenkins job had come to pay his or her respects. The pastor let Jb know that he was very proud of how he was handling himself and how much of a good job he did preparing for the funeral. No one questioned him on where he got the money from; they assumed his grandmother’s life insurance covered everything. Divine could see that Jb was holding in his tears in front of everyone so he walked over to comfort his friend. “Are
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