ROSES AND THORNS-BEING REAL

CHAPTER FOURTEEN-MILAN

Welcome back to school baby Milan.

The notice board reads. It's definitely Troy who has written this. I decide to erase the word baby and leave it at welcome me. I get to my locker to get my book and as I hold the door to close it, I see Troy and his two friends leaning on the locker next to mine, I shake my head and go ahead to close it.

"Everyone gather around. Baby Mil's here." Troy says clapping his hand to get everyone's attention. I just ignore him and walk turn to start off for class.

"Where you going? This is your time." Troy says.

"I ain't got time for this bullshit" I tell him and the crowd which has gathered around boo's. I don't care. I keep walking and stops as soon as Troy holds my hand.

"Noone's leaving until you tell us where you were last Saturday, loser, coz your crazy mom went nuts about you." Troy says.

"Say that shit again." I say facing Troy head on. Looking away, Troy chuckles.

"I mean your crazy mom; can't believe you're still a mama's boy. 'If you've seen my baby Milan, please tell him to come home.'" Troy says in a high-pitched voice to mockingly imitate my mom.

The entire crowd bursts out laughing. I just lose it and the next thing I realize is my hands on Troy and him falling to the ground. I hold my hands into fists and move towards Troy to aim at him, but instead I offer him my hand. He's reluctant to take it, but looking around at the crowd, he does it anyways and people are filming. I help Troy because I don't want it to reflect on my college application and Troy's not worth ruining my CV for.

"I an accept insult, just don't involve my mom because she's truly concerned about me. I'm sure you wouldn't want the entire school what your mom's concerned about. Should I?" I ask and the entire crowd agrees with me.

"Milan, don't do this." Troy says looking all embarrassed.

"You're lucky I'm not like you. That's the difference between you and me." I tell him.

"Just tell the school where you were, Milan." Roxie says.

"It's none of your business." I tell em and the crowd gasps. I walk to Troy.

"Next time you do something like this again, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard your mom's gonna start caring about you and I promise I'll forget about leaving with a clean violence record, loser." I say and walk away.

As son as the bell rings, I the classes begin and literary just exhausted, I just wanna get out of here. At recess when I go for book switching, I meet Sasha, could this day get any worse?

"What's all this?" Sasha says looking all pissed off; what she's best at anyways.

Sasha has always had this fucked-up attitude. I decide to take Real's advice and just ignore her. She tries to speak again and I ignore her once more, I just hear her complaining to her best friends as I exit the scene. The greet them both except her. I and Zoey have always been cool, even Chloe, though she's a mini-Sasha.

Since I have a presentation tomorrow, I go for lunch a bit later and all the people are discussing John Legends performance, whilst I just focus on finding data on my phone.

"You mean some random girl from the fan base sang with John Legend?!" Sasha asks excitedly. She had been looking forward to this concert for like three months and didn't get to go because Troy prefers gaming than spending on her.

"I'm telling you girl, check this out." Brittney says holding out her phone and its Real's video. I just hear the others compliment her voice.

"Milan, you were there, right?" Brandon asks and everyone's attention shifts to me.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, period." Sasha replies and I just ignore her and get back to eating. Omega suggests they get her contact and get her in their band. Even though they seem cool and all, but I can't trust them with Real. She's too good to be with them.

"Dude, you're literary in a video talking to her." Brandon says.

"So, does that mean I got her contact, and even if you do meet her; 'hey, be on our band' typa shit?"

"Anyone would agree." Sasha replies.

"Not her." I object and Troy announces everybody stops the concert thing.

After classes, I pick Daryn from her dance classes and head home. I plan out my entire presentation and have my dinner and night shower. I don't text Real for the entire day and decide to text her goodnight when I'm about to sleep.

Milan

Goodnight

It doesn't take long and Real replies immediately after.

Real

Night-night

Milan

Thanks Real, because of you, everyone's

 getting what they deserve.

Real

I'm a sensei

Milan

Tomorrow's a big day, I have a presentation in

 biology so I need enough rest. Sleep tight

Next day, I wake up early to prepare for my presentation, I don't even get time to eat, I just get to school and then class. Biology's the first module on the timetable and Sasha comes to seat next to me and I completely ignore her.

"Milan, are you okay?" Sasha says smiling and putting her arm around the shoulder. I look her in the eye and gently remove her hand from my shoulder leaving her looking at me wide-eyed and her mouth half open.

"What the hell" Sasha looks around to make sure nobody's staring at her.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me, but something's definitely wrong with you because you're having identity issues." I tell her and Ms. Harrison shows up. She greets the class and writes the topi on the board for everyone to see.

"This is another great day, so today's lesson is Genetics." Ms. Harrison says.

"Boring." Sasha says yawning whilst looking at her fingers.

"I've read all the chapters, but its all nonsense." Sasha remarks.

Ms. Harrison asks Sasha to define it and she gives a precise answer and gets a warning, as soon she disturbs the class again, she's given detention. Ms. Harrison is the kind of teacher you don't wanna mess with; she priotises discipline the most and Saha tries to put the blame on me for it, I just ignore her.

"Mr. Valencia, are you ready?" Ms. Harrison asks.

"I was born ready.

"Then show us what you've got." Ms. Harrison adds.

I make my presentation to the class and it all goes as planned. A few people ask questions concerning the presentation and I manage to answer them all. Compared to all the presentations we've had; I think this is the best of them all and I'm extremely proud of myself. After the class I bump into Troy at in the corridors.

"Stay away from my girl." He warns.

"How about you tell your girl to stay away from me. if she can't get over me yet, then it's not my fault." I reply with a smirk and leave.

Thursday is calm rather than peaceful. After classes I go for practice. We warm up and play a game of which I make the most goals.

"Good game, Milan. I guess you're ready to be an NBA player." Coach Maurice says giving me a handshake.

"Good you think so." I reply.

"Think so? Son you're the best player I've had in so many years. Once you're on the court, everybody recognizes your presence. You were born for the NBA." He says patting my back.

"Thanks coach." I say.

Carl; the captain, calls us all for a meeting and we all gather around.

"So, as you already know, we're gonna have games on conservative weeks; it's a tournament and if we're gonna win this then we'll have to meet in between the week other than Thursdays only." Karl says and we all agree. These are these season's most important games and might determine our futures.

I as co-captain and the others agree to be meeting two more times through the week; that is to say three times a week including our normal training day; Thursday since most of us are in school and doing our final years, so we involve weekends. The extra days are Tuesday and Sunday.

I arrive home around 6pm and go straight to take a shower and do my assignment. Around 8pm mom calls me down for dinner and I go downstairs and find everyone already at the table. We all seat and eat silently until dad decides to break the silence.

"How was your day?" he asks.

"Okay." I say as I nod.

"And practice?"

"Okay too, just that we're gonna need some extra practice days." I reply.

"Well, good. Just wanna remind you that with all this practicing, I don't want to see failures like last." Dad says and I stop eating. Mom puts her hand on my back to cool me down.

"What failure?" I ask as I've never lost a game.

"The failure-" Dad begins but mom cuts him mid-sentence.

"Honey, please. Milan won the game." Mom says.

"I know, but that doesn't mean he's a good enough player ." Dad says holding out a napkin to clean his hands.

"That's why you're a player yourself, right?" I say angrily and leave the fork on the table; push my chair backwards and get out of the table.

"Milan, baby, Milan!" mom calls out and I just exit. Dude, I'm your only child and I'm trying my best. Like what's your problem?"

This is not even something new, this is what I go through every day and dad wants o make it hard for me here yet he'd never played and won basketball a single day. My head shoots up and I decide to call Real. She picks up after a few seconds and I wait for her to speak first.

"Hello, everything okay, Lan?" Real asks.

"Can you come over to my house?"

"Hell no, it's 10 damn o'clock, prolly to eleven. What's the big whoop. Everything okay?"

"No, everything was okay, until dad decided to be a dick by saying I'm not a good enough player." I tell her.

"Aren't you?"

"Of course, I am. I'm the best, everyone says so except him."

"If it's not true, then why does it bother you?"

Real has a point. She's always been better to talk to than Maria.

"You need to face every challenge head-on and calling you something you're not. Hello, I'm I communicating?"

"Yeah, thanks Real, for being of great help."

"That's what friends are for and you should really know that complaining is a strategy, but a tactic."

"A tactic?"

"Make it a point Lan, or else I'm hanging up." Real says, I can't let her hang up just now, so I make it a point.

"Good, you don't need justification, which is proof that your father's wrong and you're right."

I can't believe someone understands me; it's like she's known me in like forever. I've never met anyone like her; she seems to have a solution to every problem. She tells me to not let my ego speak for me, but I should always speak from the heart. There's a knock on the door.

"Baby, it's me. please open up." I hear moms from the other side.

"It's my mom. I'll see you tomorrow, goodnight." I tell Real on the phone and go to the door to find mom carrying a glass of juice. I leave the door open and go back inside to seat on the bed and she puts the glass on the table and wraps me in a hug.

"Oh baby, I was so worried it'd shoot up. What took you so long?" Mom says putting a palm on my cheek and I face away to remove it.

"I called someone I trusted would help."

"Of course, you did. I brought you juice, you didn't finish your food." Mom says holding out the glass and I just give a blank stare without even lifting a finger.

"Please have it. I can't stand you going to bed on an empty stomach when you're mad at your dad."

I tell her how dad's so screwed up, how he wants me to eat, drink, breathe and live basketball, yet in the ended I'll die Milan. She stops me from talking about death and that dad only wants the best for me, which I don't see; one thing is clear, I won't be like him. Mom waits 'till I finish my drink and gives me a kiss on the forehead as goodnight. As soon as she leaves, my door cracks open; it's dad.

"Just wanted to check up on you. Sleep tight and don't forget to close all the windows to avoid insects from getting in." Dad says and slums the door. that's how it's always been; he can't say sorry. He knows mom does that every night.