Star Crossed

Chapter one| Just the opposite.

"Ms. Hunter, can you explain what the meaning of one of Shakespeare's famous quotes; The only evil angel is love." Her head quickly rose from the cherry wood desk. She was not fully awake yet, but had to think of something quick.

"Well Professor Hunter, I think the evil angel represented love, and how people make it out to be so great and it makes you happy, but sometimes it can be so sinister and so dark. Like Romeo and Juliet; even though their family hated each other, they were in love, but in the end; they killed themselves..so in the end the Good was really the bad." She finished and smile.

"Well done" He winked at her, then down at his wrist. "Class dismissed, remember The Hamlet summary and outline is due on Thursday not monday." He said loudly. The class room quickly cleared as the 45 kids cleared the room. He looked at her. "Ms. Hunter" He started she laughed.

"Dad you call me Natasha now" She laughed. They never brought their daughter and Father relationship into the class room, she kept the mushy stuff to a minimum and he made sure he never played favorites.

"Natasha, I told you about falling asleep in my class, long night. I did not here you get in until three this morning." He said looking at her suspiciously. She laughed playing it cool.

"The girls and I spent an all night cramming for Professor Fenty's The history of Art test" She spoke, the lie flew off her tongue like saliva; If her father only knew what she was really doing.

"Good sweetheart, you get Straight A's."

Benz!" She cheered excitedly. "The hummer is starring to go outside plus, I need a cute car for a cute girl." She joked.

"Bye!" He laughed as his next class students started coming in. "See you at dinner" He whispered. Natasha's Father was one of the most prestigious English Professors at Virginia Tech. He was well educated, respected, and rich. Natasha never grew up in the hood, she had both her parents, and she didn't even know what being on welfare was like; but she was able to attend an all black high school, with daddy's permission; So some of her friends were just like the girls you seen BET and stereo-tipical black movies. Ghetto, loud, and proud; Natasha on the other hand was the exact opposite.

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Shakim quickly scammed through his shoe boxes searching for the two thousand dollars he had saved in the past two months. He couldn't find it; it was gone. He went into his mother living room, and sat directly across from her. She starred back oblivious to his lengthy visit. "I can't find my money." He said simply. She turned looking him directly into his brown orbs.

"Shakim, I don't know what to tell you." She replied. She rolled his eyes.

"Did you take my money?" He asked. She didn't respond, he grabbed her by her neck and choked her. "Where the fuck is my money?" He repeated this time his voice was louder and more stern then before.

"We needed some food, and they were going to shut off the lights!" She finally screamed telling him the truth.

"okay where is the rest of it?!" He said letting go of her neck.

"Benny has it, I told him to buy the kids some clothes." She said, tears started flowing down her eyes.

"How long has he been gone?" he demanded. "How long?"

"Four days" She said still crying. He knew he should have kept his money with him. He didn't trust his mother and his junkie of a step-father. From the week he started hustling some of his things started to slowly disappear; Then he moved out keeping his money hidden and his door locked.

"Un-fucking believable; you are so stupid, that nigga is probably somewhere getting high; two-thousand dollars" He shook his head. He had no respect for his mother, as a recovering addict and at the age of forty, she was just now getting her life together. As a youngling, Shakim had his childhood taken away at the tender age of 11, which kids where watching TV and having play dates with friends, he was going in and out of crack houses searching for his mother and taken care of his two younger siblings; Shalynn and Dajai. When he turned 14 he knew what it was time to do; time to grind, time to shine, and time to paper chase. He had to take care of himself, nobody else would. No he was officially grown; handling his own business that was 19 years too late to play mother; he had been fed, sheltered, and nursed by the streets, and he didn't want it any other way. Most kids his age were entering college, partying, and traveling. He was just the opposite.

Natasha entered her empty house like she did everyday, she went up to her empty room, and flopped down on her bed. As always her phone started to ring. "Who's this?" She replied.

"It's Breonna" the voice over the phone said. Natasha smiled, Breonna was her bestfriend, and just like many of her friends she was from the hood. Natasha lived in the Rich part of the city, Northeast. While Breonna lived on the west side; which they nicknamed The 'Badlands' for it's high crime and many drug related killings.

"Hey boo" She smiled. They had been friends since ninth grade and best friends since their sophmore year. "What's popping tonight?" She asked. No matter what time of year it was, there was always partys from tuesday until monday only giving them one day to cool off.

"Well, Their is party in the badlands tonight at Fifth and Mac, follow the music and wear something cute." She replied.

"Say no more." Natasha smile hanging up the phone, she was partier, a drinker, and a smoker; and she kept it all under wraps. She loved to party in the city, even though she wasn't allowed. Father forbid her even to drive down there, or drive past there, to him that was city limits. If he ever found out, he would go crazy. But that never stopped her from going down their, and that wasn't going to stop her tonight. Most girls from her side of town, stayed away from there, they where scared to enter that part of that town, but she was opposite.
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The early morning events had ruining the rest of his day. His sales weren't as good as usually, and the cops had came through his way about three times; luckily he had other amounts of cash scatter around his apartment that he had purchased to get away from his mother and her boyfriend. "Yo, you cool?" His best friend Barry asked him. He nodded; Shakim wasn't really one for words, you could usually see his expressions. and how he was feeling through his face, mainly his eyes. He wasn't shy, there just wasn't many things that he needed to say and anything that people needed to know. "You sure?" Barry asked agian.

"Yeah" He said.

"Man, no you not; but I know what will cheer you up." He smiled. "You know Lil` Lauren from fifth, shorty throwing a party and all the bitches gon` be there." he explained with a smile on his face.

"You know I don't do parties." He replied. "But I guess I'll go." He was more of a private person; that's what kept him under the radar; he was never a show off and never bragged about the things he had, he didn't need too, but like many other guys he liked girls, but he when it came to love he was choosey, not running around having sex with every girl that spread her legs, he liked them just the opposite.