Who Needs Smoking

Josh come down here,” I heard my mom yell from the kitchen. I got up from playing xbox to see what she wanted.

“Your teacher just called me and told me that you have been distracting the class and not doing work.”

“I was just having fun with my friends, I didn’t think I was being a distraction,” I said.

“Well how do you explain the undone work?”

“I didn’t feel like doing it.”

“I don’t feel like paying your phone bill or paying for cable, so you are ground from all electronics.”

“So go to your room and do the work you haven’t done,” she said.

This is just great. Now I have to go to my room and sit there and do the homework my mom thinks I care about. I can’t play any games or watch tv. I have nothing to do now. I’ll call my friends and see if they want to go to the park.

“Hello.”

“Hey Ron, do you want to go to the park. We can get all the guys together and play some basketball and have a smoke.”

“It sounds good to me. I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.”

“Okay, see you in a little.”



I’m about six foot tall and I am black, so not many people try to bother me. I am into the wrong type of things and I try to stop, but I can’t. My friends and I go to the park quite a bit. We play basketball and smoke weed. I know, I’m too young and I should not be smoking, but I cannot quit. I will see if Steve wants to go now. Steve is a small kid that never really had any friends. We picked him up and he caught to our habits and started smoking because we told him it is cool.

“Hello,” Steve said.

“Hey Steve, do you want to come to the park today and have some smokes.”

“Huh, I guess so.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The smoking is getting to me. I am getting addicted and I need to slow down on it. If my parents found even a trace of it with me, my life would be over before I know it.”

“Okay if you want, you don’t have to.”

“Whatever. See you on twenty.”

Great now I have one of my good friends trying to quit on me. The last call I needed to make was to Carl.

“I know what you are going to ask before you ask it. I’ll go, but I am not smoking with you guys,” says Carl.

“That’s okay; you don’t have to, but bring a basketball.”

“Okay, bye.”

Suddenly my mom burst into my room.

“I thought I told you that no electronics were allowed,” she said.

“I was seeing if the boys wanted to go to the park.”

“Well get off your lazy butt and walk to their houses to ask them.”

She took my phone and left the room. I threw my jacket on and slipped my shoes on and was ready to leave. Then I remember that I forgot the cigarettes. When I get to the park, my friends are all ready having a light. I walk up and join them. I pull out a cig and light it. We stand around and smoked for about half an hour. I don’t know why I like smoking so much, but it makes me feel comfortable. After we are done we went and played some two on two basketball for about another hour and then went home.

I wake up the next morning still feeling the aftermath from the smokes. On the bus I just sit in the seat and slept for I knew the day would bore me so I tried to get a few extra minutes of sleep. My day was instantly ruined when I walk in and Kevin, this huge nerd, runs into me. He thinks he can beat me up and he wants to very badly. He starts pushing me and was cursing at me even though I’m like six inches taller than him. Then the fight started. The end result was Kevin on the ground with a small blood puddle from his broken nose dripping.

When I get home my mom says, “I got a call from school again today. Normally I would be mad that you got into a fight, but since it was that Kevin boy, I don’t care.”

“Since you are here I should tell that a letter came in the mail. It says that they are closing down the park to make space for new houses,” mom says.

“What!!!”

“Yeah, I knew you would be upset. There really isn’t anything you can do, but find a new place to play basketball and hang out with your friends.”

“They can’t do this. That is our spot. They cannot just come in and tear it down.”

“I’m sorry, but they can.”

Upon hearing this I go and call all my friends again to tell them the news. They all say that their parents already told them. They ask me where we were going to smoke from now on. Since I’m the leader of my crew, I had to take action.

When I wake up I get on the bus and headed to school. Everyone that had enjoyed the park at one time was now depressed. Not only was the park used for my friends and me, but with recreation purposes and family time. I am walking down the hall and guess who I run into again. It was Kevin. This time he didn’t want to fight with me.

“I know that you go to the park as much as me” Kevin said.

Kevin plays baseball for like five different teams, so he is always at the park.

“Yeah, but what are we going to do about it,” I said.

“I am not too sure, but one thing I am sure of is that they will not get away with tearing down the park. There are a ton of sports played there and it is a good place to hang out. You would know about that one. I’m against what you do, but I agree with you that tearing down the park is a terrible thing.”

“My friends and I are standing in front of the gate when the demolition crew is there and not letting them in,” I say.

“That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. No wonder you fail every class you take. The only career you have a chance of getting when you’re older is wheeling and dealing drugs. You are such a crack baby, you stupid crack hea-.”

At this moment I was infuriated at Kevin and I knew what he was about to say so I punch him right in the face. All my friends were standing around me, watching me maul Kevin to a bloody lump. I felt four arms hook around. Two teachers were grabbing me trying to pry me off him.

The teachers succeeded to get me off and I was fighting with them to get back to him. No one has ever dared call me a crack baby or what he was about to say next.

“You just wait for your next baseball game. I will be waiting at the park for you and whip you even harder!!!!” I say.

The next thing I know, my mom was in the office waiting for me. No words were spoken to me from her on the way home. We got home and she finally starts to talk to me.

“I don’t care that you fought that little twerp kid again. That boy’s mom has always thought she was so much better than everyone, so I’m glad you beat him up. The thing is I’m tired of the fact you are always in trouble,” she says.

Trying to think of something to get me out of the hole I say, “Kevin is the only one I get in fights with though.”

“It doesn’t matter; it makes you look bad as well as me.”

“Okay, I will try to stop fighting. You should have heard what he was going to call me though.”

“Unless someone hits you first, from now on no more fights.”

“Okay, I’m going to my room to call the boys and see if they want to go to the park.”

“Be good.”

I am walking up to my room to go call the boys.

“Hello”

“Ron, go to the park now.”

“Okay.”

“Hello.”

“Steve, go to the park now”

“Okay.”

“Hello.”

“Carl, go to the park now”

I am walking to the park when I see an ad for new homes coming soon where the park is. I am ticked. So I start running to get to the park faster. When I get there my friends are waiting for me outside the gate.

“Are you seeing these signs everywhere, Josh,” Ron says.

“Yeah, they are starting to make me mad,” I say.

“What are we going to do about it,” he says.

“What is the date they say they are going to start tearing it down.”

“This Saturday, it says.”

“Okay.”

We all go in and have a smoke for a while. Then we walk over to the basketball courts and play two versus two. We are all silent because we are sad that our park is getting torn down.

My week is flying by and it is Friday night. My friends and I are at the park with signs and flags for an attempt to stop them tomorrow. Ron put a fallen down tree across the road so the crew can’t get in. I turn my alarm clock on my phone on so we can be woken up early tomorrow. We go to the playground and try to get some sleep for a couple of hours. I wake up from my alarm clock the next morning and I wake my friends up. We take a long smoke so we have that feeling that nothing can hurt us. We go over to the pile of signs. I see the trucks down the road a bit coming to destroy our park. We are standing at the entrance chanting and waiting for the trucks. Up behind us I see a huge group of people. As they get closer I see a ton of baseball jerseys. Leading the pack, I see Kevin. I see everyone in the group with a sign in their hands.

When they get up to us I ask Kevin what he was doing.

“If you can’t beat them join them as I say. What do you say Josh, you want to quit fight and become friends. And for the most part, stop these jerks from tearing down our park.”

I am completely stunned. Kevin wanted to be my friend and was being friendly.

“Deal” and we start shaking hands.

I see the trucks right outside the gates. The driver looks surprised. Our entire group starts chanting and shaking our signs. The driver honks his horn at us, but none of us move. He trucks turn around and start to leave. The entire group starts to cheer. I turn and Kevin is waiting for a high five so I give him one.

A week later, I wake up and head to the park. My friends and I have been going there a lot lately as a way of saying good bye. I get there and my friends are there playing basketball. We don’t smoke anymore because we see that it isn’t just bad, but there are things that are more important. We see that having the park is more important than smoking and getting high. We come to the park everyday now.

I start home. I get home and am surprised by mom.

“Guess what Josh.”

“What.”

“The town saw how much all you kids care about the park so they are deciding no to tear it down.”

At this I am about to scream.

I wake up the next morning feeling great. I get to school and everyone is happy and is talking about the park. Kevin comes up to me and starts to talk. I still don’t like him much, but I will let him think that I like him. All was good again around here. I was happy and since I stopped smoking my grades have gone up. My new good grades make my mom happy. Life is better when you don’t smoke.





Michael Collins