The Countdown

Softly blinking out of his sleep, Zakari let out a breath, hearing the alarm clock scream at him. He sighed sitting up on the bed and staring into space for a minute—before leaving out of his room to the bathroom. He had to turn off the damn alarm cause it was pissing him off, it was too early for that shit. Since his little brother, Zavier, had to be in school later than him, he had lots of time to get ready. He made sure to take a good shower last night, so all he had to do was simply wash his face, and brush his teeth good. It was his routine since his elementary days.

After completing getting his hygiene together, Zakari took off his durag, before putting on black sweats, a white hoodie with a rose in the top corner on it, and air forces—making sure to put a white beater underneath it.

It was the early days of September, meaning it was starting to get chilly outside. A couple days before the summer had ended, he started putting all his summer clothes to the back—and brung his winter clothes forward. Which he had his brother do the same.

Once he was done with himself, he went into Zavier's room, and picked out an orange shirt that had the looney tunes characters on it, black jeans, with his all orange Reebok shoes. He also had grabbed a black jacket for him, in case Zavier ended up getting cold.

Sitting on the bed, he softly tapped and rubbed his 7 year old brother's back, until he began to wake up. When she acted like an actual mother to him, Zara, used to bang on the pots and pans—consecutively until he awoke. He hated it, and wouldn’t ever do it to Zavier or his kids, that was if he was gonna have any.

Soon enough, Zavier's eyes had fluttered open. Shielding the light from his eyes, he began rubbing them. Zakari then stepped back, because he knew that Zavier was about to yawn. And that breath was definitely gonna be kicking.

"Time for school Zay, go to the bathroom and wash up." He told him and Zavier nodded, scratching his back, making Zakari winced as he did it. His little brother was double-jointed, so he was able to reach all the way back. It looked really weird to Kari.

"When you finish, your clothes are on your dresser. After that get the storage bin thing, so I can do your hair." He told the mahogany toned boy and Zavier nodded.

While he got ready, Zavier checked the time. Surprised that they had a good amount of time left, took it upon himself to cook some bacon and eggs. Noticing they didn’t have any more bread, he decided that he’d have to use what they had—which were bagels.

By the time the food was done, Zavier was coming into the room, fully dressed. He had the container in his hands, his jacket hanging on his left shoulder, and asking for his hair to be done. "Sit right there," Kari nodded to the circled dining table.

Sitting on the wooden chair, Zakari put his plate in front of Zavier, before grabbing the soft square container, with the oval in the middle. "All this hair you got. You wanna cut it?" Zakari asked him, grabbing the brush, putting water on it.

"No," Zavier told him straight, making him chuckle. He greased his hair and brushed it to the top—showing how Zavier sides were cut. Zakari had saved up during his summer job. It was not anything too big, he simply did it at the Recreation center every since he was in 9th grade.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough money for them to go clothes shopping with, but he did have enough for them to at least get a haircut, and all the necessary school supplies they needed. All he was able to do was get them that and new under clothes.

Tying his hair up with a hair tie, Zakari let him eat. He ate himself and made sure to check the time. "You ready?" Zakari asked him as Zavier fumbled putting on his jacket, which was so cute to Zakari.

"Yeah," His little voice said, but Zakari pointed at him.

"You put on Vaseline?" He asked his brother and Zavier made a yikes face, before running back into his room.

Chuckling to himself, he swiped some carmex on his lips, waiting for his little brother to come back. Once they were ready and set to go, Zakari helped him with his jacket, and book bag—before leaving out, making sure to not forget his own.

Zakari locked the door back with his key, and the two began to make their three block journey to his brother's school. It wasn’t that long, it just took a small minute. The good thing about Zavier's school, was that they had a bus stop near it. Meaning, Zakari could ride it to get to his school, which was way farther to get to, than his. It was all the way in Walnut Hill, and his bus came too early in the morning. Sad part was, he couldn’t catch it—because he had to get Zavier ready.

"You ready for your first day of second grade?" Zakari asked him and Zavier nodded. It was like he was a full blown parent. He did everything that Zara didn’t do, plus more. A couple months before Zavier was born, their father Zamir, had gone back to his station up in Korea as a Navy Seal. And could barely call, so Zakari hadn’t heard from him in an entire year.

The only thing he knew was that his father got to come back every 7 years, meaning he was coming back soon, because Zavier turned 7 over the summer. He really hoped it was gonna be soon too. But while his father was gone, he just had to take on the responsibility as a big brother—because he refused to just leave his little brother to fend for himself.

Zakari had continued to make conversation with his little brother, until they arrived in front of his school—making Kari bend down to his level. Handing 5 dollars in his direction, Zakari pulled it back, before he could touch it. "I better see a green smiley face on that behavioral report when I check your bag today. You hear me?" He raised a brow.

Zavier nodded rapidly and Zakari gave him one last skeptical look, before handing him the 5 dollar bill. "I know you can get one of those cookies or a rice crispy treat with that." He said and Zavier hugged his neck.

"Thank you," He said and Zakari smiled.

"You welcome. Now go ahead because I have to leave," He said and Zavier laughed a bit, before going in his school, all while Kari watched, wanting to be certain he was in the building—before he left.

Standing up, Zakari then began to wait for the bus. Once it took him to his destination, he got off. Strapping the book bag on his right shoulder, he walked in by the homestead parking lot, since kids were no longer allowed to walk in the front. Reason for this was that, it was mandatory for a bookbag search.

Once the bookbag search was done, Zakari began walking to his first class, which was in the East wing. Walking into his home room, he was shocked to see no one was in there. He honestly was happy, because now he could pick whatever seat. He decided to sit right in the middle, not too far up, and not too far back. It was the best seat. 5 minutes had passed and slowly but surely—students began to fill the seats.

The teacher, who he learned was Ms Morgan, finally came in with her purse on her shoulder and another bag. She sat them down on her desk and stood. Morgan was about to speak to her class, but there was a knock, causing her to sigh.

"Why are you late Mr. Walker?" She looked at the boy.

"Sorry Ms Morgan, but Coach Wilson needed me for a minute. Then we ended up getting a little sidetracked." The boy pleaded his case.

Not even realizing, Zakari caught himself staring at the boy. He was literally majestic like in Zakari's eyes. His sepia skin had glistened under the light, making the silver studded piercing he had in his nose, glitter. He had on what seemed to be a black turban wrapped perfectly on his head, a black and red Eazy-E graphic tee, with black jeans that had rips in the knees, finishing the outfit off with his red metallic Jordan 4s—which sat comfortably on his feet.

"Mhm," Ms Morgan gave him a skeptical look , folding her arms. "I'll talk with him to confirm it, but for now hurry and take a seat." She rolled her eyes and he smiled, going in, as people looked at him. It made Zakari quickly take his eyes off of him.

"Damn. Mufuckas staring all up in my face," He mugged them all, as he sat down in the seat directly behind Zakari, since it was the only one empty.

"Language Walker, you get another strike and you're out of my class."

"Aight man," Kieran huffed, sliding down in the seat, annoyed with the lady already.

"Alright, since it's only the first day we won't do much. I want you to make up a story or anything you prefer to write about. Front and Back, it won’t be graded." She told them as everyone nodded, taking out supplies.

"Aye bro," Kieran whispered, tapping Zakari on the shoulder.

Zakari turned around, looking at the boy who was filled with melanin. "Wassup?" Kari kept his cool.

"You got paper and pencil?" He said as Zakari mentally rolled his eyes, going into his bookbag. Cause how the fuck it was the first day and you didn’t have anything? After giving Kieran the sheets of paper and pencil he turned back around, focusing on his work.

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After his long ass economic and calculus classes, Zakari was finally at lunch. This was new for him, in all his 3 years of highschool, he never seemed to get last lunch. But apparently almost everything was different this year. He walked into the line, and saw that it was nachos and cheese being served today.

Honestly he was okay about it, cause it was lowkey good. But he saw they had a type of meat on some of the plates and it looked like slob, causing his face to scrunch up. As the lunch lady was about to put a plate on the top for him to grab, he quickly asked. "Can I get just cheese on mine?" Zakari hoped and she nodded, but he could see she had an attitude, by the way she snatched a clean plate from the stack.

"All these special requests," Zakari could hear her mumble, and he fought the entire urge to get upset. But for some reason it pissed him off to the max, she acted like he was asking for the world or something. Getting the plate, he put his lunch number in, before leaving out to the sitting area.

Finding a seat, Zakari sat by himself, putting the styrofoam plate on the table. Taking out his iPhone SE, he began to scroll up and down on his IG timeline. He didn’t have any followers or anything, he was simply all over boring. But he liked it this way sometimes. No drama or fake friends to worry about, it was the best.

Zakari was really the quiet type. He didn’t talk, but he could listen. There were so many things that happened around school that he knew about, only because he kept his mouth shut. Minding his business as usual, Zakari could hear the loud ass conversation the middle table was having. It consisted of Kieran, a couple other boys who were previously on the team, along with some cheerleaders.

"Yeah you know Coach Wilson doing tryouts next week, and I'm going obviously. I'll have to carry like I do every year." Kieran bragged, flexing his arms, and sitting on top of the circular lunch table. Whilst, freshly cleaned Jordan 4s sat on the, seat instead of the floor like they were was supposed to be.

Zakari heard him loud and clear, even perking up a bit. He always wanted to be on the team, but he didn't have enough confidence, and he was sure his mom wouldn't be able to pay for all the equipment that was needed, like the uniform. But this year that would change.

Zakari already considered getting a job, so he could pay for it himself. Over the summer he grew a lot, and did small things like push ups and sit ups—just overall getting his body right. In fact, after his job, he always went to the basketball court.

More preferably, when nobody but himself was there, pushing and training himself. And with Zavier being his hype man, and mini trainer. He in fact grew a nice muscular tone body, with a 6 pack, that was also forming into a 8 pack body. It felt good too. So this year, Zakari wasn't going to let anything stop him.

The only thing there was to worry about, was finding someone who could watch his brother. He definitely didn’t want Zavier at the house by himself, with his mom there especially

Zakari listened to the rest of the conversation, and Kieran mentioned damn near everything about the upcoming tryouts. He would've took what Kieran said and ran with it, but he wasn't stupid. Zakari then made sure to make a mental note, to have a talk with the coach after school.

Seeing the time was 12:42, Zakari quickly made his way to the big trash can, and threw the half-eaten chips in it. He went back to the table he was at and grabbed the black nylon bookbag. Before he could fully adjust the strap on his shoulder, the bell rang—meaning lunch time was up, and it was time to go to your next class.

Since his last class was all the way in the South wing, he wasted no time. Walking outside, he walked on the pavement that led to the South wing's building. Kids were also passing through the way, and Zakari ended up holding the door for somebody.

It was a girl, she was really pretty too. Her dark bronze skin, had shined beautifully in the sunlight. Even though she was wearing a bit of makeup, she definitely didn’t need it. Her eyebrows weren’t that bold, but they were arched, enhanced by the pencil she used. She also had a fake pair of eyelashes, sitting on her nice almond shaped eyes. Along with a pair of glasses, perching on her cute petite nose, going down to her thick and full lips. It was Zakari's very first time seeing her. If Zakari didn’t only like boys, then he’d definitely try to get with her. That’s how fine she was to him.

It wasn’t like he knew everyone in the school, because of course he didn’t. It was just when you go to school with the same people for years, you remember names and faces. But this girl, Zakari’s never seen. Maybe she was new. "Thank you," She gave him a small smile, and he simply nodded.

Walking into the building, they both didn’t realize how they were walking side by side. Feeling the friendly tension, Autumn spoke up, because she really did need some help. "Uhm you think you could maybe tell me where the Barbering class is?" She stopped, reading her schedule.

"Oh uhm just come wit' me. I got that same class right now," Zakari told her and she nodded, pushing her glasses up—following behind him.

"You freshman?" Kari fake assumed, to get an answer to the question he’d been asking himself. Of course he knew she wasn’t a freshman, she had to be a junior at least. He just wanted to see if she was new here.

"Nah, I’m a senior, and I’m new here. I moved down here with my Dad like a couple weeks ago and stuff." Autumn shrugged, wiping her pants, and he nodded.

Appearing front of the class, on the door was a paper covered in a sheet protector, that said the teacher's name—and Barbering under it.

They saw the teacher's name on their schedules, which was Johnathan Forbis. Going in, they saw the actual chair station you’d see, if you were to go into an actual hair shop, or in this case barbershop. They also glanced at all of the mannequin heads.

"Good evening! Can I see your schedules?" He asked and they gave it to them.

"Well alrighty then. You can go sit in the classroom portion," He pointed to an open door, where they could see the long tables, and a big board right in the front.

"Wanna sit in the back?" Zakari asked her, rubbing his hand over his waves.

"Yeah," Autumn simply spoke, and followed him to the back of the class.

Students had sat in seats and Mr Forbis gave them a paper, telling them to write down everything they knew about hair or doing it.

This was kinda easy for Zakari, because his mother used to be a hairstylist before everything went south with her. And that’s the crazy thing he always thought about. It wasn’t always bad living with her, he could vividly remember the day things changed. It hurt him to his core to see how his mother was to him now.

More activities had been asked of them and before the two knew it, they’d been talking, and joking with each other the entire time—as if they knew each other. Maybe this having a friend thing wasn’t so absurd, Zakari thought.

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The last bell sounded off and the sea of teenagers rushed out their seats to go outside. He put his book bag on his left shoulder, and was about to start leaving, before Autumn stopped him. "I hope I don’t sound weird or anything, but you give off a nice vibe, and you’re funny to be around. I don’t have any friends around here. But uhm, you seem like you could be one." She told him.

"Sure, I’m surprised a little, cause I personally think I can be really boring." Zakari let out and her eyes widened. She would’ve never thought he said something like that. He was a little awkward at first, but as they continued to get each other, he opened up like a book.

"I’m shocked you said that—and here," Autumn unlocked her phone. "We finna be bestiessss." She gushed, causing a slight blush to form on his cheeks.

𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙣🍁

𝙯𝙖𝙠𝙖𝙧𝙞⚡️

Autumn had left to get on the school bus before they pulled off, while Zakari walked to the gym—which also was a separate building. Going in he could see the big words of Oliver's Gym Department. It was named after Henry Oliver I.

Their current coach's father and grandfather had worked at the school as the main coach, so the school honored them all—by naming it the Henry Oliver gym. He hoped the doors were opened, due to sometimes they were locked.

Going in, Zakari had walked all the way to the back, which was passed the court. He knew he had about another 15 until the bus came, so he had to hurry, and make this quick. Knocking on the coach's door, he stepped back. "Come in," Zakari could hear someone yell, making him take a deep breath, before opening the door.

Walking in he saw that Kieran was in there, sitting in the cureton patio chair, opposite of Coach who sat on his rolling chair—typing what seemed to be a document of some sort. "Damn he stay on this man dick," Zakari thought, as they both looked at him.

"Name?" Coach Oliver asked.

"Zakari Moore. I was wondering if I could try out for the basketball team this year." He said, getting straight to the point.

"You sure about that?" Coach raised a brow. The boy looked like he could probably be a good player. Coach Oliver could definitely imagine his build through the hoodie he wore.

"Yes sir," He said and the Coach nodded his head.

"Okay well tryouts are next week, on Tuesday after school. Y'all get out of school at 2:30, so I should see you in my gym by 2:45. The final cuts will be posted right outside the gym that Friday. If you make it, I’m gonna give you a permission slip for you, and your parents or guardian to sign. Along with the required equipment list."

"Yes sir, that's perfect, see you Tuesday." Zakari said, trying to stop the smile that formed on his face.

"I'm looking forward to it." Coach said as he walked out the door, releasing a breath he didn't know he had in.

Zakari was ready for real this time. No more of him being in the shadows, it was time for his spotlight now. He could feel it. Blood rushing through his veins as his excitement, Zakari smiled all the way to the bus stop. The next thing now was finding a job.