🌎 🌎 “Path to Manhood” by Dane C. Hawkins

In Mike’s dorm, with everyone now caught up on the events of the evening, Duc and Ovaughn are both wondering why Jairus is so upset. They get the point he is making about Monique having a relationship but can’t seem to understand why he seems to be internalizing it so much. Jairus is getting more and more frustrated that they don’t feel as strongly as he does. For him, his friends should be sympathetic to the boyfriend’s situation since they saw the same thing happen to him. If they are so careless and flippant about the situation with Mike messing with a girl who has a boyfriend, did they really care about him when he got hurt? Mike is increasingly frustrated by Jairus’ unwillingness to hear his side of the story, feeling like he already knows what Mike will say. Mike is trying to not mess with Monique even though things have gotten a bit out of his control. Unfortunately for them all, no one communicates what they are really thinking and only argues in frustration, defensively responding to what is wrong with what someone else said. It is mostly just Mike and Jairus going back and forth. That is until Mike reaches his boiling point and emotionally blurts out, “Tell me what I am supposed to do when the only chick that likes me has a man? Since you so worried about me, then help me find a relationship like yours!” Jairus pauses in shock because this comment, albeit in frustration, seems a lot more vulnerable than Mike has been thus far. Now Jairus starts to feel empathy even though he stands by his belief and rather than continuing to make him feel bad he just ends the conversation by saying “Man, do whatever the fuck you want. Don’t come to me when that nigga come looking for you.”

Mike is pissed at Jairus for that last comment, but he is even more pissed at himself for saying what he said. He doesn’t feel like he even knows why he said it. And now, even with Jairus’ quick exit, the room is still awkward. Which is what led Ovaughn to make his own quick exit saying he will go talk to Jairus. Now with only Mike and Duc left in their room there is only one thing left for Duc to say. “So what actually happened between you and Monique?”

For the next couple of weeks things appear normal for the group of friends but they know it is still something wrong because even though both Mike and Jairus are around at times there isn’t a lot being said between them. After receiving the full story of what happened Duc is certain he can get Jairus to see that he overreacted to things and nothing big has really happened, but Mike tells him to just leave it alone. Duc doesn’t fight him especially since his biggest take away from the story is that they opened Jazzy Belles with an open mic event that was somewhat successful. He has already had an initial conversation with Angie, and she told him the crowd she is aiming for and how she wants to tap into some of the more mature college crowd if she can. Which is where he will come in. In those following weeks he brought the open mic up as a recurring event every week along with other ideas of things Angie and he can do to bring a crowd to Jazzy Belles. Angie is receptive to most of Duc’s ideas, and they enter into a handshake agreement after he provides her with details about his success in throwing parties on campus.

Ovaughn isn’t as easily distracted during this time although he has the biggest reason to worry about his own issues. He continually tries to bring it up to Jairus and Mike separately hoping that he can talk them through it, but they always find ways to avoid the conversation or just tell him it’s fine and not to worry about it. At the same time, he is going through a major transition with his place on the basketball team. As the star shooting guard on the team, Bastian, comes back to play after healing his twisted ankle Ovaughn is sent back to a role coming off the bench. It’s not something he isn’t expecting. Spence is a senior and isn’t going to lose his spot after three years starting and the now healed shooting guard is the best player on the team. The coaches realize what type of player they have a lot better now and increase his playing time. Now instead of the end of the bench he is operating as the 6th or 7th man getting as much playing time as anyone not in the starting lineup. And as usual Kennedy and Mike are there in the stands for every minute he plays, along with others depending on their schedules. The best moment of the end of the season for Ovaughn is when Bastian comes to him during practice and tells him that he told the coach he wants to start working out with him in the offseason because they are going to “kill shit” the next two years as the wing duo. It is a sign to Ovaughn that his hard work is not only paying off with what seems like a starting spot next year but also with the respect of his coaches and teammates. All except Spence who now acts like he won some contest with Ovaughn since he maintained his starting spot for the rest of his last year.

During those couple of awkward weeks with the group Jairus finds himself having an internal struggle. After Mike’s last comments he grows more and more empathy no matter how much he tries to fight it but he’s not willing to show any form of support for his actions because it still feels like his friends don’t sympathize with what he went through. And the entire time he doesn’t talk to anyone about it until he eventually brings it up to Lisa one day when he can’t get the whole situation off his mind.

Being a card carrying tough New Yorker, Lisa doesn’t always give the softer responses Jairus wants from her, so he doesn’t always share emotional things with her as a guard. It’s just second nature for him and he doesn’t even realize he does it with her at times. But when he tells her about the situation, how he found out and was bothered, her first response was exactly what he didn’t want. “Son, why the fuck do you care so much?” Lisa blurted when she heard about the argument in Mike’s room. Trying to be open with Lisa, he explains how he feels about them not caring about what happened to him and how Mike was doing the same thing to this dude by dating her. Initially following the explanation Lisa looked at him with a look of confusion and then went into what felt like her explaining things to Jairus saying, “But you realize this has nothing to do with you and you are making it about you right?” Jairus is beginning to show signs of being frustrated with her now so she continues “nah, I’m not saying you can’t give your friend advice and let him know if he fucking up. But you are not Monique’s boyfriend. You didn’t come to college, get a girlfriend, and she was unsatisfied with your relationship so she started looking elsewhere. You have to realize that even though it feels familiar…that shit ain’t like what you went through. And you beefin’ with your boy over it.” Her words are beginning to make him think but his stubbornness isn’t letting her breakthrough and she can see it on his face. He’s giving her short responses at this point, and she sees him checking out, so she says one last thing. “If anything, you should be relating to Mike” Lisa says. This gets a big rise out of Jairus responding “How the hell you figure that shit?” To which Lisa responds “Let’s keep it real. He ain’t the only one who has had a thing for a girl who had a boyfriend in your crew. Or have you forgotten how we got together?” Jairus is shocked by the correlation she created and remains silent just looking at her from across the dorm room. “I mean, you said he went on a date with her and she kissed him. You walked me to class every day for months because you wanted to be with me and then fought my boyfriend. Which one sounds worse to you?” Jairus has always thought he and Mike have a lot in common, but he didn’t realize just how much until that moment. Now he is starting to feel hypocritical.

During the two-week period of awkwardness Mike tries to operate as business as usual. Mostly trying to get accustomed to working three to four days a week managing his schoolwork at the same time. He has a great first semester, so he doesn’t want the job to take him off track especially since it is going to be time to start looking for another internship soon and he is hoping for one that pays a bit better this time. Naturally he realizes that the weekends are the best time to wait tables and with Jazzy Belles being near a couple of churches Sunday seems to be a day he always does well. He works it out with his managers to work on Sundays as well as one other weekend night, Friday or Saturday, and then on Tuesday and Thursday because they are his lightest days for school. Now that Angie had begun to work with “Mike’s best friend” on the promotion for Jazzy Belles, the rest of his coworkers began to joke with him about being one of their favorites. And he’s smart enough to use his influence with Duc to suggest trying Tuesday or Thursday as the night to hold the weekly open mics. Duc takes to the idea of it being a weekday since it will probably mean increasing business on a day that isn’t usually going well.

After that time of getting used to juggling school and work Jazzy Belles started their weekly open mics on the last Tuesday in January. Mike was front and center waiting tables near the small stage where everyone would be performing. Duc drove him to work that evening since he would be there for the evening to manage and host the open mic. Angie made sure she was in attendance as well even though she wasn’t managing the floor that evening. The pressure was on for Duc but for him it was no sweat. He always handled things pretty well under pressure, having so much confidence in himself. That confidence was a huge part of why he was able to be such a people person, the skill he used to recruit students from their college to perform at the open mic. He had already spent time meeting the guys who sit on the yard in cyphers reciting lyrics with each other. He knew a few girls in the poetry club that met in the student union. He had come across quite a few of the students at the university's school of the arts. All of these people were exactly who he wanted at the open mic performing and he got about a dozen commitments for the show as well as others saying they would share it with others who may be interested. Now he was realistic and knew that some of these people wouldn’t show and although they may recruit some he couldn’t count on anyone he didn’t talk to himself. Therefore, he also made sure to have a DJ he worked with for some of his on campus parties to be there to help the atmosphere along when necessary. He just needed most of the people who had said they would come to show up and for them to invite their own friends to come and support them while they perform and it would be decent enough to start spreading the word.

That was precisely what he got that evening. The open mic started around 7 o’clock and knowing that this was a first for Duc, Ovaughn and Jairus showed up a little before the start to show their support. Tim and Chris rode with them as well wanting to check out the event. They made sure to sit in Mike’s section so they could talk to him about the open mic. It lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes before they ran out of performers. There were eight performers in total and they each had five minutes to perform their poem, spoken word, or songs. Duc also introduced the performers and spoke to the crowd before and after each performance realizing that the DJ wasn’t as important as the host in this setting. He also knew he did not want to do that himself moving forward. But that meant he had to find the right person to do that job. As the night progressed Mike kept making a point to come back to his friends table to comment on the different performers, most of which they recognized from school, as well as how Duc was doing. He noticed that Jairus seemed to be cracking a lot of jokes with him. And even joking with him about serving tables. To an outside observer it would have probably seemed like Jairus was taking shots at Mike. But with these friends having a relationship built around joking on each other when the opportunity arose this was something that had been missing between these two for the last couple of weeks. This felt like normal to Mike for the first time since that argument they had about Monique. And after that night nothing more had to be said to fix things. It was normal again.

After the show ended both Duc and Angie were good with how things went but knew there was room to grow. They needed a few more performers even though the turnout was okay for the first one. They also realized that the time between performances would have to tighten up if they got more than a dozen entrants with the restaurant closing at 9:00 p.m. on the weekdays. They also knew they had to increase the number of bystanders just coming to see the performers. That would be where the money would be. The performers come to perform. Patrons come to spend money. They were willing to see how word of mouth spread in a week or two but knew it may take more. They agreed that as long as things went this well or better from here then it’s a good start to keep the open mics weekly.

For the next few weeks Duc spent every Tuesday evening at Jazzy Belles as well as other occasional days where he tried out other ideas of how to take advantage of the space beyond just serving food. Win or lose Duc loved it because most of the time Mike was present as well and he enjoyed working in the same place as his friend. It really benefitted Mike because as long as Duc was going to the restaurant he didn’t have to worry about transportation to work and back. Unfortunately, Duc didn’t see a major improvement in the number of people coming to the open mic nights or any of the other nights. After his initial increase it pretty much leveled off up until this point. This challenged and frustrated Duc because he knew he could figure it out but Angie wanted results and the first couple of weeks weren’t as lucrative as he had hoped. So in an effort to maximize his efforts Duc made last minute plans to have a party on campus the Saturday after valentine’s day, the same day he and Angie planned to have a singles party at Jazzy Belles. Duc secured DJs for each venue coordinating everything with the working manager at Jazzy Belles to run things in his absence. He had to be on campus in order to have the party there and they had already done this before at the restaurant in his absence a couple of weeks earlier. This time he was surprised to find Angie investing in some flyers for the party at Jazzy Belles to promote and talked her into making some additional flyers that would generally promote the open mic Tuesday and a once a month lounge night on Saturdays. ***

The day of the parties, Duc started off the night dropping Mike off at work to wait tables for the singles night. By this point Mike was trying to get onto the schedule any time Duc had something going on there so he could reap the possible benefits of the added clientele. So naturally he did the most work helping to pass out flyers and get the word out on campus. They arrived at Jazzy Belles just before 5:00 p.m. and Duc immediately started making sure everything was in place and making sure any last minute needs from the manager and DJ were met before he departed. Before leaving he made sure that Mike would call his cell phone in case anything came up. Mike was scheduled to get off at 10:00 p.m. and was planning to come to the campus party afterwards, so he could be the eyes and ears in Duc’s absence.

As Duc travels between venues, he is invigorated. He gets a kick out of event planning and having multiple events he is coordinating in the same night gave him a rush similar to how Ovaughn must feel competing in a basketball game. This is Duc’s court and the more pressure he has the more excited he is. His motivation for success is something he definitely inherited from his father and sister. When he reaches campus, he calls up a couple of people that he has ready to help him set up before grabbing some food to go from the caf and heading over to the sports facility. This part of the set up is commonplace for him as he has held multiple campus parties in the practice gym. The only difference this time is he is using his established venture to move along his new endeavor. As they decorate and move in audio equipment Duc is also trying to determine where to post flyers on the walls and where to place tables near the bathrooms with flyers on them, between his bites of dinner. He tapes a flyer to every wall, a small stack in opposite corners of the gym for the “wall flowers” to see, and a larger stack at the entrance to the party with the girls who collect the money for him to pass out as people enter or more importantly as they leave. He realizes that most people won’t keep the flyer but if he can get most of them to at least read it he can see a benefit. He also made sure to promise the DJ working the campus party the opportunity to work one of the monthly parties that pays much better, but he has to shout out Jazzy Belles and the flyer a few times throughout the night.

The evening progresses and both parties start. As Duc expects, he doesn’t hear much from Jazzy Belles since he has nothing to do at the restaurant and if his DJ is doing well, they will be fine on his end. Surprisingly, the gym party is more packed than he anticipates. Apparently, there are a lot of students on campus who don’t have anything to do on Valentine’s and want to take their minds off that fact. Even some of the folks that do have a Valentine for the weekend showed up. That includes Ovaughn and Kennedy as well as Jairus and Lisa. After seeing how packed the party is getting Duc calls Chris to make sure he came out and Carlos even shows, never missing a campus party since the first one he attended. It may be the one campus event he is always willing to pay for. Even Tim finds his way to the party with a few of his other friends in tow. The party is going great, and Duc sees the stack of flyers getting smaller as the night progresses while the number of flyers hitting the floor increases. He doesn’t have much concern. All he wants is to get the word out even though he did wonder if anyone actually keeps a flyer to spread the word.

Eventually Mike shows up at the gym party sometime after 10:30 PM. He is in time to catch the last couple of hours at the party. When he arrives, he seems singularly focused on finding Duc. With every familiar face he greets his first question is “you seen Duc?” Mike even came across Monique, who is more than pleased to see him and tries to distract him by pulling him towards the dance floor but he won’t be derailed and promises to come back after he finds Duc. He comes across Jairus, Lisa and her friends who point him in the direction of Chris and Carlos thinking Duc might be with them since they are all single and probably looking for women. The thought of Carlos being with Duc instantly makes him fearful. He knows his friend and Carlos’ recklessness mixed with feeling entitled by being associated with the person throwing the party is a recipe for disaster. Now his urgency increases and as he finds Chris moving through the crowd solo, as usual, he is eased by him informing him that Carlos had just gone to the bathroom, and they haven’t seen Duc in a while. But now he is back at square one. He is having one of those moments where you get frustrated when you can never find something you’re looking for, even though you know exactly where it was last. And by the time he decides he is giving up and it will just have to wait until later Ovaughn finds him and greets him. Naturally he asks Ovaughn “Where the hell is Duc?” Ovaughn looks at him with a look of confusion and points to the DJ on the stage at the front of the gym as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. Mike looks to see Duc up on the stage with the DJ looking onto the party and talking to the DJ and is embarrassed, not because it is an obvious location but because they are the only people in the room elevated above the party and the easiest ones to spot through the large crowd.

Finally making his way over to the stage to talk to Duc, he gets more excited to finally tell him what he’s been dying to get off his chest. Before he can even properly greet Duc, who sees him coming up, Mike blurts out, “Dog! Jazzy Belles was off the hook tonight!” Duc instantly starts grinning from ear to ear. Mike starts talking about how many tables he had that night and how much money he now has, how the bar area was packed with people crowded around, and how Angie even called in another bartender when she saw how busy it was getting. They even started clearing out tables to increase the makeshift dance floor area near the spoken word stage and asked the DJ at Jazzy Belles if he was willing to stay later since a line formed out front when they started to charge for entry after the kitchen closed at 10:00 p.m. The night couldn’t have been any more successful for Duc with one of his best turnouts for a campus party and his best turnout at Jazzy Belles, albeit in part due to Angie’s flyer idea for his event. He couldn’t care less. He finally got the best out of his ideas, and he knows the payday from that night is going to be the best he’s seen all school year. Something he desperately needs now that his parents aren’t funding him like they had previously. He looks out onto the crowd at the party, and soaks in the moment. He felt like a success.

However, that moment is short lived as Jairus comes up to the stage to call Mike’s attention to the death stare he is now catching from Monique from the dancefloor. Duc, shocked that Jairus is the one coming to tell Mike about Monique, then realizes they are at his best party this year and they should be enjoying it if nobody else does. He ushers his friends away from the DJs stage and back onto the dancefloor where they all began to party the night away. Or at least the last hour and a half of the party that was remaining. Mike found his way back over to Monique, who is giving him a look of disapproval as he approaches. Luckily for Mike he is on a natural high and isn’t going to let her pull him into her cat-and-mouse game that evening. He ignores her look and grabs her hand. “Let’s dance.” As much as he likes her, he isn’t going to go back and forth with someone in a crowded party, especially someone with a boyfriend. All she really wants is his attention and now that he is back, she smiles as they danced but she still wants to know why she hasn’t heard from him in the last couple of weeks. He doesn’t tell her he is avoiding her by blaming it on getting used to balancing his work schedule and school, telling her that as Jazzy Belles gets more crowded, he may pull back on his workdays in the week. She tells him how she wants to get back out to an open mic night now that they are doing them every week and how she really enjoyed the one they went to together. This is the first real moment they spend together since that night and once again Mike is beginning to enjoy spending time with her more than he wants to allow. Her charm works on him every time and they began to dance with each other entirely too close and he can’t bring himself to pull away as much as he knows he should. Fortunately for him, at this moment Carlos walks up and interrupts the affair. Better than anyone else Carlos can ground Mike back into reality, and he does just that as he forces him to introduce Monique. They all talk briefly before Carlos pulls him away to hang with their friends.

The rest of the night they have a ball and stay out on the yard until the middle of the night while all the people from the party still hang around. All except for Mike. As they are exiting Monique catches up with their group of friends to say goodnight to Mike, only she is completely alone. The friends she was with before are nowhere to be found and although she never asks him to, she knows Mike isn’t going to let her walk alone that late at night. As she expects he offers to make sure she gets to her dorm and departs with her. As they walk, they talk about how good the party was and once again she brings up wanting to go back to an open mic night. Mike has a legitimate reason he can’t go with her. Even though he does mention that he may be pulling back on work hours once they get closer to May. Once they arrive at her dorm, she thanks Mike and gives him a big hug but instead of pulling away after the hug she just stays there in his personal space staring up into his eyes. She is clearly waiting for him to try and kiss her again, but he resists the temptation urging him to do so and pulls away.

“I had something to give you if you want to come up and get it,” she says.

He’s in shock now but trying to mask it from his face. “Your man cool with me coming up to your room?”

“You just let me worry about him.” She leans in again, this time to kiss Mike. He is turned off by what she said, which makes it easy for him to simply kiss her on the cheek and say goodnight. As he turns around and walks back to his friends, he feels proud of himself. He knows he can easily be upstairs with her now, but it wouldn’t be right, and he doesn’t want to be that guy. He wants to be the guy who has his own successful relationship.

As for the rest of the group, they were still hanging out in the crowd after the party because they knew no one had to get up on that Sunday morning except for Kennedy. She had to be up for track practice that had just recently begun for the upcoming spring season so she and Ovaughn left right after the party. Eventually Chris did his normal disappearing act and then Jairus and Lisa are the next to leave for very obvious reasons. Tim comes by and talks with the fellas for a while before he leaves behind some women he claims to know. Eventually a great night came to an end for Mike and Duc with Carlos passed out snoring on their dorm floor with his go to pillow and blanket.

10

“Now, Deal These Cards”

For the next couple of weeks following the successful Valentine’s Day parties everything is business as usual for everyone. Except now Duc can’t wait to see if his flyers from the party will have any real effect on the turnout at Jazzy Belles. The first week he sees the open mic numbers go from the usual seven or eight performers to 12 people signed up as well as a consistent flow of people coming in to listen or just have dinner in the restaurant. This is enough to keep the open mic going until the doors close at 10:00 p.m. The following week that number jumps up to almost 20 artists signing up for the open mic without enough time to get everyone up without the show being better organized. There is now no further need for the DJ at the open mic and it is time to get focused on finding someone to properly host the show. He sees that there is no way he can get that many people to perform if he doesn’t tighten up the show and get someone pushing things along better. Duc is good at talking to people, but he is in foreign territory. He wants someone who is a performer and can vibe with the performers on their level.

Once the first Saturday in March approaches, Duc's true test will arrive. The first monthly party where they will change the restaurant over to a lounge. This time it is solely based on the promotion he did and the flyers he got Angie to make that he passed out Valentine’s weekend. Flyers he wasn’t ashamed to collect back up if they seemed reusable once they had been discarded. He figures he can pass them out around campus as well. When the night of the party arrives Jazzy Belles instantly saw an uptick in dinner patrons compared to the last couple of weekends since the Valentine’s party. The bar area begins to get busy around 9:00 p.m. and by the time they start moving tables out to clear room for a dance floor area the bar is packed. Duc notices quite a few upperclassmen from school are in the building and is surprised to run into Nat, who is still in Atlanta even though he has finally graduated the previous semester. The DJ gets the party started at 10:00 p.m. sharp and people begin to make their way over to the open area with their drinks. Duc is elated by the turnout for the party but since he hadn’t been there on Valentine’s he is very self-conscious about it slacking off. Mike puts those concerns to rest as the night progresses letting him know that the line at the door this time was longer than before and there is still a line an hour into the party.

Duc and Angie keep an eye on the floor making sure the bartenders are fine and the DJ doesn’t need anything. With a mixed age group Angie has a concern about underage drinking but the more crowded it gets the less time she can spend worrying about it. During the party Mike notices that a gentleman that was in his section for dinner earlier that evening is still there over two hours later. He is now sitting at one of the high-top tables with a female companion that looks a bit younger than him, and Mike can tell they seem to be paying attention to how Angie and Duc move around and keep pointing at different things around the lounge and making comments to each other. The woman even looks like she is taking notes. Shortly after Mike notices them Carlos shows up for the party and actually dresses better than his typical attire, which Mike jokes about. When Mike says, “You see that couple over there? I might be tripping but they look suspect to me. They over there watching Duc and Angie for some reason.” Carlos, as fearless as ever, is quick to volunteer “I can go find out what’s up easily. You know I ain’t gotta problem with it.” Mike quickly responds, Nah! Chill. I’m a let Duc know. No telling who they might be.” knowing this isn’t the place for his style of interrogation. Most of all he does not want to cost Duc or himself a job. But he definitely makes sure to tell Duc when he has the chance. Duc’s only concern is if they are buying drinks or eating anything. His mind is on business right now and the only thing he cares about is Angie’s approval for a job well done…and how much money he will make. After that evening Duc solidifies himself as a success in his mind. He just has to maintain it at this point, and all will be good.

The biggest challenge for Duc now will be continuing to try to pull his grades back up to get in good graces with his parents again. And that is something he is not finding a lot of success at. It doesn’t help that his roommate has the best grades out of everyone in their circle and Jairus finds his motivation in competing with Lisa, which is more like keeping up, and is now having a great second semester of the year. Even Ovaughn starts pulling his grades back up through the demands of basketball once he gets over his pride and applies for some of the tutoring sessions provided to student athletes. Duc is definitely pulling up the rear when it comes to the mutual goal set of getting a 4.0 for the school year. He is just trying to get as close to a 3.0 as possible at this point. The fact that what is now turning into a money-making venture for him doesn’t seem to have as much in common with his classes as he’d hoped yet. He continues to struggle with balancing spending more and more time at Jazzy Belles and doing homework. He realizes that something has to give, or it may cost him both things. After the next successful open mic night and the last day to drop courses quickly approaching Duc quietly goes and drops two of the courses he is doing the worst in. He figures it isn’t worth the headache if it is just going to cause him more grief from his parents. He goes from six classes trying to catch up after changing majors to four classes keeping the minimum number of credits to stay full time. Otherwise, he may have dropped one more class, but he dares not risk his parents finding out by receiving a refund check.

He tries his best to keep it from his friends and is somewhat successful minus a couple of overlooked slip ups as the month of March passes. But as they came into April and the weather got nicer it became impossible to hide the change in his daily routines from Mike. Duc isn’t one to waste good weather sitting in the room and when everyone else is going to classes as they normally do. Mike notices him spending more time out trying to network “because people are out” that he should be spending in class. Mike, not being confrontational, goes to Jairus with what he realizes first, and they decide they need to get Ovaughn and talk to Duc about it. After informing Ovaughn about what’s up they decide they will talk to him about it on one of the few days they all go to eat dinner in the caf together. They intentionally make sure no one else is eating with them that day so they won’t be putting Duc’s business out to anyone else but that doesn’t stop everyone they know from stopping past the table. Other class members who know them stop by to talk to one of them about schoolwork. The occasional person pops over to talk to Duc about getting on the open mic list or just a girl flirting with him. Ovaughn’s teammates stop by to say what's up to him. Monique stops by the table to flirt with Mike. After seeing all this Kennedy and Lisa eventually stop by even though they know the guys want to talk to Duc about something privately. They are getting frustrated by the constant interruptions and realize it is a bad idea to try to have the conversation in the caf anyway.

They leave the caf on the way back to the dorm and since it’s starting to stay light later in the evening people are still out and about. And almost like it is on cue, Chris pops up out of nowhere, as he tends to do. He’s trying to come through to the room to play video games or spades and before Mike can try to get rid of him Duc invites him to come along ready and willing to play a game of spades. Jairus now begins to struggle to hold in his frustrations and as they enter the room and Duc starts pulling out the cards Ovaughn looks at Mike and Jairus. “Man, it’s Chris. Fuck it, let’s just talk about it.” Duc hears that and instantly questions what it is about. At the same time Chris is now starting to feel like he interrupted something and asks if he needs to roll. They tell him he is good. It is going to have to be explained to him eventually anyway after that start. Jairus starts saying to Duc, “Dog, we just noticed you have been skipping classes A LOT lately” and Mike interjects “We know you focused on the promotion stuff, but we just want to make sure you not forgetting about your grades. We know your parents focused on that right now.”

Duc now gets a look of relief on his face as if he is happy that’s all it is. “Oh I’m good. I’m not skipping classes. I dropped them so I wouldn’t get a bad grade,” he responds. All of his friends have different reactions to this unexpected news. Ovaughn, more understanding of being strained for time, is happy that this is the case. Mike is confused in disbelief that he heard him correctly.

Jairus thinks it is even worse. “So you just plan to be here forever? You already behind from switching majors and now you dropping classes? What the fuck?”

Chris sits there listening as they start to go back and forth with why it is or isn’t a good idea with Mike trying to understand both sides of the discussion.

“Y’all niggas going to be here all day debating if you keep arguing two different things,” says Chris, finally breaking the silence.

Everyone suddenly goes silent and starts to look at him with either a look of confusion or intrigue.

“Jairus, you keep debating the right decision of an ideal situation but Duc obviously ain’t in an ideal situation,” Chris continues. The room goes silent. “You want him to have chosen to push harder to pass them classes but he’s telling you his options. And if he had to choose between flunking out of school like Paul or staying at school longer like your man Nat, I’m pretty sure you are going to tell him to stay longer. Everybody ain’t gonna be four and out like you bruh. Now, deal these cards.” His comments make Jairus and Mike think for a moment, but it doesn’t take long for them to realize he is right, ending the debate and allowing them to put all their energy into the spades game they have yet to start.

As the semester progresses Duc finds that his plan to balance his schedule works. He doesn’t have any chance of getting straight A’s for the semester but the classes he is having the hardest time with does begin to turn around. On top of that, the flow of business on Jazzy Belles becomes a consistent thing with the open mic nights growing a cult following on campus. Using some of the talent from school works out perfectly as an additional promotional tool. He isn’t the only one having a successful semester. Jairus is now doing very well in all his classes, leaning on his competitive nature and desire to not be completely shown up by his girlfriend as driving factors to motivate him. Even more importantly than her inspiring him to keep his grades up is her enlightening him on the importance of getting an internship for the summer. His grades are good, but Lisa realizes that with the level of competition for engineering jobs she will need more than good grades to stand out amongst the crowd. And she did so well in her internship the past summer that the company wants her back this summer. As they go through the month of March, he realizes he is already late on applying for these opportunities when he saw she already has everything set. He gets some pointers from her on where to look for an internship and she helps him create his first resume based on the template she used the year before. If there is anything she is happy to help him do, it is this. She is excited about how eager he is to find a job for the summer. So excited that, even though he did have a couple of interviews during a career day event at the end of March, she sent his resume to her company and put in a phone call or two to refer him. The referral comes as a shock to him when he receives the call from them to set up a phone interview to occur early in the month of April. A lot of guys that age would have let their pride get the best of them and been mad at Lisa for not letting him figure it out on his own but not Jairus. He is excited about the opportunity to spend the entire summer in New York with Lisa. That excites him much more than the job and now that is his dream destination for the summer.

Ovaughn’s semester was going pretty well for him. The team had finished their season by losing the conference tournament championship, which was much better than was expected from them at the beginning of the season. They now had a brighter outlook on the next couple of years and the coaches had promised Ovaughn starters minutes next season. The animosity between him and Spence even died off during March madness with Spence admitting he had felt threatened by him and should have handled the situation better. Ovaughn never understood how it got so bad when he credited Spence, and Duc, with getting him the opportunity to be on the team. He was just glad that they could put it behind them as the season ended and before Spence graduated. Ovaughn is now looking like a solid B- student and proud that he made it through the season without switching over to a less challenging major. He definitely thought about it more than once. He now felt like he knew what to expect for next season, as well. And something very important to him was he was now able to strongly support Kennedy with track the way she had done for him with basketball. He was at every event and was her biggest cheerleader and she was giving him every reason to cheer. She was having the season of her life to start the year and her name was being plastered all over the college and local newspapers after very strong showings in the first two track meets with convincing wins in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and the relay races. The buzz around school about the team's turnaround was growing so much that it even got the other fellas to take notice and decide to come out to a trackmeet. And not just Mike, who was already inclined to show up if he had the time. Even Duc found himself intrigued and at this point he wasn’t really interested in much that wasn’t money, women, or fun with his boys. Even beyond just his close friends Ovaughn convinced the basketball team to come out and support the track team as well. Kennedy and the track team were reaching their full potential while Ovaughn was there to brag about it as if it were his own accomplishments.

Mike continues his semester in the same fashion that it started. With him being focused. He is maintaining his very strong grades and has now become completely used to the work and school life balance. He is determined to make sure he can help his family with money and to keep his grades strong enough so that he can now get a better paying summer internship with a large company. He always wants to make sure he doesn’t add any burden to his mother and aims to please her as much as possible. So, securing a good paying job over the summer that can help pay some of these college bills is very important to him. So, where Jairus has a couple of interviews on that career day, Mike stops at every booth and hands them a resume. He makes a point to talk to anyone who shows interest and finds himself staying there twice as long as any of his friends or others he knows. He ends up getting six interviews because of the impression he makes at the event with his persistence and determination. And not soon after he sees the opportunities start to roll in. Along with how consistent Jazzy Belles is becoming, everything is lining up how Mike had hoped. That is until the open mic night following the monthly party for April.