“That’s perfect! We’re going to her dorm, too. We get this done fast and we can help you, too.” To this point none of them realized that was where they were heading. Now everyone was intrigued by who this was they were going to help and what sport she played. Why hadn’t they heard anything about her starting school there before today.
“It’s my folks and you don’t back out on family when they need help.” No one put up any argument with that, which was the same response he gave his mom when she said it to him a couple of days before.
They arrive at the dorm to find a crowd out front with a few freshmen moving in. Most of the crowd seems to surround one particular athlete who is unpacking her car with her family as a few people are assisting and just as many people seem interested in just talking to her. Duc, Jairus and Ovaughn all wonder what all the hoopla is about as they approach the dorm, and then even more surprised when they realize that is exactly who Mike brought them out to help. They are relieved when they see that their help is not needed. Mike tells them to wait for a second while he walks over to the vehicle where they are pulling out the belongings from. As he approaches, he is spotted by a woman who looks old enough to be his mother. “ARTIE” she yells and runs over, giving him a huge hug. He looks back at the fellas to see if they heard her, which they did.
“Aunt Deb, come on.”
She starts laughing. “Oh I forgot, you grown now and go by Mike. Boy, you will always be my ‘lil Artie. Give me another hug. I missed you!” The fellas are looking on with shock and awe on their faces at the name she called him just as Kennedy comes out of the dorm and spots them.
“Why do y’all look like that?”
Ovaughn points over to Mike, who is now being greeted by Aunt Debra’s oldest daughter Yolanda, who says in the most sarcastic tone she can pass by her mother, “Hey, lil Artie?”
He abruptly interrupts her. “Don’t call me little, Yolanda. You are only a year older than me.”
“I’m almost a year and a half older than you and I’d be two years ahead of you in school if I didn’t have a late birthday.”
He starts back about not caring what school year she is in until Aunt Debra interjects. “Would y’all please stop! You have been arguing about this for 15 years…give it a rest today, PLEASE.”
Just at that moment Aunt Debra’s youngest daughter and incoming freshman athlete runs over yelling Mike’s normal name and gives him a big hug just like her mother.
“What’s up Shante?” She is super excited about starting school and in disbelief about all the commotion just for her. She couldn’t be happier to see a familiar face who will treat her normally.
Mike is happy to see her, too, and in disbelief of how much taller she has grown since the last time he saw her over a year ago. He hasn’t seen any of them much since he has been in school and didn’t realize she became such a big deal, even though his mother has been telling him about it. She always played sports, but he guessed that late growth spurt, taking her to just over 5’8’ in height, did wonders for her. It took her from an undersized over-achiever to one of the best high school basketball players in Atlanta. In fact, she is the number six female basketball player in the state of Georgia and top four in the city. Their school has been recruiting her prior to the growth spurt when all the larger schools said she was too small to play college ball. When the world opened up to her during her senior year, she always remembered it. The fact that it is her mother’s alma mater helps a lot as well. This is easily the best recruit the school has landed in decades as far as her basketball ranking besides the fact that she is also a scholarship level track sprinter. She will be on both the basketball team and track team by request and the school is eating it up. That’s why she has such a crowd when she arrives that day. The athletic director is there, as well as the president of the athletic department. Her track and basketball coaches are there to greet her, and the Chancellor even stops by briefly to welcome her to campus. They have members of the football team there to move her stuff into her dorm room. There is even a photographer and writer from the school paper following her around as they work on an article about her for the first issue of the school year. While Ovaughn, Jairus, and Duc are nearby watching this spectacle, Kennedy, who already has the scoop on her new teammate, is giving them the rundown of all this information and who everyone in attendance is. They quickly come to the realization that Shante may quickly become one of the most popular students on campus. When Mike finally introduced his friends to Aunt Debra, Yolanda, and Shante they even seemed a bit awestruck at all the attention focused on her. Everyone except Kennedy. She was a teammate and introduced herself to Shante as such. To which Shante jumped at the opportunity to connect with someone on the track team.
In all the commotion, the sportswriter for the school paper comes over to Shante and is asking questions for her article in between her having a conversation with her family and some of the people helping her move in. As soon as she sees an opening, she asks Aunt Deb if she could get them all together so they could take a family photo for the paper. Aunt Deb corrals Shante, Yolanda, and Mike for the picture but the writer stops the photographer. “Hold up. Who is he?” Aunt Deb, ready to check her, replies, “That’s my nephew. I changed his diapers; he can be in the family picture. He’s going to be looking after Shante anyway.” After that explanation she didn’t even question whether he should be in the picture anymore and was more intrigued by the fact that Shante already had family at the school. Now she had questions for Mike, who was suddenly becoming a part of the article she was writing. Having a guardian angel already at the school added more perspective to Shante’s decision to come there. At least it played well to endear her to the current student body as it’s even more of a family affair for her to attend school there. When the article eventually came out there was a quarter page splash shot picture of the four of them with Mike listed by name and mentioned a few times in the article. None of them ever gave thought to telling the writer that Aunt Deb was actually the best friend of Mike’s mother and not really his aunt, and Shante and Yolanda weren’t his biological cousins. They just grew up together.
Eventually the fellas all leave together, and they have tons of questions for Mike about why he never mentioned his superstar cousin coming to play ball there. And jokes about why he never mentioned that he has such cute cousins. Eventually he explains the actual relationships to them and why he isn’t always in the know when it comes to Shante. He doesn’t understand why they have so much intrigue in her impending popularity at school. Being upperclassmen now, Duc and Ovaughn are about to be some of the most recognizable people at school. Ovaughn, now a starter on the basketball team, and Duc becoming increasingly known as a party promoter working with Malik, means their popularity is skyrocketing. They are already starting to see evidence of it as they walk across campus that first day. As Mike points that fact out, Jairus can’t help but think how backwards it feels. They are on a college campus where everyone there is trying to get an education and between the four of them, the two guys who are far and away better students are basically unknown to everyone. The two who put school second are widely known around campus. He thinks to himself “people’s priorities are terrible.”
None of that matters to Mike though. Worrying about people’s popularity isn’t on his priority list. But helping friends and family is, so he asks Ovaughn “Is it cool to let Shante know he you on the basketball team? In case she wanna get some advice or extra practice in.” Ovaughn still makes a habit of doing his own work separate from the team, even though not as much as before. Ovaughn jokes “Mike is trying to get me in trouble with Kennedy” and all the fellas start laughing as he continues “But seriously, if she needs something I’m willing to help where he can. Hell, she may help me with the workouts.” Mike jokingly replies, “I’ll even come work out too if that makes it better.” He doesn’t realize that Ovaughn might actually hold him to it.
Mike and Duc stick around on campus for the majority of the day planning to sneak into the caf so everyone can have lunch together like old times. Even planning to meet up with Chris, Kennedy and her roommate, and Lisa and her friends. And throughout the day Ovaughn kept trying to find a moment to pull Duc aside to ask him about the situation with Samantha. Now that he knows about everything that has happened with her, he wants to know what happens next like a daytime soap opera. However, Duc is still trying to keep it under wraps from everyone and really doesn’t have much of an update for him anyway. All he knows is that although they still haven’t spoken about the kiss there is tension between them when they work together. He hopes that tension isn’t a one-sided thing, but he isn’t trying to tell that to Ovaughn and he doesn’t want him to let the others know. All day he is trying to get him to chill out and avoids talking about Samantha. It isn’t something he is going to talk about until no one else is around.
The semester began and the fellas developed routines around their new norms. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Mike and Duc had the same morning class to start the day. So, they would ride to campus together from Duc’s apartment and spend most of the day on campus once they figured out a way to get into the caf for lunch with no problems. Duc always makes a point to try and see everyone as often as he can when he is on campus. He also tries to have an open-door policy with Mike, Jairus, and Ovaughn so they can come by his apartment any time. He has a couple of classes with Chris, so he started popping up at Duc’s apartment regularly to collaborate on schoolwork. Everyone found this interesting because none of them remembered having a class with Chris before now. Outside of Mike, they didn’t remember he was a business major either. It worked for Duc, though, because it helped him to maintain his focus on schoolwork and not get completely lost in promoting parties and living off campus. Plus, everyone is always cool with Chris.
With school being back in, everything from the Open Mic Tuesday to the weekend parties Duc worked under Malik had an uptick in attendance. Duc got started early trying to spread word around campus about everything he had going on and Malik took notice. So did Riley, who was now fully integrated in her work with the band. The band is now ready to start doing their own shows for the small following they had grown over the summer. Jazzy Belles was perfectly suited for small shows of that kind, so Duc was planning to give Angie first dibs if she wanted to find time to host the shows for the band.
Thanks to Duc, and in part to the added traffic, Mike was able to come back to Jazzy Belles to wait tables again. He had saved a lot of money on his internship and although he spent a large chunk on his tuition that year, he did still have a bit saved. He just couldn’t imagine not having a job again at this point. He would rather make more money to support himself and keep some saved than just to sit back and wait for it to run out before he did anything about it. The hardest part about the start of the semester for him is being back at home in his mother’s house. After two years he is accustomed to his independence and now he is back following the rules he had in his senior year of high school. His mother is not about to have him in and out of her house at all hours of the night and he understands that. It is just frustrating for him after being able to come and go as he pleased since being in college. Of course, he isn’t going to express that frustration to her. He wasn’t going to make things any harder for Brenda. Luckily, he had plenty of space when he went to hang out at Duc’s apartment and the fact that he will be waiting tables late some nights made his mother more lenient with him.
Jairus was starting his semester by trying to get back into old habits. The week and a half apart from Lisa before returning to school did wonders for him in regard to making the heart grow fonder. As annoyed as he may have been at times over the summer, he really missed her in that short time apart. And she felt the same way. So, they went right back into their routine from the previous school year of disappearing into one of their rooms to overindulge in their physical connection whenever they saw the opportunity. Sexual intimacy had never been an issue for them and Jairus expected there to be even more time for that since there were fewer distractions with Mike and Duc living off campus now. He found it was just the opposite. He spent time off campus now and that had never been the case before. It took away from their ease of access since he was the only one in the group who didn’t have a car at this point. What helped was his cell phone. He’d never admit it but making sure he could get in contact with Lisa was basically his only reason for having the cell phone at this point. It was a bill he didn’t really think was necessary on campus but spending so much time off campus made it a necessity. Plus, she now had one as well so they could be in contact no matter where they were. This would now become a running joke with the fellas when they were all together and his phone rang. One of them was sure to say “Jairus, Lisa calling” or something to that effect to give him a hard time. Some things just weren’t going to change no matter how much change occurred.
Ovaughn starts his semester with a singular focus on one thing: Being ready for the basketball season, his first as a starter on the team. Well, maybe not one thing. Kennedy is always going to be a focus for him. And with the possibility of training with the new superstar basketball recruit on the girls’ team he wants to make sure, before it comes up, that Kennedy is cool with him helping her out. Once he gets back to his early morning routine of getting up to go to the gym to put up shots, he makes sure to bring up training with Shante to Kennedy. He is surprised when she responds, “I knew you were going to bring this up to me.” She has no idea what Mike had asked him, so he is shocked and responds saying, “Am I that obvious?” She laughed, then explains Shante made a point to come out to the last track practice to meet all her track teammates and get some work in. She gravitated to Kennedy since she is the only person on the team she has met up until that point and is one of the leaders on the women’s team. Kennedy, viewing her as a closer relationship because of her friendship with Mike, talks to her about how things have been going so far and giving her pointers where she can.
“She mentioned needing some time to go work on basketball on her own and how that’s what got her to this point. So, I told her how you get up in the mornings and on weekends when the gym is free to put up shots and that she needs to get in the gym with you. And even though you didn’t have to tell me when she asked you, I know my man.” He laughs because she is right. So much that Shante hasn’t even asked him yet and he is already running it past Kennedy. He explains that it is Mike who asked about working with Shante, and how he offered to come along if necessary. But that is no worry for Kennedy. She has no insecurity in her relationship with Ovaughn and genuinely likes Shante from what she knows thus far. It makes perfect sense, and it is no more than a week later before Shante finally asks Ovaughn about getting in some extra practice work.
Eventually, Shante does get into the gym with Ovaughn although her schedule doesn’t make it easy for her with two sports dividing her time. It is after it gets too cold for the track team to be outside that she finally finds the space in her schedule to do that extra work with Ovaughn. He immediately sees that she is different and realizes why she is so hyped. Not that her skill is so much better but how she works on her skills. He goes into the gym and puts up hundreds of shots at times, gets a lot of cardio in on the exercise bike or treadmill for endurance, and even lifts weights sometimes. General stuff that will make him physically prepared and keep his tools sharp. Shante has much better focus when she does extra work. She comes in and only dribbles with her weak hand, refusing to do anything with her dominant hand for that day. The next time she comes in and spends the entire time working on difficult in game layups, asking Ovaughn to stand in as an oversized defender then works on only one hand cross court passes to him so he can still get shots up. Another time she spends the entire time up and down the full court working on dribble moves at fast break speed and nothing else. She has full awareness of her skills and weaknesses. Her focus is on a level he has never seen, and it reminds him of all the times his father pressured him to take it to another level if he really wants to be great. He always thought his father was just never going to be happy. Now he is beginning to feel like he needs to step it up, especially with the season fast approaching.
He talked so much about the way Shante trained, Kennedy started coming to the gym with them to see her put in work. And once Shante started trying to challenge Ovaughn to games of one-on-one Mike also found his way to the gym to see them work. He couldn’t help being intrigued by what they were telling him about Shante. Little did he know Shante would want to play him one-on-one even more than Ovaughn. Always complimentary of him being good on his high school basketball team, she had an urge to prove herself to him and was not bashful about it. In fact, she was very blatant with her trash talk. Mike had still been playing regularly since that summer, but he wasn’t foolish enough to give her the opportunity to earn those bragging rights with their families. He was willing to rebound for them or help with some of the more unique drills they were doing but quickly backed off when he saw her attempting to goad him into a game.
“You scared of your ‘little cousin’ now?”
“Let me know if you and your friends ever want to come to Jazzy’s on weekend,” he’d respond. “I know y’all want to go out and party.”
She gets even more frustrated with that because he is completely right about her wanting to get out and party more. When she isn’t focusing on sports and school earlier that semester all she would mention is wanting to eventually go out to parties. He knows just how sheltered she has been growing up and that she doesn’t have any transportation to get off campus.
When Angie agrees to work with Duc and host Riley’s band, keeping it all in the family as she calls it, Mike focuses on making sure he does what he can to help pack Jazzy Belles. It is a win-win for all involved. He will get to make good on his promises to Shante and hopefully get some of her teammates to come along as well. He will help Duc and Riley be successful. And if he works that night, he will probably make a lot of money. He still isn’t sure if he wants to work more than he wants to enjoy the party though. But before any of that can happen, they need to come up with an official name for the band now that they are going to be doing their own shows. They have been using a name over the summer that they aren’t in love with and want to think of something new before it is too late, and they are stuck with the subpar name. Mike finds himself invited to Duc’s apartment on a weekend a few weeks before their debut at Jazzy Belles to help them brainstorm name ideas.
When Mike arrives that afternoon, Duc’s apartment is packed with a group of vested people that includes Riley and the four other band members, Samantha, the girlfriend of one of the band members who is also the cousin of another named Bianca, and of course Duc. Mike is there to bounce names off and get an objective opinion. There are a couple of others still on their way in order to be sounding boards about the name ideas, as well. They have pizza and sodas already passed around and are in the midst of full debate about some of the ideas for names. On Duc’s loveseat, he’s sitting leaning forward for space between Samantha and Riley and everyone else is either on the couch or on the floor. Mike grabs some pizza and parks on the floor to play catchup with the conversation. They are having a three-way debate with everyone shooting down anyone else’s ideas. Duc is full of ideas and Riley seems overly supportive of everything he throws out, even when it’s not great. Samantha can’t help but notice. Bianca, her cousin Imani, and her boyfriend Steven all seem to confer with each other before throwing out an idea but are quick to shoot down Duc and Riley if they aren’t very strong names. They’re the founding members of the group and are still struggling with feelings of Riley and Duc taking over everything. On the other side are the remaining guys in the band who aren’t overly opinionated but just want their voices to be heard.
Mike observes the back and forth volleying for a while as he eats his pizza considering all the points being made until even he begins to get frustrated with how difficult they are making this and blurts out his thoughts saying, “Man, this is chaotic!” Everyone quiets down not knowing how to react to him until one of the band members sitting on the floor near him says, “Nah, this is how you get harmony!” Suddenly Samantha pops up in her seat and yells, “That’s it! That’s the name! Chaotic Harmony.” Duc is very quick to cosign with Samantha, giving her credit for catching the name. Maybe it is because the name is fitting, it didn’t originate from Duc, or they genuinely love it, but everyone seems to eventually agree on the Chaotic Harmony name. Even Riley, who is shocked at how quick Duc was to support Samantha’s first name idea of the day. She can’t help but be a little jealous that he seems to be just as supportive of Samantha as he is of her since she always likes to think she is special. Now every time Duc says something to Samantha Riley starts side eyeing him or rolling her eyes when no one can see it.
Not long after coming to an agreement and beginning to discuss ideas of how to promote with the name, Duc gets a knock at the door. It is Ovaughn and Chris who are supposed to be showing up after everyone leaves but everything lasts longer than expected. He let everyone know his friends are there and they are probably good to finish now that they have decided on a name. The band agrees and they begin grabbing their things to make an exit while Ovaughn and Chris come in and start grabbing some of the remaining pizza. It only takes a minute for Ovaughn to step out of the kitchen and notice Samantha and Riley still sitting on the couch talking to Duc, who is now standing facing them. His eyes get large for a second, but it is just long enough for Chris to notice and give him a look that can only be explained as them having a conversation without saying any words. Chris can tell by his look that something is up and Ovaughn tries to imply with a look that there is nothing he can say. Not even to Chris who has usually been a vault when it comes to holding information.
Riley, knowing everyone from school and Duc, makes her way over to hug Ovaughn and Chris before saying her goodbyes to Mike, Samantha, and Duc but briefly lingers by the door to see if Samantha is also going to make her exit.
“I need to get out of here, too. I have to work tonight,” says Samantha as she puts her hand out for Duc to help her up from the couch as Riley walks out of the door. He grabs her hand and helps her up but doesn’t let it go once she’s up as he determines the next time they will work together. They eventually hug, holding each other just long enough for it to be more than nothing but not enough to assume anything and then Samantha exits the apartment. Duc turns away from the door to awkward looks from around the room.
“What the fuck was that?” asks Mike. Up until this point he still thought Duc was interested in Riley and fighting it. Only Ovaughn had been having conversations with Duc about Samantha.
“It’s nothing man. We just been close since the robbery.” Mike doesn’t completely believe it but if Duc doesn’t want to discuss it, he isn’t going to press the issue. But now Chris is looking at Ovaughn with wide eyes realizing he completely misread his original look. He thought it was Riley not Samantha. Ovaughn doesn’t give any indication to either of them that there could be something more than what Duc was telling. But he realizes that Duc either has to move past the feelings he’s been having for Samantha or get over being scared to date a white girl while he goes to an HBCU.
That Sunday, Duc and Samantha met with Angie to discuss the band name and how they would start to promote the band’s residency starting at Jazzy Belles in the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday, Duc and Riley initiated the part of the plan where she self-promotes while hosting the Open Mic nights. And by Wednesday Duc is in the caf having lunch with everyone and selling them on helping him spread the word around campus. He is joined by the usual suspects of Jairus, Ovaughn, and Mike as well as Riley, Chris, Tim, Lisa, Kennedy, Shante, and her friend and basketball teammate Simone. Shante and Simone don’t really have much to contribute to the conversation, both being freshmen in their first semester. However, they are both eager and ready to help, expecting this to be one of the few times they will get off campus to go to a party, as neither of them has a car. Duc sees the benefit in getting the athletes to promote, so it is a win-win for him. They all discuss the typical ways in which he promoted things in the past and if they have enough time before the first performance or if it should come later. Word of mouth seems to be the easiest way, but Duc wants something bigger to reach a lot of people at once.
Frustrated with him not being satisfied with the ideas provided, Riley sarcastically says, “I hope your girlfriend is going to be helping with the promotion, too. Or is it just black folks this time?” Riley throws that comment out because she now suspects there is something between Duc and Samantha and hopes his friends will be caught off guard and let some information slip. Chris, once again, gets that same wide-eyed look staring directly at Ovaughn. Jairus notices it immediately.
Jairus interjects. “His girlfriend? She talking about the white chick. Samantha?” Duc just sighs in disbelief as everyone reacts engaging in the new topic with Mike. “Nigga, I thought he was messing with Riley and keeping it secret until the other day.”
Jairus agrees he suspected the same thing.
