"Can we work on the first part after school today at your house? My Nana isn't home so I doubt she let me bring you." I asked Chris.

"Lemme text my moms." he said and I nodded.

We got time to work on our projects in class after doing our work. We decided to do actual week 1 work first and we would do the getting to know eachother part at home.

Basically in order to stay on track with this project she broke it down weekly so we wouldn't be too confused.

"My mama said yea"

"Ite, you ride the bus home?"

"Yup."

"If you want you could ride with me, so you could tell me where to go. I gotta drop Adonna off first tho." I said and he nodded.

"Long as we back to my house by 3:30. I gotta get my sister off the bus."

"Ite, ima make sure we there in time."

After school me and Adonna found Chris and we went to my car. I saw Alyssa there and rolled my eyes.

"Alyssa I told you stop missing the bus. I gave you one ride and now you do this shit everyday."

"I'm sorry, it don't be having enough time to get to the bus."

"Girl stop the cap they give 5 minutes bruh. Me and Adonna used to catch it in time. Chris you be missing the bus?"

"Don't put me in this." he said holding his hands up.

"Whatever, get in the car. We gotta make sure we ain't late." I said remembering we gotta be there on time to get Chris sister.

We dropped Adonna off and Chris got in the front seat.

"Chris how far your house is from here?"

"Umm bout 10 minutes."

"Let's go get your sister then drop off Alyssa, ion want you to be late."

We went to his house and waited until his sister came then he got her.

"She don't need a car seat?" Alyssa questioned.

"No but her booster seat in my mama car so she just gone have to put a seatbelt on."

He strapped her in and we dropped of Alyssa.

"I'm hungry." His sister told him.

"Ian got my card on me, you could eat when we get home." He said and I pulled into a McDonald's.

"What y'all want?" I asked them.

"Nothing."

"Stop being stubborn, ion mind. What you want?" I asked his sister.

She told me what she wanted and my focus went to Chris. "Now what you want Chris?"

"Nun."

"You know what your brother eatt?" I asked his sister.

"Nuggets and fries." she said and I nodded.

"Y'all got any other siblings at home?"

"Yup, Cj. He likes hot n spicy."

The lady asked what I wanted and I ordered for everyone. "Can I get a happy meal, with nuggets and a coke. A 20 piece nugget meal, with a sprite. and a filet-o-fish meal, with a sprite. A hot and spicy, a large fry, and a coke."

"Your total we be $21.63."

I pulled up to the window, paid, then got our food. I put the drinks up, checked the bag, then handed it to Chris.

He gave me directions to his house, we went in and a boy was on the couch. He looked like he was maybe a freshman or sophomore.

"Mane, where y'all was? Chris you wasn't on the bus and Carla ain't knock or nun." He said then he noticed me. "Who you?"

"I'm Mariah."

"I was with Mariah we gotta project to work on. You went get Cadence from daycare?"

"Yeah, she inna room sleep."

I sat there in the corner waiting for them to finish. Eventually Carla tapped me and pointed at the food so I gave it to her. Then I took my stuff out and sat it on the table. There house was kind of empty but it was clean, and they had everything they needed.

After that I gave Cj and Chris their food.

"What's your cashapp name?" Chris asked me.

"Why?"

"To give you your money back."

"But I never asked for it back. I didnt do it to get payed back."

"Then why'd you do it." He asked in a duh tone.

"Because I wanted to, now carry on because I'm not letting you cashapp me."

After arguing about it for 5 minutes Cj stopped us. "Don't y'all have a project to be doing? Nobody want hear y'all argue."

Carla came back out of the room and started talking to me.

"You know we sleep in the same room?" She asked and I sat there stuck before Cj snatched her up and took her to the back. Ion care if it's true but shit that caught me off guard. Anyways, she prolly don't know what she talkin bout, lil kids say anything.

We just didn't talk about it and started our project when we finished eating.

"Full name?"

"Chris Cole Johnson. You?"

"Mariah Lynn Valentine."

"Favorite color?"

"Yellow."

"Black."

"Career Goals?" I asked.

"I wanna own a Mechanic shop one day. I work at one now but I want my own."

"Thats coo, you know how to fix cars and stuff already?" I asked and he nodded.

"Ight yo turn."

"I wanna be a celebrity hairstylist, open a salon, bigger following surrounding my talent."

"You don't get overwhelmed by it? I saw you doing a event on the shaderoom teens before."

"Umm I only do Instagram so it's really not that bad. I ain't really nobody important, they don't be checking for me. I mostly just work with hair companies."

"You ever got scammed before?" he asked and I laughed.

"Yeah once when I first started out, but I feel like it was a blessing in disguise. Yeah I got scammed, but it taught me that not every opportunity is a good one." I shrugged.

"I guess that's one way to think about it."

"Alright, we're getting a lil off track. Next question is what impact do your parents have on you."

"My dad isn't in my life, so in a way he taught me everything that a man shouldn't be. My mom taught me to always keep my head up through anything, how to work hard, and she taught me how to be a good person. How to give even when I don't have anything to give, thats my world right there." He kept talking about his mom and I just smiled the entire time, you could tell he adored her. "But.. your turn" he said once he was done.

"Umm, I don't know my parents cause I'm adopted. If you had asked me a few years ago I would've said they taught me hate. But now, I guess in some weird way my parents taught me life doesn't always go as expected. They taught me independence and the value of hard work. Even though my parents taught me some things I owe everything to my Nana, she took me in and helped me fight my demons. She really turned my life around, she taught me that family is more than blood and that life is more than anger/pain. She also taught me that it's okay to rely on other people sometimes & theirs a limit to independence, sometimes it's better to ask for help. Also, everyone has a story and you shouldn't judge em for it. I know for a fact without my Nana I wouldn't be the same person. I could go on and on about her but ion think you wan hear allat."

"To be honest, I woulda never guessed that about you. If you don't mind me asking when did you get adopted."

"Summer before 8th grade."

"So your Nana isn't related to you at all?"

"Nope, she was just a kind stranger who took the time to get to know me. You never knew your dad?"

"No I knew him, ion wan speak on everything but in a way I would've probably been better off not knowing him." he said and I nodded.

"The next one asks about siblings?"

"Well you've met mine Cj, Carla. I got another sister named Cadence she's upstairs."

"I don't know if I have biological siblings, but Adonna is a sister to me."

"How did you meet Adonna?"

"I met her right after you knocked me down, she calmed me down after."

"I didn't knock you down." He laughed.

"yes you did, and your attitude was bad. that's why ian like you, till now."

"Honestly, you was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was they day after we left my dad, I was kinda just angry at the world so I was in a bad mood."

"Now I get it, I held onto it because it was my first day of school since living with Nana. I don't know it felt like a milestone, and you started it off bad."

"Well I'm sorry."

"I guess I'm sorry too, I never really thought about it from your perspective."

We answered the rest of the questions, frequently getting side tracked. Every question led to a side conversation that included unnecessary details. When we finished we turned in our assignment on the internet.