On the Come Up

Malik misses school, telling his mom that he had a freak accident that caused his injuries. At school, the rumors are confirmed, and “four armed cops [are] acting as security” (329). Bri is relieved to come home, where she tries to forget her troubles by playing Uno with her mom and Trey. Bri still hasn’t heard from Pooh after a whole day, and she is worried about her aunt. Suddenly, Grandma and Granddaddy show up at the house unannounced and demand to know why Jay, Trey, and Brianna didn’t come to church yesterday. They know about “Brianna making vulgar songs” (333), and Grandma expresses her embarrassment and impatience with the way Jay is handling her children. When they learn that the electric company turned off the lights, Grandma begins to shame Jay for getting on food stamps and for not being able to provide for her children. Jay explodes, saying that “the worst thing [she’s] done is become poor” (335) and that she is trying her best to provide for her children. Grandma declares that Bri is coming to live with them, but Bri refuses, thinking of how hard her mother has worked to get her and her brother back. Bri gets a phone call from Supreme, who tells her that he has scheduled her to appear on a radio show with DJ Hype and talk about the news article and the petition to get her song removed. Supreme tells her that this is “a big opportunity” that could be “life-changing” (339), and Bri agrees to do it.

Five days after the robbery, Bri still hasn’t heard from Pooh, and she feels “out of options and full of fears” (340). However, Granddaddy gave her mom some money to get the power back on and get more food, so “things are looking up” (340). At the superintendent’s meeting with the parents of Midtown, students and parents express their frustration over the heightened security and historical bias of the Midtown security officers. The superintendent dodges questions and gives vague responses. When Jay takes the microphone, she points out that students of color “have to come to school and deal with the same mess” that puts their lives in danger in their neighborhood, and she reiterates that reinstating the security officers who assaulted her daughter incited the uprising. Jay reveals that she has tried to contact the superintendent but “[has] yet to receive a call back” (347). Jay takes the superintendent aside and explains how Bri has been treated unfairly over the years at Midtown, and the superintendent promises to be more diligent about addressing these concerns moving forward. Jay then hands him her resume because she saw that he needed a secretary, and she has “several years of secretarial experience” (352). Jay tells him about her gap in unemployment due to her past drug addiction. The superintendent commends her for her sobriety because he is a recovering alcoholic himself. Being sober for eight years “shows [her] determination. That’s a good character skill” (353). Jay’s friends offer to take her and the kids out to celebrate, but Malik declines, looking at Bri, and when he walks away, Bri feels like “he’s walking away from [her]” (355).

Ten days after the incident with the Crown, Pooh texts Bri and asks her to “meet [her] at the Maple after school” (356). Bri heads into the Maple Grove projects, and little kids rush her and ask for her autograph. They rap the lines to her song, “Strapped like backpacks, I pull triggers [...]. All the clips on my hips change my figure” (358), and Bri is horrified that small children are imitating her lyrics about gun violence. Pooh appears and sends the kids away and tells Bri that she didn’t kill the Crown, but “the less [Bri] know[s], the better” (359). She didn’t manage to get the chain back. Pooh opens up to Bri about how she got into the gang life. She adored Bri’s father because “he looked out for [Pooh] and genuinely cared about [her]” (361), and when the Crowns gunned him down, Pooh turned to the Garden Disciples to feel some sense of community. Bri finally admits to Pooh that Supreme wants to be her manager, and to Bri’s surprise, Pooh agrees that Supreme would be able to help her career in a way that Pooh can’t because “[Pooh’s] got too much else going on to help [her] the way [she] really needs” (362). Pooh notices a strange car circling the area, and she makes Bri promise to “do whatever [she’s] gotta do to make it” (364) and get herself out of Garden Heights. Suddenly, “cops in SWAT gear rush out, guns pointed in every direction” (364).