haven’t been able to use mine since I was...uh, younger. Do a dance with your skinny white leg, Marty. Please.” The other negative way that Marty tried to imitate boys like Chris was to play pranks. Not being sarcastic or confrontational, his pranking was more old fashioned, though still painful and cruel. For instance, one fine day, Caleb entered his classroom, greeted everyone and sat down at his desk. And as soon as he sat down, he shot back up, there being literally a pain in his ass. “Fuck!” It was a tack. Which stupid motherfucker, Caleb thought, put a damn tack in my seat? He didn’t have to wonder too long. While most of the class were shocked and startled by Caleb’s leap from his chair and the bad word that came from his mouth, one person was rolling on the floor laughing. It was Marty. “Did you put a tack in my chair?” an angry Caleb demanded. “No,” Marty said when he was finally able to speak. “Wasn’t me.”
The Dawgs were not a gang, although a few of them did have neighborhood affiliations that had to be respected. The Dawgs were primarily members of Mr. Smith’s home room class, which was located in the Home Economics room. There were Dawgs outside of Mr. Smith’s Home Room, but his room was where they first gathered and named themselves. At school, they had some classes together, and they had lunch together. Occasionally on weekends they would meet at The Brickyard Mall. Because each of their neighborhoods was dangerous as well as the fact that a couple of them had gang ties, they didn’t visit each other’s homes very often. The Dawgs were Rodrick, Eric, Marky, Rondy, older jherri curled brother Bobby and younger jherried brother Fester, Cliffy, Katrell, Able, Jacob, Charlie, D. Brown, and Andre. There was only one girl in The Dawgs, the formidable Canisha K., a very large, sleepy eyed young woman who said little but 420