A Project Chick (15 page)

Triple Crown Publications Presents
A PROJECT CHICK

Tressa looked at Wiggles. "Go ask who it is, while I go put some shoes on, cuz see, these people been asking for it since I moved around here."

Wiggles was laughing, getting a kick out of the whole episode, because in all honesty, the people didn't know who they were messing with. Tressa was very meek, humble and the definition of a lady. But don't get it twisted, because her spunk and feistiness would make one think she was a lion.

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong." The doorbell sounded, but over top of the doorbell, was the female voice.

"You scared bitch, open up the door, cuz I'm bout to whip you like the pigs did Rodney King, since you want to burn my man with some hot water."

At that very instance, that's when the girl, Crumpy, the neighborhood's bad ass, always manipulating and trying to intimidate somebody, was greeted with scorching, sizzling hot water followed by a blow straight in the right eye and another one. Crumpy stumbled and fell backwards. She couldn't really get her balance back or herself together. Tressa had threw the hot dog water on her with the greasy film that comes from cooking the hot dogs.

Tressa didn't give Crumpy a chance to pull herself together.

Tressa who was wearing her Timberlands, just kept stomping a mud hole in Crumpy.

"Bitch, that ain't fair, you fighting dirty." Said one of the bystanders.

Tressa just went over and punched her in the face catching her off guard. The girl bounced back. She hit Tressa back with what was supposed to be a smack, and tried to take off running down the steps, when her lame plan backfired. Now, everybody knows that when a fight breaks out in the projects, the crowd comes from nowhere and forms a huddle. So, the girl didn't get far when Tressa caught her and started throwing punch after punch and strike after strike, until Pondee, the guy who initially let the first shot of water out, pulled Tressa off the girl. Tressa didn't know what the deal was with Pondee pulling on her, and neither did Wiggles, so Tressa gave Pondee two blows and Wiggles charged him. Together they both was on Pondee, and that's when one of Pondee's boys pulled them 95

Triple Crown Publications Presents
A PROJECT CHICK

off of him when they seen he was not fighting the two girls back, only breaking up the fight.

When the fight was over, the word had spread like wildfire throughout the hood that the girl who lived in 3012

building on the 3rd floor, with the two-lil boys, is not to be fucked with, because she was crazy. So, pretty soon after, just about everybody stopped rolling their eyes at her and gradually began to speak to her. There was still a couple of the girls that tried her anyway, but on the low. And on the low was exactly how she dealt back with them. But those were the ones who were usually the biggest and most deadly snakes.

The only thing Wiggles could say to Tressa was.

"Didn't I tell you back when you were in the 7th grade, that if you beat the bully or the one with the most mouth, you don't have to worry about the rest of them. They chuckled together.

Later that night, Pondee knocked on her door. She looked through the peephole. She wasn't going to answer it because she wasn't expecting anybody. When she seen Pondee, she thought he was bringing more drama.
He looks
like he's by himself, but maybe he has some other people
with him standing to the side of the door.

"Who's there?" She asked, with her two-shot derringer in her hand.

"It's Slap Jack." He said, knowing that she was probably hesitant about opening the door.

"What do you want?" Tressa said through the door, sure he was up to something devious after all the episodes that had went down earlier.

"Look shawdy, open the door. I just came by to give you the money for your hair, and to tell you that that shit I did today was real fucked up, wettin' you up and shit. But that shit you came back with was on point. I know you think I'm coming back for some mo' drama. Boo, I just want you to know it ain't no beef no mo'. And, I got ya back."

Oh, now you don't want war huh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
was what she thought to herself as she continued to talk through the door. She said to him. "Oh, OK, that's nice to know."

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Triple Crown Publications Presents
A PROJECT CHICK

"I know you think a nigga blowing smoke up ya ass, but you'll see. I'm going to slide the money up under the door, cause I know you ain't going to open it, but it's cool though."

She looked down and saw the fifty and twenty dollar bills coming through to her side of the door. She looked through the peephole and watched Slap Jack walk away to meet a crack head to exchange some of his product for some bawled up money before he walked down the steps.

Damn, that saying is so damn true, things don't always come
when you want them to, but when you need them to. I surely
spent my last money to get my hair done and didn't know
what I was going to do with my hair.

Tressa's life had changed tremendously in the past few months since she had left Lucky. A dollar didn't come easy, there was no splurging, impulsive buying, just penny pinching and budgeting. There were so many sacrifices she had to make to be able to make ends meet. However, one of things that she wouldn't give up was getting her hair done.

She kept a fresh pair of clean snow white Reeboks and her hair done. Those were the only ways she could reward herself. Most of her clothes were pieces that she had when her and Luck were together. Her other garments were pieces she picked up from the ten dollar store in the white areas. She went through the racks with a fine toothcomb to get the most tasteful things out of there. She could never figure out if she went to the white areas because they truly had better things, or was it because she didn't want to be sited shopping at the ten dollar store in the hood?

Her hair was another story; she spent top dollar on her hair. She believed as long as her hair was right, then everything else would fall in place. A person's hairstyle made a difference with any outfit, was her philosophy. A seven-dollar dress, with the right hairdo and shoes, could get a million dollar effect. With all this in mind her hair was always kept in tip-top condition. Getting her hair ruined during the watergun fight was the major reason she went into a rage. She didn't know when she would get money again to get her hair done.

This weekend was suppose to be a quiet weekend, with Wiggles and the boys. This was Wiggles' first weekend pass since she had finally gone to the drug program after 97

Triple Crown Publications Presents
A PROJECT CHICK

Tressa had been constantly convincing her to go to for the past few months. With all the commotion and confusion going on, Tressa almost forgot about the cake she had gotten for Wiggles to celebrate her sobority. When she pulled out the cake and went to cut it, a roach ran across the top of the cake.

Tressa was mad and embarrassed. Wiggles just hugged Tressa because she knew she wanted to cry.

Instead, Tressa tried to make jokes. "Girl, those roaches be walking around here like they own the place and I am their guest."

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-11-

The Art of Hair

Courtesy of Pondee, Tressa was able to get her hair done over again. The next problem she had was getting her stylist to agree to fit her in. So, she called Gypsy, AKA Queen Bitch, AKA scandalous, no good, selfish, self-centered, gossiping, ongoing shit starting, paper-chasing stank hoe, who was also her beautian and could do the best hair in all of Richmond and surrounding counties.

Now Gypsy was no joke when it came to a comb, some curlers, gel and a brush. There wasn't any style Gypsy couldn't do, from ghetto to conservative styles. It didn't matter whether it was long, short, synthetic or horsehair. Gypsy laid it down like tar on a pavement.

Unfortunately, Gypsy's was every client's nightmare with her ongoing, forever changing, making up the rules as she go, it made all her clients hate her. But the final, finished result was what made her customers deal with the bull.

She came to work when and how late she felt like it. She wouldn't dare dream of letting her customer be over ten minutes late, if they were, she wouldn't do their hair. She never worked on Friday's, Saturdays or any other days if something spur of the moment came up. There were no exceptions for her to inconvenience herself when it came to doing hair, not even for her regular, good-tipping customers. She didn't care what special occasion her clients might have had. If they had a prom or were getting 99

Triple Crown Publications Presents
A PROJECT CHICK

married on Saturday, they either got their hair done on Thursday, were instructed to sleep with a satin bonnet for the next two days, or they could go somewhere else.

Normally, Gypsy worked expeditiously getting her clients in and out. But when she was late for whatever reason, whether she was laid up somewhere screwing, had drama or just simply got caught up, which caused her to be behind and become overbooked, still she took no prisoners.

She would bluntly tell her clients, "sit and wait or go somewhere else because there is definitely someone else begging to take your seat".

Not one time did the thought ever cross Gypsy's mind that, without her customers, there would be no her.

For she lived by her motto, "Pussy is Power", and as long as she had a well and clean coochie between her legs, there laid the power. There would always be a sucker begging to be with her and to do what she needed to be done. So, gold digging was her first priority over doing hair on any given day. Hair was just a hobby that she used as a back-up plan to get extra money and a ploy to make her victims (men) think she didn't need them because she had a job bringing in plenty of funds. Though she tried to block out the fact that doing hair was a hustle acquired a long time ago while living in the projects, sitting on her momma's porch, charging ten dollars for a hairdo to get the bare necessities that her momma couldn't provide her with because she was too busy hanging out, drinking moon shine. Gypsy, while growing up, was often teased because of her black, deep, dark complexion. As an adult, her dark skin became her most attractive feature. Her full eyes and lips added to her beauty. Although she was black as midnight, nobody could ever deny she was beautiful. She could have been a model standing 5'9", with a thin curvy build. Her skin was smooth as a baby's behind, no blemishes, moles or acne. Her hair had always been extremely thick, but she learned to tame it when she was introduced to Revlon perms at the early age of eight. After becoming familiar with her newfound straight hair, she maintained her hair in a neat ponytail. She kept her hair up so well, that the other neighborhood girls always asked her to do their hair and she did. Pretty soon people started 100

Triple Crown Publications Presents
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to come from projects all over, from day in until day out, to get their ten-dollar hairdo. At the age of thirteen, Gypsy was making more money in two days than her mother made in a week. Gypsy was able to buy whatever she wanted and kept up with the latest fashions.

The designer names she wore made her stand out even more, which meant she attracted the boys. Not just any boys, but the older guys that hustled and had money.

These guys were interested in her, so she started dating.

Juggling her dates and doing hair started to collide. When she had to decline dates because she needed to do hair to keep her money flowing, the guys she dated would pay her double, sometimes triple the money she made, so her hobby, her hustle, to do hair became second to her seeing her male friends. She hated the fact that standing on her feet tired her out. Plus, doing hair was so time consuming and took her away from the easy money, men. It is at this point in her life, she realized that she had the tool right between her legs to get what she wanted.

Girlfriends were never anything dear to her because of the countless times she cut their throats and everyone else's throat to get whatever man she felt she wanted at the time. Then she would have to deal with the jealousy and fighting with her so-called friends.

"If a girl can't control her man, then whose problem is it? Chicks should learn to keep their man on a leash.

Then they going to come and tell me, he ain't nothing but a dog. Shit, I am just walking the dog." This would be Gypsy's way of trying to make others see it her way.

Gypsy cared about no one but herself, and the day spa that she just took ownership over. Gypsy, however, ran the spa in a very selfish way. She didn't keep toilet paper in the bathroom. The big screen television that sat in the waiting area had a "Do Not Change Channel" sign. In her mind, the television it was for her, not her customers.

However, if they pleased, they could listen and watch the program that she was watching.

Gypsy mothered three children, but motherhood was another one of her schemes. Motherhood was a business investment too. Each one of her children was an insurance policy, assurance that she'd always be able to live the lifestyle she wanted for herself via child support.