One month after coming from Trinidad to America I attended kindergarten at PS 219 in Brooklyn, NY. Since we were deathly poor, I had to wear second hand clothes given to me by my grandmother. I had no idea how things worked in America, but I tried my best to fit in.
There I was, little Geremy walking to school with his metal “Incredible Hulk” lunchbox filled with water and crackers (that’s all we had to eat), wearing a red sweater, grey dress pants, and grey church shoes, otherwise known as my “Sunday best.” When I got to school, I didn’t know where to go so I walked up to a kid who looked like he was from Trinidad and I asked him in my best American voice, “yuh kno wheer mah class is?” He laughed and ran away-I guess my accent wasn’t very convincing.
I somehow found my class and I had a seat next to a girl. This wasn’t just any girl—this was the best looking girl in the class. You see, I was a man on a mission…a mission to replace my pseudo-girlfriend that I left in Trinidad (she didn’t know that she was my girlfriend yet, but I was planning on letting her know sometime before I left)
This girl was nice to me and followed me around everywhere I went. Sure she was good looking, but it was getting annoying! After two months of this, our friendship came to a highpoint/lowpoint. We were on the bus to take a class trip to the zoo and I tried to sit next to someone else…that’s when she got psycho.
“SIT NEXT TO ME”
“But…but I wanna sit next to her”
“SIT NEXT TO ME, YOU’RE MINE!”
What did I get myself into?!
I sat next to her and she made me hold her hand. Minutes later, she made me hug her. Minutes later, she made me give her my lunch. Minutes later, she made me give her a kiss on the cheek. I felt violated. ENOUGH OF THIS! I did the only thing I knew what to do…I cried.
After that day, I avoided that girl like the plague, and every time she saw me she screamed “I’m GONNA GET YOU!”
From that point until 3 years later I was afraid of getting involved with American girls…and it was all her fault!