Project Text

Cycle of Racism

Jefferson was told he was not a man as in not a human being, therefore he believed he wasn’t and believed he didn’t deserve to live. However, with his death facing him with in a matter of months, he comes to the conclusion that he is indeed a man; not only a man who is human being, but a very strong, courageous, and honored man. It took Jefferson a while to understand this about himself, but he did indeed die after learning the lesson of a being a man. Although Grant was the person assigned to make Jefferson a man, he still had a lesson of his own to learn, and he needed the help of Jefferson. In order to help Jefferson die a man, Grant has to first face his own inner problems, which Grant refuses to do because then he will be an emotional cripple and make him no better than his old teacher,  Matthew Antoine. Grant can be a hero only through his interaction with Jefferson and the same for Jefferson. In A Lesson Before Dying , Gaines shows how racism embraces every corner and opening of society; oppressing black people in everyday interactions. Black people were constantly made to feel inferior when they have to wait at a white person’s leisure, forced to enter through the back door of a white person’s house, or treated poorly by a white person. Not only did black have to deal with being put down by the whites, they were put down by the mulattos and their own people.

In the south, blacks are constantly reminded that they are inferior to white people. Grant is the school teacher on the plantation and even though he is a very well educated man, the white people in Bayonne still do not respect him. For example, “…She was gone about fifteen minutes. I knew it couldn’t t possibly take her that long to find another radio, but because I had refused to take the used one, and because she felt quite sure there was no place in Bayonne where I could find another one, she knew I had little choice but to wait until she got back… just about then another white woman came into the store. The clerk set the radio beside the cash register and went to see what the white woman wanted…So they stood there about ten minutes before the clerk came back to wait on me” (Gaines, 128-129).  Grant did not have anywhere else to go to, and buy the radio, and the white saleswomen knew it. With that, she felt like being unfair to Grant just because of the fact that he was a black man. When Grant must enter Pichot’s house through the back door, it is a symbolic reminder of the days of slavery, when slaves could never approach the front door.  Even though slavery was over, blacks were still treated as if they were. “Such protocols represented a holdover from slavery and were still common throughout the South into and past the middle of the twentieth century. They were imposed not only on a plantation's black workers but also on all other black visitors to the plantation owner's residence” (Du Plessis, 630). Similar practices continued from the past of the slavery era. These practices had stopped being enforced after slavery, but everyone still went by these set of silent social assumptions, and were understood by both blacks and whites alike. When Jefferson was being tried, he had an all whites jury. There really wasn’t any need to have a court meeting because he was already found guilty. “Probably no groups of whites in America have a lower opinion of the Negro people and are more fixed in their views than Southern law enforcers. To most of them… practically every Negro man is a potential criminal. They usually hold, in extreme form, all other derogatory beliefs about Negroes; and they are convinced that the traits are "racial." (Myrdal, 541). No matter what Jefferson lawyers told the court that day, he would have still been found guilty because a white man died, so therefore a colored boy would have to pay the price.

Besides the whites in Bayonne, mulattos also feel the need to remind black that they are superior to the blacks. “Creoles (also called mulattos) are the offspring of mixed-race unions between blacks and whites. The Creoles have generally looked down on darker-skinned blacks, who in turn have expressed antipathy to the Creoles” (McClain, 1). Grant’s elementary school teacher, Matthew Antoine was a mulatto. The teacher hated himself for the mixture of his blood; ”And when he saw that I wanted to learn, he hated me even more than he did the others, because I challenged him when the others did not… Just stay here long enough,” he said. “He’ll make you the nigger you were born to be” (Gaines, 48-49). Grants teacher never tried to uplift the students. He instilled in them that learning would not be of value to them because they would never amount to anything but a labor worker. Grant failed to believe the words of his teacher which also pushed him to work harder. Eventually Grant went on to college to make something of him. Even after this, the mulatto teacher still never had any words of encouragement for Grant and labeled him a fool for trying to be successful. No matter what, Grant would always be a black man and a white man would always be superior to Grant. “…they did bricklaying or carpentry, and possibly some house painting. All this by contract. And all this to keep from working in the field side by side with the niggers. Since emancipation, almost a hundred years ago, they would do any kind of work they could find to keep from working side by side in the field with the niggers…With school it was the same. Many of them would drop out of school, would get a trade—bricklayer or carpenter—rather than sit in class side by side with the niggers…And these two who were talking now were of that way of thinking. Dumb as hell, but prejudiced as hell.” (Gaines, 143). The two mulatto men had no other place to go to do their drinking and they would not dare go to an all-white club. So they went to club for blacks like the rest of the blacks in Bayonne, and brought all their prejudices with them too.

After being put down by so many other people putting each other down is all blacks learned to do. Jefferson is taught by Reverend Ambrose and Grant Wiggins that he is actually a man.  Because Reverend Ambrose and Grant Wiggins have such different teaching beliefs and personalities, they approach teaching Jefferson with conflicting views.  Grant automatically looks down upon anyone who is not as educated as him; and with Reverend Ambrose, he despises him also because he has a strong faith in the white man’s God. The Reverend always question Grants credentials since Grant does not believe in the lord. He refers to Grant as a boy and not man because he is lost. “I won’t let you send that boy’s soul to hell,” he said. “I’ll fight you with all the strength I have left in this body, and I’ll win” (Gaines, 156). The Reverend believes right now Jefferson needs to find faith in God, but Grant knows he needs to find faith in himself. Reverend Ambrose has never been to found of Grant as an educator because he believe he can not teach anyone to be a man because he still a boy himself. Grant and Reverend Ambrose never see eye to eye through the whole book. “…The conflict between Grant and Reverend Ambrose has to do with issues of leadership, not spiritual salvation. In Ambrose’s view, Grant’s role as school teacher makes him the community’s potential leader. Hence, it should not be lost on the reader that the church in the Quarters doubles as the school house” (Clark, 147). When Grant goes out and buys Jefferson a radio, Reverend Ambrose becomes very upset with him. Even though the radio had helped Jefferson make a breakthrough, the Reverend didn’t find Grant's teaching good enough. Reverend Ambrose and Grant both want better for the people in their community, but they both continue to let this struggle for power get in the way.

The overall message Gaines is trying to convey is to have human dignity. One should not allow anyone to dehumanize them, or tell them anything negative about yourself. In the book, they were living in a world where you had to look, talk, and act white in order to succeed. But even that was not enough, you had to be white to get anywhere in life. Throughout the story, Grant and Jefferson both brought out the best in each other. Jefferson showed Grant that his teaching were more than just writing, reading and arithmetic; he taught Jefferson about life and how to be a man. Grant reminded Jefferson that he was man and one of the strongest men that lived on the plantation. Grant’s perspective on life changes after spending time with Jefferson; “What did you learn about your own people? What did you learn about her—her ’round there?” …“No, you not educated, boy,” he said, shaking his head. “You far from being educated. You learned your reading, writing, and ’rithmetic, but you don’t know nothing. You don’t even know yourself.” (Gaines, 156). Grant learns to love something other than himself and to strive for change and not to give up on his community. He also develops a love for his people, where before he hated everything about them and the place he lived. He had to learn to understand them and understand their ways. Jefferson was able to die with dignity. He walked straight into his death with his head held high, not letting anyone bring him down or take away his pride. “He was the strongest man in that crowded room…We all had each other to lean on. When Vincent asked him if he had any last words, he looked at the preacher and said, ‘Tell Nannan I walked.’ And straight he walked.” (Gaines, 185). Jefferson was able to accept his death and die as a dignified man.

Work Cited

Clark, Keith. Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Drama. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2001. Print.

Du Plessis, Max. "Historical Injustice and International Law: An Exploratory Discussion of Reparation for Slavery." Human Rights Quarterly 25.3 (2003): 624-59. Print.

Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1993. Print.

McClain, Carol Shepherd. "Family stories: Black/White marriage during the 1960s." The Western Journal of Black Studies 35.1 (2011): 9+. General OneFile. Web.  Apr. 2012.

Myrdal, Gunnar, and Sissela Bok. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1996. Print.

Project Space

The face of poverty in America has changed drastically. No longer do only see people of color or individuals with drug problems, struggling to survive. You know see the faces of hard working families and individuals who attain degrees. Since the recession; many people in our country have had to make economic changes in their daily life, but the majority of the middle class took a turn for the worse.  Parents were laid off and couldn’t find jobs that paid enough or couldn’t find a job at all; thus losing their housing and not being able to fully care for their children. Children living in these conditions are now worried about adults problems, not enjoying being a child. Their study habits decrease because they are often hungry and can’t focus or depressed, blaming their self for why their parents are struggling to make it. Some children even drop out to go work and help take care of their families. People who had PhD are now homeless living in shelters and their own cars. Stability no longer exist in the middle class, they are now the new face of poverty.

Living conditions of people living in poverty vary. Some people turn to family members or close friends for a place to live; also known as “doubling up”. “… As desperate families move in with friends and relatives, increased nearly 12 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to Census Bureau data. Now, over 13 percent of all U.S. homes contain more than one family, the highest proportion since at least 1968” (Alden, 1). Parents and children have to share one room, meaning no privacy or quite time. There’s also no sense of comfort because they are visitors of someone else’s household having to constantly try and not be a burden. Another option is going to a shelter. Shelters are usually dirty and carry bacteria; leaving you vulnerable to becoming ill easily. Shelters are usually always in high demand and run on a at risk basis. This means, if your family or yourself appear to be more stable on paper, you will be put on the back burner for others who are at need. For homeless individuals who are by their self, finding a shelter to stay at is even more of a hassle. Most shelters are geared toward families or people on drugs or are not mentality stable. Transitioning from a regular life to being homeless is a huge gap; many people become depressed or even angry. The demand for help is so high, there’s no possible way for everyone to receive help. Parents see drastic changes in their children behavior, "He worries," Julie Rotundo said. "He's afraid to ask me for things. He's afraid to tell me that there's a school event that we're going to miss. And I don't know what to do. I'm sorry. It's tough. Just imagine" (Cobiella). Children become ashamed and embarrassed.

Homelessness has serious negative social implications. It includes plain human distress and symbolizes a hopeless social potential. Homelessness is expensive for our health and social service system. More and more families will continue to get on welfare, because they need the small amount of aid from the government they can get. These limited resources should be targeted for more positive purposes. Homelessness effects neighborhoods all over the country, and negatively impacts the quality of life of all citizens. People don’t want to live, nor do they feel safe, in a neighborhood where people are living on the streets or begging for money. Being homeless is very stressful and leads to severe emotional distress. Homeless people have to worry about where they will sleep every night, and if they have a temporary place to sleep, they are afraid of losing it. Children worry about losing friends and their personal belongings, and they fear that they will be seen as different to the other children at their school. They also worry about their families. Their parents share their stress and tension with them. You are also worried about your physical safety; especially if living in a shelter where violence is common. Homeless children also experience stress through constant change, and these changes build as time goes on.

Being homeless affects every individual differently. Some people feel alone in the world with no support. The don’t know what will be their next move, so they take one day at a time, and try to be thankful for the little bit of things in life they have. On the other hand, other homeless people are angry and out raged. They are upset because they lost their job due to our horrible economy; they couldn’t have prevented themselves from being homeless and blame the government for provding help for them. In the end, homeless people try to stay hopeful, have faith, and be positive. They want to be seen as regualer people again. Just as they were when they had jobs, cars, houses, clean clothes, and guaranteed meals. In society we often automatically write off anyone who is homeless as

Narrative Essay

The Truth Hurts

Chapter 1

Cheyenne woke this morning on the top of the world. Her best friend Patricia was on her to their school to finally move into her dorm at USC. Cheyenne had already moved out to Los Angeles two weeks ago. She couldn’t imagine herself living in those dirty, old, tiny little dorms; plus where would all her clothes and shoes and jewelry go. Yea, dorm life wasn’t for a girl like Cheyenne, so he parents set up her in a nice one bedroom apartment, not too far from their school. Patricia had just texted Cheyenne and told she was waiting in line to get the key to her room, and to start getting ready so she could help her set up her room. With that, Cheyenne hopped in the shower and threw on one of her Victoria Secret PINK sweat suits, slid her feet in her favorite pair of UGG boots, tousled her flawless long hair and was out the door. Patricia had already texted the room information so Cheyenne parked her car and ran up the stairs. She rang the doorbell and as it swung open Patricia attacked her with a huge hug. “Finally you’re here Chy! I’ve missed you so much,” said Patricia. “I know! These last few weeks have been like hell. I’ve been stuck in the house, alone with nothing to do and nobody to hang with,” responded Cheyenne. “Well, all that is about to change, because now we’re together and ready for whatever. Me and you are about to turn Los Angeles up,” Patricia said with a playful look on her face as the two girls walked back in the dorm room. When Cheyenne entered the dorm she was totally wrong about dorm life. They had a living room, kitchen, single rooms, and their own bathroom inside the dorm. Cheyenne said to Patricia, “I thought the dorm rooms were just small rooms with two beds and a bathroom to share with the whole floor.” “Maybe ten years ago, this here is the 2012 edition of living of on campus,” Patricia said. Cheyenne was so high maintenance, she never considered living on campus from the beginning; therefore when applying to school, she never did any research on the dorms. But now, as she was walking around Patricia's apartment styled dorm, and meeting her two roommates, she was little jealous inside. Of course having your own apartment is great, no rules, no curfew, and you can do absolutely anything you wanted. But everyone wants the whole college experience. Living in the dorms you had roommates to talk to, and there were so many people who lived in the dorms making it easier to meet people and make friends. Cheyenne thought about making a call to her father to see if could arrange some things and get in the dorms. She quickly changed her mind. Since her best friend lived there, that was practically her second home, and gave her an excuse to be hanging around the dorms since she didn’t live there. If Patricia met new friends, Cheyenne would soon meet them, and they would fall in love with her just as everyone else did. Cheyenne saw their social life playing like a movie right there before her eyes. Her and Patricia would hang out around the dorms, meet cute guys and chill girls. Then once they knew enough people, the could parties all the time at Cheyenne apartment since there weren’t any RAs regulating how many people are in your dorm or any quiet hour rules that would make them have to stop the fun. Oh yes, college was going to be great Cheyenne thought, USC was definitely in for trouble with the two of them together she said to herself.

Chapter 2

Patricia had been having the time of her life these past few months in college. She loved the rules of college and having the power over her education. She was able to pick her own classes at whatever time of the day she liked, eliminating having to wake up early in the morning like in high school. Her favorite part was that she took classes she found interesting and not because it was a part of any requirements. Even though Patricia always did well academically, learning about subjects she enjoyed made her perform even better. And let’s not forget about the last pro of being in college; she had the choice to attend class or not with the only consequence being she missed out on that day’s lesson. Life was looking all too well for Patricia and Cheyenne. They were in college and doing well in their classes, making friends, partying and having fun, and Patricia had even met a guy and really enjoyed his company. Patricia’s friend Lauren from class was planning to make a trip up to Big Bear with a few other people Patricia knew from around campus. Once the professor was done lecturing and assigned group work Lauren popped the question to Patricia, “Me and a few people going to up Big Bear Thursday night. My dad paid for a cabin and got us rental, you wanna come?” Patricia wasn’t an outdoors type of girl but it sounded kind of fun, so she agreed. Then she remembered if she left Cheyenne in LA alone, Cheyenne would throw the hugest fit. As outgoing as Cheyenne was, she couldn’t do anything without someone by her side or following behind her. “Would it be okay if my best friend Chy came too, you remember her right?” Patricia said to Lauren. Lauren gave Patricia a long blank stare. Patricia knew Lauren and Cheyenne had met, and remembered how horrible they had hit off. Cheyenne was very over protected of any female associates getting too close to Patricia, she wanted to be Patricia’s only bestfriend. So when Cheyenne met Lauren at the Sigma party and noticed how close they were becoming, she did everything in her power to keep Patricia glued to her hip, while constantly pushing Lauren out of the picture all night long. Cheyenne blamed it on her being drunk, but Patricia knew her bestfriend all too well. Finally Lauren responded, “Ummmmmmm…… I don’t know I have to check, everyone who’s driving, car is filled I believe. I have to check though.” “Oh that’s fine, then me and Cheyenne will just ride up together in one of our cars. So everything is perfect! Text me all the info right now and we’ll all meet up tomorrow night,” Patricia said as she grabbed her books and left the class. She knew Lauren didn’t want her to bring Cheyenne. None of her new friends really liked Cheyenne, but they just didn’t know her yet and she thought this trip would let everyone see how fun and cool of a person she really was. Now she just had to convince Cheyenne to come along. Patricia wasn’t an outdoors type of girl, but Cheyenne definitely wasn’t going to be into this trip.

Chapter 3

When Patricia asked Cheyenne did she want to go on a road trip with some of their friends, she was more than excited to go. Once Patricia told Cheyenne it was at Big Bear, all her excitement went out the door. “You mean Big Bear as in MOUNTAINS? As in outdoors? In the WILDERNESS? Nah, I’ll pass,” Cheyenne said to Patricia. “And since when did you become an outdoors kind of person? You don’t even like going to the beach being in the sand! Now you want to go to the mountains? You’re crazy Trish.” Patricia knew it was going to be hard convincing Cheyenne to make this trip, but she had a backup plan. “And we have to drive and pay for our own gas too! This is a horrible is idea Trish, I don’t want to go,” Cheyenne continued. Cheyenne knew she had won this one, and she knew Patricia wouldn’t dare go without her. “We have to go,” Patricia finally argued back. “Some of the basketball players are going and from what I heard, Travis is going to be there”. Cheyenne’s whole attitude changed. “Well…..… you since you put it that way….…now we don’t have a choice but to go,” Cheyenne said. Travis Bailey was a sophomore who played basketball at USC, and Cheyenne was madly in love with him, and with a few more appearances from her, he would be in love with Cheyenne too. Cheyenne ran and packed her bags packing just about every piece of clothing she owned. She spent the night at Patricia’s dorm so after class, they could leave with everyone else from the dorms. The two and a half hour drive seemed like ten hours, but they finally made it. Lauren’s father had got her and her friends one of the resort cabins. Cheyenne was very satisfied to see that it was civilization around them. When Patricia told her they were staying in a cabin, Cheyenne imagined a small little dirty log cabin in the middle of nowhere. But this cabin was like a regular house similar to hotel resort, but in the form of a cabin. There were three rooms with six beds and two pull out couches, but it was at least close to twenty people all on the trip. All Cheyenne knew was that she wasn’t sleeping on the floor and didn’t want to share the bed anyone else unless it was Patricia… or Travis. Cheyenne didn’t know this group of people too well, she was always around them, but she never really talked to any of them. She knew most of the girls, actually all of the girls didn’t like her, but all the guys did, and that’s all that mattered to Cheyenne. Everyone had got settled in and comfortable. The sleeping arrangements were made, Lauren’s older sister Jackie was in the kitchen cooking spaghetti and garlic bread for everybody, and the boys had just got back from the store with the alcohol for the night. Everyone was having a good time being silly, dancing, and just having a good time. Cheyenne was sitting with Travis and some of the other boys while they played Madden on the PlayStation. She was talking with Travis and she could tell her magic was working on him. She was enjoying their conversation until Travis went to the bathroom and never came back. Cheyenne went to go find him and he was in the kitchen joking around with Tony and some of the girls. Cheyenne went to go stand by him and he didn’t give her any attention. Travis liked Cheyenne a lot, but he had a rep to protect and he couldn’t be tied down to any girl.

Chapter 4

When Cheyenne came into the kitchen, Patricia could tell Cheyenne was about have one of her dramatic episodes. Travis wasn’t paying Cheyenne too much of his attention and Cheyenne wasn’t use to that at all. Patricia was getting really tired of Cheyenne embarrassing her in front of everyone. Cheyenne had always acted like a spoiled brat when she didn’t get her. It never bothered Patricia before because in high school everyone knew how Cheyenne was, and just accepted it. But they weren’t in high school anymore, and these fits Cheyenne through had to end, Patricia thought while she sat and watched Cheyenne annoy everyone in the room by begging for their attention. Patricia was so disgusted with her best friend's behavior as she bragged about her material possessions and how great her life was back home, cut people off in the middle of their sentences, and continued to revert the group conversation back to herself no matter the subject. People had started leaving the kitchen because they were tired of sitting through the Cheyenne show. Patricia had never been this embarrassed. She felt like all of her friends were mad at her for bringing Cheyenne. Patricia walked to the bathroom and overheard Lauren talking to her sister Jackie. “Trish is a really cool girl Jackie, but I can’t keep inviting her places if she keeps tagging Cheyenne along. She always kills the mood, walking in being superficial and uppity. That may pass in Westford, but in LA, nobody has time for that.” Once they got back to campus Patricia wanted to be as far away from Cheyenne as she could. She went to take Cheyenne to her apartment so she could continue on back to her dorm and be around normal people. Cheyenne had complained the whole two hours of their drive home. She complained about how Travis made her mad, and how annoying all the girls were. Patricia’s annoyance was building up and she did her best to hold everything in. She listened silently as Cheyenne went on and on. She didn’t understand how Cheyenne wasn’t catching that she was upset about something. All their life Patricia never understood how people couldn’t like Cheyenne. The girls in their city were very catty and fake towards each other, so Patricia always blamed it on that. Patricia felt so blind, that it took moving away to a new city and meeting new people to show her Cheyenne’s true colors. Patricia told Cheyenne she was super tired and had a lot of homework and she needed to be alone to focus so she could finish fast and go to sleep. Patricia dropped her off and called Lauren and asked her to meet at Starbucks and have a talk.

Chapter 5

Patricia had been holding back so much anger towards Cheyenne she had to get it off her chest which is why she went and talked with Lauren. Lauren was so relieved to hear that Patricia wasn’t blind to Cheyenne’s ridiculous actions. Lauren was on the verge of letting Patricia go as a friend if she continued to make everyone put up with Cheyenne. Lauren felt really bad for Patricia as she laid out their whole friendship. Al the competing against each other, Patricia turning down great opportunities so Cheyenne wouldn’t feel out shined. Lauren sat and listened and let Patricia get everything off her chest. Patricia was grateful for Lauren’s listening ears, and what made her love Lauren as a very genuine person even more was that she never once judged Cheyenne, which she couldn’t believe because she knew how much Lauren hated her. By the end of their therapy session Lauren had convinced Patricia to tell Cheyenne how she really felt. “If Cheyenne is really your friend, she’ll take the criticism. Of course at first she’s going to be very defensive, but if she values your guy’s friendship, she'll think about what you say to her and try to fix herself,” Lauren preached to Patricia. Patricia went over to Cheyenne apartments and told her how she felt. She gave Cheyenne the truth, the whole truth, and didn’t leave anything out. Surprisingly Cheyenne sat through the whole intervention without saying too much of anything. Patricia didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Cheyenne let her get absolutely everything off her chest. When Patricia was done she told Cheyenne she thinks they need to spend a few days apart. And Patricia agreed. Then Patricia asked Cheyenne if she had anything to say about the way Patricia acts, and Cheyenne just sat there, and tears began to fall from her eyes. Highly annoyed, Patricia responded, “Typical Cheyenne Kennedy stunt. You would try and play the victim in this situation.” Patricia was so fed up with Cheyenne; she grabbed her things and slammed the door on her way out. Patricia was done allowing Cheyenne told hold her back from having the best college experience. Their friendship was over in Patricia eyes.

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Cheyenne couldn’t believe Patricia was blaming her for her fake friends being so phony to her. She liked it that way. They didn’t need any more female friends, they had each other, and that’s all that should matter. Cheyenne was devastated that her best friend broke their most sacred promise to each other. When the two girls promoted to middle they vowed to not let anyone come between their friendship, in high school they swore to not let anything influence or change them, and in when they were getting ready to come to college they promised to continue to fight through everything together. Patricia broke that oath between them and Cheyenne was furious. Cheyenne thought to herself, “If she wants to let the people break up our friendship, then so be it. It must have not been that strong or real if Patricia could just give up that easy.” Cheyenne decide she didn’t need Patricia in her life anymore. “She always brought me down anyway, and I’m way over her being jealous of everything about me. Patricia’s little competitions were getting annoying anyway.” Cheyenne tried to convince herself that she didn’t need friends, just followers to make her look good and do as she said. She planned out the rest of her life, Patricia free, and she was content with the way things played. The next morning Cheyenne woke up and began to get ready to go to campus and find her a couple of not so worthy soles to be her minions. Cheyenne walked over to the mirror to put on her makeup, and as she stared at herself examining her flawless features, she broke down and cried. No matter how she played out the situation, she knew she had messed up for good. Patricia was her only true friend their whole life. When the kids at school never played with Cheyenne, the girls never invited her to the sleepovers, and the way girls always whispered about her when she came around, Patricia never let any of that determine the way she saw Cheyenne. Patricia was the only person who knew and understood the real Cheyenne and why she acted the way she did. Cheyenne cried for the whole day reminiscing on all the bad she had done and the way she treated her so called friend. Cheyenne always envied Patricia. They were both beautiful and always had the same of everything, but somehow Patricia always found a way to win people over with her personality, something that Cheyenne lacked. Cheyenne finally admitted to herself, that she was one who held Patricia back and she was the one who kept the competition between them going. Cheyenne had ruined the best thing was going in her life, but her pride would never let her rekindle the friendship.