Sometimes Black Roses Grow on You

By Shahidah Ahmad

It's an African American Tale about four courageous young Black people. It starts with their struggles at a racist, predominantly, White school. It's a place and time where they are abused by White students and teachers, where Tiana struggles with wanting to be a cheerleader in a squad where even high yellow Black girls were only there so that the school wouldn't seem so racist. But she is a Black girl the color of Iman (the model). That means, she's among the darkest of the Negro race. And she struggles with a love for a mulatto named Nicadeemius who has won the heart of the school, but who wouldn't give her a second glance except to abuse her. Will she win his heart? A good question when one of the four friends is a mulatto who is just as light skinned as he is and might seem better suited for his attention.
It follows them to where Heracio - the Latino friend - enters college and finds Nicadeemius there. The question is raise: Is Nicadeemius a Muslim? And then there's Sally Turner. What can be said about Sally Turner?
Later, Tiana and Phylisha work at the same job with their new friend Nancy Curtis. A beautiful, mulatto, co-worker has his eyes on Tiana; but he brings back too many memories of Tinkle High and Nicadeemius. Phylisha insists that Tiana give him a chance. But Tiana insists that he's just like Nicadeemius. Will he be able to break through the barriers in Tiana's heart? Will he fall for Phylisha? What will become of the beautiful Black roses?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491861851

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© 2014 Shahidah Ahmad. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/05/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6184-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6185-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014902487

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

The Very Boring Beginning: Tinkle High

Tiana Stiles

Tiana’s Crew At School

Black Roses Not Allowed

A Foot in the Door

The Bonding

The Big Day

The Morning After

The 411

Revenge

Not An Ordinary Day

Who Done It?

Phylisha And Heracio’s Nightmare

Expel Him!

Nicadeemius

A Crush On Nick

Maltreatment Of A Black Rose

Phylisha and Nick

Secret Lovers

In Love

The Arrival of Linda Floyd

Bitter Sweet Love

A Shocking Revelation

Now That He Knew

Nick’s Pals

The Prom

An Odd Situation

Linda Floyd

She’s Not To Be Trusted

White Damsels in Distress

A Big Secret And The Moral Pact

Keeping Linda’s Secret

More Secrets

Within a Summer That passes

Bugging Linda

At Linda’s House

No Jail Time

Asking Todd

Boot Camp

An Opportunity

The Perfect Topic

The Perfect Scheme

A Black Student At Tinkle High

The Judges

An Obstacle

Just Like Nick

Hospitalized At Boot Camp

Linda’s Back Another Secret Revealed

Todd’s note

I Hate Nick

Part II

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Part III

Not Green Anymore

Life goes on

Therapy

Cady

In Love With A Black Rose

CNAs and Cleaners

Cady And Black Roses

News at Lunchtime!

Heracio’s Journal

Back on The Couch

Love Letters

Learning To Love a Half Black Rose

Phylisha and Cady

Back In Therapy

Four Months

The Dream

Girlfriends

Next Time In Therapy

More Like a Sister

Leaving

A Genuine Attraction

What Does He See In Her?

What He Saw

Four Friends In Therapy

A Genuine Attraction

Determination

Another Note On a Locker

F.Y.I.

She Turned Up Her Nose

At Feehyde University

Ice Cream in the Park

Woman to Woman

Try Try Again

Horse and Carriage

Nick Changed! Or Did He? #1.

Say What ?

The Chase

Night and Day

More Roses

Nick Changed! Or Did He? #2.

The First Date

A Player?

Muslims & Jews

Three friends Sitting in the Park

Fahiah At Feehyde University

Nick & Sally Turner

Dear Diary

The 411

Cady’s Mother

Muslims, Jews, & Christians

Just Reflecting

Cady or Nick

Back To Feehyde

Say What?

The Rest of Cady’s Story

An Identity Crisis

For The Second Time

The Date

A Saturday Evening

To Tell the Truth

The Breakup

Up in the Attic

Derek Richards

All Together At Feehyde University

To Change the past

Allah Permits

Should We Tell Nancy

More of the Plan

Pearls and Diamonds, Gold and Silver,

Rubies and Emeralds

On the way to Pick up The Queen

The King’s Entrance

The Queen’s arrival

The Reunion

The Rest of the Plan

Not Like Nick

The Ridiculous People Of Tinkle High

Straight to The Beach

Islam (The Way of Life)

Back at Ms. Louise’s

The Way Muslims Eat

Two Months

A Wedding on the Beach

The Narrator

The Writer

Black Roses

Not Allowed

In the midst of a Beautiful Garden

The Black Roses sit alone

They struggle to grow in the garden

But the other flowers say they don’t belong

Their beauty is breathtaking

Their many skills well known

But other flowers deny their attributes

Singing a wretched song

Sure as the day is long, they sing

Sure as we are proud

Sure as we can sing this song

Black roses are not allowed

The Very Boring Beginning:

Tinkle High

The story I’m telling all started at a school named Tinkle High. It started with four of the bravest young students of Tinkle High School. They were Black roses—four of the strongest, most beautiful Black roses that I know of.

I was there when it all took place; and I am blessed to be the one to narrate the story.

To start with, Tinkle High was the name of the most awfully racist school that survived in the United States of America. It was the only place where Caucasians were still able to practice segregation.

White kids avoided Black kids except when criticizing and bullying them. They sat at separate tables in the cafeteria during lunch and breakfast time. At recess, they played on an opposite side of the playground. White students picked on Black kids continuously, taking their lunches, locking them in lockers, and beating them up.

The saddest thing was that the teachers, principles, and other school staff were as racist against Negros as the students. The teachers ignored Black students’ raised hands in class. They penalized and fussed at Black students for minor things. Even for having to go to the bathroom. They passed Black students who should have failed and failed Black students who should have passed.

Judging by the decisions of the school’s sports coaches, Black boys were always over qualified for school sports. And when they were finally accepted, they were often kicked off of the teams for stupid reasons—reasons that never got a White boy kicked off. There was always some lame excuse why any Black girl who wasn’t high yellow or pale skinned couldn’t be a Tinkle High cheerleader. Whenever Black kids or their parents complained about the ill treatment of Negro students nothing much was ever done about it. Yet when something happened to a White child, the matter was treated as if it was serious business.

Yes, Tinkle High was the most ridiculously racist school surviving in The United States of America after the Civil Rights Movement.

Tiana Stiles

My best description for Tiana Stiles in three words is an average beauty; because, her beauty was an ordinary kind. But her skin was delicate and blemish free. It was the same color as Mahalia Jackson’s which means she was nearly the darkest of the Black race. She was average in weight and height; and most of the time, her abdominals were flat. Her hips were not that prominent, but they were still round. Her behind was round and prominent.

With a mother who was a doctor and a father who was a chef, a college professor, and an owner of a restaurant, Tiana had all of her financial needs met. Her parents were very civilized and decent like most of the parents of Tinkle High’s Black students. They had planned and prepared for their child. They were two very dedicated parents.

For the first twelve years of Tiana’s life, she had a full time parent. You see, her mother had quit working so that she could stay home with Tiana until she was twelve years old. Mr. Stiles had willingly and happily supported the family on his own during those twelve years. Naturally, Tiana received proper home training. She was like most of the Black students of Tinkle High School, whose parents were very decent and honest Americans, who had chose what had seemed to be the best school that they could find for their offspring, hoping that it would give their children a decent head start in life. None of them had counted on the racial conflicts that their kids endured at Tinkle High School.

Tiana’s Crew

At School

Fahiah Pearson

Fahiah Pearson might as well have been parented by two overgrown children; because, for the most part, both her parents fit that description. Though they were two well educated adults, they were from societies where people had lots of money but no sense, character, or values; and that was where they fit in. They had poor social skills. They were common, ignorant, arrogant, loud, and obnoxious.

Fahiah’s mother, Robin Pearson, used government assistance just to be unemployed, carefree, and lazy. Her father, Leroy Pearson, had run out on the family when Fahiah was two. She only saw her father whenever he came expecting sex from her mother. Consequently, she had four siblings by both of them even though she was the only child that they had had during their marriage.

Still, Fahiah grew into an intelligent and mature young woman. She took on the role of the adult for her seven siblings’ sake. She had found the strength and guidance to do it through her Christian grandmother who had died when she was fourteen. Her grandmother had been the only support that she had ever had.

Fahiah was tall and slender. She was brown skinned—the same shade of brown as Whitney Houston. She always wore some form of crucifix around her neck as a testament of her faith.

Heracio Hernandez

Heracio Hernandez’s Puerto Rican parents and two older siblings arrived to America five years before his birth. They all had dark complexions ranging from Halle Berry’s color to Whitney Houston’s. His parents were middle class citizens—his dad an accountant and his mother a pharmacist. His whole immediate family was very well educated. He received proper home training and brought the best of what his parents instilled inside of him to school every day. Still, like other Latinos at Tinkle High, he was discriminated against as much as African-American kids. And his skin color didn’t help. A very dark skinned Puerto Rican—the same color as Whitney Houston—with wavy hair, his accent and hair were nearly the only things that let anyone know he wasn’t just plain African American.

Heracio was the most humorous person that Tiana, Phylisha, and Fahiah knew. They couldn’t imagine what they would all do at a school like Tinkle High without his humor.

Phylisha Waters

Phylisha Waters’ story is the most interesting. Her mother, Silvia Waters, had been born into an extremely wealthy family only to be disowned after she married Phylisha’s father, Leroy Waters.

Silvia Waters was a Caucasian American woman. She had pale skin, blonde hair, and green eyes. Her lips were red, and she had rosy cheeks. She happened to be a very beautiful woman with a very beautiful figure. Leroy Waters was nearly literally black; and with the kinkiest hair, and the darkest eyes, he was built as handsomely as his wife was. The two were as honest, hard working, and decent as Tiana and Heracio’s parents were. They had lots of class but extremely low incomes and had to work hard to make ends meet.

It started with Silvia’s childhood. That’s when she first became attracted to Negroes. Throughout her childhood, her parents led their family into battles against the oppression of Negroes in America. They participated in the Civil Rights Movements; and Silvia’s grandfather was lynched by some ignorant, common, low class, White men in the south for defending the rights of a Negro who had been falsely accused of raping a White woman.

But it wasn’t just business with her family. They also had personal relationships with Negroes; and so often being side by side with Negroes, their humanity was not easily missed—not when she was often staring into their faces and eyes, holding their hands, sharing hugs and kisses, dancing to their music, visiting their houses, sharing their meals, and listening to their stories. She shared a little of their sadness and suffering. She shared their happiness even more; for it was more comprehendible for her. She could not entirely comprehend the level of pain and suffering; but she could the happiness.

It had to help that her father and brothers often talked about the beauty of Black females—often sharing their strong attractions to them. They never felt the need to hide it from her. And in school, a lot of the boys liked Black girls and Black women. She heard stories of White men who preferred to share their beds with Black women more than with their White wives. She’d heard stories of White men who married Black women rather than White women. In school, the one boy that she loved, preferred a Black girl over her. All of this taught Silvia that she had no territory when it came to finding a man. It made her less attached to the men of her own race.

Black American culture was not easily ignored. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Right up out of slavery and oppression, and before the eyes of the country, Black Americans had developed a whole new culture of their own. No one walked like they did, made the type of music they did, sung the way they did, danced the way they did, and made the kind of food that they did, until they did and it was learned from them. Silvia became very fascinated with Black American culture. She also had major crushes on Black males. But her daddy had always told her that same race relationships were more natural and that she’d grow out of her attraction to Black males. His words had always seemed so innocent and pressure free. It had never occurred to her that she might be obligated to grow out of her attraction to Black males; and by the time she was twenty years old and in college, she still hadn’t grown out of her attraction to Black males.

Leroy Waters’ family condition was different. His parents and siblings were struggling to make ends meet. They were from the south where things were hardest for Negroes. His parents had little education. His father couldn’t even read.

Despite his circumstances, Leroy excelled in academics; and some successful, decent, and kind elderly cousins of his, who had had money saved up for expensive funerals, decided their money would be better spent on life than death. They paid for college expenses for Leroy. It was enough to send him to the same college that a rich young Caucasian woman like Silvia had been sent to.

By chance, he—who was just as handsome as she—noticed Silvia in the halls of the school and was among the few Black men at the school who had the guts to approach a Caucasian woman—even one who was as beautiful as she was. They fell in love almost instantly.

Everything went marvelously at first—only up until Silvia brought her prince charming home to meet her family. It was then that she learned a horrible lesson—a lesson about her family and her father and the power of White male egotism, and the power of their envy, and fear of Black males. It was then that everything began to fall apart, and Silvia found herself having to choose between her family and Leroy, between having the man of her dreams or remaining Daddy’s little girl.

Soon after she chose Leroy, the two of them went off and got hitched. On an, extremely, simple honeymoon, they had a tiny picnic at the lake. And when it got dark there, they lied, face up, under the stars. Afterwards, they retreated to a small, dilapidated cabin where they took each other’s virginity.

Silvia kept her marriage from her family for a month; then she could stand it no longer, knowing that she would have to tell them eventually. Once she did tell them, she and Leroy were kicked out of college and rejected by just about every other college that they could imagine getting into. They wound up on government assistance unable to find decent jobs. But they were soon cut off of government assistance, too.

The reasons given for their misfortune in all of these cases were ridiculous. And Silvia knew that they weren’t the real reasons. She knew the real reason why she and her husband couldn’t get into school, find a job, or stay on government assistance. For, despite all that her parents had taught her about human equity and the unGodliness of oppression and tyranny, she knew the power of a rich White man in America. And her father was a rich White man in America.

Silvia and her husband went from living under bridges and in shelters, to abandoned houses and on Leroy’s relatives as they struggled to get on their knees. Once they were finally on their knees—he working on a dump truck, she a waitress in a restaurant, each living in a poor roach infested apartment with no heat—their struggles to get on their feet began. And that’s the struggle that Phylisha Waters arrived in the middle of.

Phylisha looked a whole lot like her mother though not quite as beautiful. Her level of beauty was more average than her mother’s. She had a beautiful complexion that went back and forth from high yellow to pale. Her hair was crinkly and light brown—a light brown hair color that mulattos often have the most out of any other races. Her eyes were green, and she had the same rosy cheeks and red lips as Silvia did.

Erica Field’s Diary

Erica Field had to be the most popular girl at Tinkle High school. First of all, she met the standards of a perfect physical image for a female at Tinkle High. She was thin, with brown hair and blue eyes, a button nose, and a decent figure. She kept herself looking beautiful keeping up with all the latest fashions. She was an A student—always on the honor roll. She had perfect attendance and was head of the Tinkle High’s cheerleading squad.

In her opinion, she had definitely worked for her position, earned it, and deserved it. Writing in her diary at the end of the day was always a major privilege.

Dear Diary,

Today is Monday—the first day of school. It’s been a wonderful day as usual. And I thank God for my life. I thank God that I’m not Black or Latino. And I thank God that my family has money and that I’m beautiful. I thank God that I am still a virgin. I am very intelligent and have not allowed any boys to pressure me into making a dumb decision.

I can truly claim that I am a decent human-being and so is my boyfriend, Todd Rogers. We are each very active in school. He’s captain of the football team, and I’m head cheerleader.

As I told you before, I am planning on starting a program for the female students of Tinkle High to help them deal with boys pressuring them into having sex. My boyfriend has decided to start a group for White students of Tinkle High to help us deal with the racism of Blacks. That’s because, contrary to popular belief, Blacks are more racist against Whites than Whites are against anybody. Just today, a Black boy was walking down the halls of Tinkle High with a shirt on that said Black’s are the original people. Can you believe it? But were I to walk anywhere in our society with such a message on my shirt about Whites, I’d be thought of as the scum of the earth.

To fill you in on the latest news, Taylor Thomas who is one of the cutest boys in school has asked Danielle out. Of course, she said yes. They’re going to the movies after school on Friday. She can’t wait. She also can’t wait to have a steady boyfriend. Maybe he’ll be the one.

Todd is going to visit his aunt for the weekend. I’m going to miss him while he’s gone. He is so cute. He’s so popular, so strong, and worthy of his position as captain of the football team. Still, he’s so sensitive. All the girls in school want him. They’ve always wanted him. But he found me.

Tiffany Brown, Lisa Smith, Sheila Williams—the only three Black cheerleaders in our squad—still aren’t aware that they are only there to keep civil rights activists off our backs. They’re there to make it seem like we’re more accepting of Latinos and Blacks or—as it used to be called—Nigger lovers. But I swear that the more I spend time with those people the more I think that they should be slaves and servants to the more sophisticated races.

We’re lucky to have found Black girls as light skinned as the three we have in order to avoid messing up our image. Long as these girls think that we’ve accepted them as much as everyone else, their performances remain perfect. However, we make sure to visit each of them at their houses every now and then and read their diaries when they aren’t looking just to see where their minds are.

Grave Issue! Melinda Mitchell’s boyfriend is trying to get her to have sex with him. I advise girls all the time not to give in to boys’ demands for sex. A woman’s body is very special. Life comes through it. We must respect it and not let just anything in at any time. We have to choose wisely. Looks like I need to start my group fast.

Cheerleading practice was fun as usual. So was my entire day at school.

No fresh gossip, today. Buy until next time.

Black Roses

Not

Allowed

Tiana could have written a book on all of the excuses that the Tinkle High cheerleading coach, Boston Robinson, came up with for why she couldn’t be a cheerleader.

Honey, you’re not as beautiful as the other girls. I don’t want you to be embarrassed. That was what the cheerleading coach had pulled Tiana to the side and whispered to her the very first time that she had ever asked to be on the cheerleading squad. She was thirteen then.

A year later, the coach’s excuse was, "You’re right, Dear. You have gotten prettier. You’ve grown out of your ugly stage; but now, I’m afraid that you’ll outshine the other cheerleaders. And how would you like it if someone ever did that to you?"

It was only after Tiana’s parents threatened to report the school for discriminating against their daughter that she was allowed to get into "training—training that she didn’t need. She’d been in gymnastics and dance classes since she was eight. She’d performed before audiences. Nevertheless, the coach put her in training". And as she continued to ask to be on the squad, the coach continued to come up with one excuse after the other for why she could not be on it.

You’re not ready yet.

I’m sorry, Dear. I’ve got too many girls. I can’t take you.

Honey, I’m very sorry. I already gave the position to another girl. I just plain forgot about you.

You’re too shy. You need a little more time getting comfortable with performing in front of other people. But I think you’ll be ready next year.

But, oddly, when Mr. and Ms. Stiles offered to put Tiana into another school, she didn’t want to leave Tinkle High.

"All my friends are there. The Blacks and Latinos aren’t so bad. And a few of the Caucasian kids are cool. I even have a few Caucasian friends. I think I’m making an impression on them."

At the time, Tiana wasn’t sure if that was the real reason she wanted to stay at Tinkle High. It was just the reason that she gave. She often asked God for the true reason when she said her prayers. And one day He answered in His Own mysterious way. As Ms. Stiles was doing the laundry one Saturday morning, Tiana followed her around complaining about the cheerleading coach.

She is so manipulative and childish. I’ll bet she just hates dark skinned Black girls because she can’t get to be our color even if she spent a whole week on the beach under the sun. She’d be fired by now if the school wasn’t run by a bunch of immature adults. And I don’t understand how they still have positions of authority.

You want to know what I don’t understand? Ms. Stiles had answered. I don’t know why you would want to be a cheerleader at a school with such corrupt members. For one thing, you’ll be cheering for a bunch of people who are hateful and ignorant by choice. I just don’t get it, Tiana.

That statement made Tiana do some serious soul searching. In the end, she knew why she really wanted to stay at Tinkle High and to be a cheerleader there. It was only a desire to impress and finally be approved of by people who had made her feel very insignificant the whole time she’d been around them. She wanted to prove that she wasn’t what they treated her like and to, finally, be accepted by them. It would be as if she’d moved an entire mountain.

A Foot in the Door

One lovely spring morning, Tiana hopped out of bed. It was the day after the day that Erica Field had offered her a fair chance to be on the cheerleading squad.

Erica Field, the head cheerleader of the Tinkle High cheerleading squad, had actually given her the time of day. It had been exactly 2 days ago when she had worked up the courage to speak to Erica about being on the squad. As head cheerleader, Erica had some influence over who became a cheerleader. She could pick a girl for the cheerleading squad or advocate for her. So after having been turned down by the cheerleading coach so many times, Tiana had decided to try another approach. She had convinced herself to speak to Erica Field in the cafeteria at lunch one day.

On the morning of the day that she had asked Erica Field about being a cheerleader, Tiana had felt extremely nervous. By lunch time that day, her anxiety had reached its climax. From her table in the cafeteria, she kept looking over at the head cheerleader who was surrounded by half a dozen of the other cheerleaders. They seemed to always have something to laugh about. It seemed like they were always happy and like their lives were so perfect.

As usual, Phylisha and Fahiah accompanied Tiana at her table. Being the only guy, Heracio sometimes sat with guy friends in the cafeteria. But that day he had made sure to sit with the girls; because, like the other two girls, he hoped to stop Tiana from going through with her plan or at least watch how things went for her.

Fahiah, Phylisha, and Heracio kept skeptical looks on their faces as if it could convince Tiana that her plan wouldn’t work before she went through with it.

You’re going to embarrass yourself, and it’s nowhere near close to being worth it, Fahiah had said. They don’t even have any respect for us as Negroes. Don’t you have any self respect or dignity about yourself.

Shut up, Fahiah, Tiana had demanded. It was hard enough to work up the guts just to rise from her seat. She didn’t need any extra discouragement.

What are you waiting for, magic? Get up. It’s now are never, Tiana had coached herself. Finally, she worked up the courage to rise from where she was sitting. Then she slowly walked away from the table where her disapproving friends sat. She slowly moved toward the table of cheerleaders. Once she arrived, she patted a curly haired, brunette on the shoulders.

Excuse me, Erica. Umm… . Tiana was trembling inside, and her voice was unsteady as if she was vibrating as she spoke. The cheerleaders were incredibly shocked by Tiana. How had she—a Black girl the color of cherry brown wood or darker—developed the nerve to approach them and to touch the head cheerleader? They stared at Tiana with their eyes and mouths wide open as if they had just seen Superman or a pink elephant. Then they began to look at each other, hide their faces, and giggle into their hands. And it was obvious to Tiana that she was the joke that they were sharing. Tiana glanced back at her friends who were watching to see how she fared. Then she turned back to Erica Field, tried to ignore the laughter of the other cheerleaders, and went on.

"Ummmm. Well, I’m very sorry to bother you; but, ummm… . I just wanted to ask you, umm… . . to ask you if I could be on the cheerleading squad. I mean if you would consider having me on the cheerleading squad, please. You know that the only reason I’m being rejected is because I’m Black. And that’s not fair. If you gave me a chance you’d see that I would be a really good cheerleader. I mean,