Prospects of Fame

By Grant Michaels

Prospects of Fame outlines the life of a young lady who grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth from a very privileged and respected family. Her mother, the Chief of Police, and her father, a very prominent and successful businessman, tried to provide her the best life possible, while protecting her from this cruel world. The Watkins Family was loved and respected by many, but feared and hated by many more. Wealth and power were the driving force of their success, but death and corruption were

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781681396132

Book preview

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Prospects of

Fame

Grant Michaels

Copyright © 2015 Grant Michaels

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2015

ISBN 978-1-68139-612-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68139-613-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About the Author

Chapter 1

Today, at 3:00 a.m.? she asked as she closed her locker.

At 3:00 a.m.? Wow, I must say that’s a shocker. I can’t say that I saw that coming! But why 3:00 a.m.? he asked as he leaned up off the locker beside hers.

You know my dad will go out with his friends and get drunk then come home around one, one thirty and pass out in his clothes just before my mom gets off third shift around two, two thirty. Then she’ll wake him up, make him undress, and then they’ll pass out together until around 10:00 a.m. like they do every Friday my mom has third shift. You just make sure you got the room, and my ass back home by 9:00 a.m. before they wake up!

Her take-control attitude puts him in a follow-the-leader state, of which he has no control. The way she gave out orders and commands drove him wild. As if in her mind his whole existence was created to keep a smile on her face and his manhood inside of her walls.

You wild as hell, girl. Just tell your parents you’re staying at CiCi’s or Tay’s house for the night. Better yet, the weekend! You know good and well as soon as I lay this thing down, we’re both going to fall asleep and not wake up in time for you to make that nine o’clock arrival time. I ain’t trying to rush with that body, I want to take my time and lay it down like I’m supposed to, he said as he slid both hands down her waist and slowly pulled her toward him.

Boy, please! What you can’t do in seven hours can’t be done. And you know when I put Sui on you, you’re likely to be asleep in twenty minutes anyway, J-Mack. Fame stroked his chin with her index finger. Then she leaned in and whispered in his ear ever so gently, You know this kitty cat worth every inconvenience you’re currently experiencing.

She licked him on the ear followed by a kiss on the cheek as she walked off to take her last exam of her high school career.

Fame Watkins is graduating a top her class as a three-time state champion in women’s one hundred meters in track, she’s also the head cheerleader. Her high school achievements also include leading the school choir, the Student Body President, and all-A honors student, and straight beast with fashion. The ideal student and daughter to the untrained eye. Her mother, Mariah Captain Watkins Watkins, was a captain on the police force. Her father, Vincent Big Vince Watkins, was a prominent businessman, who owned several businesses and rental properties across the state of South Carolina. He was known for averaging between 7 percent to 25 percent annual growth in any and every business venture he’s ever been in charge of.

Her oldest brother, Vincent Junior Watkins Jr., was the head trainer and nutritionist for Miami Flames. He also followed in his father’s footsteps by owning various businesses in South Florida. Her sister, Chelsey CiCi Watkins, was 200 percent her father’s daughter. Not only did she have a chain of beauty salons and nail shops but is in the final stages of launching her own line of beauty supplies and did so before the age of thirty.

But her baby brother, Brenton BB Watkins, was the black sheep of the family. He was 6’ 9", 260 lb., and the nicest thing coming off the high school basketball court in years. He will be a raising junior next year and already has scholarship offers from every school in the ACC, the SEC, the Big East, and the Big 12 school conferences. All he has to do is keep his grades up, sign on the dotted line, and his future is set. Junior actually played some of Brenton’s high school highlights for some of his colleagues, and they were all thoroughly impressed. They wanted to reach out to him to help guide him along in life to make sure he makes it to college and then later the pros but didn’t want to interfere with his chances. They all recognize the level of talent he has. The Watkins family was respected, feared, and loved all at the same time. Big Vince’s brothers, his father, Ray Watkins, and his uncles all had a bad rep with law enforcement and the city officials of Columbia, South Carolina, and Mariah made it her personal goal since she and Big Vince first got married to change the image and personification of at least her branch of the Watkins family tree and, for the most part, has done just that. But everything isn’t always as it seems. They all appeared to be high and mighty, but like most family of prominence, secrets lurk around every corner.

Fame knew she was about to ace this chemistry exam. She introduced her chemistry teacher, Mr. Robinson, to her cousin Tanya Watkins, and from what she was told, Mr. Robinson’s been turnt up and turnt out for months now. Tanya made Mr. Robinson give Fame an A for the semester back in February. The only reason she was taking the test was so her classmates wouldn’t catch on. The women in the Watkins family had a way with men that naturally caused other women to hate them on a subconscious level.

It started back in the 1930s when her great grandparents, John and Essie Filmore, moved to Columbia from Trinidad and Tobago. Shortly after they settled in, her great grandfather was killed and hung in the town center for allegedly stealing a loaf of bread and resisting arrest. But he got arrested with $2.00 in his pocket, and bread only cost $0.35 back then. He only resisted arrest because he knew he was innocent. Unfortunately, there was no justice for the black folk in the rural South back then. Her great-grandmother, shortly thereafter, joined a local Baptist church with her three daughters, where Pastor Isaac Watkins and then first lady Emma Watkins took them in to show support in light of what happened to her late husband. During their stay with them, it was discovered that Pastor Watkins, who was the strongest pillar and the most influential person in the black community, was not the saint and man of God that everyone thought he was.

One day, while Emma was out of town with one of the church mothers, Essie came home earlier than expected and wanted to surprise her girls and the pastor with a nice dinner. Little did she know she would be the one who would receive a surprise on that sunny afternoon. As she walked in the house she heard a very faint cry coming from the girls’ room. Not sure of what was going on, she pulled her blade out of her purse and slowly pulled the door open. Nothing in the world could have prepared her for what she saw. As she stood from the doorway, she saw Pastor Watkins having his way with her fifteen-year-old daughter as he threatened to kill her and throw her family out in the street if she mentioned a word of this to anyone. Not sure what to do, she first thought about taking the blade to his throat and slicing him from ear to ear just like her father had taught her back in Trinidad, but instead she quickly came to her senses and put together a plan. She quickly but quietly crept out the house and ran over to the neighbors, Henry Stillman and his mother, Bernice.

Henry was very fond of her and didn’t particularly like the pastor because he was always quoting the Bible to him every chance he could get. Essie quickly told them what was going on and asked them to come bear witness to what was going on and help her get her daughter out of the house. Like a thief in the night, Essie, Henry, and Bernice crept back in the house and up to the girls’ room, where the pastor and her oldest daughter were still in the midst of his treachery. Before Essie could tell Henry what his part of the plan was, he kicked the room door open and scared the hell out of her daughter and the pastor.

Now hold up just a minute. It’s…it’s not what it looks like, screamed Pastor Watkins as he reached for something to cover his shriveled, wrinkled little dick.

You must take me for a fool, Isaac, you dirty son of a bitch. How dare you touch my daughter! How could you, Isaac? she said as the tears started to run down her face.

Let me kick his ass, Essie, he ain’t worth your tears or your time. I’ve wanted to kick his ass since grade school, said Henry as he started to roll up his sleeves.

No, Henry, we are just here to bear witness for Ms. Essie, nothing more, nothing less. Is that understood? yelled Henry’s mother as she pulled him back to the door.

At that time Essie started slowly walking toward the pastor with tears pouring down her face.

Now, Essie, calm down. In Exodus 6:23, the Lord clearly states that—

And without warning, while Pastor Watkins was speaking, Essie pulled that blade out of her purse and swung it in the direction of his manhood, cutting the tip of it off, which sent the pastor into immediate shock as he passed out on the floor with blood squirting from what used to be the head of his penis at a fast rate. Henry, so stunned, started fussing at Essie, Aww shiiit! Essie, are you crazy? You can’t cut the pastor. Mama, Essie going to the big house, for sure as a mule stinks!

Essie’s daughter, who was also crying hysterically, came running over to her, yelling, Kill him, Mama, stab him in the heart!

Essie grabbed her daughter and squeezed her as tight as a mother could.

No, baby, Mama got a plan for this wolf in sheep’s clothing. I will first destroy his marriage by telling Mrs. Emma about this devil. Then I will make him marry me and take care of all of us or tell the entire community what their beloved pastor had been up to. He loves his church and the power of being a pastor too much to refuse. And I got Henry and Bernice to witness this sick bastard if he tries to make me out a liar. Henry’s mother and Emma are kinfolk, and I know she’ll believe what she says.

But, Mama, you cut off his penis. Surely he’ll bleed to death and die. Your plan won’t have time to work.

My young and innocent child, I only chopped the tip off. Give me the sheet off that bed so I can stop the bleeding and clot the wound. Then once he comes to, he’ll dance by my music. I’ll call the doctor and see what can be done to save whatever’s left of his little bird. If he doesn’t want to dance by my music, I’ll cut the rest of it off and pour table salt on the wound, and we’ll leave him for dead. This is the way women from our country handle no-good devilish cowards like him.

Just like she envisioned, the pastor was more than willing to play by her rules. He was willing to leave his wife and marry her but not willing to lose his reputation or the church that he built from the ground up and pastored for over twenty years. His ex-wife, Emma, up and left the moment she heard about it. She packed her bags and left all within one hour of returning from her trip in good spirits and high hopes. Apparently Emma never went out of town with one of the church mothers; she actually was across town in a high-end hotel with one of the deacons of the church, who later became her husband. Essie and Isaac later married; however, Isaac’s sexual organ never worked again due to nerve damage. Essie never left her girls alone with him ever again. She actually birthed four more children after her marriage to Pastor Watkins; oddly enough, all looked like Henry Stillman, the next-door neighbor. She birthed three healthy sons—Henry Watkins, Ray Watkins, Barney Watkins—and one daughter, Margret Watkins. And to this day, the women of the Watkins family have the reputation of stealing men from their rightful owners.

Chapter 2

Fame finished her test and told Mr. Robinson she was leaving ten minutes early. Of course he tried to stop her, but what could he do? She was a senior taking her final exam. Only thing he could do was call security and report that she was cutting class. If he did that, Tonya would not give him any cookie for the entire summer and would most likely shoot or stab him if he cheated or tried to get some on the side. As she walked down the hall toward the front office, she saw Roneisha Roe Tisdale and her sumo wrestler of a sister, Samantha Sam Tisdale, both exiting Coach Mathis’s classroom. Roe used to be Fame’s best friend and was on the cheerleading squad with her back in tenth grade before she quit the squad when she got pregnant by Fame’s ex-boyfriend, Kelvin Kay Young, who was a senior at the time.

When Fame found out that Roe was pregnant with K’s baby, she beat Roe’s ass something terrible. Roe had to get stitches and false teeth and almost lost her baby due to the fight. Oddly enough, they were best friends before all the drama happened. It took everything, and I mean everything, inside of her not to snatch Roe bald whenever they crossed paths. That restraining order that Roe’s grandma put against her also played a part in the situation too. But at this exact moment none of that shit mattered. Fame was fourth-generation prodigy and genius and had put together the master plan, which involved the complete and utter embarrassment of Roe and would prove once and for all that she wasn’t on the same level with Fame. She knew on exam day, Mrs. Stubberfield would have hall duty on the math hall and always went to the bathroom right before in the teachers’ lounge at the end of the science hall. She also knew that Roe’s and Sam’s fat ass both had Coach Mathis’s biology class at the end of the science hall. She also knew that Roe’s and Sam’s fat ass had been leaving class about five to ten minutes early every day for the last month or two because they were trying to beat the crowd of students rushing to the parking lot at the end of the day. She would go to extreme measures to avoid driving up in crowds of people or leaving the same time as the rest of the student body.

This dumb chick would come to school late purposely and fake doctor appointments just so the students wouldn’t laugh at her busted-ass 1997 Honda Civic with the extra loud muffler that spit out huge clouds of a black tar-like substance from the tailpipe. The students roasted her about that car so much during the course of the year, Coach Mathis felt sorry for her and started letting them leave class early to avoid further embarrassment. Fame heard Roe was talking shit on the senior cruise to the Bahamas behind her back about the fight they had and said that Roe was eleven weeks pregnant and didn’t want to risk the health of the baby. Then Roe had the nerve to make a side comment under her breath to her group of flunkies at class night when they announced Fame as most likely to succeed during senior superlatives; Fame knew she had to shut her mouth for the last time. When Sam saw Fame coming, she damn near pissed her clothes right then and there. It was the last day of school, and anything was possible. But this ass-whipping that was about to go down would be impossible to remove and to forget. Fame walked right up to Roe and started putting her hair in a ponytail. She wasn’t about to mess up that good Virgin Mongolian hair. She had no time to talk or time to waste. From the moment she spoke, Roe knew what time it was.

So if you weren’t pregnant, you would have beaten my ass, right?

Roe dropped her purse and appeared ready to throw down with her sister behind her. Just as she planned, Roe opened her mouth in an attempt to explain herself. As soon as she began to speak, Fame grabbed her by the side of the face and violently smashed her head into the brick wall then grabbed a fistful of hair with the left hand and threw consecutive uppercuts to her face with the right. Fame threw her to the ground and, with all her might, kicked Roe right between the eyes and then again in the stomach. The whole time she yelled, Talk that noise now, talk that noise now! as she kicked this trifling trick repeatedly.

In defense, Roe balled up in the fetal position in an effort to protect herself when Sam grabbed Fame. Roe jumped up and swung at Fame just as Mrs. Stubberfield came rushing out the restroom with a radio screaming for the school on-site police officer to hurry to the science wing. Miraculously, Roe didn’t have a concussion or at the least wasn’t bleeding at all. Roe was from the Hill, which was the hood out here in Columbia, so Roe was a punk by no means. And as planned, she was now at Fame like a starving lion on a gazelle, and all Mrs. Stubberfield saw was Sam holding Fame and Roe punching her clean and clear in the face. That one punch was all it took and was all that Fame needed to set her plan in motion.

Security, security! The Tisdale girls are jumping Fame Watkins. Security!

When Sam heard her say that, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, and the coldest chill came over her entire body. She put her hands in the air and panicked like a crack head in police custody. Her sister Sam started falsely confessing to a crime she technically didn’t commit.

No, no, no, Mrs. Stubberfield, I was just helping my sister so she wouldn’t lose the fight, that’s all. I didn’t jump her until the end.

By this time Officer Brooks came running around the corner along with Principal Duncan. They didn’t take fighting too lightly at Allie E. Brooks High School and had an absolute zero-tolerance policy on gang fights or fights that involved multiple people on a single person. A multiple or single fight was an automatic arrest, and for it to be the last day of school, they’re most likely to leave you in there over the weekend. Principal Duncan assumed you’ve been plotting the fight all year long. Fame also knew Roe wouldn’t stick around to reap the repercussions of this foolishness and would flee the scene. She also knew she would run to the side exit that led to the student parking lot and try to leave campus as fast as she could. So she paid BB and his auto body classmates to remove all four tires from her ’97 Civic. But these lunatics removed the doors off the car as well, and one of those nasty bastards took a shit in the passenger seat and smeared it all in the seat with a pair of her heels he found in the backseat.

Roe, in panic mode, ran right pass her car when she first got to the parking lot not recognizing it in that condition. When she finally realized the chopped and screwed vehicle with no wheels and no doors was her car, she broke down and screamed at the top of the lungs, fell to her knees in the middle of the parking lot, buried her face in her hands, and cried like a newborn baby. BB was leaning up against his SUV with his classmate laughing hysterically. Through her tears and crying, she managed to look up and see them laughing at her expense.

She stood up to her feet in her frustration and yelled at him, Fuck You, BB. I know your dumb ass did this. Fuck you and your sister. I hate y’all, I hate y’all, I hate y’all!

"You better watch your mouth when you address me and family, Roneisha. My sister thought your car would look better in pieces since it’s a piece of shit! I know she just whipped your ass. Damn, I wish I could