The Beginner'S Algebra

She was remembering that afternoon when school let out shortly after her sixteenth birthday in Detroit. Standing there in the waning sunlight on a corner waiting for the traffic to slow down so she could cross the street. Her arms full of World History and Algebra One and French for Beginners and loose leaf binders. "Psst! Hey you!" a voice called out from a car that had pulled up to the curb alongside of her. It was a beat up old jalopy and inside were four black kids her own age. They beckoned for her to come closer but she took two steps back instead. They were a bit rough looking to her. "Hey blondie, I just wanna ask you how to get to Pierpont Avenue, we're lost," the kid in the back seat said. She made the mistake of believing him. She moved in close to the car and bent over, her left arm cradling her school books, her right arm extended pointing in the direction of Pier-point Avenue. "You take the first right… " when suddenly the back door swung open and she was hauled into the back seat, her notebooks falling to the curb. "Don't scream or make no fuss and nothin's gonna happen to you," the kid told her as the car pulled out with a screech into the afternoon traffic ...»