The Story of Diamond Philips

Stream: Fire

By: Jules James

The name is Diamond Phillips and this is a story about what I went through during the year of 2100. I will start off by telling you about myself. I was born on February, 29, 2083 in West Philadelphia. I lived with my father, Greg Phillips, but I called him Wawa because he told me that’s where he was when he found out Angela, my mother, was about to give birth to me. Wawa worked as a contractor who builds houses and hospitals. He was born in West Philadelphia too but we moved to New York after his wife abandoned me and him. Me and my dad got along perfectly, we're like best friends. We told each other everything and we always hung out. I must say I loved that man to death. His death would tear me down from the inside out.

Now, the lady who gave birth to me was Angela Martin. She was from South Philly and also was a drug addict. She died in 2097. It’s not much I could say about her for the simple fact that I really didn’t know her. All I knew is before 2100 came I didn’t like her much. My reason for this is because I never had a mother figure in my life and I blamed that on her. I never saw my mother in real life, only in pictures. When Angela's funeral came I refused to go because when I needed my mother she wasn't there for me so I thought that I wasn't going to be there for her.

Other than Wawa, I had no other family in my life, but I do had this friend, she was my best friend. Her name was Mia but people called her Mo, that wass her dyke name. At first she was hard to get along with but by the end of sophomore year we ended up becoming best of friends.

I was also raised as a Christian. I questioned myself of whether or not I still was a Christian. I still went to church, once in a while but the person I was drew me from that religion. During 2100, I was single but I also was bi-sexual. I never had sex with a guy but I did with a girl once, only for fun though.

My relationship life wasn’t the best. I’ve had 18 “boyfriends” altogether but only 1 real boyfriends, the others only wanted to fuck. And I only had 1 girlfriend, sadly we didn’t work out.

Enough about the people around me, I’ll continue telling you about me. During the time of 2100, I was in 11th grade and I attended Turner High and I received good grades such as A’s and B’s. As much as I didn’t want to do the work I knew I had to just to keep my father happy. I was all he had, I didn’t want to be a disappointment to him.

I was smart, quiet, defensive, persistent, emotional, and I had anger issues. I was a basic young girl who tried to finish up high school, had no hobbies and no favorite sports. I hated the way I looked and the reason for that was because I looked like my mother. I was scared that I was going to be just like her and I didn’t want that. So I thought if I changed how I looked then I would be different from her. When I was 17 I was 5’4: I had tattoos on my chest, arms, and thighs, I had to cover up the skin that was just like my mother’s. I dyed my long black hair to blonde and I cut it. I was full in the chest and butt area, and I wore makeup all the time. My goal was to get rid of the look of my mother as much as I could no matter how much I had to change the way I looked. I mostly wore all black and my clothes were fitted just enough to show far my beautiful curves.

There’s one more thing you should know before I start my story. Everyone other than Wawa and Mo didn’t like me and the reason for that is because I was different and no one actually tried to get to know me. That was the reason I kept my distance. My happiness was all that mattered.

Now I’ll began my story:

I ran. I ran at an incredible pace so she wouldn’t see me coming. I flew through the cold, hard metal doors of my school, which created a strong breeze that hit everyone that was in my way. I went inside every girl’s bathroom and I looked in every stall but she was no where to be found. After I went in all of the bathrooms I then went to the place she had to be, her rusted 25 year old locker. Her locker was the first locker installed inside of our school. People call it the ancient locker.

When I got there, there was a group of people there, including Tia. We were both dressed alike, we were in fighting clothes with our hair tied up. I was the one who had to break the intense silence.

“You was talkin’ a lot of shit yesterday, why you so quiet now?” I said putting my book bag on the ground. I’m not going to lie, she was a brave bitch but so was I.

“The only reason I ain’t saying anything is because I prefer to use my hands other than wasting my breath with you.” She turned around to everyone behind her and said something that turned all of my sanity off. “Don’t worry about her. She just mad because I saw her mom yesterday for the first time and that was more than how many times she saw her mother. I put up a picture of her on Tweinstabook. Y’all should go see it.”, She said.

As she laughed, a boy with his phone out, it was set on video mode, asked, “Wait, but didn’t her mom died like three years ago from cocain?” She turned back around to me with a smirk on her face.

“Oh yea, oops. Maybe it was another dirty ass old crackhead that I saw then.” Everyone behind her gave out their “ooo’s” and I didn’t want to hear anymore of the bullshit.

Before I knew it my left hand was connected to her nose that stood out more than  her hard effort she put into her Tweinstabook pictures trying to expose a butt that never existed. Lucky for me she didn’t know how to fight and I found that out by noticing the only thing she was doing was pulling my hair, like that was never been done to me before. But because my head was down and I couldn’t see her face, to aim at it some more, I had no choice but to knee her in a not so delightful place. That one hit brought her down on the ground, which gave me the advantage to get on top of her and start fisting her face in a few times.

I heard kids yelling, videos being taken, flashes, and a lot of other loud things that, for no reason, made me angrier which made all my hits on her face harder. But then I heard Officer Smith work his way to us. He pushed his way through the crowd so he could try to get me off of her.

When he finally came and got me off of her I looked her dead in her bloody face and said, “Try talkin’ about my mom again, bitch.” She covered her face and started to weep. Officer Smith and I walked away while the blood drops off my fist followed me.

I got suspended that day. They sent me home after the fight and suspended me for a week. When I was on my way home I thought my dad was still going to be asleep by time I got there and I would just explain to him what happen when he wakes up. But I was wrong. When I got home he was getting himself ready to go somewhere. He also had a bag packed.

“Wawa, where are you going?”, I asked putting my bag down slowly, hoping it wouldn’t touch my knuckles.

“Did you forget what today is?”, he asked. After a few milliseconds a nebulous look appeared on his face.

“Why aren’t you in school right now?”

“I’ve gotten suspended. It’s a long story involving a fight. I’ll tell you later.” I tried to change the subject quickly.

“So what’s the special occasion?”, I asked

“Your mother’s 3 year death.” I rolled eyes then quickly painted a polite smile on my face.

“I hope you have fun at the graveyard daddy. I’ll see you when you come back.”

“Oh well I’m going to stay in Philly for a day so I won’t be back until tomorrow night.”

“That’s even better, I’ll just stay with Mo tonight.” I was on my way to my room to pack some clothes but then Wawa stopped me.

“Wait, there’s something I wanna talk to you about.”, he said in a low voice, trying to sit me down.

“What is it?”, I asked. He pulled out this hackneyed paper from out of his back pocket, it looked like it was there for years.

“I’ve had this information for a while and I was thinking maybe,” he began to hesitate “... maybe you would like to go back in time?” I was confused with where he was getting at.

“Why would I do that? What’s back there for me?”

“Your mother.”, He said gaving me a sharp stare in my eyes.

“What?No... I won’t... I refuse...I...” I couldn’t complete any of my sentences. I was too appalled by his suggesting. Why in the hell would I ever go to see her?

“I don’t wanna hear it. I’m your father and I command you to go see her tomorrow. Do you understand me?” Wawa said with a loud tone of voice.

I had no choice by to reply by saying, “Yes Wawa.”

“Good. Now it will cause $1,000 so here you go.” He handed me a thick envelope that said, “Back in Time Money”.

“Now with this, you will go to the Franklin Museum, to the Time Machine exhibit, and give the people the money that’s in this envelope. And when they ask where do you want to go you have to say the first house on 58th and Christian Street on March 10, 2084.”, Wawa explained.

“Why this date?”

“This was the day she left.” This was a lot to take in. One part of me didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to see her face or hear her voice. But another part of me wanted answers to all my questions. I didn’t know what to do but I knew someone who would help me, Mo.

After Wawa left , I went upstairs to pack my bag and then I texted Mo to tell her that I was on my way over her house to spend a night.

When I got to her house she was home by herself. When she opened the door for me she only had on black and white ball shorts, a black sports bra, and white socks with Nike sandals. Her hair was wrapped in a bun and she looked like she just got out of bed, which made sense since she skipped school that day. But even though she was not there to see the fight between me and that girl she still had people there to tell her about it.

Time was going by fast and all l wanted to do was go take a shower and talk to Mo. And that’s exactly what I did. After I got out of the shower took of my clothes that was covered with my blood and Tia’s blood and threw on my pajama shorts and the matching shirt that came with it. I went to meet Mo in her room so we can begin our long talk. When I entered her room she was sitting on her bed.

“Come here girly and tell me what’s going on.”, she said as she patted on her bed. I took a seat next to her and my mouth began to run. It felt like it was running at 90mi./hr.

“Well, you know Tia, like the bully she is, she started talking about my mom. And you know how I get when people start to talk about my mom, I snapped. I had to fuck her up because she just kept running her mouth. She wouldn’t shut up. So after they suspended me for a week I went home and I saw my dad about to leave. He told me he was going to Philly to see my mom at the graveyard for her third year death and he is going to stay there for a day. But then he was like he want to go to the Franklin Museum to use the Time Machine to go back in time to go talk to her and I just don’t know if I should go or not. HELP.” When I was finished saying all of this I was out of breathe but Mo was just laughing. I think the speed of my talking was amusing to her.

“You lucky I’m your best friend cause if I wasn’t I don’t think I would have understand you. But anyways, I’m going to skip over the fight because that is totally irrelevant, but we are going to talk about going to see your mother. I think you should go see her. “You lucky I’m as good of a friend as I am or I would’ve not been able to understand anything you just said. But anyway, you’ve been in a hundred fights because of her and I think you should talk to her about how you feel. And you can’t say that you don’t feel anything because you wouldn’t fight for someone you don’t care for. And you know you have questions for her so why don’t you just...”, before she had the chance to finish her speech I stole a kiss. Both of our soft lips connected and the kiss that I thought was only going to be just a peck for maybe 20-25 seconds ended up being a long. passionate,  love kiss that lasted for hours.

After a few hours into our kissing, I detached our lips from each and looked her in her eyes.

“If you really want me to go see my mother than I will.”, I said in a low, soft voice.

“To be honest, what I really want is you.” She spoke just as soft while smiling and leaning in for another hours long kiss and a cuddle session. And that is how we end our night together.

She woke me up the next morning around 10 o’clock and told me I should get ready to go the museum before it gets crowded and she was right. I threw on my black crop top with my black tights and I put on my make up and repacked my bag and I was ready to go. But before I left, I gave my girlfriend a nice “think about me” kiss and then I was on my way to the museum.

When I got there it wasn’t crowded at all but when I my turn came I was hella nervous. After I gave the workers the money for the use of the machine and I told them where I wanted to go, they told me somethings I should know before they started me up. The workers told me that I only have 15 minutes inside the past and nothing longer. They also told me to not do anything that could negatively affect the future, basically don’t kill anyone. After the workers was done explaining everything. They put me inside the machine and strapped me in. They closed the door and told me to count in my head to 30 with my eyes closed. I started counting as I heard the machine start up and I felt the air blowing through my hair.

When I got to 30, I was there. I was standing right outside of the house my mother a banned me and my father in. Then I saw her. I saw her long caramel soft legs exit the door with her perfectly curvy shaped body following it. Her long black hair that was put away into a ponytail and her incredible ass was the last to exit.

I went behind a bush as she came down the stairs and waited for a G bus to take her away from me forever.

“Hi Angela.”, I said. When she looked at me I could tell that she didn’t know who I was.And she seemed high by the abject smell of weed in her breath and the redness in her eyes.

“Ummmm.... Do I know you? Who are you?”, she asked.

“No you don’t know me... Well you do but not as much as you should. I’m Diamond Phillips.” She gave me a hard stare.

“What?”

“I’m your daughter but from the future.” I was emotionless at first because I didn’t know how to feel.

“Oh my god, it is you Dia. What are you doing here?”, she asked.

“I have so many questions I want to ask you. Like why are you leaving?Do you even care about me? Did you...”, she stopped me.

“These are questions I never wanted to hear you ask so that’s why I’m leaving while you are or while you was young. But I guess the U.S. figured out how to created a time machine. But I do owe you an explanation. I’m leaving because I want to find help for myself. I didn’t want you to grow up with a crackhead mother so I’m taking myself to rehab for a few years.”, my mother explained.

“I was forced to grow up without a mother. When you was finished with rehab why didn’t you come back?” Tears was flowing down my face.

“I had plans too. Maybe I did try to come back. Did y’all happen to move at anytime?”

“Yea, we moved to Brooklyn a few months after you left.”

“I probably tried to come back but y’all was probably already gone. I left for your life and and for mines baby girl. I have nothing but love for you. I would never want to hurt you.”, then she started crying.

“Mom, I love you but you physically and mentally destroyed me when it came to me not having a mother figure in my life. I forced myself to change my physical appearance because I was sure that if I looked like you then I would be like you and I didn’t want that. I want to be there for my child, when or if I have them. But now that I know why you  did what you did, I can’t be mad. All you really wanted to better your life for your family.”

“May I give my beautiful daughter a hug, please?”, she asked.

“Yes you may mom.” We hugged and cried on each other for 5 minutes.

Then she asked, “So I have a question, how is our relationship right now?”

“I'm sorry to say but you’re dead back in my time. This is my first time seeing you in person. You died when I was 14 years old. I had so much hate for you that I didn’t even go to your funeral. But not my dad. He still love you so very much. He went to your funeral and he go see your gravesite every year.” I started to fade.

“MOM”, I yelled.

“ Baby girl, I want you to remember this one thing, I will never go a day without thinking of you. I love you baby.”, she wiped away her tears as I slowly became transparent.

The last thing I was able to say was, “I love you too mommy.”

Anti Bullying

Stream: Fire

Jules James

The only way change could occur is with the help of people. The only way we can prevent bullying is with the help of people. People of the world plays a salient role when it comes to making a positive change to the world and I think I explained this well in my video. I basically explained what type of things people could do to stop bullying and I also explained to them what things they are doing wrong, that unfortunately continues the bullying cycle. Bullying has efface a lot of lives and caused people to lose their happiness. If we let everyone be happy with the life they live without being harangue then a lot more people would be happy.

One way I informed my viewers on their role to create change is I created a brief skit to show people what they can do when you are witnessing someone getting bullied.I showed them that if they speak up it wouldn’t be a bad thing. It could save people’s lives and help other people calibrate their life. And other way I informed my viewers on how they can create change is I told them different ways they could stop bullying. Some of the things I included was, “...stop the rumors, teasing, threats, name-calling, and everything else you do to a person to make them feel less of a person.” I also told them to keep their hands to themselves.

The key to being a better person and ending bullying is simple. Treat others like you want to be treated. Let’s all play our role correctly and let’s end bullying.

Click here to watch my video.

Final Portfolio

Jules James

Looking back throughout the year in history and in english the theme this year in history, to me was seeing things in different lens helps create a better understanding of the world. We learned about what happened in the past and also what is happening now. We didn’t just stick to one subject. We learned about about a lot of things that happened in different places. One thing I remember learning about in history was the Colonialism Project. In this project we had to search any place in the world that was colonized in the past and we as individuals prepared a proposal to make an exhibit. This project really showed me that there is a way of learning without just sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher talking our brains out and telling us to take notes. And some people, like me, consider this way to be the easiest and the fun way to learn. In some cases it’s nice to learn and find out new information on your own other than just getting a ton of facts thrown in your ear.

It wasn’t just the projects that helped me learn new things in different ways but it was also the daily journals we did. For example, one of the journals I thought was helping was History Journal #19. In this journal, the question was “What is your universe obligation?” I answered this question by stating the four people, things, or places that I that felt as though was extremely important in my life. I liked doing this journal because the answer for this question didn’t have a right or wrong answer. It was opinionated. At this time we were learning about the universal declaration of human rights. We learned about the different rights for humans such as being born free, no slavery, equality to law, privacy, and many other rights. We also learned about The Modern Day Sweatshops. It was interesting the way we gathered up all our information and used it on each other by having a trial. We performed the trial by playing in different groups such as U.S. consumers, the system of profit, the poor country workers, the poor country ruling elite, and the multinational corporation and we basically chose one group to put all the blame on for the sweatshops, that is all around the world, and we had evidence of how each other was involved in the sweatshops. “We don’t care about the employees. We just want a profit.” This is one quote that was said during the trial by the system of profit and I felt as though this was a good quote because they was really playing the role of the system.

In english there was a lot of feelings and description going on. This year was filled with emotion and I thought this was important to state because in english not everybody have the chance to learn about these things because they are either focused to read  books or they are learning about grammar. We had the opportunity to read books and work on our grammar also. So the theme in english was language has hidden meanings and influence. There’s multiple reasons why I feel like this was the theme. For example, language played a huge role in my english 2 classes. We learned about descriptive language and poetry throughout the year that really brought out people’s emotion and thoughts. “Love don't exist in the pool of me. But the pain from is its number one visitor. As the smiles that I call bodyguards of happiness try to keep the pain out, its too strong for the bodyguards who don't use weapons except the lies of a smile.” When you read these quotes you can see that they are not just a regular sentences that you say when talk to someone. Well these sentences and more sentences like this was written in my Descriptive Writing. During our process of writing this, we was told to write different description paragraphs about things we saw or a moment we remembered from before to help us write with a lot of description. I thought this was very helpful because not only did this help me write with more description but it also helped me with looking at every little details of things and using figurative language such simile and metaphors. After writing the descriptive writing we switched to the poetry lesson.

When I heard this I thought we was going to just read a lot of poems from popular poets, but we didn’t do that. We made our own Poems and we used different styles that I never heard of like riff, ode, and found poems. Writing these poems taught me that not all poems have to rhyme just for it to make sense or have significant meaning. “But throughout life these languages will never connect. They are strangers living in the same house.” (Language vs. Language) This quote to me was separating language and poetry. The theme of language also came into place in my English Journal #10 where I had to fill in the blank, I wish ___________, multiple times. “ I wish I had tattoos. I wish I could fall in love. I wish I cared.” These quotes show that the phrase “I wish...” can go as far as to want to take it. And this is the same with language and poetry. You determine how much of you you want people to hear in your language.

In conclusion, this year was filled with different lesson that in a way all connected. And as I look back at all my works that I did for this year I realize that when challenging yourself, you are bettering yourself.