Free Knockout Games by G. Neri Page A

disturbed from his precious work, he looked like he was going to kick me too. “What?”
    I rolled my eyes, motioned for him to take off his headset.
    He stopped his little beeping machine and pushed his headset off his ear. “I don’t give money to homeless kids.”
    That was Tyreese’s opening. He just stood there.
    â€œI’m not homeless.” I had to stall. “Uh, what are you searching for, gold?” I asked, staring at Tyreese, who finally got the hint.
    Before the man could answer, Tyreese jumped into action. The man saw my reaction to Tyreese charging and swung around just in time to see the shortie’s fist coming his way.
    BAM.
    When the guy ducked, Tyreese hit the man’s headset anyway. They both cried out at the same time.
    â€œFuck!”
    â€œFuck!”
    The man went down to one knee. Tyreese was rubbing his hand. Prince yelled, “Finish him!” He held the other Tokers back. In the middle of all this, I spotted K recording the whole thing with his phone, trying not to shake too much from laughing. Fucker , I thought.
    The guy suddenly grabbed his metal detector and rose up to smash Tyreese in the face. In that fraction of a second, everything went white—my head felt like it was on fire and a roar came out of me that shocked me.
    I saw red. It was coming out of someone’s face. My fist was wailing on the guy’s face, smashing his nose. The blood shocked me and at the same time, the heat from it set something off in me that I didn’t expect.
    I felt like lightning hit me—everything went quiet and it was like I was seeing myself through the camera. I don’t know how many times I hit him. When the guy fell over, the boys broke free and ran up to me yelling “KNOCKOUT!”
    They jumped all over me and suddenly we all tumbled over in a big ball of sweaty boys and excitement. I was buried beneath them, smothered by their laughter and bodies. I had no idea what was going on, but someone started throwing them off me and then Kalvin pulled me out, grinning ear to ear.
    I kind of stumbled away from the pile and fell to the ground and jumped up again dazed, but happy. The Tokers were laughing their asses off, doing victory bumps. I saw the man lying on the ground, groaning. Some of the Tokers were still doing a number on him.
    I saw the blood on my fist and was gonna be sick. An arm reached out and grabbed me, pulling me in tight.
    â€œI got you, girl,” said Kalvin, holding me close to his chest.
    â€œDid you see it?” I said.
    He hustled me away as the boys scattered. “See what?”
    â€œThe lightning.”
    He smiled in recognition. “Yeah, I saw it. Crazy, right?”

14
    It wasn’t like I fainted or anything. Or even passed out. It’s more that I went into a hyper state so pumped with adrenaline that my head short-circuited. I could hear the Tokers hooting and hollering in the background. And I could feel the Knockout King’s arm holding me tight. But other than that, I was somewhere else.
    We were walking and walking, and it was starting to get dark outside; then we were inside and suddenly, I felt a jolt and there I was again, sitting on someone’s bed, and that someone was in the shower.
    Something was going on outside and I walked over to the window and saw I was in a small apartment building. The window overlooked the rooftop of a lower story and there was Prince in the middle of a bunch of Tokers on the roof deck as the sun was setting. Tyreese was standing next to him, looking small. C-Jay and Doughboy were wearing boxing gloves.
    I thought maybe they were training or something, but as soon as Prince left the ring, C-Jay and Doughboy went at Tyreese. They circled around him like wolves. I thought he was gonna piss his pants. Suddenly C-Jay lurched and got him good on the side of the face. Doughboy quickly landed a punch to his stomach. Tyreese’s knees buckled.
    I guess that’s