She was terrified. The house was freezing and darkness enveloped her. She could hear him, the intruder, walking around downstairs, trying to find her. The stairs creaked loudly and she knew he was coming up. If he found her, she would lose and losing wasn’t an option. Losing wasn’t in the rules of the constituting and completing of this mission. “I’m coming Cheryl!” he said in his deep booming voice. Rustling sounds came from Lizzie’s room, which meant he thought Cheryl had hidden it in her younger sister’s room. He was wrong of course. Rarely was he ever very good at his job.

Now he went into her parent’s room. Again, he was wrong; it wasn’t in there either. Cheryl knew he would come into her other younger sister, Danielle’s room next and that was where she was. She got ready to make her move. As how it usually was, his disposition would be his downfall. Just as she thought, he stalked into the room ready to attempt to impede her mission. His revolver was protruding from his pocket. She knew it was of extreme necessity to get the gun away from him or it could cost her her life.

He started rummaging through Danielle’s bureau searching for what Stan, the leader of his gang, wanted. Thinking he had made a faux pas by turning his back on her hiding spot, she attacked. With her blade out, she jumped him from behind attempting to cause him detriment, but was shocked when he turned and threw her off. She realized her folly; she had forgotten about the mirror above the bureau and he had watched her every move as she crept upon him. She landed on her left arm. Hard. “I am surprised at you Cheryl,” he growled, “that really isn’t a very polite way to welcome a guest in your home.” He smiled devilishly at her, thinking because of her position that she was going to lose. “You are not a guest, Carl. You are breaking and entering my house and you’re an imbecile.” she retorted as she pulled herself to her feet. He smirked not realizing the insult. She gently squeezed her arm, checking for broken bones. Her arm was sore but she knew from experiences that it was only a bruising area, nothing broken.

“Stan wants to make an uhhhh…what’s that word he said….oh yeah! He said he wanted to make a squidproco with you,” Carl informed. “That’s quid pro quo, Carl,” she said with a sneer. “I bet you don’t even know what that means do you?” Either he hadn’t heard her, or he refused to admit his lack of intellect. “He said he would arrange you one million dollars if you sent that” he nodded to the large diamond around her neck, “to him.” His eyes never left Cheryl, even when she began pacing about the room. “One-million dollars? This,” She picked up the jewel admiringly, “is worth much more than that! If I wanted the money, I could just sell it at any old pawnshop.”

He looked at her shocked. He hadn’t been expecting that she would know how much it was really worth. One of the many facts she had not shared with the gangs of New York was that her father was the owner of the largest pawnshop in the entire city. He was an aficionado when it came to expensive artifacts like the one she was wearing or better yet, the one she had stolen from the Qualna gang. Even if she desperately needed that money, which she did, she wouldn’t give the gem away. She had already made a deal with Detective Gary. She would give him the gem and in exchange, he would pull some strings and get her into Harvard University. She had also agreed to help the detective get Stan and her own gang-leader, James, behind bars.

Cheryl wasn’t a bad person exactly. She really had tried to stay out of the gangs and keep her sisters safe, but living where she did, it had been nearly impossible. She was inducted into the Assassino gang when she was twelve, five years ago. She had met Carl two years ago during a store robbery and they had since been enemies. Regardless of her street-life, she had already skipped a grade and was soon to be the valedictorian of her senior class. Sadly, even though her dad owned a largest pawnshop in the city, and her mom was a hairdresser at a salon down the street, they still didn’t have the money to pay tuition for college. Therefore, this was the only way for her to get into her dream school and become a lawyer.

As Carl stood there awestruck, Cheryl planned her second attempt at getting his gun. She ran towards him, kicked him in his shin, and then quickly pulled his gun out of his pocket. She pointed it directly at him and instructed him to, “Call Stan and tell him to come here and get the diamond for himself because I’m not giving it to his flunky.” Still astounded, he did as instructed and before long, Stan was on his way over. Cheryl then took his cell phone away from him and used it to call Detective Gray. She explained that Stan was coming fast and that he should send a few police cars over. Then she called James and claimed that she needed his help with getting the cops off her tail and he agreed to be over in an hour.

Within minutes, an overwhelming amount of police cars had covertly surrounded the premises. By the time, Stan showed up, Carl was already in a police vehicle on his way to prison. As soon as Stan entered the perimeter of her home, officers flew at him from all angles. He actually tried running away with the handcuffs on but almost instantaneously, he was captured once again. A half-hour later, they were all ready for phase two of this act. Only moments passed before James showed up in his 3-week-old black mustang with his highly inappropriate music on high blast. Within 10 minutes, they were loading James into a car as well. He would never forgive her for setting him up, but this had been the easiest way to subvert him from his “throne” and keep him from getting to her sisters.

Finally, after nearly 5 years of putting up with a life of gangs, wars and death, Cheryl was free. She would never have to deal with a crazed gang leader again, at least not until she became a lawyer. She could see her life falling into place, exactly the way she wanted it to. She did get into Harvard and was the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2008. Currently, she works for Sokolove Law in New York City. She has become so successful, that she was able to move her entire family out of Las Vegas and into a beautiful home in New York. She hopes to one day be able to help other teenagers get out of gangs and follow their own dreams in life.