Treyana refused to become a statistic, despite a few obstacles that she had in her life. She is a 28-year-old African-American single mother of twins and living in a housing project. She had her daughters, Briana and Bernice, 13 years ago when she was only 15. Because of her young pregnancy, Treyana had to drop out of the 10th grade.

Being a young teen and taking care of twins was no easy task for the beautiful girl. But she had gotten a lot of help from her mom, who herself had Treyana when she was only 15, and her grandmother. That only lasted for a few years, however, when her grandmother suddenly became severely ill and bedridden. It was then, on her grandmother’s deathbed, that Treyana promised her grandmother that she’d one day return to school to graduate.

As luck would have it, years went by before she was ever able to attend night school. But still, in all, it happened. At 25, Treyana received her G.E.D. and promised her mom that it wouldn’t stop there. One year later, and while working as a waitress in a nearby restaurant, Treyana began attending a local community college in hopes of receiving an associate degree in business administration. And it’s opened a whole new world for her. She’s met a lot of new friends. One of whom was Brad, a 19-year-old white guy who was a linebacker for his high school football team before graduating. They, basically, met when assigned to work together.

Dr. Pam Douglas, their business administration professor, paired the students of her class and assigned them several different types of projects to write a report on. Treyana was hoping to be paired with one of the black students but, since she was only one of three, she knew it would be a very slim chance. However, she was paired with 6’3”, brown hair, brown-eyed, Brad, and the two started out with some complications.

Dr. Douglas said, “You two are separate business owners who decided to merge your 2 businesses together and form a partnership. I want you two to work on an outline of the business, draw up some type of blueprints or floor plans of the business, and come up with a budget to explain how you intend to finance the business and its ventures. And I expect you to present it to the class in 3 weeks.” Before leaving class, the two argued as to what type of business it would be. Brad insisted on a sporting goods franchise, while Treyana insisted on a beauty supply store.

For a 5’2” woman, Treyana had a voice that carried. So when she would argue, it seemed as if she was talking loudly. When they couldn’t agree on anything, Brad simply grabbed his books and notebooks and told Treyana, “Sounds to me like somebody hadn’t gotten laid in a while. Maybe you won’t be so bitchy.” He quickly walked out of the class before Treyana could respond. Throughout the day and while attending her other classes, that statement stayed on Treyana’s mind.

At first, she laughed it off. Getting laid used to be the least of her worries. She had been with her boyfriend, Terrance, for 2 years, and they had always been very sexual. In fact, Terrance had often teased her of being a nymphomaniac. But with her work schedule and taking care of the twins, her sex life with Terrance had lessened to just once a week and sometimes less. But she refused to think that Brad had hit a nerve with her.

“He’s just an immature ass teen,” she thought. However, days had gone by, and then 2 weeks, and the two still hadn’t begun their project. Often Brad would try to set up a time and place for them to meet, but Treyana was too busy with her job to pursue the project with him. Finally, she told him, “I’ve got an idea. Come up with a plan that we can work on, and we can meet this weekend before the project is due. I’ll ask my manager if I can have the weekend off, and I’ll make it up during the week. He’ll understand.”

“Fine,” Brad replied, “so where would you like us to meet?”

“How about your place? Or would your parents be offended to have a Black person in their house?”

“Don’t say that, Treyana. My folks aren’t like that. My place is fine. I’ll pick up some beer and pizza for us to snack on as we’re working. The project is due that Friday, so hopefully we can put our heads together and work something out.” Brad proceeded to write the directions to his parents’ house for Treyana, and it was a set date.

That Friday, Treyana prepared herself as simply as she could get. She wore a pair of baggy knee-high shorts, a t-shirt, and tied a black bandana around her hair. As she put it, she wanted to dress as she would for a weekend around the house kind of event. After 3 bus rides, she arrived at Brad’s parents’ house at 3 p.m. She was impressed to see a BMW parked in their driveway and figured that his parents had great careers. One that she would like to have one day. She knocked on the door, and Brad opened the door wearing sweatpants and a tank top.

“Oh, good, you’re here. Were the directions helpful?” Brad asked.

“Very helpful, thank you,” she replied. As Treyana entered the house, Brad looked around outside. “Are you making sure that your white neighbors didn’t see the nigger girl coming in the house?”

“No, I was looking for the car that you drove here in.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I caught the bus here. My boyfriend will pick me up when he gets off of work tonight, if it’s okay with you.”