you are the youngest, you have to show all of your big sisters the most respect, answer to all the members, and you’ll follow the most amount of instructions.”
Lina also told me not to milk the “baby thing.” If I wanted to be equal, I should work hard and earn my status.
I noticed Lina called the other Diamonds her sisters, while Riot called me and Siri her sons. I didn’t think on it too long; family is family.
Even though the seventh lesson completed my training, I wanted to stay close with Lina. I liked her. She was smart and pretty, serious but still fun. She was warm if you got to know her and cold if you didn’t.
For me, style and method were the hardest lessons of all. For style, I had to use manners I wasn’t used to using. I had to introduce myself to each of the Diamond Needles separately. I had to remember their names and numbers. I had to learn their likes, dislikes, and requests, and be on call to help anyone on our team at anytime that I could.
I had to give each Diamond Needle a “tribute,” or gift. The gift giving wasn’t so bad. I understood that in here you couldn’t get something for nothing. Plus I still had my candy hustle going. I dreamed up an idea that I would put in motion immediately. I’d make some little packets in arts ’n crafts. Siri would decorate them. I’d put in assorted candies, and that would be my gift. For people on the outside that might not sound like shit, but in here a little sugar was hard to obtain and could take me far.
For method, Lina explained, “You have to be disciplined enough to follow a plan of action. You have to think with all of your girls in mind and not only yourself. You have to respond to all communications as quickly as possible. You have to make sure you don’t mess up or interrupt what the DN is trying to achieve.”
“What are we doing first?” I asked her.
“It’s your first thing, but to us is just one more thing we’re doing, in the middle of doing everything else,” she said. I seen that Lina liked to remind me that I was the young one. We were the last ones to bechosen, Siri and me. It seemed like she thought that I was the most likely to fuck up.
Out of loyalty to Riot, and respecting the DN code of silence, I wasn’t telling Lina that I chose Siri to be in the Diamond Needles, and that Riot approved it. Lina believed that only she and Riot could choose members. But having Siri in the gang was a condition of my hooking up with dem.
“So what am I doing first?” I corrected myself for Lina.
“You’re not going to fight with anyone else,” she said, with the most mean look on her serious face since me and her first met. “You are going to let us handle the Cha-Cha beef. You are going to make it to the Festival de la Familia . . .,” she said, speaking Spanish again. Then she said in English, “The Annual Family Festival, which no prisoner can attend if they have even one violent episode ninety days prior to the festival date, which is on Saturday July 20, 1996.”
“Okay, but . . .,” I started saying.
“You been locked down here for almost three years. You missed two festivals cause of fighting. The third one is coming up in four and a half months,” she said.
“Cha-Cha is fucking crazy. You think I can schedule my fights with her? Whenever she flips out, she flips out and fucks with me. So I fight her.”
“Are you smarter than her or is she smarter than you?” Lina asked me.
“You already know,” I said swiftly. “Or Riot would’ve chosen Cha-Cha for the Diamond Needles instead of me,” I said confidently.
“Good, then do as I say. Stop allowing her to deal you the same hand every time. Cha-Cha is controlling you. If she keeps you fighting, she keeps you from having any privileges,” Lina said.
“She loses her privileges, too,” I answered back swiftly.
“So what? She’s nobody. She’s ignorant. She don’t make real moves. She doesn’t make money. She don’t have no
Lina also told me not to milk the “baby thing.” If I wanted to be equal, I should work hard and earn my status.
I noticed Lina called the other Diamonds her sisters, while Riot called me and Siri her sons. I didn’t think on it too long; family is family.
Even though the seventh lesson completed my training, I wanted to stay close with Lina. I liked her. She was smart and pretty, serious but still fun. She was warm if you got to know her and cold if you didn’t.
For me, style and method were the hardest lessons of all. For style, I had to use manners I wasn’t used to using. I had to introduce myself to each of the Diamond Needles separately. I had to remember their names and numbers. I had to learn their likes, dislikes, and requests, and be on call to help anyone on our team at anytime that I could.
I had to give each Diamond Needle a “tribute,” or gift. The gift giving wasn’t so bad. I understood that in here you couldn’t get something for nothing. Plus I still had my candy hustle going. I dreamed up an idea that I would put in motion immediately. I’d make some little packets in arts ’n crafts. Siri would decorate them. I’d put in assorted candies, and that would be my gift. For people on the outside that might not sound like shit, but in here a little sugar was hard to obtain and could take me far.
For method, Lina explained, “You have to be disciplined enough to follow a plan of action. You have to think with all of your girls in mind and not only yourself. You have to respond to all communications as quickly as possible. You have to make sure you don’t mess up or interrupt what the DN is trying to achieve.”
“What are we doing first?” I asked her.
“It’s your first thing, but to us is just one more thing we’re doing, in the middle of doing everything else,” she said. I seen that Lina liked to remind me that I was the young one. We were the last ones to bechosen, Siri and me. It seemed like she thought that I was the most likely to fuck up.
Out of loyalty to Riot, and respecting the DN code of silence, I wasn’t telling Lina that I chose Siri to be in the Diamond Needles, and that Riot approved it. Lina believed that only she and Riot could choose members. But having Siri in the gang was a condition of my hooking up with dem.
“So what am I doing first?” I corrected myself for Lina.
“You’re not going to fight with anyone else,” she said, with the most mean look on her serious face since me and her first met. “You are going to let us handle the Cha-Cha beef. You are going to make it to the Festival de la Familia . . .,” she said, speaking Spanish again. Then she said in English, “The Annual Family Festival, which no prisoner can attend if they have even one violent episode ninety days prior to the festival date, which is on Saturday July 20, 1996.”
“Okay, but . . .,” I started saying.
“You been locked down here for almost three years. You missed two festivals cause of fighting. The third one is coming up in four and a half months,” she said.
“Cha-Cha is fucking crazy. You think I can schedule my fights with her? Whenever she flips out, she flips out and fucks with me. So I fight her.”
“Are you smarter than her or is she smarter than you?” Lina asked me.
“You already know,” I said swiftly. “Or Riot would’ve chosen Cha-Cha for the Diamond Needles instead of me,” I said confidently.
“Good, then do as I say. Stop allowing her to deal you the same hand every time. Cha-Cha is controlling you. If she keeps you fighting, she keeps you from having any privileges,” Lina said.
“She loses her privileges, too,” I answered back swiftly.
“So what? She’s nobody. She’s ignorant. She don’t make real moves. She doesn’t make money. She don’t have no
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