Work Text:
Huey Freeman could be described as a lot of things. Easily surprised wasn't one of them.
The world had already thrown enough garbage in front of his eyes for him to no longer be caught off guard by it.
He'd rather try and work towards cleaning up the shit that others had caused. But society was steadily putting out more shit
than he could ever handle. So he remained busy with the objective of making the world a better place, even if , at best , he could maybe
keep it at one level of shit for just a day or two.
His expectations were low and so he could nearly never be truly disappointed.
There was a positive side effect to this attitude tho. It was the occasional good type of surprise or at the very least a pleasent development.
One such development was currently bouncing up and down on the other side of the street.
It was Jazmine Doubois hair as she was jumping rope.
Huey had to go outside ot verify if Jazmines hair truly was the way it had seemed.
Now, standing only one width of a street appart from her , huey could no longer deny what was going on.
"Hey Jazmine." He yelled out to her.
"Oh hi Huey. Whats up." She asked with her usual innocent demeanor.
"Not too much. " Huey said as he crossed the street.
"I was just wondering, did you do something to your hair ?" Huey asked, and contemplated telling her that he was genuinely asking
and not intending on giving her a compliment.
"Thanks for noticing." Jazmine replied. Huey had anticipated this.
"It does look good, but I wasn't asking you as a compliment." He clarified.
The hair was parted in the middle of Jazmines skalp and one half was braided into cornrows and the other half was left in its normal curled state.
"Last time i checked you weren't too keen on wearing your hair in a natural style. You always wanted to have it straightened."
Huey stated.
"Yeah, well..." She began but hesitated.
"Did you finally realize your black heritage or did tom give you a bit of a history lesson on the inhumane and degrading ways
black peoples hair was treated in the past ?" Huey asked.
"Well, not really..." Jazmine began again.
"Or did you get inspired by one of the many black icons of the present and the past. Maybe Chastity Jones who took her fight against the discrimination based on her hair to the supreme court." Huey offered
"Actually, its..." Jazmine tried yet again, but was too timid with her voice to actually be heard by Huey.
"Angela Davis mabye ? She was a great icon of..." This time Huey was cut off by Jazmine.
"Misty Brightdawn." She blurted out.
Huey looked at her in confusion and then tried to search his mind for that name. He did not come up with anything or anyone in the Black Power movement.
"Who ?" He simply asked.
"Misty Brightdawn. She is a character from my little pony on netflix." Jazmine said and looked awkwardly to the floor.
"I'm not sure I understand."Huey said and looked perplexed at Jazmine.
Jazmine produced her (functionally limited and constantly parentally controlled) smartphone from her pants pocket.
She unlocked the screen and after a quick image search held the device up to hueys face.
A 3 D animated azure blue pony with a seaweed green and and midnight blue curly mane smiled at him from within the screen.
The hair was hanging down her head without restrictions on one side and seemingly put in place as cornrows on the other.
"That inspired you ?" Huey asked, still unsure of what to make of this.
"Is that stupid ?" SHe asked back.
Huey hesitated for a second. He knew that his answer would make a difference.
"Not really." He said and aditionally thought. 'Its a bit naive but not stupid'
"I rarely see someone like me with hair like mine but she ...I mean she's not real and also a pony but she's relatable especially with her
hair." Jazmine said, now with a smile.
Huey looked at the blue pony again and then at Jazmine.
"You know what. You do you sistah.I'm happy for you."
"You don't think its childish ?" Jazmine asked.
"Well it is a childs toy franchise and you are a child."Huey began" But I gotta be honest with you. There are motherfuckers out there
that do the right thing for far worse reasons. You are, in all honesty, a lot more mature than at last 90% of them."
"Thank you. Hey maybe you can come over some time and we can play together with some of my other pony figures." Jazmine asked with hopefull exitement
"That would be a hard ,fuck no, from me but thanks for reminding me that i still have to write Hasbro my anual E-mail of condemnation for their use of child labour in the manufacturing of their toys."
"They do what now ?" Asked Jazmine, but Huey was already back at his house.