“Let me go out front so that I can grab the ladies. I’ll be right back,” I let my sister know, and she nodded her head, letting me know that that was cool.
She went and took a seat in the first row, sitting down with the rest of the staff. I had to hire staff with this. This wasn’t something that I could pull off on my own because it was too many girls for me to think that I was enough to cater to all of them on my own. Every staff member that I had was going to be essential to this program. I had to hire an operations manager. I mean, I could do that part on my own, but I’m already responsible for so many things in my life right now, that I needed the operations manager to help take the load off. Alongside myself, I also hired a couple of lead self-defense instructors. They would help me with the physical side of training. Also, assistant instructors, an entire firearm training staff, and they were all licensed to teach gun safety, just as I was. That was a class that I had to undergo these past few months to even pull this off. There was an officer that was planted in front of the warehouse, and he would just help in keeping an eye on the building.
A couple of nurses were on staff too. Nyne, my little sister would come in and help in medical whenever she could because my little sister had her nursing license. Right now, her schedule was just so busy because she was always on the move with her husband Caine, who was a big-time rapper. So many positions were filled going into this business. My daddy always told me that when I did something, I had to go big, or go home, and hiring all this staff, running this big warehouse was my definition of going big.
I stepped outside of the training room, directly into the huge reception area. It was loud out here because all the women were standing around, talking amongst each other. There were three desks up front, which is where my nurses were. They were responsible for checking the ladies in.
I scanned the room, just to get a feel, and see who was all here. I didn’t know these women personally, but when they applied for the program, they had to tell me a little bit about themselves, send over a picture, and things like that. I wasn’t sure if a lot of the women knew each other prior, or if they’d just met, but a lot of them were all clicked up, talking amongst each other. Literally almost everyone had someone that they were clicked up with, even if it was just one person. There was one person, however, who stood in the back, and she wasn’t clicked up with anyone.
The smallest one here, but for whatever reason, my eyes darted right to her. She stood in the back, near the entry doors,and just from her distance away from everyone, you could tell that she didn’t know any of the ladies here. Not only that, but she probably wasn’t interested in getting to know them either.
Seeing her, I instantly remembered her profile. I guess I just didn’t recognize her because on the picture that was sent in of her, her hair was curly, but right now, it was straight, and she was wearing a fitted cap, that was turned to the back. Seeing her outfit, all I could think of was the fact that he had style. It made her stand out.
She wasn’t dripping in designer, or anything like that, but what she had on was a statement. I loved the bright red varsity jacket that she rocked, with a pair of black pants that stopped just above her ankles. You could tell she intentionally went for that flooded look. You could see the white, high socks that she wore with a fresh pair of red and white Jordan 1’s. A green, fitted hat was on her head, just giving the outfit a little color pop. That sandy brown hair against her skin that was almost golden was a combo out of this world. She was too busy with her hands in her pockets, staring off into space, that she didn’t notice that I was staring at her. I planned to teach that in the class too… self-awareness. She should have been alert the second I walked out of the door and known that someone had been watching her for the past five seconds.
“Oh my God! It’s really you. It’s Uzi! I’m fan girling so bad right now,” a beautiful brown skinned woman, that looked to have been in her middle thirties said to me, as she stood amongst the rest of the women, with her eyes on me, looking up at me with a gleam.
I didn’t consider myself world famous. I was hood famous though. You couldn’t bring up Miami, hustle, and killing niggas without mentioning my name. I was humble though, so people didn’t have to treat me like they were fans of me whenever they saw me.
Her reaction caused all the women to join in. They started doing the same, sending out compliments, letting me know how beautiful I was, and telling me that they respected me for what I was doing for them.
“Good morning. ladies. I want to thank all of you for being here. By now, all of you should have already checked in with the staff that I have up front. If you haven’t, please take care of that now before you enter the training room. You all can go ahead, and line up, so that you can make your way inside. There aren’t any assigned seats, so once inside, feel free to sit wherever you want,” I went on to say, and they immediately started moving.
I inched out of the way, so that they could all start moving into the room.
It didn’t take long for them to walk past me, and just about all of them smiled, and waved at me, as they walked past, and walked through the doors. The girl that I pointed out, that had been standing towards the back, she was the last one to make it inside. The second she was close enough to me, she paused for a second, so that she could look at me. I had the perfect view of her now. This girl was beautiful as hell. I mean, drop dead fuckin gorgeous. I could tell she was rough around the edges though. Her swag, and just the way she moved showed that.
“You got a thing for being in the back?” was the first thing that I asked her.
I was just trying to break the ice, make conversation because she looked uncomfortable. Everyone knew someone here, and had been talking amongst each other, but I noticed that she hadn’t, so I was just trying to be the person that she could talk to, even if it was just for a quick second.
“I don’t know where I’m at. I’m in unfamiliar territory. The back helps me scope the scenery, and gives me a sense of relief,” her voice was soft.
I expected that kind of voice to come out of such a small body. She talked with confidence though. Looked me in my eyes as she spoke to me, so confidence, and reminding her of who the fuck she was, wasn’t something that I was going to have to instill in her during her time here.
“I mean, scoping out the scenery is cute, but what does that do for you? It helps you out, how? The scenery is just one small thing out of so many to put your focus on. It’s the people that you gotta be on the lookout for. The threat is not the scenery. Most times, it’s the people that’s standing inside of it. Do as you will with that when you walk inside, and you pick a seat,” I said, and that was basically my way of trying to tell her ass not to sit in the back because something told me that she would.
She nodded her head, as if she heard me loud and clear, and then she went ahead, and walked inside of the training room. The nurses that I had on staff, that were running the front, doing the check-ins, they came inside next, so that they could take a seat.
Once everyone was inside, that’s when I walked in, and I closed the door behind me. I scanned the room, just wanting to see where she had taken her seat, and she did exactly what I knew she would. She found her a spot in the last row, choosing to sit right on the end. Her eyes weren’t on me though because she’d already opened the pamphlet that was on the table, and she was looking through it.
I didn’t speak on it. I walked through the middle aisle, making my way to the front of the class. All the staff that I’d hired were sitting in the front. My sister was sitting up front as well, and she had her phone in her hands, recording me, as I walked up front. There was a smile that was genuinely placed on her face. You couldn’t fake that kind of love, and support. You could see it through her eyes that Benelli was so proud of me.
I made it to the front of the training room, and I looked ahead of me. I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t scared to talk in front of a room full of people. My daddy didn’t raise me, and my sisters to be shy. I’ve been confident all my life. Plus, I was passionate about this area of life, so I went ahead, and cleared my throat, so that we could begin.
“Good morning, everyone,” I greeted them for the second time.
The first time was when I was standing out front in the reception area. Everyone spoke back, their voices filling up the room, and once that was done, I went right along.
“Like I mentioned out front, I really want to thank you all for showing up. I’m a pro advocate of women knowing how to protect themselves, so it really means a lot to me that you all have taken the first steps. For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Uzi. You don’t have to be formal with me in here by calling me Mrs. Reaves. Uzi will do. I know that a lot of you are already familiar with who my father was, so, I was taught self- defense, and basic gun training at an early age. With that, I have the proper knowledge on teaching gun safety, and these past few months, I took the time to go through training, so that I could become certified, and be able to teach this class,” I started out, taking glances at each woman around the room as I spoke to them.
You really would have thought that I was this country’s president by the way they were sitting in their seats, hanging onto my every word.
“I’m not sure if many of you are tuned in with what’s going on in our city the way that I am, but for the past few months, I’ve been noticing a pattern. A very dark, depressing pattern. Too many women are walking around here without basic protection, and they aren’t prepared. They aren’t prepared for random dangers, confrontation, or becoming the next victim,” Icontinued, taking a pause because I wanted to see which avenue that I wanted to take next.
“There’s a packet sitting in front of you all, and that’s the foundation. The foundation of what this program is built upon. There’s a lot of women in this room, and some of you may be friends, associates, or whatever the case, and although sisterhood is the goal that I have in mind, I don’t want any of you women to look at this class as a time to have fun and hang out with your girls. This isn’t that. If you’re looking for a hangout spot, Miami has plenty of clubs, and lounges for you to choose from,” with that, everyone started filling the room with laughs.
“We’ll have our days to have fun, but right now, this program will be built on structure, and it’s something that I want you all to take seriously. You’ll ultimately be learning how to handle guns, and shoot, and with that, it’s not play time. My goal here is to teach you the proper training when it comes to handling a gun and shooting it. The things that you’ll learn here are all things that I would want you to take out with you into the outside world if there ever came a time where your life was in danger. There are so many women that have been killed innocently, and if they just knew the proper way to protect themselves, their stories could have ended a bit different. The goal here is to change that,” I finished, and like I’d just stood up here, and gave my Grammy award winning speech, they each clapped for me.
