She signed up for it anyway in the spring of 2002.  She had no black friends in real life, hell,  she never spoke to the black kids who went to her school.  But she submitted the Blackplanet.com form without hesitation. She used her pet cat’s name Hester as part of her password and threw in some numbers and symbols.  She picked her username from Lil’ Troy’s ‘99 classic single, “Wanna be a Balla,” one of her favorite cuts. That’s how  ballagurl84 was born.  

She skipped the black news reports and went straight to the chat rooms:

ballagurl84: sup?

yungdizo: yooooo.

trubble2u: nmh. jc.

ballagurl84: whutchu doin?

yungdizo: nuffin.

trubble2u: sup, ma? what u tryna do?

ballagurl84: nuffin. lol.

Though brief, this would be the budding of what can now be seen as…the thirst.  Ballagurl84 totally bypassed Yungdizo and went with Trubble2u just because his name sounded dangerous.  

She put him on her e-mail list and they began sharing profile pictures and more text messages:

ballagurl84: so wen u gonna meet me?

trubble2u: wenevr.

ballagurl84: lol.

trubble2u: sike naw. it up 2 u.

ballagurl84: how bout next week?

trubble2u: cool.

Ballagurl84 gave trubble2u directions to her house.   One evening,after school, trubble2u took the 34 DART from Wilmington into Newark to see ballagurl84. Besides Hester, she was to herself at home.

“You’re real,” ballagurl84 exclaimed. 

“Yeah,” replied trubble2u upon entering the house.  

The two teens later smashed.  Ballagurl84’s parents came home soon after trubble2u had already left. She was back on the family computer logged on, and in the chat room when they arrived. Yet, this time she was in search of the one that was once overlooked:

ballagurl84: sup?

yungdizo: yooooo.

And her thirst continued to go unquenched.