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This chapter introduces to of the main characters, Starr and Kenya.

The setting is at an annual spring break party in there neighborhood.

Starr never usually never went to these parties but Kenya had finally convinced her to go.

Starr goes to a private school that is in a different more safe environment. This school is also a predominantly white school as well.

at the party Starr runs into an(Khalil)old friend 9 that she has known since she was 3 years old.

while Starr and Khalil are having a conversation two shots ring out and everyone at the party scatters.

As Khalil is taking Starr home they are pulled over by the police.

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Khalil was acting smart with the officer while being asked for his license and registration.

As a result he was asked to step out of the car, and was searched three times.

Not finding anything on Khalil, the officer told him not to move as he went back to the patrol car.

Khalil did not listen and went to check on Starr but when he was in the middle of asking if she was he was shot in the back three times.

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This chapter introduces Starr's parents ( Lisa & Mavrick, her brothers Seven and Sekani and Kenya's dad.

Starr is in shock because of the incident and can barely speak.

Starr's parents come to pick here up from the scene.

the next morning Starr is reminded of the first time she saw one of her friends get shot when she thought of the night before.

Starr receives plenty of sympathy from her family that morning regarding the shooting.

Starr's parents and Seven decide not to tell anyone that Starr was the other witness.

Starr explains how she relates to her favorite show "Fresh Prince of Belair".

the rest of Starr's day was spent at the store with her dad.

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Starr is awaken by another nightmare about her two dead friends.

Starr overhears her uncle, mom, and dad talking about weather the should investigate the shooting or not.

Starr agrees to talk to the detectives about the incident.

Later on Starr and her parents go to Khalil's grandmas house to talk about the incident.

While Starr was there had little memories of when she and Khalil were little.

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This chapter introduces Starr's friends at Williamson, Maya, Hailey, Ryan, Chris (her boyfriend), and Seven's girlfriend Layla.

Today was the day that Starr had to talk to the police after school.

As Starr gets into the school she switches from Garden Heights Starr to Williamson Starr. she does not have to think about Khalil or the officer.

At school, Starr runs into Chris whom she was mad at because he wanted to have sex with her even though they had a conversation before in which she told him she was not ready.

Chris tried to make it up to her by cheering her up with her favorite show's theme song. but when he tries to hold her hand she gets a flashback of the shooting and pulls away.

At the end of the day, Seven picks up Starr and Sekani and takes them to the clinic where Lisa works.

They reach a stop light tension fills the air as a police car pulls up next to them. Seven immediately turns down the music and stares ahead while Starr prays silently. Seven stays this way until they reach the freeway.

Later on, after they got to the clinic Brenda Khalil's mom arrived with her hair untidy and wearing dirty clothes. Starr judges her when she was grieving because she was never there for Khalil. But Lisa scolds her and tells her that it's not right to judge Brenda because it doesn't matter what she did she will always be his mother.

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Starr and her mother walk through the police station she reminds start to breathe as she didn't realize that she had grabbed her mother's hand.

Stars Uncle Carlos lead them to the interrogation room and when he left the detectives came in, introduced themselves, and started the questioning.

The question is that detectives Gomez and wykes were asking made it sound like they were putting Khalil and star on trial instead of the officer who shot Khalil.

Both star and her mother left the police station thinking the same thing "this is going to be some b*******".

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Khalil's funeral is tomorrow.

When Khalil name makes the news he is put under the title as a suspected drug dealer but the news does not mention that he was unarmed and that the police spoke to in unarmed Witness.

At school Starr, Hailey, and Maya played a game of basketball against the boys.

During the game, Starr was getting distracted by Chris so Hailey said to her to pretend that the ball is so Fried Chicken which offended star to the point where she stormed off the court and into the locker room.

Hailey insists that it was only a joke but Starr is still offended.

Hailey asks if the way Starr has been acting has to do anything with the police shooting "that drug dealer".

Starr unwillingly denies even knowing Khalil which was like killing him again.

Crying Starr ran off to the headmaster's office instead of the school shrink, has the coach and said, and faked that she had cramps.

She calls uncle Carlos to pick her up because of her " feminine problems".

Uncle Carlos took Starr to get fro-yo. While they were eating Lisa calls Uncle Carlos, but when he tells her the reason why he took Starr out of school she scolded Starr and asked if the real reason was because of Khalil but Starr denied it.

Starr pushes uncle Carlos to tell her why the officer had not been arrested yet, but when he started to defend him Starr revealed that the officer had pointed the gun at her .

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Today is Khalil's funeral the parking lot is packed and there are people wearing rip Khalil shirts.

The funeral is taking place  at a church Starr's family used to go to, Christ Temple.

The pastor greets the family and asks how nana is doing.

Starr and her family get in line to see Khalil in his casket.

Khalil looked as if he were a mannequin of himself when Starr saw him. at that moment she had a flash back of when Natasha was in her casket.

As the service goes on some of Khalil's other friends go up and tell stories about him.

This makes Starr feel even more unworthy to be called his friend.

April Ofrah with Just Us for Justice- an organization calling for police accountability- goes up to the podium and explains that the police do not intend on arresting the officer that shot Khalil and that Khalil was unarmed.

During the service a group of king lords - a neighborhood gang- entered and placed a gray bandanna on Khalil's body.

Furious, Mrs. Rosalie snatched it and threw it back at king (the leader).

After they left it was obvious to everyone that Khalil could have been a gang member and Starr felt even worse for drifting away from him when he was alive.

after the ceremony April approaches Starr's family and offers to represent her in the case of the shooting.

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That night violent protests broke out which forced the everyone in the house into the den.

While in the den Starr was watching the news and the police said that they do not plan on arresting the officer.

She was infuriated that the made it sound like Khalil deserved to die.

The next morning Seven and Starr head out to the park for there annual monthly basketball game.

While they were there they were held up by some garden disciples (another gang in the area), but were helped out by a king.

Mavrick pulls up in his SUV at the park furious because Starr and Seven did not ask if they could go to the park and because there could still have been angry protesters on the streets.

Later that day Starr and Sekani are taken to uncle Carlos's house.

Chris stops by to check in on Starr to see if see was ok. They make up but Starr explains that he would not understand what is going on because he is white.

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Lisa Starr and Sekani stayed the night at uncle Carlos's house because of the riots.

When they drive home the next morning. Starr is scared when they have to pass through a police checkpoint, and grasps the door handle.

They make it through without any problems, but Starr does not let go of the handle until they get home.

Starr spends the day with Mavrick.

He ells Starr about how drugs, racism, and a lack of opportunity trap communities like Garden Heights in a cycle of poverty and crime.

Starr realizes that it is about more than Khalil it is about being heard

when they get to the store they find DeVante knocking on the door saying he was hungry, so they let him in to buy something.

It became clear that he was hiding from somebody who turned out to be King.

because King wanted him dead Mavrick decided to help him.

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the next day at Williamson Hailey's brother started a protest "for Khalil" just to get out of class.

Disgusted by the reason Starr decides not to follow Hailey and stay in class.

After school, Starr sees Mr. Lewis standing outside Maverick’s store and preparing to give an interview.

Mr. Lewis snitched on King on television.

Maverick then goes to talk to Mr. Lewis after the interview about how stupid it was to snitch in television but Mr. Lewis argued that he's not scared of thugs.

A police car pulls up next to them and two officers get out.

One officer accuses Maverick of harassing Mr. Lewis, to which both of them deny.

After asking for his ID the officer forces Maverick to the ground and puts him in hand cuffs.

After seeing how many people were watching everything go down they let Maverick go.

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Because of the riots there are tanks roaming the streets and a curfew has been set for the whole neighborhood.

Starr has started an anonymous Tumblr account where she posts things about Khalil.

Starr brings her old school laptop to Seven so he can make sure it works so DeVante can use it.

Seven tells Starr that his mom officially kicked him out.

The next morning Lisa take Starr to the Just Us for Justice office to talk about Khalil's case and how Stare will have to testify.

the officer's father will be having a television interview so Starr agreed to have one to so that Khalil's side of the story gets out there too.

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Maverick had received a call from DeVante.

Mr. Lewis had been beaten up by King's gang.

DeVante reveals that King wanted him to kill the men who shot Dalvin (his brother).

he did not want to do it so he stole money from King and gave it to his mom for her and his sister to get out of town.

Maverick realized that King wanted DeVante dead and took him to uncle Carlos so he could stay there until other wise.

Maverick finds out that Chris is Starr's boyfriend and is upset because everyone knew except for him.

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Starr leaves and walks to Maya’s house nearby.

Maya is happy to see her but Hailey still gives her the cold shoulder.

The officer's father's interview appeared on the TV at the time and after Hailey shows sympathy towards the officer.

The two girls argue about who should say sorry and why but neither will apologize.

Hailey gets fed up and leaves.

Maya then explains that it is not the first time that Hailey has made a racist comment.

When Starr gets back home Carlos admits that the interview with the officer's father made him think about his accusing of Khalil as nothing more than a drug dealer. and that if he was in the officers shoes he would not have shot Khalil.

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The next morning Lisa takes Starr to IHOP where Lisa expressed what she thought about the interview the night before.

Starr explains to Lisa that her friendship with Hailey is failing, so she asks for advice on whether to drop her relationship with Hailey.

Later that day after meeting the DA, Maverick and Starr go back to the store, while there Maverick asks Starr what she sees in Chris.

He asks this because he is afraid he set a bad example of black boys so she did not want to date them. this was not the case, Starr has had black boyfriends but her father just does not know that.

She explains to her father that he set a good example of what a black man should be.

King pulled up in his BMW and came in asking Maverick where DeVante was but he denied that he knew.

At home as the family is having dinner she announces that she got another interview for a job that pays more.

To Starr's surprise her father announced that he and Lisa will start to look for houses outside of Garden Heights.

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Ms. Ofrah had arranged for Starr to do an interview with one of the national news programs, exactly a week before she testifies before the grand jury next Monday.

Starr and her family arrive at the studio in a limo.

Starr finds it weird to see Diane Carey in the flesh because of how when she was little she would watch the show every time she went to Nana's house.

Though Starr was warned no to give to many details and was threatened by King, she told the world all about the Khalil that she knew and explained why he sold drugs.

Starr continues on about how the media has been treating Khalil unfairly and how she and Khalil were not a threat to the officer.

Starr had spoken her heart out in that interview.

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Starr's interview is one of the most watched in the networks history, but her snitching an King has him furious.

That Saturday is prom. Chris and Starr are nicely dressed and in a Rolls- Royce on their way.

During the ride Chris barley says a word which makes Starr a little irritated.

The night goes on and Chris is still acting weird so Starr storms off to the car.

Chris explains that he knew it was her in the interview and that he was upset she did not tell him that she was the witness.

After making up the two head back to the party and enjoy them selves.

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Starr's parents take the family to see their soon to be new home.

When Lisa says that they hope to get settled in before Seven goes to college he reveals that he plans on going to the community college. This is a bad idea because the school is just as bad as Garden Heights High.

That night a brick is thrown through the window and gunshots fired at the house back in Garden Heights when the family was watching the basketball game. It was a drive by.

Though urged by uncle Carlos to call the police Maverick refuses in fear that crooked cops did it since tomorrow was the day of Starr's testimony.

Starr gets second thoughts about testifying.

Carlos is  upset because Maverick decided to get a group of gangbangers as protection for the night.

Maverick and uncle Carlos break out into argument with Maverick saying that Carlos does not care for the kids.

Carlos bursts out saying that he did more as a father than Maverick did, which shuts Maverick up.

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The next morning Starr brings the breakfast that her mother made to Carlos and Maverick who to her surprise seem to be getting along fine.

The family is driven to the court house by their " body guards" and when they arrive Starr has a flash back to when Maverick had been arrested.

Even though Starr has to go into the room alone, she feels as though her parents are with her because of all the support they are giving her.

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It was three ours of precise and fully detailed questioning during the case.

The next day at Williamson Starr and Hailey fell out into argument again and when Starr herd the hurtful words that came out of Haily's mouth Starr clocked her right in the head.

When Starr was grabbed by Haily's brother, Seven came running over and started fighting him.

All four of the kids got suspended and picked up from school early.

When Starr, Seven, and Lisa got home there were garden disciples and king lords inside with Maverick and Mr. Tim having a meeting discussing how to calm down the young people and stop from burning down the neighborhood just because things don't go their way.

The meeting is over Maverick hears about the fight but neither he nor Lisa are angry.

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It has been 10 weeks since the incident, Khalil's death.

Uncle Carlos is having a memorial day/ birthday and graduation party for Seven.

Maverick cried when he saw his son get a diploma.

When Maya and Chris arrive, Starr then has to collide her worlds ( Williamson and garden heights). This means she has to try not to be too white or too black.

During the party seven's mom shows up and he ends up confronting her on how she was never there for him and that she chose a man over her own son.

When she leaves and Seven goes back inside he is crying.

after talking with Kenya about her mother and there situation with king she and Starr decide to go back out to the party.

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Thirteen weeks have now passed since the death of Khalil.

Starr left the house and went for a walk. needing to feel normal again Starr calls Chris and he picks her up and takes her to his house.

They hung out for a little while talked about there relationship and almost had sex. Then they both fell asleep.

Seven calls Starr a few hours later worried about where she is, she tells him and then he announces that DeVante is missing.

When seven gets to the house to pick up Starr he gets a call from Kenya saying that DeVante was jumped by her father and his boys and that he is being kept there.

when the three arrive at Iesha's house they find DeVante bruised and bloody in a room with Kenya.

Iesha comes in finds out what is going on and lets them leave taking both sisters with them. ( Kenya and Lyric)

as they leave the decision of the court came over the radio.

the officer has not been indicted.

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Seven drops Kenya and Lyric at there grandmas house.

The rest of them are going to join withe the neighborhood and riot.

On the way they find out the reason why DeVante walked off, he went to visit his brothers grave.

the group go to protest on magnolia street and find that people are chanting f the police and flipping over police cars. soon things get out of hand and people start to break into establishments and steal things and when their done they burn them down.

after this and the police show up they head back to the car and drive off heading to maverick's store.

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Seven tries to avoid the protests, but many streets are blocked off by the police.

the car runs out of fuel and they end up walking to try and find the nearest gas station.

they run into a protest that is happening on the same street where the incident happened.

while there starr speaks to the peopl and the police through a bullhorn.

tear gas is thrown by an officer and is returned to the police by starr.

more and more is thrown so Starr and her group scatter. they are then picked up and taken to Mavericks store by goon one of the king lords.

while there someone has lit the place on fire and now their are trapped inside.

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the kids try to get out the back through the back door but it was locked.

they are seen from outside by Mr. Lewis who has come out too find out where the smoke was coming from.

he calls for help.

soon Maverick arrives and opens the back door.

neighbors also come out with buckets of water to help put out the fire.

later king and some of the members of his gang and stand and laugh at the burning building.

Maverick screams at King for starting the fire, but King keeps laughing and hides behind his King Lords. Mr. Lewis shouts that King burned down Maverick’s store, loud enough that the neighborhood hears it.

when the police arrive the whole crowd speaks out that King started the fire.

when Starr's parents

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Chapter 26 Summary

Starr looked up at the poster of Tupac on her wall because it reminded her of Kahlil.

Hailey tried to get Starr to be friends with her but Starr decided to cut her off completely.

Maverick was in the kitchen cutting his rose bish and when Starr came in he called her "Lil Black Panther", and pointed to the newspaper. It had a picture of Starr on it throwing tear gas back at the police. The title was " The Witness Fights Back".

Starr was concerned about what people at garden heights would say about them leaving the neighborhood. But her father reminded her that you don't have to be there to make a change.

The family goes to their store to see the remains of it. It was destroyed.

Mr. Lewis announces that he is retiring and hands his store over to Maverick.

As everyone is helping to clean up the mess Kenya comes by and says she is sorry about what her dad did and that he beat Iesha so bad she had to go to the hospital.

Their house was also raided and Iesha was asked questions about the fire which led to the arrest of King.

After all of this Starr vows to never give up never be quiet and never forget.