Author's Corner: I love the movie Stomp the Yard and while I loved the angle of DJ and April I wondered what would happen if a young lady had turned Sylvester's (the leader of Theta Nu Theta) head. I am going to treat this story with the utmost of respect and while these are the way I think these characters would act I'm going to try my hardest to keep their voice. Also, there are certain characters that just did not come with last names i.e. Sylvester, Noah, Zeke and Grant, so I will just have to make those up as I go along. That being said:

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the members of the "Stomp the Yard" cast (though I wouldn't mind borrowing a few for a month or so). Please don't sue me…I don't have any money.

With love,

Torque

Orientation week was always the best week for the upperclassmen of Truth University. Literally for the upperclassmen as Rich, Noel and DJ sat around and watched the freshmen or as they playfully dubbed, fresh meat awkwardly made their ways around the huge Truth campus.

"Whoo-hoo," Noel called out as a scantily clad young co-ed walked past him, "I hate to be abrupt players, but," he eyed the young girl again, "I got to get at that."

"A'ight catch up to you later Noel." DJ nodded to him and watched as his friend caught up to the young girl. He looked over to Rich, "Aren't we supposed to be meeting with the brothers soon?"

Rich looked at his watch, "Not for another hour or so. Calm down, everything is okay."

DJ smirked at his friend, "I know that. I just want to hurry up and hook up with April later."

Rich nodded knowingly, "I see. So I guess we won't see you at Rep Yo' City tonight?"

DJ laughed, "I don't know, it depends on what she wants to do."

Rich laughed, "You are so whipped dude!"

"I'm not whipped." DJ laughed.

In actuality, it was exactly what he was. DJ noticed April on registration day of his freshmen year and while it wasn't love at first sight she definitely set off some major alarms in him. DJ had to some serious maneuvering, some quick thinking and some major charming but he finally got his girl. Now it was DJ's junior year and he and April had been dating officially for about a year and a half. She was his heart, his rock, the only person he felt he could tell everything.

"DJ!" Noel called out.

"Are you even here with us right now?" Rich asked.

"I'm right here, aren't I?" DJ asked.

"Yeah maybe physically but we both know where your mind is." Noah laughed.

"With April," Rich drug out the name with a dramatic placing of his hand over his heart. He gave DJ hell over his relationship with the dean's daughter but truth be told he couldn't think of a better girl for his boy to be with. He turned to Noel, "So, did you get shorty girl's number?"

"Yeah I got it." Noel rubbed his hands together, "You know the honeys can't resist that TNT."

The boys laughed, "And on that note," DJ said. "Let's go meet up with the brothers."

-

The meeting with the brothers of Theta Nu Theta was exciting as always. It was great to see the brothers again talking business and just shooting the breeze. DJ remembered fondly to when he joined the house causing chaos and uniting brothers. They were currently two time National Step Champions and closer than they had ever been.

"Knucklehead," a fellow Theta hugged DJ, "how is everything?"

"Everything is good High Yellow," DJ smiled. Every time he called him that he got a chuckle because though Tayvion was of African American descent on both sides of his family his skin was incredibly light.

"That's good dude, that's good. Did you check out the fresh meat, I mean freshmen earlier?"

"Now you can't go asking Knucklehead nothing like that," Noel stepped in.

"Yeah," Rich came behind him, "Not unless you want Mrs. Knucklehead to be all up and through here."

The boys laughed, "Stop, ya'll know April isn't like that."

"You coming to the Rep Yo' City tonight?" another voice asked. DJ turned around to be staring into the eyes of Sylvester Gordon, campus President of Theta Nu Theta.

"The jury is still out on that," Tayvion intervened. "He's going to hook up with April."

"Okay," Sylvester nodded, "well I hope to see you reppin' the Thetas tonight. Prophytes," he called his brothers to attention, "let's head out."

"Knucklehead," Rich patted him on the back, "why don't you just bring April to the Phoenix?"

"Because Showtime, maybe I just want to spend time with my girl."

"Uh huh,"

"Uh huh what Porkchop?" DJ smirked at Noel.

"Nothing, I'm just saying. Most of the brothers have been apart this summer; we just want to hook up and be in the same place. Especially now that fresh meat is in the place."

"And that's cool Noel," DJ smiled, "and if April wants to hang we'll hang and if not," he let his sentence dangle.

"Yeah, well I tried." He gave Rich, Tayvion and DJ dap, "I'm going to go get fresh. I'll see ya'll tonight."

"Later dude," Rich said. He looked at Tayvion and DJ, "I'ma follow my man Noel's lead and get geeked up. I'll catch ya'll tonight."

"Holla," DJ said. DJ looked at the time, "I'm going to go hop in the shower, I'm going to meet with April in an hour."

Tayvion just shook his head. It was amazing what a couple of years of college, a strong support foundation and a good woman could do to a man.

-

A.J. Palmer watched as her cousin got dressed for her date. Her long jet black hair was in big loopy spiral curls half way down her back. Her full lush lips held a beautiful dark wine hue. Her make up was flawless, even the amazingly out of place green eye shadow, but her boyfriend liked it so perhaps it wasn't as out of place as it seemed. From her ears dangled a beautiful pair of sterling silver hoop earrings and around her neck a single diamond pendant. Her low rise jeans hugged her ample figure to a tee and her midriff top displayed her perfect abs. April Palmer was all of that and one of the most humble people A.J. knew.

"What?" April asked as she blotted her lipstick.

"Huh?"

"You're staring at me,"

"Oh. I just wanted to tell you that you look nice."

"Thank you."

"Where are you going tonight?"

"Not sure. We'll probably peek in on the Rep Your City show at the Phoenix but we're just playing it by ear."

"Oh."

"You should come with. It'll give you a chance to meet some people and college guys are totally hot."

A.J. rolled her eyes. Guys were the last thing she was interested in. She came from Howard University in D.C. with a 3.9 GPA. She wanted to leave Truth with at least that if not a 4.0. She knew all too well of the tragedy that came with getting hooked up with boys. She couldn't allow her grades to slip because she got her heart wrapped up in some testosterone driven college boy.

"Don't you dare give me that look, A.J." April smiled. "Are you coming with us?"

"Nah, you guys have fun. I'm going to get a jump start on that Anatomy syllabus."

"A.J.,"

"Have fun April." A.J. walked out of the room.

April shook her head. She didn't know what she was going to do with that girl. Her aunt and uncle sent their daughter down to Atlanta with the hope that it would bring some of that introvert out of her. April suspected that her cousin was not the introvert that everyone accused her of being. She believed that A.J. just had a one tracked mind and right now it was tracked on school, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But you know what they say about all work and no play…

Just then the sounds of Al B. Sure's Rescue Me blared through her room. Grabbing her vibrating cell phone quickly she answered, "Baby I'm walking out the door."

"Still want to go to the Phoenix?"

"Yeah and I want to bring someone," April bit her lip, "is that okay?"

DJ sighed at the other end of the phone; it wasn't exactly okay because he wanted to be with her and her alone. He didn't need her attention divided between him and someone else.

"No it's fine. Who?"

"My cousin transferred to Truth from Howard," April explained. "She really doesn't know anyone besides me."

DJ nodded, "Sure bring her."

"Yeah, if I can convince her,"

"See you there."

"Yeah, see you." April disconnected her phone, "A.J., get dressed, we're going out!"

-

Crowds and noise. Crowds, noise and complete and utter chaos, these were the only words that could be used to describe Rep Yo' City. People from everywhere were there, fraternities and sororities in all colors were in attendance but A.J. figured the rowdiest crew had to be the gentlemen of Mu Gamma Xi. Decked out in red and gold she swore if she heard so much as one more wolf howl she was going to rip their tracheas out through their nostrils.

She would never understand her backward ass logic to leave April to her date with DJ and walk around this godforsaken place alone. She just didn't want to look pathetic clinging desperately to April's pant leg as she tried to be with her man. She shook her head but anything had to be better than this.

"Long time," a deep voice said in her ear.

"Not long enough," she shot back not even turning around.

"Oh come on A.J., don't be like that."

"Like what Grant?" A.J. finally turned around to look him in the face. She never like him, the one time she did meet him she thought he was arrogant, superficial and a major asshole to boot. She never understood what April saw in this guy but she was so happy when April finally came to her senses.

"Come on now A.J.," Grant smirked, "No hard feelings."

"No feelings period." She turned back.

"Who is this sexy little thing?" asked another male. A.J. turned to the source of the new voice. She knew any body who was friends with Grant had to be a major asshole as well. She looked at him, dark brown eyes with just a hint of naughtiness. His skin was golden, his hair wavy and cut close to his head. His lips were full and begging to be kissed right off his face and when he licked them A.J. couldn't help but feel her gut clench in thinking what it would be like to kiss him.

"This is April's cousin." Grant smiled in that smug way he had that made you want to smack his eyes right of their sockets.

Mystery man shook his head as he studied A.J., "April's cousin huh? No wonder you so damned fine. They call me Zuess, you know king of the Greek Gods."

"Is that a fact?" he watched her lips twitch as she fought the urge to smile, "So with an name like Zuess I would have to assume that you are top dog with the Mu Gammas."

"Indeed." He looked over to Grant, "Blue Chip here is my protégé."

"So Grant, how often did you have to," she looked at him suggestively, "bow to this king," she turned her eyes to Zuess, "to be considered worthy enough to be pegged as a protégé?"

"Hey now," Zuess said, "I'm insulted."

A.J. rolled her eyes, "And I'm leaving."

He grabbed her hand as she turned to leave, "What's your rush cutie?" he asked. "Is it me?"

"Nope," She looked over at Grant with a sexy smirk, "Just the company you keep."

She walked off, "Man, what did you do to her?" Zeke asked.

Grant sighed hard. With A.J. here he had a sure fire plan to get April back; he just didn't factor in one thing. A.J. begrudged him every breath he took. No matter how hard he tried to win her over when during their one and only meeting she had hated him from the beginning.

"She's April's cousin, take a guess."

-

Sylvester looked up just in time to watch her walk away from the bar. Her hair was the same length as April's but covered with a backward baseball cap. Her skin was smooth, it held just enough brown that you realized that she was black, a kind of a hazelnut color. Her eye color he couldn't quite catch because she held her head down. Her body flowed through the negative space of the club like water. Her steps were determined, though she looked as if she had no clue where she was. The guys were grabbing at her but she paid no attention to anyone. She wore a simple canary yellow camisole and a pair of jeans but the outfit molded to her like a second skin. Her feet held sneakers, an oddity to the 'hubby hunters' that usually hung at the Phoenix as they were always in stilettos and wearing something that came straight out of a rap video. They believed in showing as much skin as legally possible. But not this girl, whew, in a few words, girlfriend was all of that.

"What's up Sly?" Rich asked.

Sylvester had barely heard him as he watched the girl walk over to where April Palmer sat with his frat brother DJ, she bent down to whisper something in April's ear and he watched April nod and hand the girl her car keys. She was leaving, she couldn't leave. He had to know who she was before she left.

"Oh," Rich said. "Looks as if Sly has got the hots for fresh meat."

"What are you talking about?" Sly scoffed.

"Dude," Noel chimed in, "if you stare any harder you're going to burn a hole in that girl's flesh."

Rich rubbed his hands together, "And what a nice flesh it is."

"Shut up," Sly sucked his teeth, "Ya'll always talking."

Noel and Rich laughed with Sly, "Go ahead playboy. You know you want to."

"A'ight, two way me if something happens." He said as he ran after the young girl. He caught her just as she made it into the parking lot, "Hey, excuse me." When she turned on him he realized that her eyes were a fierce hazel green. "I'm Sly."

She looked at him closely and smiled, "You look it." and jumped in the car.