Pleasantview USA

Somewhere in the middle of the country lies Pleasantview, USA, a smaller city complete with its own Downtown area and outerlying subsidiaries. The residents of Pleasantview strive day by day to realize their aspirations. Some do, most do not, but all have a story to tell.

In the lower Downtown sector of Pleasantview lives The Harrison family of 33 Mendoza Lane. The house is quaint and small and holds most of the usual comforts afforded to most families of Pleasantview.

However, the life of Jaquawn Harrison has been less than fortunate.

Jaquawn's mother became another statistic at the age of fifteen having him and his baby brother, Keith, both out of wedlock and from two different fathers. They were just barely making ends meet while living with Tamia's parents, but eventually Tamia decided she was ready to move she and her children out of the housing project in which she was raised and into a home of their own.

Their home was small and cramped, but it had all of the amenities they needed: a place to eat, a place to sleep and a television with at least one video game system. All the while, Jaqwaun would play his games as a teen wanting so much more out of his life.

Although they had moved out of the projects, Tamia still mourned over her former ways and found herself lying awake at night worrying if she would ever the find the fathers of her two boys. She constantly yearned to find "the one," but with two kids, she doubted that anyone would ever want to settle down with her.

At one point, Tamia refused to find work, stopped bothering to keep house or even care for her children and at fifteen, Jaquawn suddenly became responsible for taking care of the entire household.

He was responsible for the cooking,

and the cleaning and the general well-being of their home, in addition to doing all his schoolwork and being a normal teenager.

As a teenager, Jaquawn came to know girls. He had lots of friends, but seemed to make friends with the girls more than the guys. At first, he was just friends with Felicia Stratton, who he had known forever from school,

but after time, Jaquawn started to see her as more than just a friend,

and things got heated,

and one thing led to another with Felicia. Even though the were sleeping together, Jaquawn never really seemed to like her all that much. He longed to find his dream girl wherever she might be.

Time marched on in Downtown Pleasantview and after some time a new family, the Howells, moved into town. Randall and his wife Janeka, moved Downtown to get the best lifestyle for their children, LaToya and Jamal, especially LaToya.

In their previous neighborhood, LaToya had gotten into a bit of trouble and as she grew into a beautiful teenager, they knew she would be getting into serious trouble with the boys if they did not get her out of the projects.

But with Randall working all the time and Janeka's light supervision, LaToya is out roaming the streets of Downtown in no time.

Some families see her coming and don't want anything to do with her and they especially don't want LaToya around their boys.

But eventually she meets boy,

after boy and eventually she meets some men who seem to have an eye for a young girl.

She meets with Trotter Hayle and realizes that she's done with boys her own age and only wants older men and she quickly asks him out on a date.

While on her date with Trotter Hayle, Mrs. Crumplebottom attacks them both screaming that she's too young to be dating full grown men. Of course, LaToya doesn't care and continues sleeping with men instead of boys.

She meets the rocker, Lassen Peyton, and she's immediately smitten by him.

She goes on a real date with Lassen, who she finds herself falling in love with the most out of all her beaus.

Mrs. Crumplebottom attacks Lassen on their date. He's married AND he's dating a teenaged girl. LaToya doesn't care however. She's in love and takes him home with her that night. But Lassen is married and she can't be with him all the time. Instead of simply waiting for Lassen to become available, she finds her way to Jaquawn Harrison who lives down the street from her.

One things leads to another quite quickly and she wonders as she simultaneously dates Jaquawn and Lassen if she might just be happy with Jaquawn alone.

Meanwhile, Tamia feels that life just seems so hard without a man and she finds herself crying all the time instead of taking care of her children. She eventually starts prowling the Downtown areas just looking for someone to talk to.

After meeting him on a random outing, Tamia falls for the big green eyes of the town player, Don Lothario. She had not meant for things to get heavy with him, but eventually he ends up in her bedroom.

Following Don's "visit" with his mother, Jaquawn can't help but notice several months later that his mother looks to be in the same condition as she was just before Keith was born.

Several months later, Keith grows into a healthy little boy and Tamia gives birth to a baby girl, Kenicka. Jaquawn wants to be disgusted that his mother allowed herself to get pregnant again, but he can only think about LaToya.

He sees her every time he can and each time he does he just wants more and more of her.

While LaToya holds his kid sister, Keith takes a phone call from a stranger. Apparently, word has crossed town about his mother's antics with Don Lothario and one of Don's other illegitmate children is calling with questions.

Having heard that his father had created yet another child, Jared Royalton stops by to see his new baby half-sister, Kenicka. He holds her and wonders if she'll get the relationship with their father that he never could.

After hearing all the rumours, Tamia catches her Jaquawn with LaToya and after all she's heard about LaToya, she can only cry. She doesn't did not want her son being with Felicia, but she hates LaToya even more and she just knows that a girl like LaToya is going to trap him and hold him down for the rest of his life.

Jaquawn doesn't care though, because he's completely and utterly in love with LaToya and sleeps with her every chance he gets, when he's not working or raising his mother's children.

When he learns that his mother has gotten pregnant yet again, this time with their neighbor, Jaquawn feels like the world is crashing down around him. He's so frustrated about life in general and he knows he'll be responsible for taking care of his mother's newest baby as well as baby Kenicka. He is doing everything to keep the family together.

Jaquawn has to make sure that his brother, Keith, goes to bed on time and make sure that Kenicka was brought up properly, all while Tamia lounged around, pregnant again.

He would even do Keith's homework for him just to make sure that it got done. Jaquawn knew that his mother would never take care of it.

Jaquawn knew he was responsible for every part of Kenicka's well-being as well. He changed Kenicka's diapers,

put her to bed every night,

played with her when she was lonely,

and taught her to talk.

Jaquawn can't help loving his baby sister. Tamia refuses to lift a hand around the house and refuses to look after her own children, but he knows it's not baby Kenicka's fault. When she becomes a toddler, he vows that she will have the best life possible.

He never does seem to get the hang of cooking for his family, though.

But all the while, his mind remained on LaToya Howell's beautiful face.

After dating married lassen for a while, LaToya wakes up with her stomach hurting and wondering what's wrong with her.

She's been sleeping on and off with both Lassen and Jaquawn and she wonders if she could be pregnant, but waves off her cramping as an oddity.

Dates abound, LaToya wakes up one day to find herself in a real condition.

Her mother, Janeka, pretends not to notice and allows her daughter to simply play video games all day while ditching school at the same time. Sometimes, she tries to draw what happened out from LaToya by playing with her, but eventually, she just lets it go as if nothing had happened.

Before she knows what's going on, the months fly by and she's ready to have the baby.

Randall is disappointed in his daughter for getting pregnant, but is completely mesmorized by his first grandchild, Aisah. He did not want to simply allow his daughter to dump her children with him and Janeka, but he could not throw his only daughter out to the streets.

While pregnant with her neighbor's child, Tamia meets one of the new neighbors, Colin Jefferson. She can't help noticing how his large dreamy eyes reflect a beautiful version of herself. Jaquawn looks on and shakes his head, only thinking that at least his mother can't more pregnant than she already is.

With Jaquawn taking care of him Keith does well in school and grows up well into a good kid who loves art.

With Keith and Kenicka getting older, Jaquawn begins to worry about them both growing up well. He'll be going off to college soon, but he wonders if they'll be okay while he's gone,

and he's never got the hang of cooking either.

Jaquawn contines to work hard though, and Kenicka grows up into a healthy, happy little girl .

Even though she had not been there to make sure she was okay, Tamia loves her daughter and hugs her, happy that she has grown up well.

Having virtually no money aside from child support, Tamia did not have the money or room to buy Kenicka a bed of her own, so her baby had to share a bed with her.

Even when she is a child, Jaquawn cannot stop looking after Kenicka, as if she was his own daughter.

She's pregnant with her neighbor's baby, but just a few months down the line, Tamia realizes that something's gone terribly wrong with the baby and she ends up miscarrying.

After her miscarriage, Tamia is heartbroken. She had not meant to get pregnant again, but the pain of losing a baby is simply unbearable.

When Kenicka is a child, Tamia decides she will not raise another child who has no idea about their father. Her miscarriage has changed her and she knows how she wants to raise her children. She pleads and pleads and finally Don Lothario comes over to meet his child.

Kenicka talks to her father, but she's too young to understand what's going on or how significant this is and she's not pleased with the meeting.

Keith practices painting and wonders if he might consider art when he gets older.

Keith cannot help, but be grateful for all the things that his older brother has done for him and his sister. He knows that Jaquawn is about to go off to college soon and it will be up to him to take care of the family, but he also knows that thanks to Jaquawn's care as a youngster, Keith is more than ready for the challenge.

While is Aisah is out still dating multiple men and Jaquawn, Janeka hugs her baby's baby. She does not know how she will do it, but Janeka knows that she will have to talk to LaToya again about the way she's living.

After having a strong talking to from her mother, LaToya decides to pull her act together and do what is right for her daughter. The problem lies however with naming the baby's father. Aisah's light skin in comparison to LaToya's and Jaquawn's lets LaToya know instantly who Aisah's birth father is, but now it is a matter of telling him.

She tries to tell Lassen Payton about the baby, but he does not want to hear about it since he was married and his wife, Liesel, is expecting too. LaToya wants to cry because she does not know who she could appeal to about the baby.

When Aisah grows up a little, LaToya absolutely adores her baby girl and wonders why she had such a difficult time dealing with the fact that she was a mother initially. Love for her daughter aside, LaToya knows that Aisah has to have a father and she tells Jaquawn that Aisah is his daughter even though her pale skin says completely different.

As time marches on, Jaquawn is forced to work longer hours to support the household and LaToya's baby, leaving Kenicka alone with their mother for longer and longer stretches. While Jaquawn isn't home, there is rarely any food and Kenicka stolls the neighborhood going dumpster diving through the trash of the wealthier side of town.

She's unsupervised for much of the time and chats on the internet with all of Pleasntview. Many times she asks her older friends to come over to make her some dinner while Jaquawn is out working. Sometimes, she asked them to come because she was lonely and her mother spent all her time asleep as she was pregnant again, this time with Colin Jefferson's bab.

When Jaquawn gets home from work each day, Kenicka gives her big brother a hug, happy that he's around to take care of her. For Jaquawn, it is these small moments that make it all worth it and considering that LaToya has told him that he's Aisah's dad, he knows that he'll be a good father.

A little while after having Aisah, LaToya realizes that she's pregnant again, but this times she knows that Jaquawn is the father.

LaToya feels absolutely terrible about telling Jaquawn that Aisah is his child, but she wants to raise her right. She feels that if since she's pregnant with his child and if she just does right by Aisah, no one would ever need to know the truth.

Pregnant or not, LaToya continues playing with her baby and teaches her to walk even with an extra heavy belly herself.

Nine months later, LaToya has not one boy, but twins and she loves Dionte,

and Devonte with all her heart instantly.

Jaquawn and LaToya discuss their "three" children and they decide to let Aisah and the twins stay with LaToya at her parents' house because they both know the Howell house has more room and LaToya's father, Randall, is more than willing to help with the kids.

After learning to walk and talk and being raised in a loving household, Aisah grows up,

into a beautiful little girl. It becomes clearer each day that Jaquawn is not Aisah's father, but as their last days of high school come to an end LaToya prays that Jaquawn does not ask too many questions.

Tamia is determined to carry Colin's child to term, knowing that if she miscarries again, she will not be able to make it. She knows her other children are growing up around her and now there's the problem that her grandchildren will be older than her youngest child, but she is diligent. She wants to raise this baby the right way from the start and she won't let anything else get in her way.

A few months later, Tamia gives birth to another boy and she is absolutely estatic. She holds Dominic, happy that she was able to carry to term and she feels compound joy. Jaquawn has gotten a scholarship to Sim State University and she knows that her grandbabies are as healthy as her son.