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Bio
Talk to Darius for a few minutes and you'll get the usual teenage bluster about basketball and action movies, skateboarding and Superman. But after awhile, the well-mannered youth leans forward and confides that he's "really a geek."
He likes math and sketching cartoon characters and houses, but scoffs at using a ruler because "that's cheating". One of his favorite pastimes is piecing together jigsaw puzzles. He complains that his three roommates lose the pieces, so he glues his finished puzzles together and puts them in frames.
"I just finished a 300-piece puzzle and glued it together, but I usually do ones with a thousand pieces," he said proudly.
A self-proclaimed "Spiderman fanatic," Darius' room is filled with Spiderman posters, toys, sheets and even a Spiderman book bag. He likes to skateboard and jokes that his trick repertoire is limited to a single stunt called an Ollie.
"Every time I try to do a different trick the board hits me in my shin," he laughed.
But Darius' true passion is basketball. He fancies himself a point guard and hopes to one day travel to Cleveland to see his idol, Lebron James, play.
His dream is to make it to the NBA himself and vows to get there no matter what obstacles stand in his way.
"Nobody's done anything to help me out in life," he said. "I want to be an NBA basketball player to show people I can do something."
Like his brother, Shaquan, Darius longs to be reunited with his three siblings and keeps an old photo of all four children as a reminder of the family he once had.
If Shaquan's mischievous smile makes you think he's always up to something, you're probably right. A jokester to the core, Shaquan prides himself on his original material, and his grinning silence usually means he's refining the point on his newest one-liner.
“He just wants to make you laugh," said his caseworker. "He always wants to be the comedian."
Asked about a future in comedy, Shaquan says he'd rather be a rapper like Lil' Wayne, a basketball player like Allen Iverson or a boxer like Roy Jones, Jr.
"I'm the new Iverson, I'm the new Jordan," he boasts while telling stories about his streetball victories.
But when trading jokes with his older brother, Darius, during a recent visit, it's clear Shaquan's more clown than tough guy or hoopster.
Aside from sports, he likes to read Harry Potter books and watch Japanese martial arts cartoons like Dragonball Z. He dreams of being rich and famous, but says if he had a million dollars he'd give most of it to the poor.
"I like to help people out," he said.
He and his siblings have been separated for years, and Shaquan clings to hope they'll one day be together again.
"My dream family is being back with my brothers and sister," he said.
For More Information
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