Amiko, recently moved to Blackbottom from small town middle America, Plainfield Indiana. Adopted at the age of 5months she has no real idea who her biological parents are. Raised into an all white family , Amiko is often challenged in trying to find an even balance between the white community she was raised in and the black culture she so desperately want to know more about. Her father a used car dealership owner and her mother a stay at home mom, Amiko was raised in a pretty stable environment. Under God fearing devote Christian parents, Amiko struggled living the straight and narrow way of life. The youngest of 6 siblings, Amiko always felt different from everyone else and it wasn’t just the color of her skin. While her older bothers and sisters always went to church faithfully, Amiko struggled believing that there was a God. She also was the one always testing the rules and pushing her parents limits. She never felt as is she completely fit in.
At the age of 14 inspired by a family tree project in class, she decided to start searching for her real parents. Unsure where to begin she started with her parents first wondering what orphanage she came from. When she finally gathered enough courage to ask her parents where she came from, she never thought in a million years the information she would find out that night. After much argument and negotiation she learned that her mother was actually a member of the family that had been raising her. Her mother at the age of 19 was strung out on various drugs. When the family decided to no longer support her habit she started to turn tricks on the street. Eventually she became knocked up. Unsure who the father was and no real place to turn. Amiko' s mother managed to stay sober long enough to have her but was shortly back on the streets getting high. After months of being passed through the family, Amiko finally came to the place where should know to be her home. After learning the devastating news about real mother , her life started to spiral out of control. After 9 months of recreational drug use and continual skipping class and failing grades her parents decided to check her into a rehab program. After her recovery Amiko had a new outlook on life. She was determined to make something of her life, not just for herself but for her crack whore mother as well.
By the time she graduated high school, she was an A & B student, co captain of the tennis team, a part of varsity cheer-leading squad, volunteered every weekend at he local nursing home. And did various activities in her community. Armed with determination to never be like her biological mother but not ready to settle down in the small town she grew up in Amiko set her sights for Columtreal University.