I bumped into Dana just outside my Algebra II classroom. She stopped me before I went inside.
“Hey, did you get your paper turned in?” she asked.
I nodded. “Just barely. Girl, it kicked my butt, but it got done.”
“I turned mine in this morning, too.”
I didn’t let on what I knew about her. “I heard you had to do a makeup paper, too. Did she make you do the graphs and everything?” I asked.
Dana nodded.
“Well, it kicked my butt. I had to miss the senior party and everything,” I said.
“Girl, not me. I wasn’t about to miss my senior party. And I’m glad I didn’t, it was so off the chain.” She looked around the hallway, and when she was sure no one was paying us any attention, she said, “I wasn’t worried, because I had the bomb paper.”
I was wondering if she was going to tell me about buying the paper when she added, “I wasn’t about to do all that work, so Cassandra hooked me up. Shoot, I wouldn’t be surprised if I got an A plus plus on it.”
“You weren’t scared?” I asked.
Dana shook her head. “Nah, I put a couple of misspellings in it to make it look legit, and Cassandra said no one person uses the same paper.”
I stared at her, stunned. I’d worked so hard and she’d just basically bought her way to an A. “Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s the best hundred bucks I ever spent. I heard you told Cassandra that you didn’t want it. You messed up, girl,” Dana continued. “That party was tight, and you missed it. You spent all that time on the paper when you could have gotten an even better paper and gone to the party, and not been so stressed out . . . all for a hundred dollars. Shoot, I would’ve paid two hundred.”
Dang, I felt bad. I mean, yeah, I had been proud that I’d done the paper myself, but look at what it had cost me.
“Okay, now you’re making me wish I had gone ahead and bought the paper,” I said.
She looked knowingly at me. “I’m tryin’ to tell you. I mean, we’re about to graduate. You didn’t need all that stress.”
“Girls, get to your classes,” the hall monitor barked at us.
“I gotta go,” I said.
She smiled. “Didn’t mean to ruin your day. Maybe you’ll get an A for effort,” she joked.
“Whatever.” I waved her off. I wasn’t mad at her, just bummed because Cassandra had tried to tell me. I’d tried to take the do-right road, and not only had I missed out on all the fun but from the sound of it, Dana’s paper was going to outshine mine by a landslide.
I sighed as I plopped down in my seat in the back row. Whoever said cheaters never win didn’t know what they were talking about.
26
Angel
My sister used to always tell me that nothing could make you forget about one guy better than another could. She was so right, because ever since I’d made up my mind to go ahead and marry Rico, I hadn’t given Marcus a second thought. Granted, it had only been a few days, but still.
I walked into the church meeting room, where we were supposed to be getting ready for a service project at Holub Middle School.
“Hey,” I said, eyeing Alexis sitting in the front row. Her eyes were red. Jasmine and Tyeesha were sitting next to her. Camille was sitting behind her, patting her back. “Why are you all sitting here looking like somebody ran over your dog?” I asked.
No one said anything.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting down next to Alexis. “And where is everybody else?”
“I don’t know where Jasmine and Tyeesha are,” Camille said. “Miss Rachel is in the back. Someone’s in her office. I walked in here and found Alexis sitting here in a daze.”
“Alexis, why are you crying?” I asked again.
She used the balled-up Kleenex in her hand to wipe her nose. “My dad . . . he says he’s still not paying for me to go to college. He’s all mad, saying that I made him look bad, and, as he says, ‘blew a huge opportunity.’ So now not only am I not going to Cornell, since I lost my scholarship, but I don’t even have the money for Prairie View.”
“I’m so sorry, Alexis,” I said. I really felt bad for her. Who knew some innocent act could mess her up like this? Here I had been worried about whether marrying Rico meant I wouldn’t get to go to Prairie View. At least he’d said by him working, he’d pay for me to go to college in Dallas. And we wouldn’t have to worry about childcare since his mom would watch Angelica while I went to school.
Miss Rachel, Jasmine, and Tyeesha walked in as I started rubbing Alexis’s back. “Hey, girls, what’s wrong?” She sat down in the chair next to Alexis. “Why are you crying?”
Alexis was about to say something when she suddenly buried her face in her hands and began sobbing.
“She’s upset about school,” Camille said.
“Yeah, her parents refuse to pay for Prairie View,” I added.
“Oh, sweetie,” Miss Rachel said, rubbing her back also.
“Miss Rachel, we were just goofing off,” Alexis cried. “I never thought something like this would happen.”
“That’s why I tell you girls, you have to be careful these days. You can’t be sending stuff to some boy, even if he is your boyfriend. You can’t even send them to your friends. With all this advanced technology, you have to keep in mind that anything you do can be seen all over the world.”
“Yeah, one of my sister’s friends lost a job because of some stuff she posted on her MySpace page,” I said.
Miss Rachel nodded. “Once you put something out there—on video, on email, on blogs—you can’t take it back.”
“But we were just playing around,” Alexis protested.
“But you videotaped it,” Tyeesha said.
“Yeah, and you walked off without getting the videotape. That was even dumber than filming the video in the first place,” Jasmine added.
That made Alexis cry harder. We all shot Jasmine a look like she wasn’t really helping.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“The video was taken down, right?” Miss Rachel said.
Alexis nodded her head as she dabbed her eyes with the same snotty tissue she’d been wiping her nose with earlier. I got up and snatched a fresh box of Kleenex off the table in the front of the room.
“Here,” I said, stretching the box out to her.
“Thanks,” she muttered, reaching in and pulling out a tissue.
“You just have to learn from your mistakes. And trust, we all make mistakes,” Miss Rachel said. “Why don’t I try to talk to your mother? I know your parents are upset right now, but at the end of the day, they’re not going to let you miss out on college because they’re disappointed.”
Alexis looked like she doubted that anything Miss Rachel said could make a difference, but she nodded anyway. I agreed with Miss Rachel. Yeah, the video was jacked up. But Alexis was still the smartest one of us all, and her parents would be crazy to let all that potential go to waste.
27
Angel
There went that nagging feeling again, the one I was starting to get every time Rico talked about us leaving for Dallas. I mean, I was game, or at least I thought I was, especially after finding out about Marcus and his girlfriend. But Rico had been talking about it for the past three days. And the more excited he became, the more I had nervous knots in my stomach.
“And so, I figure we could head out right after your graduation next weekend,” he said as he popped another french fry in his mouth. We were sitting in a booth at Chili’s. I’d felt bad when I first arrived because Camille had called and invited me out to eat with her and the others, but I told her I had something else to do. I don’t know why I hadn’t just said I was going out with Rico. I guess I didn’t want any more drama.
Rico was in an upbeat mood, but me, I was still bummed because of all the drama in my life. In addition to feeling bad for lying to my friends and the drama with Marcus, my mom had told my sister what was going on with Rico. Now the both of them were ri
ding me like crazy.
“Angel, you hear me?” Rico asked, waving his hand in front of my face.
“Huh?” I snapped out of my thoughts.
“I said, did you hear me?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I heard you.”
“Well?” he asked when I didn’t answer.
“Well, what?”
“Well, are you going to be ready to go right after graduation?” He was getting frustrated.
“Do we have to go right after graduation? I mean, one of the football players is having this big graduation party that everyone’s been talking about. I missed the senior party, and I was just looking forward . . .” I stopped because Rico was staring at me like I was crazy. I don’t even know what I was thinking, bringing up the party in the first place.
“What do you care about some graduation party? You’re my girl and my girl ain’t gon’ be up in no party, especially some football player. Didn’t we just have this discussion?” The way he said it sent chills up my spine. I remembered all the other things he told me I wouldn’t be able to do.
“Do you hear me, Angel?” he said sternly. “It ain’t gonna happen.” He sounded more like a father than a boyfriend.
I had told Camille I thought Rico’s aggressiveness was cute, but there was nothing cute about the daggers he was shooting me right now.
“I was just, ummm . . .”
“Whatever, Angel,” he said, waving me off. “I’ll come to your graduation and then we’re out. Trey is selling me his car, so we should be good to go.”
I sighed heavily. “Rico . . .”
He eyed me suspiciously. “What, Angel? Are you having second thoughts? You don’t want to go with me?”
I lowered my eyes. “It’s not that . . .”
“Well, what is it?”
I toyed with the food on my plate. “I just don’t understand the rush, that’s all. I mean, I’m sure the guy giving you the money for the demo will understand.”
“For your information, he is already holding things up for me. If I’m not there next weekend, he may move on to the next guy. Besides, I have to be out of the dorm this weekend. Where am I supposed to stay until you graduate?”
Before I could answer, I heard someone say, “Angel?”
I turned toward the sound of Camille’s voice.
“Hey,” I said, smiling when I saw her and Jasmine. “What are you guys doing here?”
“The same thing you are,” Camille said. “Ninety-nine-cent Chili Cheese Fries. Tyeesha and Alexis left already.”
She looked over at Rico. “Hey, Rico,” Camille said dryly. Jasmine didn’t even bother greeting him.
“What’s up?” Rico said, not trying to fake like he liked them.
“I thought you couldn’t come with us because you had something to do,” Camille said.
“She did,” Rico said, motioning between me and him. “And she’s doing it.”
“Yeah, we can see that,” Jasmine chimed in, “but I think we were talking to Angel.”
He turned his lip up. “Angel is busy. She’ll holla at you later.”
Jasmine cocked her head, her eyes growing wide. “What, you’re her translator now?”
I had to jump in before things got ugly. “I was just—”
“Look,” Rico said, cutting me off, “Angel doesn’t need you anymore. She’s got me, and that’s more than enough.”
I closed my eyes, dreading where this conversation was going. I wished everyone could get along.
“Just say no,” Jasmine said.
“No to what?” Rico asked.
“Those drugs you must be on,” she snapped, using one of her favorite lines.
Rico flicked his hand at her. “Whatever. Can you beat it? I’m trying to enjoy private time with my soon-to-be-wife.”
I cringed as he said that. I hadn’t told anyone about Rico’s wanting to marry me.
“What?” both Jasmine and Camille screeched at the same time.
Rico flashed a satisfied smirk.
“Angel, what is he talking about?” Camille demanded.
“Just what I said, as soon as she turns eighteen, we’re getting married,” he said proudly.
“I was talking to Angel,” Camille snapped. She stared at me. “Please tell me he’s lying.”
“I . . . I . . .” I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t exactly wanted to announce anything, especially because I was no longer sure about this whole marriage thing in the first place.
“No, I’m about to be Angel’s husband and we’re moving to Dallas.” He looked Camille and Jasmine up and down. “And not a moment too soon.”
My girls looked so hurt. Jasmine shook her head in pity. “Angel, if you marry this fast-talking buster, I guarantee that you’ll regret it. But hey, it’s your life. If you want to mess it up, that’s up to you.” She turned to walk away. I don’t think I’d ever seen her so disgusted.
“Angel, call us later,” Camille said. She shot a scowl and turned to follow Jasmine.
“I don’t like them,” Rico said as soon as they were gone. “And I don’t want you hanging around with them anymore.”
“What?” I said. “Those are my best friends.”
“Well, I’m your new best friend now,” Rico said. “I told you, baby girl, I’m all you need.”
As he leaned back in his chair and smiled, I couldn’t help but wonder what in the world I’d gotten myself into. “Rico . . . ,” I began.
“I don’t want you to see them. It ain’t nothing else to talk about.” Rico went back to eating his food.
It took a moment, but I finally got up the nerve to say, “I’m not going to stop being friends with them.”
He stopped as he was raising his drink to his mouth. “Oh, so now you’re choosing your friends over me? I’m trying to build a life for us and you’re choosing some catty girls over me?” He slammed his glass on the table so hard that the silverware and plate rattled.
“Would you lower your voice?” I whispered.
“No, Angel,” he said, getting louder. “I’m tired of this. I could be gone already, laying my tracks in Dallas. But I’m sitting around here waiting on you!”
“I know, but—”
“But nothing.” He took a deep breath. “Ooooh girl, you ’bout to make me go off,” he said through gritted teeth. He leaned back in his chair, nodding his head, trying to calm himself down. “From the way you’re trippin’, I’m starting to wonder if you even want to go with me.”
I lowered my eyes and didn’t say anything.
He leaned over the table. “You do want to go with me, right?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
“You do want to go with me, right?” he repeated with a lot more force.
I sighed heavily. “Rico, I do want to go, just not now. I mean, I think Angelica should take the summer to get to know you and stuff, and it would give us time—”
“I don’t believe this crap!” he snapped. “You playin’ games with me?”
“Rico, it’s not like that at all,” I protested.
“Whatever, Angel, I’m out.” He pushed back from the table so hard that I thought it was going to tip over. “I don’t have time for this. When you come to your senses, you call me. If I’m not already gone.”
“Rico!” I called after him as he stomped away. “Rico, come back, please.” He didn’t stop, so I jumped up and followed him out.
“Rico!” He was marching toward the car, nearly knocking people over. “How am I supposed to get home?”
“Call your friends,” he shouted before jumping into the car.
He sped off before I could walk over to him. I was about to race after the car when the waitress caught my arm. “I know you’re not trying to skip out on your bill.”
I was stunned. Rico had left me not just in the parking lot, but stuck with the bill as well. I fumbled in my purse, pulled out two twenties, which I only had because my mom had given me some money to buy some pull-ups for Angeli
ca. I handed the money to her. I wasn’t even sure how much the bill was, but it couldn’t be any more than that.
She took the money, then softened as she noticed my tears. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“No,” I sniffed, looking toward the empty parking spot where we had parked.
“Do you need me to call someone to come get you?” She pulled her cell phone out of her apron pocket.
I was all-out bawling now. I couldn’t believe my luck. I couldn’t call my mom. Or my sister, who would just call my mom.
“Yes,” I said, reaching out to borrow her phone. I punched in Camille’s number, praying they weren’t too mad to come get me.
28
Jasmine
I love Angel to death, but sometimes my girl could be straight stuck on stupid. Me and Camille had turned right around to go back to Chili’s and pick her up Friday night. Camille had warned me to hold my tongue, and I have to admit I’d done good. But today was a new day and I wasn’t about to hold back.
“I cannot believe that jerk left you by yourself!” I said. We were in the cafeteria, and Angel had been avoiding us most of the morning. But now, sitting at the lunch table, she had to talk to us.
“Can we just not talk about this?” Angel asked.
“So when are we going to talk about it?” I replied. “This guy is a controlling jerk who is taking advantage of you.”
“Look, you guys don’t know what you’re talking about. Rico is nervous about his rap career, and he just wants us to get on with our life.”
“Our life?” I said. “Has he even met Angelica yet? Does he even like her? Does she even like him? You don’t even know that and you’re talking about marrying him?”
“He hasn’t met her because I hadn’t made it happen. Not because he doesn’t want to,” she protested.
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