Angel coughed over in the corner. “So, even though you guys are different, you don’t have any problems with each other?” Her voice was laced with attitude.
“Absolutely not. That’s what makes our organizations so great. We’re all different,” an AKA said.
“I sure hope they’re listening,” Angel sarcastically mumbled. Then she shook her head and turned her attention to a spot on the wall.
Tameka raised her hand and asked, “Is one group better than the other?”
“Well, that depends on who you ask,” a Delta jokingly replied. “But seriously, we all are founded on the same basic principles and that is serving our community. Regardless of whether you are Delta, AKA, Zeta, or Sigma Gamma Rho, we all strive to help those less fortunate than us. That’s what it is all about.”
“But what about sisterhood?” I asked. “Isn’t that important?”
“Let me ask you a question,” Crystal said. “Miss Rachel filled me in on your group and what you do. Camille, do you feel like all of the Good Girlz are your close friends?”
“Yes, they’re more like the sisters I never I had.”
“And Alexis, do you all depend on each other for love and support?”
“Sure, I don’t know what I would do without them,” Alexis replied.
“Well, that’s what sisterhood is all about. You don’t have to join a sorority to have a sisterhood. Just be a good friend, that’s all it takes.”
“Well, since all of you do the same thing, I think I want to be a Delta because I look good in red and white,” Tameka announced.
“Sweetheart, I think you need to put a little more thought into your decision and do a little more research before you make that kind of decision,” one of the Deltas said.
Angel spoke up from the corner. “I have a question. Do your sororities discriminate against other races becoming members?”
I cringed at that question and was a little ashamed to look in Angel’s direction.
Crystal replied firmly. “No, we don’t. Yes, the majority of our members are African American since we were founded by African Americans. However, we are open to anyone who wants to be a member. Both of our groups have a few Asian, Hispanic, and white members.”
“Yeah,” one of the AKAs agreed. “We recently had two Hispanic girls join at our school. I think it just depends on what or whom you can identify with.”
Angel cut her eyes at us again. “Seems like you guys need to take this little meeting to the next Theta get-together,” she said before leaning back in her seat.
After our guests wrapped up their presentations, Rachel thanked them and then turned to us. “Girls, I hope you got something from their presentation.”
I nodded my head. I did. I think we all did. I just don’t think it was what Miss Rachel had hoped we’d get.
27
Jasmine
I didn’t have a good feeling. Don’t ask me why, but I just knew this whole peace rally thing wasn’t going to turn out like Miss Rachel hoped it would. Maybe it was the fact that Brentwood Park, where we were holding the rally in a tent, looked like something out of the 1960s. On one side there was a sea of black faces. On the other, nothing but Hispanics. The few white, Asian, and Indian students all sat safely in the back.
I called myself trying to make the first move toward togetherness, as Miss Rachel would say, and went to sit with Angel on the side with all of the Hispanic students. But before I could sit down good, Christina and her friends were looking at me all crazy. Of course, I ignored them.
“What are you doing?” Angel whispered as I slid into the empty seat next to her.
“What does it look like?” I responded. “I’m having a seat for the rally.”
“Come on, Jaz. I don’t want any trouble,” Angel pleaded.
“Why would there be trouble?” I nonchalantly replied. Honestly, all the people staring at me were making me kinda nervous but I told myself, what could they really do in a place filled with security?
“Besides,” I continued, “I didn’t realize we had gone back to segregation.”
Before Angel could respond, Christina and several other girls were standing over me.
“Yo, Angel, what’s up with your girl? Why is she not over there with her own people?” she said.
I cocked my head and replied, “Last time I checked this was a free country and I could sit wherever I wanted to sit.”
I didn’t know why they were trippin’ with me. I hadn’t done anything to any of their skank behinds.
“It’s all right,” Angel nervously interjected. “Jasmine is cool.”
“No, it ain’t all right,” Christina said. “She’s one of them.”
This was getting ridiculous. All this “them” and “us” stuff was making my head hurt.
“Miss Rodriguez, will you and your friends please take your seats. We’re about to get the rally started.” We all turned to look at the assistant principal, Mr. Hudson, who was trying to get everyone settled.
Christina rolled her eyes at me but she didn’t say anything else. Lucky for her because I really didn’t feel like putting out anyone’s teeth today.
I looked over at Camille—who, of course, was sitting right in the middle of the Thetas. Alexis and Tameka were sitting right next to her. I hated that Camille and Alexis looked more and more like they were fitting right in with the Thetas every day. Camille also shot me a strange look when she noticed where I was sitting.
The program started with a brief presentation by the ROTC color guards from our school. Then we all stood and said the pledge of allegiance. After the senior class president welcomed everyone, there were a couple of poems read. One of them by this girl named Erin talked about unity. I was really feeling that one. I sure hoped Camille and Angel were listening.
Afterward, representatives from several campus and community organizations gave three-minute speeches. But when the junior class president, a cute dark-skinned black guy, got up to speak, someone from the row behind me shouted, “Put some Vaseline on those ashy lips!”
I immediately turned around, only to find several Hispanic boys cracking up. I didn’t have to say anything to him though because the next thing I knew, several guys from the football team were surrounding him. Kalvin, the guy Camille had gone out with, was leading the pack.
“Yo, which one of you punks said that?” Kalvin said.
“Yo’ mama,” someone yelled from a couple of rows over.
The football players looked around to see who was doing the shouting.
Then a chair flew past me and into the head of the guy sitting behind me. Before anyone could blink, it was on. The next thing I knew, all those guys were going at it. Several people started screaming as they scurried out of the way. I hit the floor, grabbing Angel and pulling her down as well.
“Let’s get out of here!” I shouted, crawling away. People were fighting, swinging wildly, and jumping over seats attacking each other.
“Call the police!” someone screamed.
I got to the edge of the row, but it was so chaotic, I couldn’t see what happened to Angel. I stood and tried to look around for her, but this tall lanky boy knocked me to the ground trying to climb over the chairs past me. I looked up just in time to see security racing from the other side of the park. They immediately started grabbing the people who were fighting the most. I stumbled to the front, trying to escape the madhouse.
“Jasmine, Jasmine!” I heard Camille calling my name.
“I’m right here.” I pushed my way through the crowd to her and began looking around at the chaos. “Where’s Alexis?”
“I don’t know.” We both looked around for a minute.
“There she is,” Camille said as Alexis came limping toward us.
“Oh my God. Do you see this? They broke the straps. Do you know how much this Louis Vuitton costs?” Alexis wailed as she held up her multicolored purse.
Leave it to Alexis. All kinds of madness was breaking out around us, and s
he’s worried about her stupid purse!
“Where’s Angel?” Camille said.
I shrugged. “She was right behind me. But I lost her.”
“Oh my God,” Alexis cried again as a cop tackled one of the football players to the ground. “We need to get out of here.”
Just then we heard a bloodcurdling scream. Everyone turned toward where the noise was coming from. “She’s bleeding! She’s bleeding!” someone shrieked.
We probably should’ve taken off, but we raced over toward where the scream came from. I stopped dead in my tracks. I saw Angel’s black tennis shoes and her army pants before I saw her. I struggled to catch my breath as I slowly made my way through the crowd. Angel was lying on the ground, blood pooling underneath her. She was crying as she struggled to catch her breath. I immediately shook off my shock and raced to her side. Camille was right behind me.
“Oh my God! Angel! What happened?” Camille asked.
“Some … somebody stabbed me.”
“Oh my God, oh my God. Somebody call an ambulance,” I cried.
“They’re on their way,” someone behind me answered.
“Put some pressure on it,” I heard another person yell.
“Camille, please, please don’t let me die,” Angel said as she grabbed Camille’s hand.
By this time, Camille was crying as well. Me and Alexis were leaning down by Angel. Tears were streaming down Angel’s cheeks. “D-don’t let me die. Angelica needs me. I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean to be a jerk.”
“Angel, just be quiet. Hang on. Help is on the way,” I said.
The fight had finally been broken up, although there was still all kinds of chaos around the park. I felt a sense of relief as the wail of the sirens grew louder. I knew this whole race thing had gotten out of control, but I never would’ve imagined that it would result in something like this.
28
Camille
If Angel didn’t recover, I’d never forgive myself. I grabbed a pillow off my full-size bed and put it over my head. I was all cried out, but I still couldn’t help but feel like my world was falling apart.
I had been too depressed to do anything all day long and stayed holed up in my room. My mother had checked on me periodically, and I know I was starting to worry her.
Sure enough, she poked her head in my room again. “Camille, do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
At first, I was going to tell her no, but I really did want to get some things off my chest, and a lot of it had to do with the Thetas. And since my mother was in a sorority, maybe she’d understand.
“I guess,” I mumbled.
“Is this about Angel?” she asked as she sat down on the bed next to me. I nodded.
“How is she doing?”
I moved the pillow and flipped over. “She’s doing a lot better.” We’d stayed with Angel at the hospital all day yesterday. We finally left after her mother asked that we all go home and get some rest. The only reason I could bring myself to leave was because the doctor told us Angel was out of danger. The knife hadn’t touched any major organs.
“So, are you ready to tell me what’s going on with you guys?” My mother stroked my hair, and the tears I thought I no longer had started to flow again.
“Mama, this is all my fault,” I cried as I buried my head in her lap. I sobbed for a couple of minutes, then sat up and sniffed. “Trying out for the Theta Ladies was all my idea. I never meant for it to come to this: Angel getting hurt, us barely speaking. I just wanted to be a Theta.”
My mother wiped away my tears and took my hands. Even though she could nag the heck out of me sometimes, for the most part, my mom and I had a good relationship. Ever since she almost died from a heart attack last year, things had gotten a lot better between us and I’d really come to value her opinion.
“Everything happens for a reason, dumplin’, so maybe now is not the time for you to be joining a sorority. Maybe you should save that for college because it’s obvious these girls aren’t mature enough to understand the real meaning behind sororities. Unfortunately, from what you’ve told me, the Thetas are led by a girl who goes against everything sororities are all about, be it on the college level or in high school. They’re about sisterhood, and sometimes that sister may not look just like you.” She sighed as she dropped my hand.
“You young people don’t know the things our people have had to endure. If you did, you would see how detrimental hate is.” She lifted my chin. “Let me tell you something we don’t talk about much in our family. It’s too painful for your grandmother to even think about.”
My grandmother lived in a senior citizens’ center about twenty minutes away. Over the years she had shared a lot of stories with me, so I couldn’t imagine that there was something she had never told me.
“You’ve heard us talk about your grandfather, right?” It seemed like my mother was forcing herself to tell me whatever she was trying to tell me. Her eyebrows furrowed and she had stress lines all across her face.
I nodded. “Yeah, Grandpa died when you were just a little girl.”
“That’s right. But we never talked about how he died.” She took a deep breath. “He was lynched.”
“You mean like hung?” I asked in disbelief.
My mother solemnly nodded. “He was very active in Mississippi, trying to help get black people registered to vote. A lot of white people in town didn’t like that.”
I was stunned. I was also having trouble figuring out how this story was supposed to bolster my mother’s case that we should all just get along. If my grandfather was killed because of the color of his skin, she was entitled to have a racist attitude. Wasn’t she?
“Daddy was with me and Mama at the store picking up a few groceries one day when we were approached by several white men,” she began. “I couldn’t have been any more than three. But I remember them yelling at my daddy. Mama was crying and shielding me behind her back. The next thing I knew, those men were dragging both of my parents to a field. They strung Daddy up right there on a big old oak tree and they were about to do the same to Mama.”
I stared at my mother, my eyes wide in shock. “Oh, my God. B-but you’re so nice to everybody. If anyone has a reason to hate someone because of their color, it’s you.”
My mother closed her eyes and sighed like I just didn’t get it. “They could’ve killed Mama, too. And maybe even me. But do you know what stopped them?”
I didn’t have an answer, so I just shook my head.
“Another white man who just so happened to be passing by,” she continued. “He didn’t know us from Adam, but he came over and pleaded for my mother’s life. He knew they could’ve easily killed him as well, but he begged them to let us go. So how can I hate white people when it was a white person who saved me and my mother’s lives?”
This whole story was too much. And I still wasn’t seeing what it had to do with anything. “But this isn’t between blacks and whites. It’s the Hispanic and black kids who are mad at each other.”
“Don’t you see it’s the same thing? It’s hate. Pure and simple. You’re judging someone based on their race.” She let out a long sigh. “That man who saved our lives helped us out tremendously after Daddy died. Daddy took care of everything, and Mama didn’t work so it was really hard on us after he died. But Charles Stamps gave us money to move, to start over and basically rebuild our lives. Imagine if he had just said, ‘Oh, they’re black, I won’t help them.’ We would’ve been in a world of trouble. He didn’t see color. And I’ve tried to live my life the same way.”
I now understood where my mother was coming from. She had a valid point. Until this whole Theta thing, I never really saw color or race. I still didn’t, really. But I’d aligned myself with people who did.
I hugged my mother and thanked her for helping open my eyes. I knew now exactly what I needed to do.
29
Camille
Everything felt so surreal as I walked up to the hospital doors. T
he last time I had been in this place was when my mom was rushed here after having a heart attack. Just like then, I felt like this was all my fault.
Alexis and Jasmine, who were with me, read my mind.
“Camille, you know this is not your fault, right?” Alexis said to me.
Jasmine nodded in agreement. “Something like this was bound to happen with everything that was going on.”
I wiped at the tears that had started trickling down my cheeks. “That’s what I keep trying to tell myself, but why did it have to be one of my best friends who got stabbed?” I said as we walked up to Angel’s hospital room. “This whole peace forum was supposed to promote unity and it just ended horribly.”
Before anyone could respond, Christina came barreling down the hallway, jumped in front of the doorway, and blocked the entrance to Angel’s room.
“What are y’all doing here? I can’t believe you have the nerve to show your face at this hospital. This is all your fault anyway. Angel wouldn’t be in here if you were her real friends!” she spat. “But don’t worry, you can go back to your precious little sorority sisters. Angel’s family and true friends have this under control.”
Jasmine, whose face was turning red, exploded. “What? How you gon’ tell us we aren’t her real friends? Were you there when Angel ran away from home and had nowhere to go? Were you there when we had to drive all the way to Victoria, Texas, to drag her back to Houston? How about when that triflin’ baby daddy of hers refused to help take care of Angelica? Or better yet, were you there when Angel went into labor and had to have the baby all by herself? Uhh, no, I don’t think you were, because we were there. So don’t talk to me about being a true friend!”
Jasmine was yelling so loudly that a nurse at the nearby station cleared her throat and shot us dirty looks. Jasmine lowered her voice. “You just came on the scene a month ago and all of a sudden you’ve made yourself Angel’s personal bodyguard,” she continued. “Girl, please, you better move out of my way and let me in this room.”
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