It Is What It Is

by Nikki Carter

  Since I’ve heard this already, I allow Candy to ask the questions. “What did you learn, Mama Gwen?”

  “I learned that for every action, there’s a reaction, and for every decision there is a consequence.”

  I yawn and look around for the food. I need to teach Candy the rules about Gwen’s lectures. Endure with as little input as possible, and respond with nods and smiles only. It makes it easer for everyone.

  “Candy, I know I’m not your mother, but you can come to me anytime you feel like you’re in over your head or in trouble. Just like you go to your mom and dad.”

  Gwen is offering the peace treaty. I knew this was coming, but I also knew she wasn’t going to let Candy feel like she got over by snitching to her father.

  “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Candy doesn’t look like she really means that, but Gwen still has a hopeful expression on her face.

  If I wasn’t a very strong and fabulous young lady, I might be a little irritated about my mother working overtime to win Candy over. And since I am fab all day and all night, I am not going to mention to anyone the lack of work LeRon has done in trying to win me over.

  “What is the matter with you, Gia? You seem stressed,” Kevin says.

  I draw a doodle flower in the corner of my notebook page. “Nothing. Let’s just finish this story.”

  Ricky asks, “So are Steve and Helena getting together or what?”

  “I don’t care,” I reply. “Why should they get a happy ending?”

  Kevin and Ricky stare at me. Okay, yeah, I know I’m acting snippy. Maybe, in spite of my fabulosity, I am more than a little irritated about this whole Candy situation.

  “What is wrong with you?” Ricky asks. “And don’t say nothing. Because it’s not nothing. It is definitely something, and your something is keeping us from finishing this story! And I’m trying to get an A!”

  And I’m the one who’s stressed? Ya think?

  “Okay, I’ll tell you, but only if you stop tripping. Good grief, Ricky!”

  Ricky takes a deep breath and then exhales. “All right. I’m good. Now spill it!”

  “It’s really about Candy,” I start.

  Kevin’s eyes light up. “What about Candy?”

  “Eww, Kevin. Simmer down. This is serious.”

  “Sorry, Gia.”

  “Like I was saying, it’s about Candy. Everyone in our house is so concerned with making her happy and comfortable. My mom and her dad.”

  “So what’s wrong with that?” Ricky asks.

  “Well, nothing except that LeRon acts like I’m some loose girl who’s gonna run off with every boy I see.”

  “You’re looking at two boys right now,” Kevin says.

  “Exactly! But if you ask LeRon, I’m going to corrupt his precious little baby girl.”

  “So what are you gonna do about it?” Ricky asks.

  I slam my pencil down on the table. “What can I do? How can I prove him wrong?”

  Kevin frowns seriously. “Well, I guess all you can do is not prove him right.”

  22

  By Kevin’s choice, Steve and Helena live happily ever after and go on to have a huge wedding at their church. Yes, that ending totally belongs to Kevin. I wanted Steve and Helena to run off to an island and get married on the beach. But Kevin just had to have a church scene in the story. I should’ve known there would be no way to work with Kevin on a school project and not include a church scene.

  I’m almost home from the library, but I’m taking my time walking down the street. Ricky had offered to give me a ride, but I refused. I actually wanted to walk home. It’s not often that I get to hear my own thoughts anymore. Having alone time is not really all that realistic in the Ferguson household.

  As I turn down our street, I think about what Kevin said. There’s no way I’m gonna prove that LeRon is right about his bad impression of me. But I wonder how long it will take for him to believe it.

  Okay, so why is there a police car in our driveway?

  I say a quick prayer as I run the rest of the way and through the door. Lord, please let my mom be okay.

  My prayer is immediately answered because Gwen is definitely okay. In fact she looks furious, and so does LeRon. Candy is sitting on the couch in tears, as the police officer talks to both of our parents.

  “We had pictures of Candy and her friends hanging in the security office at the mall,” the officer explains. “They were on our watch list, after reviewing several store surveillance video tapes.”

  LeRon says, “There’s got to be some mistake. My daughter doesn’t have to steal! She gets everything that she wants!”

  I watch in shock as the police officer hands LeRon photos to look at. Gwen reaches for the photographs too, but LeRon tries to snatch them away. My mother is quicker, though, and she gets her hands on one of the pictures.

  Gwen shakes her head. “This is definitely Candy. Girl, what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “I don’t have to say anything to you!” Candy yells through her sobs. “I want my mother!”

  I close the front door and everyone turns to look at me. Through all of the excitement, I guess they didn’t see me come in.

  Gwen says, “Gia, go to your room, honey. You can get ready for the hayride.”

  “She’s not going to that hayride!” exclaims LeRon. “She’s the reason for all of this anyway. I knew she would be a bad influence on Candy.”

  “What!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  Gwen puts one hand up to stop me from completely letting loose. “Don’t worry, Gia. I got this.”

  Then she turns to LeRon and says, “You are not going to punish Gia for Candy’s mistakes. I don’t see Gia in any of those pictures.”

  LeRon ignores Gwen and asks the police officer, “Is she on your watch list?” He points at me when he asks this.

  The officer narrows his eyes and looks closely at me. “No sir, she’s not.”

  LeRon drops his head and gives Candy the most disgusted side-eye I’ve ever seen.

  Gwen says, “Thank you, officer. Gia, go ahead to your room. Ricky will probably be here to pick you up in a couple of hours.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  I take one last glance at Candy before I go to the bedroom. She looks so pitiful that I actually feel bad for her. But she can’t say that she wasn’t sufficiently warned.

  Since I don’t really have anything else to do, I search through my clothes for a hayride-appropriate ensemble. Although I rarely wear skirts, I decide on a knee-length jean skirt and matching jacket. I match it up with my cream colored Tweety tee and knee-high brown pleather boots. Fierce and fab all at the same time!

  As I’m digging through my jewelry box looking for my gold hoop earrings, Candy plods quietly into the room. She says absolutely nothing as she climbs the bunk-bed ladder and throws herself across her bed.

  “How bad did they ground you?” I ask.

  “They haven’t decided on my punishment yet. But my dad won’t let your mother come up with anything too crazy.”

  I chuckle to myself because Candy is a trip. I don’t see how she can still think she’s on top of the world, when her world is over!

  “My mom is usually pretty fair about punishment. I think it’s your father that you have to worry about.”

  I mean this too. Since my mother married LeRon all he’s done is come up with ways to punish me for nothing. And I’m not even going to talk about how he tried to punish me for Candy’s shoplifting! I’m still too angry to go there.

  As soon as we hear the police car pull out of the driveway, our bedroom door swings open. LeRon and Gwen are together and they both look furious enough to end someone’s life. I’m so glad that someone isn’t me.

  “Candy, empty your drawers,” LeRon says. “Why?” she asks, as if she’s in a position to ask questions. Has she ever been punished?

  “Having designer clothes seems very important to you. More important than how we feel or how God feels,�
�� Gwen says.

  “So we’re going to take them away,” LeRon adds. The finality in his tone scares me. I’m literally afraid of what they’re gonna do.

  “Daddy, no!” Candy cries out in desperation.

  LeRon is not moved at all. “Candy, get down from that bunk bed and empty your drawers and your side of the closet.”

  “Make sure you get all of that grown-woman underwear out of there too,” Gwen adds.

  I see that Gwen has an extra problem with Candy’s lacy Victoria’s Secret underwear. I don’t see how she wears that stuff anyway. It looks like a pile of strings with ribbons tied to the ends. It totally does not look comfortable.

  I sit down at my desk to watch, because the only place Candy has to pile her things is on my bed. She has more stuff than I even knew about. She’s got about twenty pairs of Seven and Lucky Brand jeans, an assortment of Baby Phat, DKNY, and House of Deréon outfits, and designer T-shirts galore.

  Then she starts on the shoes. Pair after pair of Nike tennis shoes, designer boots, and designer heels are tossed into the middle of the floor.

  “Don’t forget those purses,” LeRon says.

  “I didn’t take some of this stuff,” Candy wails. “You and my real mother gave me some of this for my birthdays and Christmas.”

  Gwen chuckles. “Guess what, sweetie. Your real mother is just as disgusted with you as we are, so don’t think you’re going to get any sympathy from her.”

  When Candy finally empties out everything, she has the audacity to ask, “What are you going to do with my stuff?”

  LeRon replies, “I think all of this high-priced stuff will be perfect donations for the battered women’s shelter run by the church, don’t you, Gwen?”

  “You are absolutely correct,” Gwen gushes.

  “So what am I gonna wear?” Candy asks.

  Gwen smiles and leaves the room. Candy is wearing a defiant expression on her face, like she doesn’t have any intention of following any punishment that’s handed down. I’m just in awe and somewhat relieved that it’s not happening to me.

  Gwen reappears with a ridiculous-looking jogging suit that went out of style before I was born, and some Dollar Store tennis shoes. The jogging suit is a crazy, bright shade of green and the shoes are blue with purple stripes.

  “What is that?” Candy asks.

  Gwen laughs. “Oh, it’s your new favorite outfit!”

  Candy bursts into tears. I can truly feel her pain because never in a thousand years did I think they’d come up with something like this. Cruel and unusual punishment comes to mind.

  LeRon says, “Gwen and I will save five tops and five bottoms from this pile of clothing, things that I’m sure I paid money for.”

  “But for an entire week, you’re going to wear this outfit.”

  Gwen tosses the items to Candy, but she lets them fall to the floor. She refuses to touch the clown-like clothes as tears stream down her face. It seems like LeRon and Gwen have attended some school of medieval punishment. They definitely had to put their heads together to come up with this. I don’t know if Gwen is capable of this much evil on her own.

  LeRon explains, “Each week you’ll earn back one outfit, until you’ve earned all five of the saved outfits.”

  “Then what?” Candy asks.

  “Then, you’ll wear those clothes and only those until spring break.”

  Candy throws her head back and wails. “Daddy, you’re going to ruin my life! Pleeease don’t do this to me!”

  “It’s called a consequence, Candy. It’s something, I’m afraid, that you haven’t experienced enough,” LeRon says sadly.

  Candy’s eyes open wide. “But what about the Hi-Steppers? I’ll be cut from the squad if I only have five outfits.”

  I lift my eyebrows with interest. Of course, Valerie will treat Candy like a pariah and, of course, that means Jewel and Kelani will follow. But I am co-captain. I should be able to keep her from getting kicked off the squad.

  I clear my throat and say nervously, “I think that I can talk to Mrs. Vaughn. She’ll understand that it’s a punishment.”

  Candy narrows her eyes angrily at me, as if I’m not helping her cause. Well, I know she doesn’t think that Gwen or LeRon are gonna have mercy on her over the Hi-Steppers. That’s sooo not about to happen.

  LeRon gathers Candy’s belongings in armfuls and takes them out of the room slowly. Gwen zooms in on one of the handbags sitting on the floor. She walks over and picks up the oversized Louis Vuitton bag.

  “Candy, is this real?” she asks.

  Candy nods and another tear escapes down her cheek.

  Gwen cracks a half-smile. “Well, I will say one thing, you have got great taste.”

  “A lot of good that’s gonna do me,” Candy says with a pout. She kicks out at her punishment clothes as if they are garbage.

  LeRon finishes gathering Candy’s clothes and stands in the center of the room. “In addition to your clothing punishment, you are not allowed to go anywhere but to school, Hi-Steppers rehearsal, church, and home. No television, no cell phone, no internet, and no texting. Nothing for a month.”

  “What about the football games?” Candy asks frantically. “I’m on the Hi-Steppers A squad.”

  Gwen turns to me. “Do you think you can talk to Mrs. Vaughn about this? Can someone fill in for Candy until her punishment is over?”

  “Probably so. I’ll ask her.”

  “Thanks.”

  I don’t mention that the football season will be over before Candy’s punishment is. That just kinda of feels like kicking someone when they’re down. Candy won’t get to wear those little white boots again until next school year.

  Candy glares at me again, as if I’m her mortal enemy. I don’t want her to feel this way, but part of me feels like she’s getting what she deserves. And LeRon has this really melancholy expression on his face like he didn’t see this one coming.

  Well, maybe if he hadn’t been so worried about what I was doing ...

  Wait a minute. I’m still not even going to go there, because this thing is all bad for everybody involved, including me. Candy has just now invited an extra level of surveillance down on both of us. Not that I’m planning anything sneaky, but if I was, there’d be no way I’d be able to pull it off. It’s gonna be like Alcatraz up in this piece.

  As soon as Gwen and LeRon leave the room and close the door, Candy crumples to the floor in a little ball. She sobs uncontrollably, as if she’s the only one in the room. I can feel the sadness rolling from her body in waves, like it’s trying to reach out and grab me.

  For reasons I can’t explain, I feel my feet taking themselves over to Candy. I’m so not trying to play the comforting big sister right now, but I can’t help myself. I put both my arms around Candy and squeeze her tightly.

  “Don’t worry, Candy. It’s only clothes.”

  Candy doesn’t reply, but her sobs quiet a little. I guess she’s gonna need all the support she can get from me over the next few weeks. Because if she thinks LeRon and Gwen are cruel, wait until she gets a load of Valerie.

  Umm ... yeah ... Candy is in for it.

  23

  I’m waiting outside when Ricky gets to my house. I don’t want my friends to come in and see the aftermath of Candy’s activities. Gwen is still furious and LeRon is in a really weird mood. He looks like he’s on the verge of tears, but he’s not letting them fall.

  It’s so cold tonight that I changed my mind about the jean skirt, and instead put on jeans that match my jacket. I’m sure most other girls will have on cute jean and corduroy skirts, but a sista like me is not trying to get frostbite to make a fashion statement. On top of my whole ensemble is a silver down jacket with a nice furry hood.

  As I walk up to the car, I see that Ricky has already picked up Kevin and Hope. I smirk to myself when I notice that Hope has figured a way to get in the front seat with Ricky. It’s like she kicked her chase into high gear once Valerie stepped out of the way.

 
; I’ve got to give it to my cousin. She is definitely persistent.

  “Where’s Candy?” Kevin asks as I blow warm air into my hands, trying to thaw them.

  “Umm ... she’s not coming.” This is the only answer I can come up with, without putting all her business out there.

  “Why? Is she sick?” Hope asks.

  “No.”

  Ricky narrows his eyes and peers at me through the rearview mirror. “Spill it, Gia. I know you’re hiding something.”

  That’s the trouble with best friends. There is no way I can hide any kind of juicy scoop from Ricky.

  “She’s on punishment,” I say.

  Hope’s eyes get big as she asks, “Did she get caught boosting?”

  I nod slowly. It doesn’t count as me blabbing if they figure it out, right?

  “Oh, Lord. Gia, have you been praying for her?” Kevin asks.

  This boy is a trip! “Have you been praying for her?”

  “Yes, of course. I was praying that she’d see the error of her ways and stop.”

  “Well, then your prayers are partially answered,” I say. “I don’t know if she believes she was wrong, but I guarantee you that she’s gonna stop. Absolutely and without a doubt.”

  “Did Auntie Gwen go crazy on her?” Hope asks.

  Hope knows how Gwen gets down. She’s been a witness to some of Gwen’s worst scenes. Like the time when Hope and I were six and we thought Gwen’s sewing room would look better with smiley faces spray-painted on the wall. Um, yeah ... it was all bad.

  “Gwen was pretty calm, but LeRon was tripping,” I reply.

  Ricky asks, “What did he do?”

  “First of all, he tried to blame me for Candy’s issues.”

  “No, he didn’t!” Hope says with surprise in her tone.

  “He sooo did! He even tried to stop me from coming tonight.”

  Ricky says, “That’s not cool. What did Gwen say about that?”

  “Well, obviously she didn’t let him get out on me like that. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  Kevin asks, “So what did they do to Candy? She’s still in the land of the living, right?”