Dorinda's Secret (12 page)

I can feel the stabbing pain in my chest again. Five hundred dollars—that is a dope prize, but it's not
first
prize, you know what I'm saying? Oh, well, at least my family wasn't here to see us come up short. Except now, I'm gonna have to find a way to tell them all about it. I am
not
lookin' forward to
that
.

After we change and head for the exit, Aqua says, “I'm not performing here anymore. This place is bad luck—with or without the Sandman.”

“At least you girls won five hundred dollars—that's nothing to moan and groan about,” Ms. Dorothea says sympathetically.

“We know, Mom,” Galleria says, looking sad.

“
Madrina
, can we just leave?” Chanel asks, whining. “I don't want the people to see us crying.”

“Now, if we don't find your mother outside, she will have a soap opera fit off the air, Chanel. You know that,” Ms. Dorothea says, putting her arms around her. “If you girls don't want that five hundred dollars, I'll be very happy to take it and spend it for you.”

What I'm thinking is, Ms. Dorothea deserves it more than we do. But I guess we don't have enough duckets in the bucket to be turning up our noses at any cash they want to give us.

“Are we gonna be on television?” Angie asks. “They were videotaping the show, weren't they?”

“The release didn't say the contest was going to air anywhere,” Ms. Dorothea explains. “It's just a videotape for the production company's purposes—Looking Good Productions. They're the promoters of this competition, not MTV.”

All of a sudden, I hear a squealing sound that's familiar. “Dorinda!” I look over and see—
Tiffany
! What is
she
doing here?

“Who's that?” Galleria asks curiously.

I freeze in my tracks, and don't say a word. Tiffany comes running over with this blond lady in a fur coat and a bald man wearing glasses. They must be her parents, I realize! Like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, I secretly pray I could do an
abracadabra
.

“You were dope!” Tiffany says, running up and giving me a hug.

I stand there, still frozen to the spot. “Hi,” I tell her—but my eyes are saying, “Why did you come here?”

“Hi, we're Tiffany's parents—I'm Brenda Twitty,” the blond lady coos to me, “and this is my husband, Fred.” Her hair is like a
bou bou fon fon
—it's piled really high and looks like it's hiding under a can of hair spray.

All of a sudden, you can feel the tension on the sidewalk.
All
of us seem really uncomfortable. Leave it to the twins to break the ice.

“Hi, I'm Aquanette Walker, and this is my twin sister, Anginette.”

“I'm Tiffany—I'm Dorinda's sister,” Tiffany says proudly. My crew just kinda looks at her, then at me. They've been over to my house, so they know Tiffany is not one of my foster sisters. Nobody says anything, though.

I feel so guilty and ashamed! Why did they have to come? We didn't even win the stupid competition!

“We've heard so much about you,” Mrs. Twitty says warmly, putting a hand on my arm.

I guess I'm just staring at the ground, because Ms. Dorothea takes over, and chats with Tiffany and her parents about the show.

“You didn't tell us you invited your sister,” Galleria says, like she's waiting for me to give her the lowdown.

“I didn't know she was coming,” I say in a low voice.

Tiffany overhears us and pipes up, “Mrs. Bosco told me about the competition when I phoned—so I thought I would surprise Dorinda.”

I can't believe Mrs. Bosco would do this to me! She
knows
how uncomfortable I am about people seeing me perform. I haven't even invited
her
yet!

“I hope you don't mind—I just wanted to surprise you,” Tiffany says, her blue eyes twinkling. Then she turns to Chanel and says, “I wanna be a singer, too.”

“Oh,” Chanel says. “Do you sing?”

“Well, um, not like you all do—but I
want
to.” The next thing I know, Chanel and Tiffany are deep in conversation—talking about which groups they like and who they think is cute! It's like they're already friends!

“Blanco from the Nastee Boys is really hot,” Tiffany says, giggling.

“I have
un coco
on Krusher!” Chanel says, breaking into a fit of hysterics. “I'm saving my first kiss for him!”

Galleria puts her arm around me and says, “Don't worry about it, Do'—just go with the flow.”

I look at Galleria, and I just want to cry. She sees the tears in my eyes. I know I have a lot of explaining to do to my crew. But the main thing is, they've accepted Tiffany as my sister—just like that! Not one of them blinked twice at the fact that she was white.

What was I thinking? That my crew would be prejudiced? I see now how crazy that was—I mean, Galleria's half white herself, Ms. Dorothea married an Italian man, and Chuchie's got all kinds of mixed-up genes in her. They do look kind of surprised, of course—and I can tell I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do later on. But the worst is over. Suddenly, I'm glad Tiffany showed up. It saved me having to break the news to my crew.

After what seems like forever, Tiffany and the Twittys say good night. “You wanna go to the park again?” Tiffany asks me, really sweetly.

“Okay,” I say, and this time I really mean it. “It's gonna be nice to have a real sister—someone who's got some of the same genes as me.”

“And you're gonna tell me about genes, too—promise?” Tiffany begs.

I laugh, and put my arm around her shoulder. “I promise,” I say. “I'll call you tomorrow, and we'll make a time to meet.” We give each other a little kiss and a hug, and then I shake hands with her parents, promising to come over for dinner sometime.

When we get into Mr. Garibaldi's van, Galleria says, “Chanel is sneaky deaky, but Do' Re Mi, I've got to give it up to you—you sure do keep a lot of secrets!”

“I know,” I admit. “But I only found out about Tiffany a week ago—and I didn't know how you'd all take it about her being white—and about me being half white.”

Galleria smiles. “Just like me!” she says, giving me five. “Hey, it's a rainbow nation,
girlita!
”

All of a sudden, Galleria starts humming, “‘Do' Re Mi on the Q.T./Do' Re Mi on the D.D.L./ That ain't swell./ Do' Re Mi on the Q.T./ Do' Re Mi on the D.D.L./ Why won't you tell?'”

“Hey! Now that's a song,” coos Chanel.

“For once, Chuchie, you are right,” Bubbles says with a giggle. “Once more, I have come up with a master jammy whammy!”

I burst out laughing, 'cuz everything just seems so crazy! “Well—at least we got a song outta this situation!” I say. “And some money, too.”

“And you got a new sister, too, looks like,” Angie says.

“I like her,” Chanel says, nodding slowly. “When you gonna bring her around sometime?”

“Pretty soon,” I promise. “I thought you two might hit it off.”

The car pulls into traffic. Aqua looks out the window and yells, “Good-bye Apollo—and the next time we come back, you're gonna have to
pay
us!”

I put my head on Chanel's shoulder and start us harmonizing on Galleria's new song: “‘Do' Re Mi on the Q.T. Do' Re Mi on the D.D.L.'” I can't stop nodding to the beat. “It's definitely a whammy jammy,” I tell Galleria.

The rest of the way home, I'm quiet. What a night! But I have to admit, the best part of it was Tiffany showing up like that—like she really cares about me.

I can't believe it—
I have a real sister!

Do' Re Mi on the Q.T.

The Cheetah Girls Glossary

Ad-lipping:
Talking nonsense. Blabbing with an attitude.

Amped:
Excited. As in, “What are you so amped about?”

Angle for a dangle:
Cheesing or manipulating a situation so you can get a chomp on the carrot dangling in your face. Kinda like angling for an “op,” but more cheesing is involved.

Audi 5000:
Gone like the Road Runner. To do a
fast
getaway.

Beaucoup swelly:
Supa cool.

Beef jerky:
Static. When you have a beef with someone.

Big Willy:
Someone who is really important. Something that is really dope.