Teenie (22 page)

“Please just let me go. I just wanna go.”

“Why you stopping her?” Azalia’s yelling now. “What were you doing with her back here?”

She starts screaming hysterically and lands a wild punch to Greg’s mouth, cutting his bottom lip. Greg grabs her by the face and slams her head against the wall and says, “Yo, what’s wrong with you? You bust my damn lip!”

The girls start coming out of the gym and are standing in the stairwell, watching Greg standing over Azalia. She’s hunched over crying, holding the back of her head. All the commotion must’ve caught their attention, because class is not supposed to be over for at least another twenty minutes.

Greg looks up from Azalia and threatens them. “Yo, all of y’all mind your business and go back in the gym.”

No one says anything. Everyone’s eyes are darting from Greg to Azalia, then to me. With this many students outside of his class, it’s only a matter of time before Mr. S. comes out.

“What’s going on out here?” Mr. S. says, pushing his way through the crowd of girls.

Greg smiles at Mr. S. and bends to stroke Azalia’s face. She pulls away from him and runs through the crowd of girls into the gym. Greg takes off running down the stairs, and Mr. S. goes to the stairwell and yells after him. “You’re not going to get away with this, Millons. Not this time.” He turns around and says, “Everyone back inside now.”

The girls step out of the stairwell and back into the hallway, but no one goes back into the gym. Nobody wants to miss the show. I wipe my face and push through them. Mr. S. helps
Azalia into his office. He stands by the doorway and says, “Everyone get back to soccer” before shutting the door.

No one bothers moving toward the ball, because everyone is eyeballing me. It’s only when I curl up on the mats in the corner that they start talking again, probably about me. I block them out and think about how I’m going to get through the day. How am I going to go through the rest of the school year like this? Besides Garth, I don’t have any real friends, and my enemies outnumber him two to one. There’s no sense staying in this school and having to be afraid of what’s around every corner. On top of that, I have a slut label attached to me that will probably last until my senior year. My dreams of going to Spain are over, so I don’t even have that to look to as an escape. I don’t want to live like this. When I get home, I am going to tell my parents that I want to transfer out of the school.

M
s. Barney must have made a copy of my answers, because I hear her using them word for word while she goes over the exam with the rest of the class. I don’t even look at the paper, and I jam it into my bag. What’s the point? I’m not going to get anywhere close to the number I need for YSSAP after missing that last question on the math test.

“Teenie.” I look up after hearing Sohmi call me.

“What?” I skipped lunch. This is the first time I’m seeing her for the day. Cherise burst out for the girls’ locker room like a bat out of hell, so I’m sure all the girls know all my damn business by now.

“Can I see your test? Since you’re not using it.” Sohmi can’t really keep eye contact with me. I hand her my bag and zone out again. “Thanks.”

Sohmi missed the exam, so God only knows what she’s going to do with my test. I don’t care. She can do whatever she wants, and if she gets caught, who gives a crap? Thank God Ms. Barney didn’t ask me to read one of my essays. My body feels so weak, like I’m about to turn into mush and slide onto the floor. Life is not supposed to be this stressful for someone my age.

When the bell rings, Ms. Barney calls me over to her desk.

“Miss Lashley. May I have a word with you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I just wanted to congratulate you on your short essay.”

I try to smile and say, “Thank you.”

“Let me tell you something, young lady. I hope you consider a career in writing, because you are truly blessed.”

Torture, this is just torture.

“So all that’s happened since Friday? Geez.” Garth has a look of sheer disbelief plastered on his face.

“I gotta get out of this place, Garth. I can’t live like this.”

“I don’t blame you. Maybe that semester away will do you some good.”

“I don’t think I got the grade I needed in math.”

“Oh. I forgot. Was he really standing outside the class?”

I nod my head.

“What a jerk. Hopefully you did well regardless.”

“I can forget about YSSAP, Garth. Greg basically told me that if I didn’t do what he wanted, he was gonna take my name off the list.”

Garth sighs as Mr. Poretsky takes his textbook out of his
briefcase. “Wow, Teenie. I’m sorry that you have to go through this.”

I sigh and shake my head.

“Well, let’s hope that’s the end of it,” Garth says.

Yeah, let’s hope.

The bell ending ninth period rings.

“Have a great day, class,” Mr. Poretsky shouts over the noise of students putting their books away.

As usual, Garth walks me to the center section on the first floor.

“Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“So you’re going home now?”

“Yeah. I just wanna take a nap. I might have to go a different way. That crazy girl was waiting for me in the train station this morning.”

Garth nods his head, then says, “Well, I don’t have anything to do today, so maybe I could take the train home with you.”

“Aww, Garth.” I touch his arm. “That’s so sweet, but you don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.”

“Somebody has to watch out for you.” He smiles, a little hurt by the rejection.

“I appreciate it. You can walk me to the train station if you want.”

“Okay. Which way are you going?”

I don’t even have time to respond before I’m face-first on the floor. It barely registers that I’ve been knocked down when I feel someone grab a handful of my hair. I get yanked off the
floor and tossed into one of the display cabinets. My knee crashes into one of its metal legs.

“You little ho. You just couldn’t stay away from him, could you?”

I turn around and see Passion standing over me. Crystal and her friends are grabbing her and keeping her from hitting me while I’m on the floor. When does this stuff stop?

“I knew you was a little skeezer, but now you went and lied on him and got him arrested?”

“Teenie! Teenie! Leave her alone!” Garth is trying to push toward me, but ends up getting into a tussle of his own with a boy he accidentally knocks down. I lose sight of him in the huge crowd that forms around Passion and me. I look up at her. I know what it’s like to deal with ignorant people. No amount of talking is going to settle this. I get up and start backing up but run out of room against one of the walls. Passion gets loose from her friends and walks toward me. I’m trying to find an escape route, but the crowd is much bigger now and I have nowhere to go. She pushes me into the wall.

“Now you gonna get yours. I told you. I told you I hate liars.”

The crowd closes in, and instead of keeping my eyes on Passion, I am stupidly looking at them. Where are the security officers? No one here is going to help me, so I close my eyes again and start praying. It worked before—God is going to protect me. Faith the size of a mustard seed, that’s all I need.

I see a flash of lightning after she slaps me across the face. My face is stinging, and I go down to one knee. I feel the urge
to cry, but I don’t. Instead, I think about every other time I’ve felt bad in my life. I think about all the times that I backed down and didn’t say or do anything when people did me wrong. I remember all the times my brothers pushed me around and made me do things I didn’t want to do. I think of how Greg assaulted me and I didn’t try to fight back. No more.

Passion is leaning over me. She’s so close I can smell her breath. “That’s what happens when you mess with other people’s man. You get dealt with. If I even see you look at him again, you’re dead. Do you hear me?” She leans in closer and says it again, “Do you hear me?” I hear the sound of her opening the box cutter and feel her press it against my face. Crystal yells, “No, Passion, don’t!”

Passion turns her head to look at her cousin. She’s distracted, and I know I have to move quickly. I pull my face back from the blade of the box cutter, and with all the power I can muster, I punch her dead in her face. That one punch is for Cherise turning her back on me, for Greg thinking he could have his way with me, for my brothers and their pranks, for Sabrina and her messed-up comments, for those nasty old men who were looking up my skirt when I was running home, for everyone who ever tried to take advantage of me.

When I hit her, she stumbles and falls back into the crowd, clutching her nose, and drops the box cutter. I pick it up and throw it out of the window into the courtyard. I can see blood running between her fingers before I lose sight of her. Passion’s friends have to be around somewhere, so I’m turning my head from side to side, trying to pick them out of the crowd.

The crowd around me lets out a collective “Oh!” after I hit her. I hear a few boys laughing and yelling. Crystal and the other girls are directly in front of me, and I catch sight of Passion again, who is on all fours. Her nose is bleeding really badly. Her friends lift her up from her knees and walk her away from the crowd.

Someone grabs my shoulder, and I turn around ready to swing. Cherise pulls me and says, “Come on, we have to get out of here.” The safety officers come running toward the commotion as Cherise ducks my head down and leads me toward one of the stairwells. Garth finally manages to push his way through and follows behind us.

“Where are you guys going? Oh.” He bounds up the stairwell when he finally sees that the school safety officers are on their way to the scene of the fight.

“Teenie.”

“What?” I can only imagine how mean my face looks.

“I’m really sorry. I … I don’t really know what I could say to make it up to you but … I’m sorry, Teenie.”

I’m so angry right now that if Cherise says the wrong thing, I might just punch her in the nose too. “I would never treat you like that. And when you saw Greg grabbing me up in front of class, you didn’t even do anything.”

“I went and told Mr. Speight that he was bothering you outside the classroom. You’re my best friend. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

“I’m not your best friend,” I snap. “Big Daddy is.”

I turn to walk away, but she grabs my shoulder and says, “Wait. I have to talk to you.”

“Let go of me.” I yank my arm out of her grasp. I don’t want her to touch me. I don’t want anyone touching me.

“Please, Teenie, just look at me.”

I look at her with murder in my eyes. She looks down. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“For dissing you like that, for not listening to you.” Her eyes come up. “You were right, and I didn’t want to hear it.”

We hear “I think the other girl went this way” coming from below and realize the safety officers are on our trail. We go up a few flights of stairs and come out on the fourth floor. Cherise wanted to go to another stairwell, but I feel safer in the hallway. I hope I don’t always have a problem with stairwells.

“You were right about him, Teenie. I’m sorry that I ever doubted you. I don’t even know what to say. I am so sorry, and I hope that you’ll forgive me for being such an idiot.”

In all the years I’ve known Cherise, I have never heard her apologize.

“So where did this epiphany suddenly come from?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was blinded by what I could get out of him.”

“Why wait until now to apologize?”

“I was upset that I got in trouble. I wasn’t even thinking about what could have happened.”

“But why now?”

“Why you smiling like that? It’s kinda scary.”

“No reason.” I take a deep breath and try to mask my inner Glory. Sometimes I forget how much I’m like my mother.

“You know I’m the worst with apologies.”

Garth has been way too quiet while I’ve been talking to Cherise. I look over at him and ask, “Are you okay?” His shirt is ripped and he keeps shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, Teenie. I’m sorry, I couldn’t get to you. I—”

“It’s alright, Garth.”

“Yeah, Garth. Don’t worry ’bout her. She clobbered that chick!” Cherise is smiling. “Damn, Teenie, I didn’t know you could handle yourself like that. Do you understand what you just did?”

“What?” I look at her and wait for her response, having no clue what she’s talking about.

“You just punched the biggest bully in school in her face
AND
made her run away.”

“The biggest bully?”

“Yeah. Do you realize how many people that girl has beaten up and robbed?”

Garth definitely remembers his encounter, because I see him rubbing his eye.

“I had no idea.”

“She robbed me in the beginning of the year,” Cherise says, frowning.

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cherise looks at Garth and hesitates before I say, “She hit him too.”

Cherise nods and continues, “I was embarrassed. I let my
guard down. She was all nice to me, kinda tricked me into trusting her, you know? By the time I figured out what was going on, my earrings and necklace were in her pocket. I felt so stupid for letting it happen.”

“Damn.”

“Well, whatever. You just blasted her in her face. In front of damn near the whole school!” I can only laugh, because she is throwing wild punches pretending she is fighting.

Then she raises my arm and announces to a couple of approaching students, “The champ is here!” I snatch my hand away and laugh with embarrassment.

“That girl was crazy. I thought she was gonna kill me.”

“Did she pull that razor on you? She’s notorious for that.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, why didn’t you just give her what she wanted?”

“That’s the thing. She wasn’t trying to rob me.”

“So what the hell did you do to her?”

“Greg.”

“Greg?”

“Yeah.… Don’t you think she had a right to be mad? I was doing stuff with her man. I mean, I didn’t know he had a girl but—”

“What? What’re you talking about?”

“Greg and Passion. They’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”