Teenie (23 page)

Cherise looks at me like I farted. “Greg and Passion? Come on, Teenie. They call her E-ZPass. That’s not his girlfriend. She’s a groupie in training, probably trying her best to latch on to a meal ticket.”

“So they weren’t together?”

Cherise shakes her head and says, “Hell no.”

I pick my head up and try to digest the information. “So … so she was just some crazy girl that had a crush on him?”

“Yup.”

I shake my head.

“I think you should go to the infirmary,” Garth says.

“I’m not going to no infirmary. I just want to go home.”

“No, Teenie. He’s right. You need to go.”

“For what?”

Cherise points to my face and it starts hurting again. “Because you have a giant handprint on your face. Plus you have a little cut on your cheek.”

I reach to touch a throbbing spot on my face, and when I pull my finger away, I see a little blood. “I didn’t even know the infirmary was open after school.”

“It is, and you’re going.”

Cherise and Garth walk with me to the infirmary. Before she lets me go in, Cherise says, “Don’t be an idiot and tell the nurse what happened, because if you do, you’re gonna get suspended.”

“Really?” Suspended?

“Yup. The nurse will tell the dean, and you’ll get suspended.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know that. “So what should I say?”

“I don’t know. Think of something. Tell her you fell.”

I walk into the infirmary and take a seat in one of the raggedy chairs. The nurse doesn’t look up from her desk when she says, “Can I help you?”

“Uhh, yeah. I have a cut on my cheek.”

Her eyes move from her paperwork and stop at my cheek. The more she stares at it, the more it seems to hurt. “What happened?”

“Umm, I fell.”

“You fell?” She stands up slowly and puts on a pair of gloves before rubbing her fingers over the wound. I can tell right away that she doesn’t believe me.

“Yes. I fell down the stairs.”

“And landed on your face?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hurt any other part of your body?”

“No.”

“No other part of your body?”

“No.” My throbbing knee says otherwise, but I decide to stick to my story.

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You fell down the stairs, not hitting any other part of your body on the way down, and landed on your face?”

“Yes. That’s what happened.”

“So when were you fighting?”

“I told you I wasn’t fighting. I fell.” She’s staring at me, waiting for me to tell the truth. I’m a terrible liar. “Last period.” I end up telling her everything.

“It was
you
who broke that girl’s nose?” The way she said “you” makes it pretty obvious that she is having a hard time believing that I did all of that damage. “Well, I’m going to have to file a report. That girl had to go to the hospital, you know.”

The nurse frowns at me when I show no sign of remorse.

I
got suspended for the rest of the week. Besides a bloodshot left eye and a tender cheekbone, I’m okay, but I feel horrible about getting suspended. The last time I missed a day of school was when I had the chicken pox in fourth grade, and even then my parents had to fight with me to get me to stay home. Even worse than getting suspended was trying to explain to my mother what I was doing home so early. When I told her I was fighting, she set a scowl on me that made my knees buckle.

“Go up to your room now. Don’t even think about turning that TV on. We will talk when your father gets home.”

Not being able to watch TV would normally make me mad, but I don’t realize how tired I am until I crawl under the covers.

• • •

About an hour later, I hear a tapping sound coming from my window. I walk over to the window and my eyes almost pop out when I see Cherise hunched on my windowsill. She gives me a funny look, telling me to hurry up and open the window.

“Damn, why you take so long to open the window?”

“You scared the crap out of me.” I look out the window and try to figure out how she managed to climb up. “Why didn’t you just ring the bell?”

“I did. Your mother told me you were sleeping.”

“Oh.” I look out the window again and ask, “How the heck did you get up here?”

“The tree.”

The tree she’s talking about has a branch that hangs over our roof. That branch is about five feet above my window. I look up at the branch and look over at her. “You’re crazy.”

“Yeah, well, we have a lot to talk about.”

We certainly do.

“So she ran to the dean’s office?”

“Yup. She told them that you broke her nose.”

“I bet she didn’t say nothing about how
she
started the fight with me.”

“Of course not. And I found out why she was coming after you like that.” Cherise is shaking her head. I wait for her to continue. “She was all in love with Greg. He had her all gassed up like they were going to get married and whatever, and then he dissed her.”

“So what?!?! What does that have to do with me? That’s a
reason to be chasing after me like I stole something from her?”

“But you did. Well, kinda sorta. You see, he stopped dealing with her when he started checking for you. I heard he had mad girls. That chick Azalia must’ve been one of them, but I guess you were one that Passion could finally put a face to.”

All I can do is just breathe out. “This is so retarded. Over a stupid boy?”

“There’s more. Remember when you were trying to type something to Greg and you sent it to Crystal by mistake? You wrote something about a wild guess, or something like that.” I nod my head. “Well, Greg told Passion that he was leaving like ten minutes before that and blocked her, so she thought he was off-line. Passion thought he got off the computer, but then found out he was still online talking to you.”

“But how the hell did Passion know that I was—Oh yeah, Crystal ratted me out, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of foul, but that’s her family, so … Crystal was telling me a whole bunch of stuff. She says sorry, by the way.” I was wondering how Cherise knew all this. “Crystal told me that Passion didn’t like you from even before she found out you was messing with Greg.”

“Why? I never even said nothing to her. I didn’t even know who she was.”

“Crystal said she didn’t know, and I can’t figure that one out either.”

“Ughhh! What’s wrong with that girl?”

“Passion is so dumb. That’s what she gets for giving up the goods like that. That’s why they call her E-ZPass.” Cherise starts
laughing to herself and says, “That name is actually kind of funny.” She says it again, “E-ZPass,” and continues laughing.

After I hear her say it again, the pieces start to fit. It comes to me all of a sudden. “Cherise, I figured out why she didn’t like me. I think my brothers used to deal with her. When they were bringing me home from the park, they saw her by the Laundromat. They probably played her too.”

“Wow. That makes sense, though. I heard she got a thing for athletes. Like I said, groupie in training.”

“What the hell was she talking about that I got Greg arrested?”

“Oh, you didn’t hear about that?”

“Hear about what?”

“Greg got led out of school in handcuffs, crying like a li’l girl.”

“What happened?”

“I think Azalia decided to press charges against him. Mr. S. probably talked her into it. I know you heard when he yelled down to Greg, ‘You’re not getting away with this, Millons.’ ”

If we weren’t talking about something so serious, I would laugh at Cherise’s impersonation of Mr. S., because it is on the money. We let that hang in the air and sit quiet for a minute before Cherise says, “So did you hear anything about getting into that nerd program Tree Sap?”

“YSSAP?”

“Yeah.”

“Greg basically said if I didn’t give him a blessing, I could forget about YSSAP. Like he could get me kicked out of the program or something.”

“And how exactly is he gonna do that?”

“He could go and say that he added me to the waiting list and—”

“Teenie, come on. The guy just got arrested. Do you really think anyone’s going to believe a word he says?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It doesn’t matter anyway. I messed up on the math test.”

“Really?”

“I needed a ninety-four and …” My voice trails off. The highest grade I can get is a ninety, since I didn’t answer the last question. That makes me fall short. There’s always next year. “I choked. I was on the last question and then I saw Greg standing outside of my class. I just …”

“Damn. My man was like a stalker.”

“Sounds like we each had one. I’ve been meaning to ask you … Did Big Daddy try to call you again?”

“Hell, no. Your father scared the crap outta him.”

“I wish someone would’ve scared the crap outta Greg, or he would’ve got arrested before my math test. I can’t believe I messed up like that. I just looked up and seen him standing outside the classroom door and I couldn’t finish after that.”

“Well, don’t be so negative. You didn’t even see the results yet. Maybe you’ll get extra credit or something.”

“There was no extra credit.”

“Oh. Well, whatever. It probably would’ve sucked anyway,” Cherise says, trying her best to soften the blow. “You should’ve just tried out for the cheering squad. We’d both end up being team captains.”

“I guess that means you made it, huh?”

“Yup,” she says, trying not to smile too hard.

“Congrats.”

“Thanks. Sohmi and Sabrina made it too. Speaking of Sohmi”—she pauses to take a paper out of her bag and hands it to me—“she said thank you.”

“What’s she thanking me for?”

“For letting her see the answers to the English test. Did I ever tell you that you’re a nerd?”

“Many times.”

“Who the hell gets a hundred and ten on a test? Friggin’ brainiac.”

I got one hundred and ten! I unfold my English exam and see my score. I forgot about the extra credit! “Quick, gimme your phone.” Cherise’s phone has a calculator on it, and I’m not about to open my bedroom door to look for one. It would be just my luck that my mom would walk by and see Cherise. “If I get a hundred on that American studies paper, then my math score could be like eighty-four and I would still get the scholarship!”

“If? When have you gotten anything but a hundred in Mr. Speight’s class? Give me a break.”

I grab Cherise around the neck and squeeze her so hard. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! Okay, okay”—I’m fanning myself—“I mean, I don’t know for sure yet but—What’s wrong?” Cherise is frowning.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll kind of miss you when you go.”

“Really? Well, you should’ve thought about that before when you were acting all stink.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“Hmmph.” I grunt with a smirk on my face. I’m mostly joking with her … mostly. “Where’s my book bag?” The questions that Garth gave me are still in there, so I want to doublecheck to make sure that I got them right.

“What’re you doing?”

Before I have a chance to respond, my mother knocks on the door and pushes into the room. I don’t know how Cherise gets under my bed so fast, but she is out of sight by the time my mother gets the door all the way open.

“Martine, who’re you talking to?”

“Nobody. I was just rehearsing for a school play.” Wow. That one just rolled off my tongue.

“School play? When is it?”

“Oh, they didn’t pick the cast yet. I am going to try out for it when I go back.”

My mother eyes me with suspicion but lets it go. “Are you hungry?”

“No, Mommy.”

Her attention is drawn to the window. “Why you have the window open so wide?”

“I just wanted to get some air in here.” Thankfully, from where my mother is standing, she can’t see Cherise’s bag at the base of my bed. Cherise reaches out and pulls it under just as my mother walks past to shut the window.

My mother closes the window and comes over to me. “Let me see your face.” She takes off the Band-Aid and pulls some bacitracin out of her pocket. Iodine and alcohol hurt like hell, so bacitracin is about the only thing I will let her put on my
cuts. When she finishes, she walks to the door, but stops and says, “When your father gets home, we’re going to discuss this fighting stuff, young lady.”

“Aren’t you going to be late for work?”

“Never you mind.” She pulls the door closed and walks into her bedroom.

“That was close.” I didn’t even hear Cherise slide from under the bed. “Rehearsing for a play? That was a pretty good one, Teenie.” We both cover our mouths to keep from laughing too loudly.

I can’t even count how many shocked looks I see on Cherise’s face when I tell her about all that’s happened to me in the last week. I can see her face going through all the emotions I experienced. She laughs when I tell her what I did with the urn.

“I wish I could’ve seen the look on Bakari’s face.”

The laughter doesn’t last long once I start telling about everything that happened with Greg. She gets very angry when I tell her about the blessing fiasco.

She frowns a little. “You never heard of a blessing before?”

I look away and shake my head slowly.

“I’m sorry, Martine. I’m so sorry you had to go through that all by yourself.” I can tell by her body language that she feels guilty for not being there to help me.

I reach across the bed and grab her hand. Both of our eyes are watering. “You’re still my best friend, no matter what.”

Cherise leans in and hugs me. “I promise you I will never turn my back on you again.”

We don’t get to hug for long, because I hear my father come into the house.

“My dad is home.”

“How do you know … ?” When she hears him singing, she doesn’t bother finishing the sentence.

“Just stay here and wait for me to come back up.”

“Stay here and do what?”

“I don’t know, but you ain’t climbing out that window. Just lock the door behind me and put the TV on real low.”

“Okay.”

“Martine. Come downstairs. Your father is home.”

“Okay, Mommy. I’ll be right down.”

“Where’s the remote?” Cherise whispers to me.

“I don’t know. Look for it!”