Fast Forward (8 page)

He called the boys, and they walked calmly to the front of the house. I knew my grandmother had something to do with that. They had a napkin-wrapped cookie in each hand. The smile on their faces was outrageous. “Kenmesh, look what your grandmom gave me and Jr. We got cookies. See?” Jason said.

“Yeah, I see it, Jelly.”

“Look, see, mine is almost all gone,” Jr. said.

“Not bad, Bean.”

“We got more, one for me and Jason after dinner and one for dad and one for mom.”

“That’s tight,” I said.

“Thank you, Mrs. King, for everything. I appreciate this.
If there is anything you need or anything I can do, please call me.” My grandmother nodded, but didn’t answer. “All right, Penn Hall it is, but with serious restrictions.”

“What restrictions?” I asked. He looked at my grandmother and she nodded again. I figured they had cooked something up before I got home. But I figured I’d deal with it later. I walked my dad and the boys to the car. “Dad, you forgot to wish me happy sweet sixteenth birthday.”

He stopped as if cemented still. He forgot. I hoped he hadn’t, but he obviously had. He turned to me, half smiled and kissed my cheek. “Happy birthday, baby.”

“Thanks.”

I stood waving as they drove off. So, first day of school—again—Monday wasn’t all that bad. I just needed to find out what these restrictions were. I went back in the house. It was time to get started with my new life.

Knock, Knock, Who’s There…

I was
kicking ass with my studies. I had my Penn Hall classes locked down tight. Actually, the classes were harder than I thought. Since it was public school, I guess I thought they were gonna be easy, but they weren’t.

I was also online every day checking out my Hazelhurst classes. My student assignment-link account was still open, so I used it to stay up on what my Hazelhurst classes were doing. I had two sets of books, and every night I did two sets of assignments. It was hard, but I was handling it.

I’d been at Penn Hall for three weeks, and everything was tight. I met a few new friends and was hanging with Cassie mostly. I still hung out with Jalisa and Diamond—that wasn’t going to change.

So it was last period and I was headed to my French class. I was walking down the hall and saw this crowd standing by the lockers. This girl had a PSP and all these
other people were gathered around her looking at it. They were talking and laughing. I didn’t stop. I just kept going. I had no intention of getting involved with new drama.

“That’s her. There she is.”

I kept walking.

“See, I told y’all she think she all cute.”

“I heard she tried to kill somebody with a knife over this guy.”

“I can see that. Look at her. You can tell she’s a skank.”

I had no idea who they were talking about. I know about a handful of people in this school, so whoever it was didn’t concern me.

“She think she cute ’cause she had Tyrece at her party.”

Okay, hard to ignore. They were obviously talking about me. But I wasn’t about to deal with this. I ignored them and just walked inside the class. I sat in my seat and opened my book. Everybody else started coming in.
Crap.
I hadn’t noticed that three of the girls who were outside talking were in my French class. I focused on my book as Cassie came in laughing and sat next to me.

“Hey girl, you ain’t tell me you was famous,” she said.

“I’m what?” I asked.

“Don’t be fronting. You’re famous. You’re Jade’s sister, right. You know Tyrece Grant. I saw you and him all hugged up on this website. He did a concert for your sixteenth birthday,” she said. “When was that?”

“What? No. He didn’t do a concert for my birthday.”

The late bell rang, and our teacher closed the classroom door. “It’s all over school,” Cassie whispered continuing. “And I didn’t know you were seeing LaVon Oliver,” she
added as the teacher started walking around handing out graded reports.

“Yeah, so? That was months ago. We broke up,” I said. Actually it was only about a month ago, but for some reason it seemed like a lot longer. I guess ’cause so much had happened.

“Well, you need to be careful ’cause I heard that some of the guys were talking about getting with you ’cause you like to open your legs.”

“I like to what?” I asked, completely shocked.

She held her hands up like she was surrendering. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just giving you a heads-up. You got a rep now. The guys think you’re an easy lay and the girls think you’re a skank.”

“Shit,” I said too loudly, just as the teacher walked by.

“Excusez-moi, Mademoiselle Lewis, qu’avez-vous dit?”

The classroom suddenly got quiet. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I don’t know why I thought I could just go about my business and not sit in somebody’s spotlight.
“Merde,”
I said correcting myself in French. The teacher pursed her lips, and the rest of the class laughed. In advanced French class we were only allowed to speak French, so I did.

Class dragged on for the next ninety minutes. When the bell rang, I damn near broke a record trying to get out of there. Usually I hang around and walk Cassie to her locker. Then she walks me to my locker, and we walk home together. Today, I just needed to be out of there.

So I was at my locker getting the books I needed for
the weekend, and this guy comes up to me. I looked at him and remembered Cassie’s warning. Obviously this was the beginning.

“Hey, I’m Troy.”

I kept stuffing books in my backpack. “Hey.”

“You’re Kenishiwa, right. So what are you doing this weekend?”

“Excuse me?”

“What are you doing this weekend? Maybe I can come over to your house. We can hang out.”

I looked him up and down. He was cute and all, obviously on some kind of sports team ’cause he had a jersey and letter jacket on. Then I noticed these guys standing across the hall watching us. It was LaVon and his boys all over again.

“Thanks, but I’m busy this weekend,” I said, closing my locker and slinging my book bag over my shoulder. I walked away.

“Hey, hey, wait. Come on. Tell you what, why don’t you come over to my house then? My folks will be there, and I’ll be a perfect gentleman, I swear.”

“No thanks. I gotta go.” I walked away barely seeing Cassie waiting for me down the hall. She was sitting on the bench at the exit, then stood when I approached.

“Damn, girl. Troy? You hanging with Troy now? Sierra is gonna freak.”

“What? No. He just came up talking some crap. I have a boyfriend, and it’s not LaVon.”

“What school does he go to?”

“College.”

“You’re seeing some guy in college? How old is he?”

I glanced at her. For some reason her being all up in my business seemed odd. “His name is Terrence Butler. He used to go here.”

“I remember him. He lives around the way. You’re seeing him? Nice. I don’t blame you for blowing Troy off and dumping LaVon.”

“LaVon wasn’t all that. And no we weren’t together like that no matter what you heard about me.”

“See, I knew all that was just talk,” she said. “So what are you doing this weekend?”

“I don’t know. Probably go to Howard and see Terrence,” I said, knowing that I was lying. I’d never been to his dorm room, but for some reason it was important for Cassie to know that Terrence and I were tight like that.

“So tell me about Tyrece. What’s he like really?”

“He’s a nice guy. He’s funny, but he tells the worst jokes in the world. Sometimes he comes over to the house with Gayle and his friends. We all just sit around watching TV and hanging out.”

“Gayle? You mean Gayle Harmon?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Man, I can’t believe how large you are, girl. Do you know half the students in school know who you are now? You’re famous.”

“No, I’m just trying to get through this semester, that’s all,” I told her.

“Are they coming over to your house this weekend? Can you introduce me?”

“Most of the time they just show up. I actually never
know when they’re coming. But I promise that next time they’re at the house I will call you to come over.”

“For real, for real?” she squealed laughing.

“Yeah, for real, for real.”

It seemed that we got to Cassie’s house quicker than usual. We stood a while and talked about our assignments. Then she went in and I started walking home. I stopped when she called me.

“Kenisha, wait, I gotta tell you something. Sierra Clark, you know her right?” she asked. I shook my head no. “Well, Sierra is one of the popular girls in school. She’s on the dance team, and she was talking smack about how she can dance better than you. She also said that the only reason you were with Tyrece and LaVon is that you were giving it up. I know Sierra from when we went to elementary school. We were best friends then, but now we don’t even speak mostly. Anyway, watch your back. To tell you the truth, I don’t even like her.”

“Thanks, I will,” I said, then started walking home again. See, this is all I need—more drama. What next?

Trouble…

I was
dancing, and it felt great. I dumped my books, told my grandmother that I’d be back and went to Freeman Dance Studio. I reserved a room on the top floor so I didn’t have to deal with anybody. My real class didn’t start for another hour, but I just wanted to go early and do like Jade said. I needed to dance some drama away.

So I was doing some steps Gayle and Jade taught me when I heard all this hollering and clapping. I turned around. Jalisa, Diamond and Li’l T were standing at the door watching me. I laughed and did my curtsy and bow then turned off the music and went over to them.

“What are y’all doing here so early?”

“Well, we did stop by your grandmother’s house to give
you a ride, but she told us that you had already gone,” Diamond said.

“Girl, you looking tight out there. You look good,” Li’l T said, smiling from ear to ear.

“Yeah, but you also looked pissed,” Jalisa said.

“Well, some stupid stuff…” I began then stopped, seeing that Li’l T was right up there in my business listening. I looked at him. Jalisa and Diamond looked at him.

“See, y’all wrong, I’m supposed to leave now, right?” We just looked at him without speaking. “Yeah, I know get out, right?” he said.

“Right,” the three of us said all together then laughed.

“Whatever. See, y’all ain’t right. I helped you find Kenisha and this is how you say thanks, by kicking a brotha to the curb.” He kept on muttering as he walked away.

Jalisa and Diamond were already dressed, so we all sat on the floor as they warmed up. I told them what happened at school. They weren’t all that surprised. Apparently the same rumors were going around at Hazelhurst. They said that my sweet sixteen outing with Tyrece was said to be so much better than Chili’s birthday party earlier in the year. Chili was livid, of course. Now everybody wanted to know where I was so they could hang with me. Please. Talk about for-real posers.

After that conversation, we just sat talking about everything else, just like the old days. After a while we started dancing and coming up with steps. Time flew by. We did our class, then afterward sat on the front steps talking. We didn’t feel like going to the pizza place, so we just chilled out in front of the Freeman building.

It was getting late. Jalisa and Diamond gave me a few copies of class assignments. I checked them out quickly and decided that they were worth doing. I walked them to the car but decided not to get a ride home. I was tired, but it was a good tired and I felt like stretching and walking.

On my way home I walked by Sierra and some of her friends. They were sitting on somebody’s front steps. I had no idea if she lived there, but I made a mental note to walk on the other side of the street next time.

“Hey, you Kenisha?” I heard her even though I had my earbuds in. I kept walking like I was only hearing my music. “Hey,” she tapped me on the shoulder.

I stopped and looked at her like I didn’t hear her. “Hey,” I said.

“You Kenisha?” she repeated. I nodded. “I’m Sierra. I heard you were talking to Troy today at school.”

“Who?”

“Troy,” she repeated slowly, apparently not sure if her information was accurate. She glanced over my shoulder. “Troy. Cute, football player?”

“Oh, yeah, he stopped by my locker to say hi.”

“So you interested in him, too.”

The word
too
got me. What was that? “No, I’m already seeing someone. He’s in college.”

“College?” she asked, totally not expecting that answer.

“Yeah, he goes to Howard. So, no, I’m not interested in Troy or anybody else at Penn Hall.”

“Because that’s what I heard,” she said, rolling her neck as her girls came down off the steps to back her up and stand behind me.

I knew that scene. I’d been there before. It was about to jump off. I braced my dance bag on my shoulder wishing that I had something heavier to swing at her face, but with three of her friends behind me, I wasn’t gonna get much more than one good hit anyway. I shifted my weight and took a deep breath. Ready.

“Sierra, what’s up with you, girl? Why don’t you back off and leave her alone. Go sit you big ass down.”

New voice. Male voice. I looked around.

“Screw you, D,” she snapped back instantly.

“You tried that. You messed up both times, remember?”

Whatever that meant, it hit the target. It pissed her off big time ’cause she started a string of cuss words that I swear I never even heard before. If words could kill, whoever he was would be dead, stomped, grounded, cremated and then buried six feet under plus one extra foot just because.

“What you think you gonna do?” he asked her threatening, getting out of a car parked in the middle of the street. “Why don’t you back off before you get your ass hurt?” he said, more than a little threatening.

I noticed that the three girls that were behind me had suddenly gone back to have a seat on the steps again. They were acting like they weren’t involved, but it was obvious that they were listening.

“Why don’t you back off, D? Ain’t nobody talking to your tired ass. You think you own this street? Well, you don’t. Don’t nobody even like you. Acting like you some big man, you ain’t nothing but a punk. So you back off.

This ain’t none of your business,” Sierra said, rolling her neck the entire time.

Okay, I swear I felt like I was standing at Tombstone in the middle of the gunfight at O.K. Corral. They obviously knew each other and apparently they had drama issues.

“Why don’t you make me, bitch?” he said angrily, stepping up to her.

Make that major drama issues.

“What you gonna do, D?” she asked equally defiant, “Hit me?” Looking at her and hearing her talk was like an oxymoron. The two didn’t match. She was pretty, but her mouth was foul, plus it was like watching David go up against Goliath. She was my height and maybe even an inch shorter. He was tall and muscle-thick but not bulky. He could probably clock her with one hit.

“You think I won’t,” he said, as they literally came face-to-face. She didn’t move an inch or bat an eye.

Okay, this was seriously my exit. I backed up and started walking away. They continued arguing so nobody said anything to me. I think I started breathing again when I was in the next block. Whatever finally happened, I really didn’t care. He had thug gangster written all over his face, and she looked like she could hold her own with him. But…“Hey.”

I didn’t have my earbuds in, so I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t hear or that the person wasn’t talking to me. I stopped and turned around.
It wasn’t Sierra.
“Hey,” I said getting ready for anything.

“Don’t pay attention to Sierra. She’s all talk. She’s still pissed off, that’s all,” said the girl approaching me.

“Yeah, I got that, but I don’t know why she’s pissed at me. I don’t even know her or Troy.”

“I think she wants to talk to Troy.”

“So she should do it and stay out of my face. I don’t want him. I got enough drama with the Y chromosome,” I said dryly. I hadn’t intended to be sarcastic, but I guess that’s how it came out.

She laughed and I smiled. I think she actually understood my levity. That surprised me. Diamond and Jalisa would have gotten the reference. But Chili would have looked stumped and gotten pissed because she didn’t get it.

“That’s funny,” she said. “I’m Ursula. They used to call me Ula, but now I really hate that name. So you can just call me Ursula.”

“Hi, Ursula. I’m Kenisha. You live around here?”

“Yeah, that was my house you stopped in front of.”

“Oh, I thought it was Sierra’s house.”

“Nah, she just hangs out there ’cause of my brother—correction—my half brother. He’s a private school dropout. They used to be tight. That was him she was arguing with.” I guess I must have made a face ’cause she started laughing again. “I know, they argue like that all the time. They break up then they make up.”

“And now she’s interested in Troy, too.”

“You obviously don’t know Sierra. She wants them all.”

I thought about Chili. “I had a friend just like that.”

“Yeah, we all do. You go to Penn right?” she asked. I nodded. “Yeah, I saw you there. So your sister’s Jade.” I
nodded again. “She was nice. She was my dance teacher when I went to Freeman a while back.”

“You went to Freeman. When?”

“A long time ago.”

“You stopped?” I asked. She nodded. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I keep saying that I’m gonna go back, but I guess I just never did.”

“You should go back.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking about it. Maybe I will. Anyway, don’t worry about Sierra. She’ll just roll her eyes and act all loud, but since D told her to back off, she will. There’s no way she’s not going to listen to him,” she said, starting to walk backward.

“Thanks Ursula, I appreciate that,” I said as she turned and headed back to her house. I kept walking. I noticed a car parked outside my house. The guy, Ursula’s half brother, was leaning back smoking a cigarette. He watched me as I walked up. I cracked a half smile and kept on walking.

“So what, you think you gonna take all of them at one time?” he asked. “They would have kicked your ass.”

I stopped. This was apparently unavoidable. “Whatever, I wasn’t going down alone.”

“You got guts,” he said, chuckling.

I turned around and looked at him. He was fine with a capital F. “You gotta do what you gotta do, right?” I said, trying not to sound too corny.

He flicked his cigarette into the street, pushed away from the car then walked up to me. He stood too close, but just like Sierra, I didn’t move an inch. “I’m Darien.”

“Kenisha.”

He nodded then stepped back and walked around to the driver’s side of his car. I watched him. He watched me. He got in, smiled, then drove away.