Flyy Girl (18 page)

“He played for the Raiders?”

“Yeah,” Carmen said. “He was number twenty-four on defense. He was on the older pound team.”

They hurried to their classes with Tracy thinking about how popular
she
could become from hanging out with Victor. More people talked about him after class. He was in high school, yet all of the students in junior high knew of his rep, and he was known all throughout the neighborhood of Germantown. He even borrowed his brother's white Jetta, driving around on missions to entice unsuspecting girls.
And he
wanted
me
to have his phone number,
Tracy mused happily.

The final bell for school rang, and Tracy hurried out of the building. To her surprise, she then was surrounded by interrogating younger girls.

“Ay, Tracy, I heard you was kissing Victor at the party?”

“Yeah,” she answered, not caring if they knew.

“You gon' go with him?”

“I don't know,” she said, heading home and feeling proud.

“Well, you should, because I would.”

Tracy got home and found a boy talking to her next-door neighbor, Raheema. She decided to eavesdrop while sitting out on her steps.

The boy asked, “Can I have your phone number?” His sharp brown face shone under a yellow Kangol hat.

“I told you ‘no,' four times already. God!” Raheema snapped at him.

“Why not?”

“Because I said ‘no.' ” Raheema darted in the house and left the boy outside with Tracy. Tracy smiled at him, hunching her shoulders.

He asked her, “Why she act like that?”

“Because her father is mean as hell and she always be trying to please him. I'd say, ‘Bunk him,' if I was her.”

“Is he a big dude?”

“NO!” Tracy exclaimed with a laugh. “You'd probably kick
his
ass. He ain't nothin'.”

The Kangol-hat-wearing boy laughed himself before heading off. “Tell Raheema that I like her anyway,” he said.

Tracy knocked on Raheema's door. Raheema let her in.

“Why was you so mean to him?” Tracy asked her. “That boy was nice.”

“So what, Tracy? I just wish that they would leave me alone,” Raheema told her. “You can have them, all of them.”

Tracy smirked and shook her head, vehemently. “Girl, you're just stupid!” she said, leaving back out. Raheema didn't pay her any mind.

Tracy had been told to begin picking up her brother at four o'clock each afternoon from a new nearby day-care center he would be attending. She had completely forgotten about it even after Patti had reminded her several times. Patti came home with Jason in hand and was pissed.

“Tracy, I thought I told you to pick him up?”

Tracy cringed and threw her hands to her face. “Oh my God, mom, I forgot all about it.”

“Mmm hmm,” Patti mumbled. “I ask you to do something as small as that, and you can't remember.”

“Dag, mom, it was only the first day.”

Patti frowned at her. “I had been reminding you for weeks, Tracy. I mean, what the hell is on your mind, girl? I told you to pick him up this morning.”

“I know, mom, but I forgot. Dag! You act like he's gonna die or something.”

Patti looked at her daughter sternly. “This is about responsibility, Tracy. Now if I can't count on you to help me out around here, then don't count on me to do you any favors.”

Tracy immediately reflected on being able to stay late at Jantel's party. “Well, I didn't ask to stay later at Jantel's party. You said that I could.” Her mother was being petty.

“This ain't about a damn party, Tracy. This is about you acting more responsible around here,” Patti fumed. “Now don't forget to pick him up tomorrow.” She angrily took off her jacket and set her bags down before walking into the kitchen. “And what did I tell you about these damn dishes?” she screamed at her daughter from the kitchen.

Tracy walked into the kitchen and washed the dishes without a word. Patti left her alone and went up the stairs to her room, feeling a touch
of guilt. She was losing control of her emotions, but to hell if she was going to apologize. No one apologized to her.
I guess I'm just supposed
to do every-damn-thing around here,
she huffed to herself. She closed her door and stretched out on her bed to take herself a nap.
I don't feel
like cooking shit tonight. I'll just order them some pizza,
she decided.
I need a damn vacation. Calgon, take me away.

“I don't believe she's all mad at me just because I forgot to pick him up
one
day,” Tracy was saying to herself inside of the kitchen. “Everybody makes mistakes.”

She finished washing the dishes and decided to give Victor a call to take her mind off of her unstable mother. Jason was watching the late cartoons inside the living room.

Victor answered Tracy's call on the first ring. “Hello.”

Tracy greeted him without volunteering her name. “What's up?”

“It's about time you called,” he told her.

Tracy was confused. “Who you think this is?” she quizzed, praying that he wouldn't call her by another girl's name. He had only given her his number two nights ago. But Victor knew his girls. No one else would play on his phone, so it had to be Tracy. Tracy was not trained, yet.

“It's Tracy, right?” he guessed.

“Yeah,” she answered, surprised.

“I thought you was gon' call me earlier,” he told her.

“I was, but I ain't get a chance to,” she lied to him. Tracy laid out across the couch, wishing that he was there with her instead of her brother, Jason.

Victor responded nonchalantly, “Oh, aw'ight.”

Tracy asked, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“I'on know. Why?” Victor quizzed, thinking she may ask him to come over.
This girl might be faster than I thought,
he mused.

“Won't you come see me tomorrow, at my school?” Tracy asked him, sounding as innocent as her tender age.

Victor smiled. Tracy wanted to show him off. “Aw'ight. What time do you get out?”

“Three o'clock,” she responded, as if he should have known.

Victor snapped, “Don't get smart, girl, 'cause I don't have to come.”

Tracy played it off. “Sike, I was only playin'. But I gotta go now because my mom has to use the phone.”

Victor grinned, knowing that she was lying. He shook his head.
Yup,
she needs a little discipline,
he thought.
She thinks that she's playing
me for a sucker, but I got something for her.
“Aw'ight then. I'll check you out tomorrow.”

Tracy happily hung up the phone. She was pleased with herself for standing her ground with Victor, and for getting him to agree to come see her after school.

Mark Bates asked, “Who was that?” He sat wide-eyed and slim-brown in the chair across from Victor.

Victor said, “That was that young-girl named Tracy.”

“Oh, the chumpee that lives on Diamond Lane?” Mark said with a grin. “She a tough little junh, cuz'. She looks
damn
good.”

Victor smiled and said, “Yeah, I know.” He kicked his Fila's up on the old, brown coffee table in front of him.

Mark said, “Yeah, she dimed on me, too. She told my young-girl, Carmen, that she saw me at the party and shit.”

Victor chuckled, looking at himself inside of a hand mirror. “That's why you don't give no alibis to no young-girls, cuz'. You just tell 'em that you got somethin' to do. If they press you about where you gon' be, just tell 'em that it's business. Girls like shit like that. As long as they think you out making money, it's cool.”

Mark laughed. “You be knowin' these young-girls, hunh, cuz'?”

“Damn right,” Victor said. “I done had too many not to. Plus, my brother used to school girls constantly, so I kinda picked the game up from him.”

Tracy wore another classy outfit to school the next morning. She wore a pair of sunshades around her neck for a fashion statement. She planned on bragging about Victor all day long.

Tracy said, while strutting up the hall, “Yup, Jantel, and then I told him I had to get off the phone before I messed it up. I was kind of nervous.”

Jantel smirked. “For real? I would have been nervous talking to him, too. I'm nowhere near his league,” she admitted.
You ain't either,
Tracy,
she thought of saying. Then again, Tracy had gotten all of the other boys she had gone after, so maybe she could get Victor.

“Well, he's gonna be up here for me today,” Tracy continued to brag. She opened her locker to get out her books for the next class, and Travis' long arms grabbed her swinging door.

“So, I heard you talkin' to Vic,” he said to her.

“Could you
get
off my locker, please?”

Travis was getting on Tracy's last nerve.

“Aw, bitch, don't get loud with me. He's only gon'
fuck you
and leave, anyway!” he lashed out at her disrespectfully.

“Yeah, aw'ight,” Tracy responded in a low tone. She was afraid that Travis might haul off and punch her if she provoked him. But Travis laughed and walked off, swinging his long, reckless arms.

“He ain't shit,” Tracy told Jantel as soon as he had left. “He's just mad because I didn't give him nothin'. The old drugged-up dog.”

Tracy went to all of her classes on time, for a change, waiting anxiously for the final bell to ring. She walked out of the building with much anticipation and found that Victor was nowhere in sight. Travis laughed in her face and called her some more names. Tracy was embarrassed with a capital “E.” She had practically told the entire school that “Victor's coming to walk me home today.”

When Victor didn't show, Tracy appeared to be either a fool or a liar to all of her peers. Either way, she was obviously not pleased with it. She rushed right home to give Victor a piece of her mind.

Tracy howled over the phone, “Ay Victor, why you stand me up?”

“Oh, I was tryin' to get up there, but I had to get this book from the library to do this report. I'm just walking in the door now,” he quickly lied to her. “And another thing, don't you
ever
get an attitude with me. I'm not one of your young-boys,” he snapped.

Tracy was startled. “Oh, my fault. I didn't know that. I'm sorry.”

Victor then filled her head with his game. “Yup, I was just about to come around there to see you. But you know what? To hell with that now.”

“I said I was sorry,” Tracy pleaded.

“Naw, fuck 'dat. That ‘sorry' shit don't change nothin'. You think I'm one of those suckers you be dealin' with.”

Tracy whined, “No I don't. Please come see me, Victor.”

Victor said, “Aw'ight, I'll be around there, just as soon as you're ready for me to come.”

“I'm ready,” Tracy said thoughtlessly.

“No you're not, and don't call me back until you've thought about it.”

Victor hung up on her ear. Tracy looked at her receiver, realizing what he was referring to. And he was right, she wasn't ready.

Tracy then went to pick up Jason from the new day-care center. Peppy, a mean-spirited, light-skinned boy whom Tracy never liked approached them on the sidewalk as they headed back home. To Tracy, Peppy was mad at the world and set on destroying it.

“Ay, dummy,” he said to her, unprovoked. He was walking toward her and Jason from the middle of the street.

“Who you talkin' to?” Tracy asked, frowning at him.

Peppy let out a sinister laugh as he came closer.

Tracy quickened her step, pulling Jason along to get them away from him.

Peppy said acidly, “What you runnin' for, you little stupid bitch?”

Tracy was stunned. “Now why you gon' say that to me, Peppy? I didn't say shit to you.” Little Jason stared at him. “God, I can't stand you, boy!” Tracy shouted.

“Girl, you ain't all that.”

“Ay yo, Peppy, leave her alone, man!” Victor shouted from up the street. He wore a red, white and blue baseball hat, a navy blue Members Only jacket and blue-jeans.

Peppy said nervously, “My fault, man, I didn't know you was talkin' to her.”

“I don't care if I was talkin' to her or not, cuz', you gots to stop
fuckin' wit' people,” Victor snapped at him. He stopped right in front of Tracy and her brother. Peppy shut his mouth and headed on his way. Tracy stood with Jason, impressed.

Victor asked Jason, “What's up, cool?” He extended his hand for a shake. Jason smiled shyly and shook Victor's gold-ringed hand. Tracy got bubbly inside.

“I used to have a jacket like this when I was young,” Victor told Jason as he pointed to the miniature baseball logo on Jason's jacket. Jason wore a matching red hat. “He a cute little dude. He gon' be like me when he grow up. Ain't 'chew?” Victor asked him.

Jason cracked a smile and imitated Victor as he nodded his head.

“So what's your name, cool?”

“Tell him, ‘Jay-son,' ” Tracy said, sounding it out with him.

Her brother bashfully raised his hands to his mouth.

Victor chuckled, grabbing the brim of his hat, and giving his full attention to Tracy. She was admiring his every move. “You remember what I said, right?” he asked her, licking his brown lips. His smooth and pretty dark face glimmered whenever the sunlight slipped under his hat.

“Yeah,” Tracy answered, like clay in Victor's hands.

“Aw'ight then. I'll be
waitin'
for that call,” Victor told her as he headed off on his way.

Jason squeaked, “Who is that?”

“Victor Hinson,” Tracy answered him, loving even the sound of his name. Victor Hinson was
the shit.