Growing Yams in London (10 page)

‘I don’t mind,’ I said.

I didn’t want him to think I was fussy, despite my responses. I could hardly tell him I didn’t want to go anywhere I’d spill anything.

‘You’re not vegetarian, are you?’ he said worriedly.

‘As if! How many West-African vegetarians do you know?’

‘True, my mum and my aunt put meat in everything!’ he said, laughing.

‘So do mine!’ I said, joining him.

My phone rang. It was Mum.

‘Hello?’ I said tentatively.

This was it. She’d found me out on my second date. I waited for her to start screaming at me. Nothing happened.

‘Hello?’ I repeated.

‘Makeeda, I’m going to text you right now,’ Delphina said, immediately cutting off.

‘Ohmigod, I’ll kill her!’ I said angrily.

I totally forgot I was with Nelson.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nelson asked, looking concerned.

‘My little sister’s just being annoying as usual.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Delphina.’

‘Really? It means Dolphin in Spanish,’ he said, smiling.

‘Yeah, it was my grandmother’s middle name.’

He said something in a foreign language.

‘Is that Spanish?’

‘No, Portuguese – that’s what they speak in Brazil. I speak French too, because of my mum. Togo used to be a French colony.’

‘Oh right,’ I said.

‘Say it after me.’ He said something in Portuguese and I repeated the phrase.

‘What does that mean?’ I asked.

‘My boyfriend is gorgeous,’ he said, grinning.

‘That’s so cheeky!’ I said, hitting him on the arm.

Wait a minute! That meant that he saw me as a girlfriend, didn’t it? But without that second kiss they were just words.

My phone beeped. It said Mum, so I knew it was Delphina.

I quickly shoved my phone in my bag.

‘Er . . . I have to get her something from HMV,’ I told Nelson.

I was hoping he’d just think that I meant a poster or something. There was no way I was going to tell him I was buying a Fairytale CD after the way I reacted at Mel’s party.

‘Oh right. If we go now, we can chill and eat before we go home,’ Nelson said.

‘OK,’ I said smiling.

We headed back to the shopping centre and narrowly avoided being separated by a group of Italian students in brightly coloured winter jackets and huge rucksacks. Nelson’s grip on my hand
tightened until we were standing safely in HMV.

As I looked across the shop, I began to regret teasing him at Mel’s party.

‘So what are you going to buy?’ Nelson asked.

‘Oh um . . . a CD for my mum. It’s a surprise,’ I lied.

‘Yeah, which one?’

‘Oh um . . .I’ve forgotten the name,’ I said, avoiding eye contact.

‘Hold on, you’ve got to buy a CD, but you’ve forgotten the name of the artist?’

‘Uh huh,’ I said.

Just let it go Nelson.

‘What about the title?’

‘Um . . . nope.’

‘What about the colour of the sleeve?’

Oh flaming hell! He would decide to be helpful, wouldn’t he? My fault for going out with a DJ.

‘You know what? I’ll just call my mum and ask.’

‘I thought you said it was a surprise?’

For crying out loud!

‘Er . . . I meant I’ll call Delphy. Why don’t you look around, it won’t take me long,’ I said, hoping he’d take the bait.

‘OK, if you’re sure,’ he said with a shrug.

I headed towards the rock section and pretended to call Delphina. Then, I made sure he wasn’t looking, which wasn’t hard given the way he towered over the racks of CDs, and I grabbed
the Fairytale CD. I held it low, against my thigh. When I looked up, Nelson was smiling at me.

Crikey, he knows! I thought, but he went back to flicking through some CDs, so I rushed to the queue, nearly colliding with a security guard.

‘Watch it, love!’ he said.

‘Sorry,’ I replied.

I paid for the CD and turned around to find Nelson waiting for me by the door.

‘Finished?’ Nelson questioned.

‘Yeah,’ I said, stuffing the CD into my bag.

‘You know what? That security guard was following you around the store.’

‘Really?’ I said in disbelief.

Ohmigod, I’m not a thief.

‘Yeah, it was really weird. I guess he thought you were trying to steal something.’

Great! Now I’m going to be followed every time I go in there, all because of a Fairytale CD! I could kill Delphina!

‘You know, you did look kind of shifty . . .’ he said, smiling.

‘Hey!’ I said, laughing nervously.

‘So what did you get?’

‘Oh um . . . The Fusion Funksters,’ I lied. That was an old group Dad liked.

‘Oh right.’

‘You know who they are?’

‘I’m a DJ, Makeeda?’

‘Oh yeah, of course,’ I said, feeling stupid.

‘I’m kidding. My dad has their album too and plays them when he’s dropping me off at my mum’s. Can we eat now?’

‘Yep! Let’s go to the café over there!’ I pointed, and this time I grabbed his hand and led the way. By seven o’clock we’d finished eating and I had managed
not to spill my food everywhere.

We still hadn’t had our proper second kiss, but I wasn’t as stressed about it. After Jordan’s antics and managing to hide the Fairytale CD, I was feeling really chilled out. I
still had half an hour to get home; my curfew was eight p.m. but Tanisha told me to get home half an hour early, as apparently parents love it. I wasn’t convinced that mine would even notice
because of their radar for my lateness, but I decided to go with it.

I turned to Nelson. We were sitting on my bus home, as he’d insisted on at least taking the bus back with me.

‘Thanks for coming with me,’ I said, smiling.

‘I wanted to,’ he said, smiling back. ‘Besides, after all that stuff with Jordan, I had to make sure you didn’t bump into him again.’

‘True,’ I said.

We got off the bus and Nelson pulled me into a doorway.

‘I wanted to, um . . .’

‘Yeah, whaaat?’ I said, confused.

He surprised me by kissing me.

‘Oh!’ I said, pulling away.

Crikey, he’s going to think that I’m weird. I wait all day for it, then I pull away.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nelson said, concerned.

‘Nothing, I just wasn’t, um . . .’ I stuttered.

‘Didn’t you want to?’ Nelson said apologetically.

‘No, no, I did . . . I just . . .’ I leaned towards him and this time I just relaxed.

Wow! Now that’s what I call a second kiss.

My phone rang.

‘Um . . . hello?’ I said, flustered.

‘You OK?’ Tanisha said.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said, giggling.

‘OK! Well, I’m waiting for you at the bus stop. Hurry up, I’m freezing!’ Tanisha said.

‘Yeah, yeah, OK,’ I said, and hung up.

‘Who was that?’ Nelson asked.

‘My cousin. I’ve got to go now.’

‘Oh right. Well, I think I’m entitled to one more kiss.’

‘Yeah?’ I said, smiling.

‘You know, seeing as I had to wait all day . . .’

‘There you go!’ I said, pecking him on the cheek. Two can play your game, mate!

‘Is that it?’

‘Yep!’ I said, as I began walking away.

‘Hey wait! Can’t I walk you home?’

‘No, it’s OK. My cousin’s just over there,’ I said, as I pointed ahead of me.

I didn’t want to tell him that my parents would kill me if they found out about him. I looked at my watch. It was half past seven, so I started to run. Nelson began chasing me down the
street and caught me by the waist.

‘Can I call you tomorrow?’ he said, breathlessly.

‘You ran after me to say that?’ I asked. Or maybe he wants to kiss me again, I thought.

‘Well, yeah,’ he said smiling.

‘OK. Um . . . you can let go of me now,’ I said with a grin.

He let me go.

Ohmigod, why did he let me go? Didn’t he want to kiss me?

‘OK, well . . . bye then!’ he said, waving awkwardly.

I guessed not.

‘Bye!’ I said, but neither of us had moved.

We were staring at each other. He had amazing eyes, even without the contacts in; they were an unusual light shade of brown, compared to his deep skin tone.

We probably would’ve kissed again, if it hadn’t been for Tanisha running up to us. That would have made our third real kiss. I guessed that would have to wait till our next date. If
my parents didn’t find out first.

I threw my notepad on to my bed and chewed the end of my pen. I was really glad that I hadn’t just regurgitated pages from a school library book. Instead, I was learning
about an amazing woman from Ghanaian history. It was weird. I was actually enjoying the assignment and, at the same time, I felt like I was connecting with my Ghanaian culture. My only problem was
that I’d hit a wall. I couldn’t seem to understand the real reason Yaa Asantewaa went to war. I was beginning to wonder if Mrs Hipman had been right about me not finding enough
information. My phone beeped twice.

I switched on my computer and logged on, and a window popped up. Initially I wasn’t sure who it was.

Another window popped up on my screen.