It's All Good (16 page)

Authors: Nikki Carter

BOOK: It's All Good

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“I
n just three short months, we'll be having our PGP cotillion, announcing you as debutantes to all of your families and friends,” Aunt Elena announces.

How about we all know the cotillion is coming? For most of the girls in the room, it's the only reason why they joined PGP in the first place. I'm looking forward to it, especially since Ricky is going to be my escort. It's going to be fiyah!

Speaking of the other girls, Valerie isn't here and we didn't even snitch on her about fighting. I heard my mom say that she'd quit the program. Oh well, guess she doesn't want to be powerful or pure!

But right now, I'm more concerned about taking that SAT test. The cotillion is probably last on my list of concerns right now.

About halfway through our meeting, the back door of the church opens and Sascha Cohen walks in. Aunt Elena stops her speech and looks to my mother for saving. She's gonna make my mom be the bad guy, I see.

“How can we help you, Ms. Cohen?”

Sascha clears her throat. “I just wanted to apologize to everyone in the program about the drama that I've brought to everyone. I also want to ask if I can rejoin the program. I am still pure and I haven't broken any rules.”

My mother replies, “Okay, Sascha, since you are so determined to be a part of PGP, we'll allow you back in on a trial basis. If, between now and the cotillion, we observe any conduct that is unbecoming to a young lady in this program, we will ask you not to participate.”

Sascha runs up to the front of the church and hugs Aunt Elena and then my mother. She looks so happy! I'm just glad my mother decided to stop acting like a dictator.

After we're dismissed, everyone goes up to Sascha to welcome her back. I wait until I'm the last one, because I've got some questions that I want to ask. No, this is not about being nosy, this is about looking out for my girl!

“Congratulations, Sascha,” I say when it's finally my turn. “What made you come back?”

“I talked to my mom about it and she said that the worst they could do was say no.”

Sascha's mom clearly does not know the carnage that my mom can cause. She could certainly do worse than saying no, but that's neither here nor there right now.

“Well, you're back in now. That's the most important thing. Chase isn't going to be your escort at the cotillion, is he?”

Sascha frowns. “Why wouldn't he be? He is my boyfriend, Gia. That hasn't changed.”

“I just assumed you broke up with him and that's why you're coming back to us. My bad.”

“I'm still with him, so yes, he'll be escorting me.”

Somehow that sounds like a bad idea, but I'm not about to judge her. Even if I wanted to judge, I haven't got time. I've got to go over these SAT vocabulary flash cards one more time with Ricky and Kevin before we take our test tomorrow.

So Sascha and her manhandling boyfriend drama has to take a backseat.

“Pencils. Do you have pencils?” Kevin asks in the car on the way to the testing location.

“Kevin, I've got a whole box of pencils. I've never had more pencils for any test. I think I'm covered on pencils.”

Kevin ignores my sarcasm. “What about you, Ricky? You good?”

“Yes, Kev. I've got pencils too.”

Never before have I seen Kevin this fired up. He even drank coffee this morning. Well, it was a mocha caramel latte, but it was coffee nonetheless. He's wearing all black. A black turtleneck, black jeans, and black cardigan sweater.

“Kevin, what's with the all black?” I ask. “You look like you're about to rob a jewelry store.”

“Opposite of funny. I'm in serious mode. These are serious clothes, because I've got my serious game face on.”

The way he scrunches his eyebrows down so that they're nearly touching his nose does not look serious at all. Actually, it looks like utter hilarity, so Ricky and I burst into laughter. And not a couple of tee-hee giggles; I'm talking a lean-over laughter that makes your stomach muscles hurt.

“Silence!” Kevin screams.

This is even funnier, because Kevin is driving with one hand and the other is raised in a fist to the ceiling! Is he supposed to be scary?

“Stop it, Kevin,” I beg. “You're gonna make me pee on myself.”

“You had better not, Gia. I will pull off one of those afro puffs if you do.”

Tears are rolling down my face now. Why does Kevin do this? The one time when I need to be focused and ready for business, and I'm laughing uncontrollably at Kevin's antics. Ricky's doubled over in the front seat too, so neither one of us can stop.

“Are you two ready to stop now?” Kevin asks. “We're at the testing location.”

Ricky and I both breathe in and out, trying to stop the flow of laughter. As I relax, I realize that all of my tension about the test is gone. I think I needed that laugh to get my head in the game.

Now I'm cool, calm, and totally ready. I'm about to go in here and spank some SAT bootay! Holla!

I
t's been two and a half weeks since we took our SAT exam, and Kevin is about to have a meltdown. He's ready to get that score, and I don't blame him. I'm ready too.

The testing center gave us a password and told us that our scores would be available three weeks after we took the test. That leaves us just a few days. I'm trying not to be like Kevin and have my mind completely occupied with the test scores, so I'm doing something else.

Shopping for cotillion gowns with my mother, Aunt Elena, Hope, and Candy. Womp, womp on me.

“I want something strapless,” Candy announces as we walk into a bridal store.

My mom replies, “Why don't you try something modest? This entire exercise is about purity and innocence, so I'm not letting you get some hoochie dress.”

“And why does strapless have to mean hoochie? I've seen several strapless gowns on the Oscars red carpet that scream class and sophistication! Nothing hoochie at all.”

Everyone stops and gives Candy the blank stare. She should be used to receiving that look. She gets it almost daily from our crew.

I say, “I don't care what my dress looks like as long as it doesn't itch.”

“I bet Ricky would like to see you in something flowery, since he called you a butterfly!”

My hand subconsciously goes to my butterfly barrette that I wear every day. “Shut up, Hope. What would Brother Bryan like to see you in?”

“Why does everyone keep making jokes about my escort?” Hope asks. “He's like a big brother to me. This is so not a date.”

“As long as you know that,” Aunt Elena says. “Your daddy would have a conniption fit if you tried to date someone as old as Brother Bryan.”

First of all, no, I do not have an exact definition for conniption fit. It's one of those things that you know when you see it. Second, Brother Bryan is not that old. He's only twenty-five. Do they think we can't do math?

Plus, Brother Bryan is hotness personified.

Yep, just sprung an SAT word on you. You thought that after I took the test I'd be done using multisyllabic words? Womp on you. Deal with it.

“Candy, Kevin is escorting you, right?” my mom asks. “He's a good boy. Deacon and Mother Witherspoon are doing such a good job raising him.”

“He's a cutie too!” Candy declares.

I riffle through a rack of white dresses and I don't see one that I like. I don't want something formfitting, but that's what they mostly have on the racks.

“Gia! I've found the dress for you. It's perfect!” my mother squeals from the next rack over.

She's holding up a soft-white lace gown. It reminds me of something a Spanish princess would've worn during the 1800s. It's slightly off the shoulder and then it cinches in at the waist and flows out in a few layers of ruffles on the bottom. I've got to admitâit's breathtaking.

“Okay, Mom. Me likee.”

For some reason, completely out of nowhere, my mom bursts into tears. I don't know how picking out a cotillion dress can trigger tears, but clearly it has.

“What's wrong, Mom?” I ask.

“I never got to do stuff like this when I was your age. I'm just so happy that you're a good girl, Gia. You just don't know.”

“I'm happy too, Mom. I just want to make you proud.”

My mother hugs me tightly, nearly crushing the dress. “You do make me proud, Gia. Every day.”

Candy and Hope rush over and join in the hug. Every hug around those two turns into a group hug. They're just mushy like that.

“Is someone having a mother-daughter moment?” Aunt Elena asks.

“Yep, we sure are,” my mom replies.

We
are
having a moment! And for the first time in a long list of moments, I don't mind at all!

The next day at school, I'm avoiding Kevin, so I take the long way to my first-period class. It's too early in the morning for me to deal with his hysteria. I can't wait for tomorrow so that he can log on to the test site and check his scores. It will be a lot easier for us all once he finds out.

I never go this way, and it's a nice change because the scenery is different. Even the lockers are a different color. They're red on this floor; on the first floor they're army green.

I turn down the hall leading to the tunnel that will take me across to my class, and guess who I see hugged up on the lockers. It's Chase and some girl who's absolutely not Sascha. He's so involved in his lip lock that I'm surprised the girl isn't choking on his tongue. E www!!

Chase has got to be the most disrespectful boy, ever. He's kissing on that girl all out in the open, not even caring if someone tells his girlfriend. That's foul.

I know that I shall not be the person to tell her. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna just act like I didn't see that. I've had more than my share of secrets this year, and I'm broken. I don't think that I could successfully carry another secret without spontaneously combusting.

“Chase!”

Looks like I won't have to keep a secret, because that was Sascha's voice screaming down the hall. Why aren't my feet moving? I can just go on to my class and not be concerned with this.

“Hey, Sascha. Have you met Tanya?”

My jaw drops open. No, he did not just introduce his kissing buddy to Sascha. I don't turn around, but I haven't taken any more steps toward my class.

“Chase, it's over,” Sascha says. “I'm not dealing with this anymore.”

A loud noise makes me turn around, and I see that Chase has Sascha pinned against the lockers. “It's over when I say it's over,” he says.

“Let her GO!” I shout.

Chase looks back at me. “Gia, you better step if you know what's good for you.”

“Or what? You're gonna put your hands on me? I wish you would.”

Chase snarls. “Don't tempt me.” He lets Sascha's hair go, and she stumbles away from the locker toward me. “You know what?” he asks. “I'm done too. You're just a little girl anyway.”

Chase and Tanya walk down the hall in the opposite direction. Girls like Tanya get on my nerves. Why does she think that Chase won't do the same thing to her when he gets mad?

“You okay, Sascha?”

“Yeah, I'm done with that loser.”

“You might be done, but he sure left you with a gift to remember him by,” I say while peering at her rapidly swelling eye.

“I feel my eye puffing up.”

Not only is that eye puffed, it's going to be black too. I know my mom is going to ask her about it at the next PGP meeting.

“Do you think you should go to the nurse's office?”

Sascha shakes her head. “Then they'll ask me how it happened, and they'll make me file a police report on Chase. I've tried to report this before, but I didn't want Chase getting in any real trouble.”

“You're kidding me, right? He's not your boyfriend anymore, so now we don't care how much trouble he's in.”

“You don't understand, Gia. He doesn't mean to be like this. His dad hits him all the time.”

“That doesn't mean he gets to use you as a punching bag.”

Sascha replies, “Just go to class and let me handle this, Gia.”

“You
are
breaking up with him, right?”

She nods sadly. “Yes, Gia. I'm breaking up with him.”

“Okay. Well, let me walk you to wherever you're going in case he comes back.”

“But you'll be late for class.”

“I've got a sneaking suspicion that my teacher will understand.”

After school, I come straight home. The past few months have been exhausting, and I think I just need to rest. No crew, no Ricky, no nothing. Just chillaxin' in my bed with my boy Tweety.

Unfortunately, my mom has other plans.

“Gia, did you know that Sascha's boyfriend gave her a black eye at school today?”

I nod. “Ex-boyfriend. She was breaking up with him, that's why she got a black eye.”

“So you were there while they fought?” she asks.

“They weren't exactly fighting. It happened so fast. One second he was kissing another girl, and then the next second, he was slamming Sascha into the lockers. I couldn't have done anything even if I wanted to.”

“She's out of the program. I just got finished talking to her mother. I should've gone with my first mind on this.”

“But why is she out again? Because she got a black eye?”

“No, because she stayed with that abusive boy.”

“But he gave her the black eye when she broke up with him. Mom, you're not being fair. You're punishing Sascha for things that Chase has done and he doesn't have any consequences at all.”

My mother replies, “Who says he doesn't have any consequences? I'm reporting his cowardly behind to the authorities.”

“But you're kicking Sascha out. Again.”

“Yes. I should've never let her back in the first time.”

I shake my head to show my disagreement. “It's not fair, and I don't agree.”

Gwen smiles. “Oh well, too bad you don't have to agree!”

I wonder how she'd feel if we
all
disagreed?