Rumor Central (4 page)

I rolled my eyes at her. “How 'bout you get you some business and stay out of mine.”

I put my sunglasses on and strutted out of the building. I sent Bryce a text to pick me up at my house, not after school like we'd planned.

Mr. Carvin just didn't know, this wasn't a suspension. This was a three-day vacation and I was about to make the best of it!

W
hoever thought a suspension was a bad thing definitely didn't know what they were talking about. I sipped my latte as I leaned back in my chair and popped open my sleek Mac-Book Pro. I'd chilled and watched TV all day yesterday. I'd called to check in and Tamara had asked that I do some research on story ideas, so I was cruising all the top gossip sites as I chilled at home. This was the life I'd needed. Bryce had even stopped by after school, so I'd gotten a chance to chill with him.

My email dinged and I groaned when I saw the email from my calculus teacher.

I closed out the email. It was a good thing I missed the test because I probably would've flunked anyway. I logged onto Twitter and immediately saw that one of my tweets had been retweeted by Valerie Elgin. I didn't even realize she was following me. I hesitated. Maybe seeing her name was some kind of sign. I needed to get some help with my schoolwork and I knew Valerie was just the nerd to do it. I clicked on her name and quickly sent her a direct message asking her to call me. I hated even having to talk to her. But she'd offered and I couldn't flunk this stupid test.

I had just gone back to my gossip sites when my mother came in. She was wearing her short tennis outfit, displaying her long, lean legs. She had her wavy hair pulled up into a ponytail and actually looked like she should be in a tennis commercial. Of course, there was no indication that she'd been playing tennis because the outfit was sparkling white. But knowing my mom, she'd probably hit the ball twice, then sat down to watch as she sipped a Bloody Mary.

“What are you doing at home?” she asked.

I sighed. Usually my mom stayed gone all day, so I hadn't expected her back so soon. I hadn't told her or my dad about the suspension, although I was going to have to before I returned because I wouldn't be allowed back without a parent/teacher conference. But I'd wanted to wait until the last day. I mean, why give them more time to gripe than necessary?

“Uh, I just wasn't feeling well,” I said.

“So now I'm raising a liar?” she said.

“What?”

“You got suspended,” she stated.

My eyes grew wide. “Huh?” I stammered. How did she find out? I was trying to get my story together, but she stopped me when she held up a piece of paper.

“This email says you were suspended!”

I groaned. Of course the school would send an email letting my mother know about my suspension.

“You got suspended, Maya?” My mother waved the letter like she simply couldn't believe it. “For fighting? Like some common thug?”

“I was defending myself after I was attacked,” I said.“Shay Turner jumped me.”

She tossed the paper on my dresser and darted toward me.

“Oh my God, you were jumped? Why in the world do I have you in that expensive private school if you have to worry about getting attacked?” She studied my face like she was checking for bruises. “I just can't believe this. Why didn't you tell me?”

“I didn't want to worry you or dad.” I took a deep breath and acted like I was fighting back tears. “It was just so horrible.”

Dang, I was good. I don't know why Hollywood was sleeping on me.

My mother stroked my hair. “My poor baby. Are you okay?” She pulled back and started examining my face some more.

“I'm fine. Just a little bruised up.”

“Do we need to call the doctor?” She turned my cheek, studying me closer.

“I . . . I just couldn't believe that happened and I didn't want to tell you and get you upset.”

“This is just ridiculous.” She paused like she was thinking. “I knew this would happen when they decided to let those people go to that school.”

I hated to bust her bubble, but I said, “It wasn't one of the scholarship kids. It was Shay Turner.”

“Wait a minute. Shay Turner. Is that the girl from the show with you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, the one from
Miami Divas
. She was mad because she got fired and they kept me.” My parents had been completely behind by new job. My dad's attorney was the one who had worked out all the details in my contract. But none of them knew how upset my former crew was about being fired.

“Jalen Turner's daughter?” my mom asked.

“Yes.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Oh, I don't think so,” she exclaimed. “I never did like that ol' tattooed-up gangsta. That's what happens when common folks come into money, they don't know how to act. That thug and his ghetto daughter have messed with the wrong woman's child!” she continued.

My mother had made no secret that while she had no problem with the other members of the whole
Miami Divas
crew, she had never been feeling Shay. Even though Mr. Turner was one of the most talented players in the NBA, he was always getting in some kind of trouble.

“That's what I told them, Mom,” I said, egging her on. If she was mad at them, she wouldn't be trippin' with me. “I told them I don't fight, I sue.”

My mother patted my cheek. “I taught you well, sweetheart.” She stood up tall and brushed down her skimpy tennis skirt. “I'm going to talk to your father. We're going to have Daniel get right on this,” she said, referring to our family attorney.

I smiled appreciatively. “Thanks, Mom. And don't worry, Tamara is supposed to be looking at getting me a bodyguard.” I made a mental note to call her tomorrow to ask her the status on that. I knew the bodyguard wouldn't be allowed at school (Bali's dad had tried to get him a bodyguard once and the school nixed it), but I still wanted one for when I wasn't at school.

I knew my dad would take it over from here, but at least I'd gotten my mom off my back for a while. “Well, I'm just sitting here trying to study so I don't fall behind on any of my work,” I said, motioning toward my laptop.

My mother stood and smiled. “That's my baby. Let me let you get back to work. I'll go tell Sui to fix you your favorite food for dinner to make you feel better.”

“All right, Mom.”

“I love you, sweet pea.”

“Love you, too,” I replied with a pouty smile as she left my room. I couldn't help but laugh. I was such a great actress. Trust, it was just a matter of time before everybody knew my name!

I
t wasn't easy being hated, but somebody had to be the object of jealousy. That was why I eased my sunglasses on my face, and strutted down the hall like I was Tyra Banks at a runway show. Someone had actually put a rat in my locker. A stinking, dirty, filthy rat! It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. Luckily, I didn't scream because I didn't touch it. I opened my locker and the thing was just hanging there. The custodian said I was being dramatic because it was really just a small lab rat from one of the biology classes, but a rodent is a rodent. I made them fumigate my locker. Of course, nobody saw anything when I asked, but I knew who was behind it.

I was just ready to get out of there because in addition to that rat foolishness, I was tired of dealing with the hate and nasty looks and I definitely wasn't trying to get into it with Shay again.

I walked over to my car and stopped in my tracks at the sight of my prized silver BMW 750 sitting on four flat tires.

“Oh my God! What happened to my car?” I screamed.

A group of people were standing nearby, including Evian, Bali, Shay, and Sheridan. I spun toward them. “What happened to my car?” No one answered. “I know you did this,” I said, pointing at my former friends.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Evian said, trying to look innocent.

Bali just smirked, and Sheridan and Shay just stood there grinning and looking stupid.

“One of you did this to my car,” I said, jabbing my finger in the direction of the tires. “My tires are jacked up!”

Bali's hand went to his chest. “Oh my goodness. I hadn't even noticed.” He then turned to Evian. “Did you see who did this?”

Evian shook her head as she shrugged innocently. “I sure didn't.” She turned to Shay. “Did you?”

“Nope,” Shay replied, then blew a gigantic bubble with her gum.

Cow.

They all looked at Sheridan, like they were really waiting for an answer.

“I didn't see anything either,” Sheridan said with a tight smile. “But that's so messed up that someone would do that.”

“Because you of all people don't deserve anything like that,” Evian added.

“It sure is messed up,” Bali said, like he was really concerned. “And didn't you just get a whole new set of tires?”

I ignored him and turned to another one of my classmates, who was standing around gawking. “What about you? Did you see who did this?”

He, too, just stared at me like he was stuck on stupid, while everyone around him started giggling.

They made me so sick. “Did you see who did this?” I asked, turning to another one of my classmates who was standing nearby. He gave me a look like even if he had, he wasn't saying a word.

“Whatever,” I finally said when it was obvious they weren't going to tell me anything. “Do you think this is gonna stop me?” I shouted to no one in particular. “All of you are just mad. Don't think I'm not gonna find out who did this!”

“Good luck with that,” Shay said, laughing.

“I have a major meeting in,” I glanced at my watch, “an hour and your stupid, childish behavior is gonna make me late!”

Shay shrugged. “Guess your little show is just gonna have to wait.”

It was moments like this that I wished I had some male thug cousins or something because I would get one of them to straight jack Shay up.

“Whatever. Screw all of you,” I said, pulling my phone out of my purse. I stopped ranting and faced my former crew. “Hate isn't a good look,” I said, finally calming down. I was just about to punch in Bryce's number when he walked up.

“Hey, what's wrong with you?” he asked when he saw the disgusted expression on my face.

“Someone put my tires on flat. All four of them,” I said, trying not to get worked up. I needed to let these busters know they couldn't faze me.

“What?” he said, eyeing my car. “Who did it?”

I pointed at Shay and her stupid flunkies. “One of my deranged stalkers did it, I'm sure,” I said.

“Honey boo-boo, you'd be the last person I'd ever stalk,” Bali said.

“I can't tell.” I didn't give them a chance to respond as I turned back to Bryce. “Look, can you take me home? I was just about to go call you.”

“Yeah. . . . Ummm, I'm sorry . . . but . . .”

“But what?” You could've knocked me over with a feather when Bryce hesitated, looked at me, then at Sheridan, then back at me.

“But”—he took a deep breath and lowered his voice—“but, I need to talk to you.” He took my arm and tried to lead me away. I jerked my arm from his grasp.

“Talk to me about what?” I snapped.

He looked down, then over at Sheridan again.

“Boy, if you don't say what you need to say . . .” I began.

He let out a deep sigh, then softly said, “I think we kinda need to chill a while.”

Are you freakin' for real?
I wanted to scream. Just yesterday he was talking about how much he loved me. Now he was seriously about to flake out on me?

Bryce cleared his throat and looked uneasily at Sheridan, who was glaring at him. I looked back and forth between the two of them. I was about to ask Bryce what in the heck was going on when his teammate Wade walked up.

Without even looking at me, Wade said, “Dude, you're seriously still talking to her after what you found out?”

My hands went to my hips and my eyebrows rose. “What is he talking about, Bryce?”

Bryce shot Wade some kind of look that I couldn't make out, then said, “Would you let me handle this?”

Wade shook his head, then gave me a disgusted look as he walked off.

Since I couldn't care less about that nobody Wade, I didn't pay him any attention. But I did care about Bryce and if someone had told him something, I wanted to know what it was.

“Bryce, what is he talking about?”

Bryce looked at Sheridan again and I swear she was glaring at him. He took my arm and pulled me to the side, away from everyone.

“Look, Maya,” he said. “I've just been thinking about this and I think you're cool and all, but I think we need to chill.”

“Excuse me?” I said, stunned.
No, this fool wasn't breaking up with me.
Nobody broke up with Maya Morgan! Maya Morgan was the one who did the breaking up.

“It's just that . . .” Bryce paused, looked nervously around, then continued. “It's just that, I heard some things and . . .”

Now, normally, I would've just told Bryce where he could go, but the look on his face had me curious. “What is it you heard, Bryce?”

He hesitated again, then rushed his words out. “I heard you got with Kenny—and his boy, Dave, at the same time.”

“What?” I exclaimed. I was shocked—for two reasons. One, because I
did
get with Kenny last year. Kenny was Bryce's former teammate and Miami High's resident bad boy, who'd been kicked out of school last year because he was always getting into trouble. We'd hooked up—in one serious lapse of judgment moment. And number two, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out why Bryce would think me of all people would kick it with two guys at the same time.

“Are you freakin' kidding me?” I said. “You're seriously going to come at me with this mess?”

Bryce gritted his teeth. “I talked to Kenny's brother. He said it's true. And then I heard from a reliable source that Dave was with him.”

I looked around like I was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out the bushes and tell me I was being punk'd or something.

“I never got with his friend. I don't even know anyone named Dave!”

He stopped and stared at me. “So you did get with Kenny then?” he asked, disgusted.

I couldn't believe I'd set myself up like that. But I understood his disgust. Not only was Kenny Bryce's former best friend, even though it was back when they were in middle school, but Kenny had a major reputation for talking to any girl that gave him the time of day—short, tall, fat, skinny, ugly, pretty, Kenny didn't care and it had earned him a horrible reputation. So any girl worth anything wouldn't be caught dead with him. So why had I given him the time of day? Let's just say that was the first and last time I'd ever had something to drink at a party. But that was long before Bryce, so what difference did it make?

“Who told you I got with Kenny?”

“It doesn't matter,” he replied.

“Where did you get that from, Bryce?” I repeated.

He didn't have to answer. I knew who had told him. The only other person who knew about me and Kenny, my former BFF—or should I say my enemy because Sheridan telling my business like that meant it was about to be on!

“Look, who told me doesn't matter. Just the fact that I know you've been with Kenny makes me sick to my stomach. Nobody wants one of Kenny's exes as their girl. I can't even . . .” He shook his head like he couldn't even finish his sentence.

“I'm not Kenny's ex!” I said firmly. Then I caught myself. I was so not about to stand out here and plead with a guy to be with me. Maya Morgan didn't roll like that.

I stood straight and let my attitude show all over my face. “You believe what you want to believe,” I said. “But a word of advice. I wouldn't be listening to jealous has-beens who wish they could be me.”

“I mean, if it's not true, maybe . . .”

I gave him the hand to stop talking to me. Forget Bryce. Not only had he been ready to assume the worst, but he was going to break up with me over it? Oh, I don't think so.

“Bryce, go crawl back under your rock,” I said. “I am so done talking to you. Forever.”

Sheridan just didn't know—this little move marked the beginning of an all-out war!