The Perfect Plan - Ms. Ty Scott King

AmazingBooks

The Perfect Plan The Perfect Plan Ms. Ty Scott King Smokin’ Penz Multimedia Group

Copyright © 2015 by Tiffany King All right reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published in Dothan, Alabama by Smokin’ Penz Multimedia Group. www.mstyscott.com Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data King, Tiffany

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication This book is dedicated to… Every girl who has ever felt like she needed to change herself in order to fit in. I hope this book helps you to realize just how special you are and that God made you to stand out! My amazing husband, Michael (aka: Mike/Chef King/ “my man”). Thank you for your daily love, support, laughs, encouragement, and amazing food. I never want to know where I’d be without you. My family who has supported me since

before I was “Ms. Ty Scott” to the world. You all keep me grounded. Nuff love. Every friend and fan who has helped to fuel the vision God has given me. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Chapter 1 2,920+ Days I was eight when my parents called us all in for a family meeting at the dining room table and announced that they were getting a divorce. I don’t remember whether or not I really knew what a divorce was, but I knew they had to do something because they had been arguing non-stop. My brothers, David and Darren (who almost everyone usually

called “The Twins”) had been whispering that this might be coming, but I was still sad when they finally said it was happening. I even cried because it hit me so hard. A few days later, we got home from school and Dad was all packed to move out. It was really strange. The way my parents interacted that day was a mixture of sadness and relief. I guess they both knew that this was exactly what we all needed; a fresh start. When my dad headed towards the door to say his goodbyes, the twins acted cool. They

were twelve then, so I guess looking hard was starting to be really important to them. Plus, Dad had been raising them to be tough and not show their emotions much. I remember him telling the twins a lot that, “Men are strong not emotional.” So I wasn’t shocked when all they said was, “Bye, Dad” like he was just going to the grocery store. Me on the other hand, I was a sensitive little girl who’d had her daddy around all 2,920+ days of her tender eight year old life. So, this was the biggest thing that had ever happened

in my world. And it hurt! But, I had always tried to be just like my brothers, so I sucked up my tears and gave my dad a huge hug. He held me close to him so long and so tight that I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. When he finally let me go, I could see the tears that were trying to escape his eyes. But, I’d never seen my dad cry before, so I figured it was just the cold air getting to him. As we walked him down the driveway and watched him get into the driver’s seat of the mustard-colored U-haul moving truck, he gave us the handsome,

crooked smile he was known for; the one my Mom said he used to win her over when they were just teenagers growing up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was that same handsomely crooked smile that I would grow to resent not many years after that day. When we walked back inside our fourbedroom, Park Avenue house, we were still innocent kids. Of course, I was crushed that Dad wouldn’t be coming home that night… or any other night… not to our house anyway; but, he’d promised to pick us all up from school

on Friday so that we could spend the weekend and help him get everything decorated at his new house. We didn’t know exactly where it was, but he’d mentioned that it wasn’t far from Turtle Hook Middle, which was where David and Darren went to school. I could tell that night at dinner when they didn’t eat as much as they usually did, that Dad leaving was a hard blow for them too; but, we had no idea what was about to break loose, so we carried on content about our little piece of Heaven. The twins had video games to pass the

time and I had a bookshelf full of fairytales I liked to read over and over again. And when I got tired of those, I had plenty of cd’s. That night before we went to sleep, the three of us talked about how time would fly over the next three days and before we knew it we’d be hanging out with Dad at our second house. We liked the sound of that, second house, because it made us feel rich. Speaking of rich, people were always pretty shocked when they found out that we lived on Park Avenue. The looks on their faces were priceless, every time.

One time, this lady’s jaw even dropped. Mom and I had gone to Manhattan one Saturday because she needed a really nice dress for a party her and Dad were going to. I don’t actually remember much about this story because I was only three years old then, but Mom thought it was so funny that she’s told it practically a million times; so it always feels like I know it. Anyway, we were in this boutique in Manhattan and the sales lady asked my mom if she needed anything. Mom told her she was just looking and proceeded

to push me around in my stroller. When she didn’t find anything, she headed towards the door to leave. Just then, the sales lady accused Mom of stealing a necklace she’d been eyeing. My mom, who swears she’s never stolen anything (worth talking about) in her life, was speechless. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, so she stood there like a deer caught in the headlights. Of course, that made the sales woman even surer that she’d definitely been right in her accusation. She was about to pick up the phone and call the police

when Mom found her voice. She told the lady that she hadn’t stolen anything and she was going to leave. If the police wanted to waste their time to find her for something she knew she didn’t steal, they would just have to come to her house on Park Avenue. Mom said that that’s when the lady’s draw dropped. It wasn’t until we were on our way home that she realized the sales woman let her go because she thought we were rich people who lived on that Park Avenue. What a fairy tale life that would have been. But, the

reality is, our Park Avenue didn’t make us rich. We were middle class, on the verge of becoming lower class statistics, in a single-parent home. Just like we thought, those three days flew by faster than the days go by between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We woke up that morning buzzing about how Dad was gonna pick us up from school and we were gonna ditch our wanna-be-real Park Avenue house for the super cool house we just knew he’d found. We hoped it was in Brooklyn ‘cause that’s where everything

happened. We figured he would pick up the twins first, since they got out of school earlier, and then swing by and get me. So, they told me to make sure I was ready and waiting by the flag at 3:45. We made sure that we got our bags packed before we left the house and Mom made sure that we had our toothbrushes and enough clean underwear to get us through the weekend. She even made sure that we had wash rags and towels because as she put it, “Your Dad isn’t always the best with details and I don’t want you

out there stinking like you don’t have a Mother who takes care of you.” We left everything right at the entrance of the doorway so that all we’d have to do when Dad picked us up was run into the house and grab everything. We didn’t want to waste any of the time we had to hang out with him. I don’t know how that day at school went for the twins, but it was a blur for me. I made sure I listened to my teacher, Ms. Carroll; but, during recess I didn’t play because I refused to get my clothes messed up. Dad was a stickler about

looking good, and I didn’t want to disappoint him by looking like a raggedy doll. I made sure that I was extra careful during lunch too, and I was proud because I didn’t spill a drop of chocolate milk on myself. I did spill some by accident on my best friend, Max, though. She knew I was nervous about seeing my dad, so she was cool. When the end of the day came and it was time to line-up for Ms. Carroll to lead us through the hallway, down the stairs, and outside to the pick-up area, I wanted to break the line and run ahead of everyone

else; but, of course I didn’t. I was excited but I wasn’t crazy. I wanted to see Daddy, but I wasn’t going to risk getting in trouble over it. So, I suffered in the line as everyone seemed to be dragging their feet; especially the line leader for the week, Patrick. Geeze, that boy knew how to walk slower than a turtle. When we finally made it outside, I walked to the flag so fast that when I got there my legs felt like they were on fire. I waited and waited and waited for what seemed like forever. I didn’t have a watch, but I knew that it had to be after

3:45 because all of the buses were gone and Ms. Carroll was walking towards me. “Ayana, come with me so that I can call your mother. She’s usually here by now.” “She’s not the one coming,” I told Ms. Carroll. “My dad and brothers are coming to pick me up today.” I was just a kid, but I’m pretty sure that I caught a hint of uncertainty in Ms. Carroll’s voice when she said, “Well, since it’s getting a little late, let’s go back inside so that I can make sure he’ll be here soon. Do you have your dad’s number?” “No ma’am. But, my mom does. You can call

her,” I said. As we turned to walk back into the school, I heard a horn blow. I whirled back around excited (and honestly a little smug), knowing it was going to be my favorite three guys. Instead, I was super disappointed to see my mom and brothers pulling up in our beat-up, once blue now gray Toyota that had seen far too many road trips in its 15 plus years. Ms. Carroll smiled down at me and waved at my mom as I got into the backseat. The first question out of my mouth once

we pulled off was, “What happened to Daddy? I thought he was picking us up today.” At first the response was silence. The twins looked away not wanting me to see their disappointment and anger. Finally, Mom broke the ice and said that Dad called her at work and told her that he had “an emergency situation” he needed to handle. He said he was sorry and would call us later. As Mom relayed the message, I caught that same uncertainty in her voice that I’d heard in Ms. Carroll’s. I’m sure she hoped he would call so that we wouldn’t feel bad,

but deep down I think she knew then that he had divorced us too.

Chapter 2 Middle School Changes As the days passed, turning into months and then years, we fell into a routine and talking about Dad wasn’t a part of it. The twins were High School football stars and I was a bonafide Middle School nerd. For real… I was full blown. Turns out that I was the only one in my family who was near-sighted, and since

Mom couldn’t afford to get me contacts, I had to get glasses. To make it worse, my bad eyes meant thicker lenses. Yea, welcome to my world! I didn’t just get my nerd credentials because I wore glasses though, I earned them because I was a book worm and I was in the band. Double wammy. Mom always had to work whenever I had a band recital, so my brothers had to come instead. I wouldn’t have minded so much if it didn’t seem like all the girls were trying to get with them. The flirtation was ridiculous, obvious and

badly executed. I mean… black girls usually didn’t toss their hair ‘cause they were always afraid the tracks from their weave would show. But, from the time Darren and David stepped foot on school property, all I could see was weave flying every which way. Mom would ask them how my recitals went and they’d always say, “Everything was really good, Mom,” while giving each other knowing side-glances. I don’t know how Mom couldn’t tell that something was up. That’s why I wished she would’ve asked them more specific

questions like, “How did Ayana do?” But, to their saving grace, she never did; which was lucky for them because they would never have been able to give her any real details ‘cause they were always too busy collecting numbers. I swear if they weren’t my brothers, I would’ve called them out for being so stupid. One bright side of Mom working so much though was that I got to go to practically every one of the twin’s football games. The fact that they were star athletes shaved off some of my nerd points; just some. The High School

crowd was so much cooler than everyone I knew in Middle School; which didn’t count for much since I mainly knew other nerds like me. But, hey. Uniondale High School had cute boys and pretty, popular girls who wore make-up and had some of the best clothes. Most of them probably rode the train to Manhattan or Brooklyn to shop ‘cause their style was nothing like the wanna be’s over at my school. Every time I went to a Uniondale football game it was like I was in Hollywood getting a

chance to glimpse stars. I always wished I was old enough to go to Uniondale the same time as my bothers. I just knew that if I had them around, I wouldn’t have been forced to hang out with the other nerds. No one could deny that I was the twins little sister because as we were always told, “Y’all have those Roberts’ genes.” So, I tried to ride off of the reputation they’d left at Turtle Hook… but that wasn’t enough. I was non-athletic and even though a lot of people told me I was pretty, I didn’t have the confidence to

pull it off. Looking back, I wish I had realized that I was every bit as pretty as they’d said. I’m sure it would have changed a lot of things for me… probably not all for the better though. Honestly, it probably would have just made me more trifling at an earlier age. Anyway, back to going down memory lane. Every time I went to a game, I got to hang with the who’s who. I was a fish out of water, but I didn’t care. It was nice to be popular… even if it was just because of who my brothers were. The school day after the football games was

always hard for me. I felt like I had to return to my normal, boring, nerdy life; like I’d gotten the chance to live out my dreams and then I had to wake up and be the invisible girl again. I needed a way to stand out. I needed a new look. I wanted to try one of the hairstyles I’d seen some of the girls wearing at the games. They also happened to be the ones getting the most attention from most of the boys, including my brothers. So, one day while my Mom was standing in front of the mirror curling her hair I asked her, “Can I go to the hairdresser to

get my hair cut?” She looked at me from the reflection in the mirror and said, “Hairdresser? Little girl, you know I’m the hairdresser around here. Plus, why would you want to cut it?” I had to think fast. If she knew I wanted to cut my hair to look cool, she’d give me some long, drawn out speech about how our outsides aren’t as important as our insides and how the people who don’t already see me as cool don’t matter anyway. I knew she meant well… and that she was right. But, I was in 8th grade and I didn’t care about right, I cared

about fitting in. So, I thought quick and told her, “It’s getting in my face during band practice.” “Well, just pull it back into a pony tail, Ayana.” Dang it, she had me there. Think. Think. Think. “I do, Mom. But, then it just hangs over my shoulders anyway. It’s just annoying.” “Ok. Let me think about it,” Mom said. “How much cutting are you talking about?” I knew if she was asking, I had a good shot. So I ran into my room and grabbed my Alicia Keys cd; the one where she had on all black, and her hair was cut in a bob. I

held it up to the bathroom mirror so that my mom could see it in the reflection without having to stop curling her hair. “Are you serious, Ayana? That short? I think you’re too young for such a grown hair cut. Heck, I’m too young for that,” she said laughing. My mom’s laugh was infectious. Seriously, even strangers laughed when they heard her laugh. It seemed like her laughter came from way down in her belly and like she meant every single chuckle. Plus, her whole face lit up when she laughed. I had to fight hard not to laugh too. If I did, I was

sure to lose this one. I had to show her just how serious I was. “Mom, it’s not that short,” I whined as she shot me a “You know it is” look in the mirror. I stared back at her with puppy dog eyes as I thought about how I was finally ready to leave my nerdy, invisible girl, tomboy ways behind… starting with a more grown-up hair style; one that she didn’t give me at our kitchen table. I was thinking too about how Darren was always the one pointing out how much of a tomboy I already was. He’d go out of his way to say stuff like, “You always

dressing like a boy with those baggy jeans.” “It’s the style,” I’d shoot back annoyed. Then he’d respond with the quickness, “Yea, for boys… and girls who don’t have shapes.” I guess those thoughts must have made me look really pathetic ‘cause a few weeks later Mom finally gave in. I’m not sure if it was just the sulking I did that helped my cause or if it was the heat wave and humidity that hit us out of nowhere that September too; but, whatever it was, I was getting my hair cut. So that Friday, I bragged about it at

school all day. “Why would you cut your hair?” Max asked me. “You’ve been growing it out since last year.” “I just want to do something different so people will finally notice me. Aren’t you tired of feeling like people are looking past you, Max?” “You mean boys don’t you?” Max asked with a raised eyebrow. She already knew my answer would be yes, but I said it anyway, “Yes, Max, boys. Wouldn’t you, just once, like to get some attention from a cute one?” She tried to act like she didn’t care, but dropped that act with the quickness. “You know I

would, girl! You’re so lucky your Mom’s letting you do this. I wish my parents would let me. But, my dad is way too strict. He thinks that if our skirts aren’t past our knees, we’re gonna fall into sin. And my mom is right there with him.” Every time Max talked about her parents, I felt a pang of jealousy. She and I had known each other since before we could talk, and we always had a bond; because unlike most people we knew our parents were still together. We always took it for granted that they were happily married. Anyway, I snapped out

of it because it wasn’t Max’s fault that we didn’t have that in common anymore. “Yea,” I said, “your parents are serious about keeping you under lock & key. They don’t ever want you to grow up.” “Mmhhmm,” Max said as she shook her head in agreement. The rest of the day went by fast and on Saturday morning I woke up before everyone else; anxious to get my new look. Mom took me to Divine Design & Styles on the corner of Fulton & Tennessee Ave. I’d never gotten my hair done in a professional salon before, so I

was taking it all in. The magazines, the washing bowls, the hair dryers and worst of all… the wait! My appointment was supposed to be at 8:30 that morning, but it was almost an hour later and we were still waiting. Mom said she wanted to make sure that I was in the chair before she left to go run errands and check back in on David and Darren, who were still knocked out and snoring the house down when we left. She had to get them to football practice, then she’d come back to get me. Finally, Ms. Rita (who Mom knew from way back), came

over and introduced herself to me. She was really pretty and came across really nice, but the first thing I noticed about her was her extremely long, claw-like nails. She was really going to do my hair with those?! As Ms. Rita led me to one of the chairs with the bowl attached, I started to panic. I was instantly more nervous about her washing my hair than I was about getting it cut. I always sucked at math, but I swear Ms. Rita’s nails looked like they were at least 5 inches long! Mom noticed that my eyes were

getting big like they were going to pop out of my head and she gave me a, “You should have listened to me when I told you that you didn’t want to get your hair cut” look. But, before I had time to think about if this was my Mom’s way of punishing me for wanting to cut my hair, Ms. Rita had one of those black apron looking things around my neck and she was leaning my head back into the bowl. As soon as she started washing my hair, all of my fears went away. Her 5 inch looking nails were perfect for scrubbing away all of

my dandruff. In that moment, I promised myself that when I got a job one day, I would always make sure I went to Ms. Rita to do my hair. No offense to Mom, but not even the wait could keep me from this treatment. After the wash, Ms. Rita took me to her chair. While she was running the comb through my shoulder-length hair she asked my Mom, “Lisa, why are letting your baby cut all of this long, pretty hair? Didn’t you tell her that women are paying an arm and a leg for weave so

they can have hair like hers?” My mom nodded her head in agreement and responded, “Rita, you know these girls think they grown and know it all. I’ll let her cut it so she can miss it.” I was willing to take that chance though if it meant me looking like Alicia Keys and getting some attention from the boys for once. I was determined to get that attention. Before I knew it, Ms. Rita was making the first cut. “I usually turn people away from the mirror,” she said, “but I want you to see all this good hair you’re

letting go of.” I always thought it was strange when people said, “good hair.” Let me rephrase that, when black people said, “good hair.” I really never heard white people say it, unless they were talking to or about a black person. I never liked when black or white people said it though, it just made me uncomfortable. But, I didn’t want to be rude to Ms. Rita so I just said, “Yes, ma’am.” She cut for what seemed like forever, and the pile of hair on the floor just kept stacking up. A lot of the women around

us kept asking how much more of my “good” hair was she gonna cut? And just when I was starting to get really annoyed by their obsession with my hair, my cousin Roxanne (who everyone called Roxy) walked into the salon with her Mom. Roxy and I lived on opposite ends of town, but her and my aunt Layla always came to our side of town to get their hair done. As Roxy put it, “Those stuck up white people on our side of town don’t know nothing about black hair. You know we can’t trust them. They’ll try to

cut all mine off out of jealousy.” Roxy was always saying off the wall stuff like that. Plus, she had hair a lot longer than mine. As a matter of fact, hers was almost down to her waist. And even though short hair was what a lot of the older boys wanted right now, Roxy would never have to cut hers to get one because all of the boys (who called her Foxxy Roxy by the way) wanted her regardless. “WOW, A!” Roxy blurted as she was walking up to me. “You look SEXY, cous!” “Excuse me?” Aunt Layla and my

mom said at the exact same time. “What you mean ‘sexy?!’” my mom demanded to know. “Oh ma’am,” Roxy said blushing when she realized that she’d let that slip out. “I meant… you look very beautiful, Ayana.” I had to hold in my laughter because Roxy always tried to act like an angel when adults were around, especially my mom. But, when we were alone or with friends, she was for sure the wild child of the bunch. Plus, she never called me by my full name. As a matter of fact, Roxy was known for shortening

everyone’s name to just a letter. I guess that made it easier for her to keep track of everyone… especially all the guys who were constantly trying to talk to her. “Thanks,” I shot back with a smile. I did look SEXY! Mission accomplished. Roxy picked up the latest issue of Essence magazine and plopped down in the chair next to me while our mom’s walked to the front of the salon to talk. They always had something to talk, and laugh, about. As sisters, they were as close as they come. Mom and Aunt Layla had seen some stuff

and lived to tell about it. They always told us that we had it much easier than they did; but, we really didn’t get what they were telling us. They were always warning us about the traps, but we seemed determined to fall into the ditch for ourselves. I guess we were just too nosy and hard-headed for our own good. Finally, when Mom noticed that Ms. Rita was done cutting my hair, she came over to let us know that she and Aunt Layla would be back in an hour or so. They were going to run errands and check on the boys while I was under the dryer.

“Do you want to come with us or do you want to stay here and keep Ayana company?” Mom asked Roxy. Making a big show of sucking up, Roxy pulled the magazine away from her face and said, “Aunt Lisa, I’ll stay here and keep Ayana out of trouble.” Again, I almost burst out laughing. She would keep me out of trouble? Hahaha. Yea right. I could tell my mom didn’t buy Roxy’s innocent act, but she just said, “Ok, see you girls in about an hour.” Then she looked at Ms. Rita and told her to call her if we got out of control.

While I sat under the dryer, Roxy talked non-stop; giving me a ton of ideas about what to wear for the week. She was always really good at fashion stuff so I didn’t mind her going on and on. Plus, her chatter was helping me to keep my mind off of how I was burning up under the dryer. I started to fan myself while Roxy said, “Make sure you keep your hair up too, ‘cause I know you. You’ll try to go all band-geek again.” I hated when Roxy called me a “band-geek,” but I knew she was right. When it came to boys, she was the expert; so, whatever

advice she gave, I was definitely going to follow. The timer went off on my dryer and Ms. Rita came over to check that my hair was dry. “You’re going to have to wait for your Mom to come back before I style it for you,” she said, “’cause you’re not gonna get me in trouble for making Mommy’s baby look too grown.” About 15 minutes later, Mom and Aunt Layla came back, and Ms. Rita and Mom talked about how my hair should look. When it was all said and done, they did find a way to keep me from looking “too

grown.” But, I was happy. My plan was to style it in the bathroom myself at school anyway. That’s what my cousin Roxy said she always did, and Aunt Layla was none the wiser.

Chapter 3 New Girl? When Max met up with me on Monday morning, she couldn’t stop staring. “Wow, you look so different with your hair cut like that! I’m still surprised your mom let you get it. It looks really good; and it makes you look like you should already be at Uniondale High with the twins. You trying to grow up on me?” she asked while laughing and poking me

in my side. I laughed too. “Plus, your outfit is on point.” “Yea, I saw Roxy at the salon and she told me what to wear. Just wait ‘til we get to school!” I said. “I have my flat iron in my bag. I’m gonna really hook it up. My mom thinks I’m keeping that ‘young’ look she likes; so, I just gotta pray I don’t get caught switching it up.” I noticed the look Max gave me, but ignored it. Her and Roxy weren’t fans of each other at all. I’d been forced to play referee between them one too many times. They were just so different.

Roxy thought Max was lame, and Max thought Roxy was a bad influence on me. I got tired of putting out fires between them, so I tried never to have them around each other or even bring one up to the other. I slipped this time though. But, surprisingly Max didn’t warn me about playing “Roxy Says” as she liked to call it. Instead, she just gave me a look that said all I needed to know… she still didn’t like Roxy. I ignored her look and told her how I’d been in the bathroom mirror since early that morning working on my hair.

By the time my brothers woke up, I’d changed it back to the kiddy style Mom wanted me to have. If I hadn’t, they definitely would have busted me out to her and ruined my plans. Mom had to pass their school to get to work, so she always dropped them off in the mornings. That gave me just enough time after they all left to grab the flat iron, throw it into my book bag, and meet Max at our usual spot. Mom trusted Max. She always had; said it was the fact that Max’s parents were “raising her to be a decent person.” Plus,

she knew that when Max and I walked to school together, we always got there early because it gave us extra time to talk, laugh, and eat breakfast on the bench near our homeroom. But, that would have to change because from now on I’d need to make time to do my hair before the bell rang. As Max and I turned the corner from 2nd Street to Jerusalem Ave., we heard a whistle from behind us, but we ignored it and kept on walking. We were almost near the front of school, so we assumed it was someone whistling at one of the

girls who had just gotten off of the bus. The whistle came again, this time with a guy shouting, “Hey, new girl!” We knew for sure this time that he wasn’t talking to us because we’d both been at Turtle Hook since the 6th grade. So, again we kept on walking and talking. We cut across the lawn to the side door that would take us right to our favorite bench outside of Mr. Block’s class. When I leaned forward to open the door, we heard the same guy’s voice say, “Hold on, let me get that.” Before I knew it, a hand reached out in front of me,

pulled the handle, and opened the door wide for me and Max to walk through. I looked behind the door to see who it was and the shock must have registered on my face. It was Bryan Dunlap. Thee Bryan Dunlap. I almost choked on my spit. If it wasn’t for Max, I would have stood at the door and passed out from holding my breath too long. “Thanks Bryan,” she said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the building. “Yea, thanks Bryan,” I said, as I finally managed to break out of my deer-caught-in-the-

headlights brain and body freeze. “You’re welcome,” he said smiling down at me with his cute chocolate face and gigantic dimples. “What’s your name?” he asked with his hand outstretched. “Mine?” I blurted out. “Of course, Dummy,” I thought to myself. “Who else’s name would he be asking you for… Michelle Obama’s?!” Before he could respond to my dumb question, I shook his hand and answered, “My name’s Ayana. And this is my girl, Max.” I didn’t want to leave Max out, plus I wanted Bryan to look away for a

minute so that I could sneak a peek at myself in the glass. Thank God I was looking good! I hadn’t been able to get to the bathroom to do my hair yet, but I was straight. He said a quick, “What’s up, Max,” and turned back to me. I had to look away for a second ‘cause I almost got caught up in the sea greenish, kinda blue ocean he called eyes. “I’m Bryan,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Ayana.” Was he joking? Everyone knew who he was. But, I didn’t wanna kill the vibe so I just went along with it. “Nice to meet you too, Bryan.” I had no idea what to say

next. Apparently, he didn’t either, so we just stood there and stared at each other until the first warning bell broke the silence. Where the heck did the time go? I still hadn’t done my hair and now I only had 3 minutes until homeroom started. I wasn’t complaining though. Bryan Dunlap had held the door for me and asked me my name! “That’s my cue,” he said. “It was nice to meet you, Ayana. I’ll see you around.” “Nice to meet you too, Bryan,” I managed to reply. As he turned and walked away, I tried to look

unaffected but I could feel my lips curling up into a huge smile. As his almost 6’ frame faded down the hallway, all my brain kept repeating was, “Bryan Dunlap knows my name. Bryan Dunlap knows my name. Bryan Dunlap knows my name…” It took the bell ringing for me to snap out of it and realize that Max had left me smiling like an idiot, in the middle of the hall, 3 doors down from Mr. Block’s class. “A little late,” said Mr. Block when I rushed past him just as he was about to close his homeroom door. “Yes, Sir. I’m

sorry.” “It’s ok. There’s a first time for everything. I’ll let you get away with it this time,” he said with a grin. Mr. Block was my favorite teacher and I’m pretty sure I was one of his favorite students. I never gave him a hard time because he was so cool. He always told us that as long as we did our work first, we could do other things at our desks when we were done. For me, that meant writing songs. So, I practically wrote a new song a day in Mr. Block’s class. And today would be no exception. I had a lot more to write about now that Bryan

Dunlap knew who I was. When I got to my desk, I looked over at Max who sat one aisle over and three seats back and whispered, “Why did you leave me?” She whispered back, “I wasn’t trying to be the third wheel! Plus, I didn’t want to be late. What did I miss?” she asked while leaning forward in her desk. “I’ll tell you after class,” I whispered as Mr. Block walked in front of the board and told us to turn to page 48 in our workbooks. I could barely focus on whatever he was talking about because I had “Bryan on

the brain.” Sounds like some kind of sickness you could catch, which was fine by me; I was willing to catch that all day. I replayed our conversation over and over again. Each time I did, I tried to remember exactly where he was standing and how he looked at me. Then a thought flashed through my mind… why did he think I was a new girl? We’d gone to the same school since 2nd grade. I knew that because we were both in Mrs. Shavenik’s class that year. And we had both had Mr. Murray in the 4th grade. Did he really not remember who I

was? There weren’t even any other Ayana’s in our elementary school, and I’d only come across one other Ayana since I’d been at Turtle Hook. Could my hair cut have made me look that different? Even if it did, shouldn’t he have at least remembered my name? “Stop over-thinking it, ‘Yana,” I told myself. “Just be happy that he knows who you are. You got what you wanted… a boy noticed you. And not just any boy; thee Bryan Dunlap!” I almost squealed out loud. Needless to say, I didn’t learn whatever Mr. Block

was trying to teach us that day and I didn’t write a song either. All I did was daydream about being Mrs. Bryan Dunlap. But Bryan wasn’t the only boy who noticed me that day. I got so much attention that I actually started to feel over-whelmed. Lunch was a total circus when Mike Crawford literally pushed Phil Johnson out of the way to sit next to me. Max was just as blown away by all of the attention as I was. And she wasn’t the only one shocked by it all. Having the attention of so many boys got me the

attention of a lot of the popular girls too. I would hear about it the next day in P.E.

Chapter 4 Jealousy & Enemies The next morning, Mom had to leave a little early for an appointment with a client at her job, so she took the boys with her. That gave me an extra 30 minutes to myself, so I used it to curl my hair. I had to admit that I was looking even better than I did the day before. Once again, the outfit Roxy had told me to wear when I saw her at the salon was

working for my good. I was so ready to get to school and show off that I almost forgot my book bag. I was a few minutes late meeting Max and she didn’t waste any time asking me what had happened the day before in the hallway with Bryan. “Nothing much really ‘cause the bell rang and we had to go. But, he did say that it was nice to meet me and that he’d see me around.” “Yes!” she said and high fived me. For as long as I’d known Max, she was excited when something good happened for me and sad when something bad

happened. She just had that caring thing about her. In a way, I think that’s why we were such good friends. She kind of balanced me out. Life (well, my dad leaving) had taught me at a young age that caring could get you hurt feelings. So, having a best friend like Max was good for me. She made sure that I never went too far left. Breaking into my thoughts, Max asked me, “So, why do you think he thinks you’re a new girl? Doesn’t he remember you from elementary? And what you think about all the boys that were trying

to holla at you yesterday? They think you’re new too?” I had to laugh because Max and I always fired off questions before the other even had a chance to start responding. “I guess they didn’t remember me,” I said. “I figured the hair cut must have thrown them off. But hopefully most of them put two and two together by now…” “And got 7,” Max cut in. I busted out laughing. “You so stupid,” I said. “You know I’m not the stupid one,” Max said. “These boys are so slow sometimes. Well, most times.” We laughed off of that one for a good

minute. By the time we got to school, we’d talked about a million different things (like we usually did). We were so caught up in our conversation that we didn’t notice the group of girls standing by the flag pole until we got right up on them. When I almost bumped into one of them, she gave me the nastiest look I’d ever seen, held out her hand and said, “Uggh. You might have a new hair style and new clothes, but you’re still the same old nerd. Watch where you’re going!” Her crew of clones busted out laughing as

though she’d said the funniest thing they’d ever heard. I was embarrassed but I was mad too ‘cause her nastiness was uncalled for. So, I shot back, “You just mad ‘cause this nerd probably got your boo’s attention yesterday.” I had no clue if she had a “boo,” but I knew that if she did that would be the lowest and hardest punch I could throw. Before Ms. Nasty attitude could respond, Max hitched her arm through mine and rushed me towards the side entrance of the school. “Are you trippen? Do you know who

that was? Of course you do!” Max yelled; scolding me like I was a puppy that had just chewed up her favorite pair of Jordon Retro’s. “Are you trying to make her your enemy? ‘Cause it sure looked like it to me!” “Calm down, Max,” I huffed back. “I’m not trippen. Did you hear what she said? I don’t care if Zoe is one of the most popular girls in school. She deserved that. I had to set her straight.” “You know how she holds grudges, Ayana. She’ll probably never let this go.” I had a feeling that Max was right. Zoe, Max and I had been friends

all throughout elementary school. We did everything together; until Philly came along. Well, his name was Phillip but everybody in the neighborhood called him Philly. Zoe talked non-stop about him every day-his eyes, his voice, what he was wearing. She paid attention to every detail. One day we were in the hallway after school, waiting for Max to get something out of her locker, and Philly walked up. “What’s up, Max,” he said. He never even looked in me or Zoe’s direction. “Hey Philly,” Max said back. Before

anything else could even happen, Zoe turned bright red and stomped off. I went after her, which left Max and Philly alone at her locker. I followed Zoe into the bathroom where she had locked herself in the stall and was crying like someone had just died. Zoe was a lot like me, over dramatic, but this was ridiculous. “Zoe, open the door,” I pleaded. “You can’t stay in there forever.” “Yes, I can!” she yelled back. I tried not to laugh at how ridiculous her response was. Obviously she’d lost all logic and forgot that she was in the girl’s

bathroom at school and eventually she would have to come out and go home. But, I tried a different tactic anyway. “Ok, don’t worry about opening the door. Just tell me why you’re crying like someone just died.” At that, Zoe flung the door open so hard I thought it was gonna fly off the hinges. Now her eyes were as red as her face. “You know why I’m crying, Ayana!” she shouted so loud that I’m sure whoever was in the hallway could hear her. Before she could really go off, I pulled her in to give her a hug. “It’s ok, Zoe. You know

that Max is your friend. Nothing’s gonna happen with her and Philly. She was just talking back to him to be nice.” What Zoe said next really caught me off guard. “You know that Max is prettier than me, and she has a better personality. He’s gonna like her more than he likes me. Obviously, he already does.” “What?!” I thought to myself. “Zoe,” I said, “you’re beautiful and so is Max. You know this isn’t a competition. We’re all best friends. Max isn’t shallow enough to let a boy come between us. Whatever Philly thinks about her isn’t

gonna change who we are to each other.” Zoe’s breathing slowed down a bit and I knew she was starting to think clearer. That’s when Max walked in. “Zoe, what’s wrong? Why’d you storm off like that?” Obviously I’d misread Zoe’s body language because when she raised her head off my shoulder she was still fire hot. “Don’t come in here acting all innocent, Ms. Goody Two Shoes. You know what you did!” Immediately the hurt registered in Max’s eyes and her shoulders started to droop. “All I did was speak back,” Max protested,

shaking her head. “Well, you didn’t have to do that!” Zoe yelled again. “You know I like Philly. You could have just stood there and let me talk to him. But no. You couldn’t wait for the chance to try to push up on him. At least you could have done it behind my back. I thought you were my friend.” “Hold on,” I broke in. “Zoe, you’re going overboard.” “So, you’re just gonna take her side?!” she shot back at me. “You’re just gonna act like she was right and I’m wrong for calling her out on it?” “I’m so-” Before Max could

apologize I jumped in. “No, Max. You shouldn’t be the one apologizing. Zoe’s out of line. She’s just jealous because Philly spoke to you and not her. She needs to stop trippen.” Next thing I know, Zoe lunged forward and slapped me right in my face. It was a hard slap too. “Shut up, Ayana! You’re always taking up for her like she’s yours or something; always protecting her.” Before I could say or do anything, Zoe stormed out of the bathroom just as fast as she had walked away from Max’s locker. When the door slammed shut

behind her, it was just Max and I standing there in stunned silence. What the heck had just happened? How did everything go crazy that quick? I could tell that Max was trying to decide if she should go after Zoe or stay and make sure that I was ok. She decided to stay because like we both knew, Zoe was one of those people who exploded and then needed cool down time. When I got home Mom noticed the redness on my face and asked me what happened. While she was icing my tender cheek, I told her the whole story.

“You have a right to be mad, Ayana. She should never have put her hands on you. But, she’s obviously dealing with a lot of jealousy and some insecurity issues. Nothing you or Max said in that bathroom was going to calm her down. Do you want me to call her mother?” “No, I don’t want her to get in trouble.” “Ok,” Mom said. “Are you going to be alright?” “Yes, ma’am,” I assured her by nodding my head. “I love Zoe. I know she’s messed up for doing what she did, but this will blow over. She’ll apologize and I’ll forgive her.” Well… that’s what

I thought was going to happen. The weekend went by and neither Max nor I heard anything from Zoe. For years, we’d made a habit of meeting at my locker every morning before school started, so when Monday rolled around we expected her to show up, but she never did. We didn’t see her until lunchtime. She was sitting at a table with another girl named Tangi that we kinda knew. They were talking and laughing. As soon as we walked up, they got silent. “Hey Zoe,” Max said. But, Zoe didn’t respond. She just kept eating and

acted like she didn’t hear her. So I said, “Zoe, Max said ‘hey.’” At that, Zoe looked up and said, “Why are you talking to me, traitors? Y’all should have taken the hint when I didn’t call over the weekend or show up at your stupid locker this morning. But, since you’re both slow, lemme break it down… I’m – done – with – the – both – of – you!” Then she turned back to Tangi and started talking to her like we weren’t even there. It took everything in me not to snatch her by her ponytail or throw my lunch in her face. Instead, I grabbed Max

by the elbow and we went and sat down at one of the lunch tables on the other side of the cafeteria. Max looked just as surprised and angry as I was. “So, she goes off on you for nothing. I defend you. She slaps me. And now we’re the traitors?!” I demanded to know. “I know, right? That’s crazy,” was all Max could get out. We ate our food in silence; both processing what we knew was the end of our friendship with Zoe. After that day, she never spoke to either one of us again. And to tell the truth, I was fine with it. She had too much

drama going on for me to try to keep up with her anyway. I knew Max and I were the best friends she could ever have had, and if she wanted to throw that away that was her fault. The ironic thing was that not even a month later, Philly’s Dad sent for him to come and live in Atlanta and he ended up moving. So, Zoe lost us over a boy she’d never be able to get anyway. I was glad that it all happened though ‘cause we got to see her true colors. Fast forward back to now and I could care less if Zoe was mad at me. She

deserved to have hands laid on her, so just talking back to her was actually the nice thing to do. No matter what happened between us though, I would always know the truth because she’d said it herself that day years before in the girls’ bathroom… she was just jealous; and her jealously had made me her enemy.

Chapter 5 The Suck Up After the drama of the morning, I was glad to go to Mr. Block’s class and focus on something other than Zoe. Mr. Block was teaching about the history of the computer. Any other teacher would have put us to sleep talking about early programming languages, the original internet and how the “war” got started between Microsoft and Apple, but Mr.

Block had a way of making learning fun. He was interesting and exciting and that spilled over onto us. He was the first teacher that inspired me so much that I actually thought one day I might like to be a teacher too. I had Mrs. LaSalle for 2nd period. She was an older lady with wiry white hair; Unlike Mr. Block, who was divorced, she’d been married for 39 years. On our first day of class, she told us the story of how her and her husband had met in school when they were our age. They’d gotten married at 17, and had come from

Switzerland to explore America when they were 19. They loved it here so much that they never left. I ended up in Mrs. LaSalle’s class because I’d whined to Mom about how I was tired of taking Spanish, so she let me try out French. So far, I was enjoying it and learning a lot. For instance, I knew how to say, “Je m’appelle Ayana Roberts. Bonjour. Au revoir” and all kinds of other stuff. The only problem was, outside of school, I didn’t know anyone that spoke French. I mean, there were a couple kids in my class that lived in my neighborhood, but

no one that I’d be caught dead talking to… like Marie Colin (aka: “The Suck Up”). Her nickname described her to a tee and I couldn’t stand suck up’s; with the exception of my cousin, Roxy, who sucked up to actually get something other than satisfaction. As soon as the bell rang, Mrs. LaSalle said, “Bonjour. Je suis un peu fatigué. Comment vas-tu?” It took me a couple of seconds to realize that she’d said, “Good morning. I’m a little tired. How are you?” I guess it took almost everyone else a minute too; so, before

any of us could respond Marie said, “Comme ci, comme ça.” Mrs. LaSalle smiled at Marie’s quick reply of, “So so” and proceeded to review our days of the week and a few other things for the quiz we were having in a two days. During the review, all I could think was that Marie really got on my nerves. She wasn’t just a pretty face, she was smart too… and she wanted to make sure that everyone knew it. Her eagerness to please was actually what made her so unpleasant to be around. We’d had a few classes together last year, and this year

she was no less annoying. So, when the review ended and class was about to let out, I was relieved. But, just before dismissal, Mrs. LaSalle told us that we were going to have to do an end of the year presentation and she’d already paired us up. There were a few loud groans from some of the boys around me, who I’m sure wanted to have the freedom to pick a girl as their partner. As Mrs. LaSalle started to go over the names, I found myself praying that she didn’t pair me up with Marie. “Please, God. Not Marie. Not Marie.

Not Marie.” “Marie,” Mrs. LaSalle said, “You’re partner will be Ayana.” “Why me, God?!” I yelled on the inside. On the outside, I didn’t even try to hide my disappointment; but, Marie gave me a smile anyway. “How could someone so smart be so clueless?” I thought. When Max and I met up at our lockers before 3rd period and I told her what just happened in Mrs. LaSalle’s class, she busted out laughing and said, “I told you not to take French. You shoulda’ stayed in Spanish then you wouldn’t be stuck with “The Suck Up.” Even though I was

bummed about it, I couldn’t help laughing at my misfortune. What were the odds?

Chapter 6 Transformations Before we left school that day, I made sure that I toned my look back down to “young Ayana.” That way my mom would never know who I’d been transforming into once she left for work. One way or another, whether at home or when I got to school, I worked it out so that I could make that transition every day for the rest of my 8th grade year…

without ever getting caught. The twins didn’t pay much attention to me anyway; they had too much going on. They’d led Uniondale to a State Championship that year, so the press (and of course the girls) were all over them. On top of that, David was nominated for the National High School Scholar-Athlete Award and Darren got the NFF Receiver Award for the position he’d played since he was on the peewee team-wide receiver. They were both getting acceptance letters and scholarship offers from colleges left and right. But, they were holding out for one

in particular and they were determined that they were going together. They’d always been like that. I guess as twins that was to be expected. I’d always envied their bond. That’s probably another reason why I loved Max so much… she was as close to a twin sister as I was ever gonna get. I got home, threw my book bag on the kitchen table, and went straight to the bathroom to pee. When I came out, Darren and David were going crazy. “Bro, I got the letter!” Darren said while waving around an envelope and doing

what he liked to call his “I’m the Man” dance. I always thought he looked crazy doing it because his arms and legs went flying everywhere, but he’d been doing it since he was five. It was still hilarious every time. “You did?!!!” yelled David. Lemme get the rest of the mail so I can see if mine came too.” David grabbed the envelopes that were left on the living room couch and went through them. I sat down in the recliner, kicked my feet up, and leaned back to watch and laugh. They were always pure comedy. If a letter didn’t have David’s

name on it, he tossed it over his head, and it went flying up in the air and into a pile on the floor. Ever since they’d gone to State, the mail we got doubled, maybe even tripled; so much so that our mailbox was stuffed every day. Finally, David got to the only envelope he cared about… the one that matched Darren’s. Even though I already knew the answer, I asked anyway, “Where are they from?” “University of Alabama… Roll Tide!” They hollered in unison. The twins had wanted to go to ‘Bama ever since I could remember. They knew everything

about their football program, and they wanted to wear those jerseys. So now, whatever was in the envelopes they were holding would be the deciding factor. But, they knew the rules. They couldn’t open their letters until Mom came home, no matter how much it was killing them to wait. For us, reading the letters as a family had become a tradition; and we weren’t about to break it now. I could feel their impatience, but I had homework to do; so, I jumped up from the couch and left them to breathe heavy

and pace back and forth by themselves. It would be about two hours before Mom got home, so I was sure they’d eventually move on to playing video games or something to pass the time. As for me, I had Math, History, and English homework, so I was going to be busy right up until she came through the door. As soon as I sat down at the kitchen table and cracked my English book open, the phone rang. Unlike a lot of people, we still had a home phone because it came with our internet bundle. And since it was usually for one of the twins, I

didn’t move. Darren grabbed the cordless and answered it on the third ring. “Roberts’ residence.” Mom had told us to keep it professional when we answered the phone, just in case it was one of the College scouts calling. She didn’t want them to think that we didn’t have home training. “Yea, she’s here. Hold on.” Darren cupped the mouthpiece but instead of whispering (since I was right there behind him), he dang near shouted, “’Yana, it’s for you. It’s some dude trying to sound like he got bass in his voice!” I was so shocked that it was

a boy calling for me that I didn’t have a smart comeback for Darren. But, I did give him my best evil-eye and a good punch in his arm. That last thing actually ended up hurting me more than it hurt him because his muscles were super toned from football practice every day. So, I answered the phone whimpering like a wounded puppy instead of the puttogether powerhouse I wanted the boy on the phone to hear. “Hello.” I drew my breath in and waited to hear whose voice was on the other end. Since my new look, I had been

getting a lot of attention at school, but no one had asked me for my number. I didn’t know what to expect. “Ayana, it’s Bryan Dunlap.” I almost dropped the phone. Was someone playing a joke on me? Maybe this was part of Zoe’s way of getting back at me for what I’d said to her in front of her friends. I guess it took me a minute to respond because the voice said, “Hello, Ayana? Hello?” “I’m here,” I managed to get out. My voice cracking from nervousness. “Oh ok,” he said. “I thought my cell was acting stupid again. You know how these smart

phones can be real dumb sometimes.” I started to say what Mom said, “Smart phones are only as dumb as the people who use them,” but I caught myself just in time. I couldn’t insult Bryan Dunlap (if this was even him for real). “I was calling to see what you’re doing next Saturday around 5? I thought you might wanna come and see me play this pickup game over at Reid Park in Westbury. My cousin lives out that way.” Bryan was on the school basketball team, which made perfect sense since he was about 6’ tall. He wasn’t the star player

but you’d never know by his swag. He was more like Lamar Odom than Lebron, but no one seemed to care. “My cousin lives out that way too. Y’all probably already know her.” “Who didn’t know Roxy?” I thought to myself while shaking my head. That girl had a reputation she shoulda’ been embarrassed about. “But, back to Bryan’s question,” I told myself and refocused. “Next Saturday night?” I repeated, like a fool. “Yea, I’d like you to come cheer me on,” he said. Even through the phone, I could hear the smile in his voice. “Then maybe afterwards

you can come with us to get something to eat at IHOP.” Just when I was about to answer, Darren came back into the kitchen trying to act like he was the popo or something. “Who you talking to, ‘Yana? I need a name. Now.” I rolled my eyes at him and asked Bryan, “Can you hold on a minute, please?” Before he even had a chance to respond, I mouthed to Darren, “Please… don’t do this to me now.” What I really wanted to mouth was, “If you don’t leave me alone, I’m gonna tell Mom,” but I knew I couldn’t say that because

then I’d have to tell Mom that Bryan called me and she’d want to know every detail that led up to that happening. That would force me to incriminate myself, and if there was one thing I’d learned from watching my cousin Roxy it was that you never ever give your mom the information she needs to block your next move. I guess Darren decided to take pity on me because he left without a fight. “Ok. I’m back,” I said. “I’m still here,” Bryan responded, “waiting for your answer. You gon’ come see me and get something to eat with me

afterwards?” “Sure!” I said. I’d meant to hide my enthusiasm, but I was positive that hadn’t worked. I wasn’t positive though about how I was going to pull off going to eat after the game. Mom had strict rules about me being out past 7:00pm without her supervision, unless I was with Darren and David; and I sure as heck wasn’t about to ask my brothers to go with me on my first date! Oh well, I’d have to figure that out later because I wasn’t gonna miss my chance with thee Bryan Dunlap. No how, no way.

“Ok, great!” I heard Bryan say. He sounded relieved and just as excited as I was. I’m sure he’d tried to hide the latter, but who were we fooling? We were both young and happy to be wanted by someone of the opposite sex. “Ok then, Bryan,” I said. I’ll see you around school and I’ll be there next Saturday.” I’m not sure how we said our goodbyes, but when I hung up the phone I realized that I never did ask Bryan how he’d gotten my number. Oh well. In the grand scheme of life, I really didn’t care. All that mattered was that he had called and

we had a date. Wow. My first date!

Chapter 7 Fool-Proof By the time Mom got home, the twins were practically a nervous wreck and I hadn’t done any of my homework. All they could think about was what those letters said, and all I could think about was what Bryan Dunlap had said. I’d used the time I was supposed to be doing my homework to think about how I was going to stay out after the game. I had a

fool-proof plan and Roxy was going to be my accomplice. I just had to talk to her first; but, I had a feeling she wouldn’t mind playing that role one bit. Mom could feel the nervous energy when she walked through the back door and into the kitchen where the twins had joined me at the table (which was a mess because my books were still spread out in front of me). “What’s going on in here? Why is everyone so on edge?” she asked looking around. Since I couldn’t tell her what was going on with me, I just rolled my eyes towards

the boys who could hardly contain themselves. “We got letters from Alabama, Mom!” Darren yelled. “Yea, we’ve been dying to open them, but we know the rules,” David chimed in. “So, hurry up and take your shoes off and change your clothes.” “Yea, we know how you like to get comfortable first.” “And then come back here so we can finally open these letters. The suspense is just about killing us.” They talked over each other and finished each other’s sentences (like they did constantly), so I didn’t know who was

saying what. All Mom could do was follow orders while laughing to herself as she closed her bedroom door. About five minutes later, she came back wearing her Florida Gators sweat suit. Of course, the twins hated when she wore it, especially in public; but, Mom was proud of her Alma Mater and she wasn’t gonna let the boys obsession with Alabama keep her from showing her school spirit. She sat down at the head of the kitchen table and said, “Let’s pray.” We took hands and bowed our heads. Mom had

taught us that no matter what was in those letters, we had to give God thanks in advance because He always worked things out for our good. She said she wanted the twins and I to learn that no one had more wisdom or power than God; so, regardless of whether we got accepted into a certain college or not, God would make sure that we were where He wanted us to be. “Father God,” Mom prayed, “Thank you for bringing us to this place once again. Thank you for blessing my boys with gifts and talents that have caused many to

seek them out. We pray that what is in these letters is Your will and we thank you in advance that Your will is perfect. Lead us where you would have us to go. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” “Amen,” the twins and I agreed in unison. “Ok, Mom. Put us out of our misery!” David said. “You boys go ahead,” Mom replied. To that, David and Darren tore their envelopes open so fast I was afraid they were going to rip the actual letters. As if on cue, they started reading at the same time, “Congratulations, you have an opportunity to become an educated

man and play great college football. A University of Alabama degree is one of the most prestigious in America. As the head football coach at the University, I want to formally extend a scholarship to you.” That was all they needed to read before they erupted into chants of: “Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Roll Tide…” while jumping up and down like they’d won the lottery. Of course, Mom and I were no better because we joined in acting like million dollar winners for life too. If there was anyone around to take a

picture of us at that moment, they would have posted it on Instagram with the caption, “This is what crazy looks like!” But, we wouldn’t have cared if someone was there. This was the biggest cause for celebration our family had had in a long time. This was our victory. So when Darren broke out his “I’m the Man” dance, it was only right that we all went in. “Everybody get dressed up,” Mom said. “I know it’s a school night, but we’re going out to celebrate!” She didn’t have to tell us twice. The boys ran down the

hallway to their rooms and I followed, leaving all of my books on the table… they’d be there when we got back. I’d have to stay up a little later than usual, but this was one of those times that I didn’t mind. I was proud of my brothers, plus I wasn’t about to miss a good plate of food. Thirty minutes later, we were all dressed up and ready to go. “So, where we headed?” Mom asked. “You know our favorite place,” said David. “Joe’s Crab Shack it is then,” Mom said. Usually I’d protest and ask for something

a little fancier, but this was the twins’ celebration… so I let them have it. Mom called Aunt Layla while we were on our way to Joe’s and she agreed to meet us there. This was perfect. Now I could go over my plans with Roxy for next weekend. By the time dinner was over, Roxy had tweaked my plan just a bit and we were ready to execute it. On the way home, while the boys were in the back talking about what Alabama life was gonna be like, I asked, “Mom, can I spend the night at Roxy’s next Saturday? If you say

yes, I can ride back with Aunt Layla from the shop after Ms. Rita does my hair.” She shot me a side glance, making sure she didn’t take her eyes off the road for too long, and said, “You two always have things all figured out don’t you?” I laughed and said, “We do that to help you and Aunt Layla out.” “Sure you do,” she said with a slight grin. “You know your Aunt Layla can’t see the wool Roxanne is pulling over her eyes sometimes. So, I think it’s best if you two stay at our house for the weekend.” I started to argue, but realized that if I did

Mom would know I was up to something. So, I just nodded my head and acted like I didn’t care one way or another where we spent the night. I knew dang well though that if Roxy had to come to my house, I’d never make it out to eat with Bryan after the game. I was panicking on the inside, but held my cool on the outside. “Let me think about it,” Mom said. “Ok,” I answered as indifferent as I could manage. My homework was still waiting for me, just like I’d left it. So, I took a shower, put on my favorite pink pajamas, and

rushed through it. I knocked it all out my 9:00pm and took my butt to bed. I was tired from all the strategizing I’d been doing all day. This fool-proof plan had better work!

Chapter 8 Divine Morning came too quick and before I knew it I was groggily getting ready for school. I met Max at our usual spot and told her about the twins getting accepted into the University of Alabama, the call I’d gotten from Bryan Dunlap, and the plan Roxy and I had. She was excited about everything, until I got to the part about Roxy and I’s plan. “What if your

mom says Roxy has to come and spend the night at your house?” she asked sounding pessimistic. “I don’t know,” I shrugged, “I just hope and pray that she lets me go to Roxy’s instead.” “Your mom’s right you know,” Max said. “About what?” I asked, trying to act like I didn’t know what she was getting at. “You know about what,” Max said firmly. I could play dumb all I wanted, but I knew they were both right about Roxy. She was good at putting up a front for her mom and a lot of other people, but my mom and Max could see right

through her. Not wanting to go down that road, I changed the subject. “What happened with you last night?” I asked. “Same old, same old,” Max said with a shrug. She told me about her night at home and I swear it sounded just like something that happened on The Cosby Show one time. The more Max talked, the more I missed my Dad. But, I was too tired to think about why his calls had stopped coming; so, I listened and laughed at Max’s recap of her night for the rest of our walk to school. By the time I made it to 2nd period, I was

still fighting to keep my eyes open; but, Mrs. LaSalle’s announcement woke me up faster than a Starbuck’s double shot of coffee. Even after all the years she’d been in America, her accent was still kind of heavy when she spoke. “Ok, everyone. Prendre vos places rapidement.” As we quickly rushed to take our seats like she’d said, Mrs. LaSalle gave the students at the head of the rows packets. “Take one and pass the rest back,” she instructed them. The top sheet of the stapled papers read: “Travel Agent to the

Riche, Célèbre, et Français French 1 End of the Year Team Project I should have known it was coming soon! We only had three months left ‘til school ended and Mrs. LaSalle wasn’t going to drop the ball on this. I loved the title about the “Rich, Famous, and French,” but I was struggling to accept the consequences of what this assignment meant… I was going to be stuck working with Marie Colin, aka: “The Suck Up,” for at least the next month, depending on how fast we got

this done. After giving us a few minutes to look through our packets, Mrs. LaSalle said, “Everyone should remember the partner that was assigned to you. If you don’t, come and see me after class. This project will count for 30% of your grade, so you must do your best. I want to see where you and your partner both put in work, so the last page of this packet has a time sheet for you to log the hours you spend working, together and separately. I want to see a team effort.” It took all of my strength not to let out a

loud groan when Marie raised her hand to ask a question. “Oui, Marie?” asked Mrs. LaSalle. “If we get done with the assignment early, can we turn it in?” “Always kissing up,” I said under my breath. At least I thought I said it under my breath, until Marie, Mrs. LaSalle, and half the class looked at me. I covered my mouth and looked away. Even though I was just saying what everyone else was thinking, I was still embarrassed for saying it so loud. After the silence hung in the air for what felt like five minutes (it was probably only

about thirty seconds though), Mrs. LaSalle responded to Marie. “I’d rather you hold on to it until the due date, just in case you and your partner decide to add or change anything.” “Ok,” was all Marie said in return. And for the rest of the class, there wasn’t another peep out of her. Mrs. LaSalle reviewed our packets with us then she did a short review on French nouns and pronouns. When she was done, she let us use the last ten minutes of class to meet with our partner and set up times to work on our project.

I went over to Marie’s desk and said, “Since we live in the same neighborhood, we can just meet up after school one or two nights a week and get this knocked out.” At first, Marie had no response. She just stared at me like she didn’t hear me. Then she said, “So, you’re just gonna act like you weren’t rude earlier?” Whoa. I was shocked. Outside of knowing that she was a suckup, she’d always come across as pretty quiet and passive. I didn’t expect her to call me out. I was still embarrassed about my slip of the tongue earlier, so I

hung my head and mumbled, “I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to hear that. No one was. I’m sorry.” “Well,” Marie said, “Now that I know how you really feel about me, let’s just keep it 100 ok. I’m used to people not understanding me anyway. I know I’m different, and I’m cool with that.” All I could do was nod; her confidence was definitely not lacking. She was a straight shooter and I admired that. Like I said before, Marie was pretty and smart. Her family was from Portland and they’d moved to Uniondale for her

mom’s job. That was stuff I’d learned about her last year in our English Class. Our teacher, Mr. Dexter, was always encouraging us to share; so, once a week, he turned our classroom into an Open Mic spot. He would give us a topic every Monday, and we had to “step to the mic” every Friday. It was fun. We all got into it and learned some things we probably never would have known about each other. Sometimes people would rap, sing, dance, and even crack jokes; but, Marie always did poetry, and her poems always had something to do

with God. They were alright. “Ok, I agreed. We’ll both keep it 100. So, when do you want to get started?” “Any day other than Wednesday,” she said. “My Mom and I go to Bible Study on Wednesday nights.” “Ok, how about next Thursday at 5:30pm?” I asked. “That’ll work. Where we gonna meet?” Marie asked. I really hadn’t thought about that. Even though we lived only a few blocks from each other, I’d never been to her house and she’d never been to mine. I didn’t know if she had any sisters or brothers, but I knew that if the

twins were around, we probably wouldn’t get any work done. Marie might be a suck up, but it seemed like no females were immune to my brothers. At least I’d know what to expect if Marie came over; plus, I know it was selfish but I decided I’d be a lot more comfortable at my own house. “We can meet at my house,” I said and wrote down the address. “Ok, next Thursday, 5:30pm. I’ll be there,” Marie said and quickly walked away.

Chapter 9 An Invitation On the way home after school, I told Max what happened with me and Marie in French class. After laughing hysterically, she pulled herself together and gave me the “poor you” look. Then true to her always-seeing-the-bright-side self, she said, “I’m sure it won’t kill you.” I prayed to God it wouldn’t. I figured that after Marie and I got done

on Thursday night, I’d start going through my clothes and deciding what to wear on my date. I know I was getting everything together early, but my outfit had to be perfect! It was hard, but I’d left Mom alone about me spending the night at Aunt Layla’s. I had threatened Roxy about staying on her best behavior, hoping that Aunt Layla would happen to mention how good she was being to Mom and she would let me go. And, it worked! Roxy had told her Mom that we were going to the park and to see a movie afterwards. When Aunt

Layla asked her who was taking us to do all of this, Roxy made up a story about how her friend Camille was moving away. Supposedly, Camille’s mom was doing all of this to help her celebrate before their last day in Uniondale. Mind you, Roxy didn’t even have a friend named Camille. But, bless Aunt Layla’s heart; she believed every word that came out of her precious Roxanne’s mouth. So, everything was set. Now all we had to do was make it to next Saturday without any slip up’s and we’d be good to go.

The days flew by fast. That next Thursday, Marie came over at 5:30pm on the dot so that we could start our project. Everyone was home and Mom met her at the door. I was rounding the corner when I heard her say, “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Roberts.” “Just call me Ms. Lisa,” my Mom said as she opened the door wider for Marie to come in. I doubt Marie caught it, but I noticed how my mom put a stress on the “Ms.” A few months back, she’d sat me and the twins down and told us that her and Dad had gotten a divorce. We were surprised

because we thought they’d been divorced; especially since we hadn’t heard from or seen Dad in years. But, with tears in her eyes, she told us, “I never wanted to do this alone. I always wanted to raise you all with two parents here so that you could see the way a family is supposed to be. But, sometimes things don’t work out like you thought they would.” We hated to see Mom cry, so it turned into all of us crying. Then David (being no-nonsense like he could be sometimes) looked around and said, “Ok, we can’t do this all night. What’s

done is done. Now, let’s eat!” At that, we all busted out laughing. “Ok, Ms. Lisa. Hey Ayana,” Marie said to me over Mom’s shoulder. “Hey,” I responded, “I see you met my mom. My brothers are in their rooms, so let’s get to the kitchen before they make their grand appearances.” Once we were at the kitchen table with all of our directions about our assignment spread out, Marie jumped right in. “I’ve already done some research and I got a list of the French billionaires from Forbes magazine.

Here, take a look at the top 5,” she said as she handed me a sheet of paper. I looked down and saw that the richest person on the list was a lady named Liliane Bettencourt who was worth $30 billion dollars. Immediately, I drifted off into a daydream of what it would be like if I had that kind of money. “Ayana,” I heard Marie saying as I snapped back into reality. Nope, I wasn’t on my 590 foot yacht, cruising out to my own private island with 100 of my closest friends. I was sitting at our imitation wood dining room table with

legs that were barely holding on after over a decade of daily use. “I’m with you now,” I said. “I was just off in La La Land… spending that money though.” “I know right,” Marie said as she laughed. For a minute, I tried to remember if I’d ever heard her laugh before. I decided that this was the first time. And she actually had a decent laugh. I’d expected something a lot more “suck upish” (not sure what that would have sounded like exactly), but she had a nice laugh. Good for her. “So, I was thinking,” she went on,

obviously without noticing that I was analyzing her laugh, “Liliane Bettencourt is the perfect person to do our project on. She’s rich and famous, and with that kind of money, she probably travels all the time. Plus, she’s a woman and I’m always inspired by strong women. We can set her up to go to a couple of these cities.” Again, Marie handed me a piece of paper with a list on it. Lyon, Aix-enProvence, Strasbourg, and a few other cities I’d never heard of, and I’m sure most Americans hadn’t ever either, were on it. “You pick two and I’ll pick two,”

Marie continued. Then we can find out what there is to do in those cities and list some of the hot spots.” As I was listening to her plan of action, I made another decision about Marie. She was destined to be great. Really! She had a good head on her shoulders, she was pretty, and she had confidence. She had to because I never saw her break down when people picked on her. Most times, she’d just ignore whoever said anything and move on like nothing ever happened. None of that changed the fact that I still found her really annoying

though; but, hey, like Max had said, working with Marie wasn’t going to kill me. In fact, it was looking like it was going to help me get a much needed “A” on the project. After about two hours of researching the four cities we’d picked, we decided that we had a good enough start. It wasn’t until Marie was packing up her stuff to leave that I realized that the twins never bothered us. After I walked Marie to the door, they popped up and told me why. “Mom warned us about messing with you and your friend,”

David said. “She’s not my friend,” I snapped back. “Really, why not?” he asked. Before I could answer, Darren chimed in. “We heard y’all talking and it sounds like she’s a nerd like you. Seems like you too should be besties,” he said laughing like he’d just told a joke that was funnier than anything Kevin Hart could have come up with. “Haa, haa, haaaa. I guess you’re gonna give up football for comedy now,” I said as I swatted for him. He was too fast so I missed and he took off running. He ran into the back yard, I ran after him, and

David ran after the both of us to see how this was all going to end. I chased Darren around for a while; but, after I started losing my breath, I gave up, fell out on the grass, and the twins fell out next to me. Darren started laughing first, then David. It was contagious and before I knew it, we were all laughing so loud that Mom came outside to see what was so funny. When she saw us all just laying on the grass, she looked at us like she didn’t know whose kids we could possibly be and said, “Y’all need to get yo’ life.” Hearing Mom trying to stay up

on slang made us laugh even harder. The phone rang as she walked back inside and I heard her call my name. “Ayana.” “Yes, ma’am,” I yelled back. “Come inside and get this phone.” Before heading inside, I saw my chance to get Darren back; so, I punched him in the arm. “I know that hurt you more than it hurt me,” he said laughing like a crazy person as I ran inside. He was right… it did. Shoot! I had to stop forgetting how much him and David worked out with the team. “Hello,” I said as Mom handed me the

phone. “Hi, Ayana. It’s me, Marie.” “Hey, Marie. Did you forget something?” I asked while looking at the kitchen table to check. “No, I didn’t. I was actually calling to see if you want to go to church with me on Saturday night. We’re having a concert and I thought you might like it.” I racked my brain but couldn’t think of any reason why she thought I would like it. We barely talked at school, and all we’d talked about today was the project. So, why would she think I’d want to go… to church… on a Saturday night… with her? I mean, I

had nothing against church or God or anything. I just didn’t feel like going; especially not when I already had a date with Bryan Dunlap. My first date! I wasn’t gonna miss that just to go to church. No offense God. I started to just be straight up, but I didn’t want to risk Marie telling on me. I didn’t know her like that, so I didn’t know what she was liable to blab. “Thanks for inviting me,” I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. “But, I’m actually going to spend the night at my cousin’s house this weekend. She

lives over in Westbury.” “Really?!” Marie said sounding happier than I thought she would. “My church is New Hope! In Westbury,” she continued on excitedly. “It’s right around the corner from the skating rink. You know where that is don’t you? Maybe your cousin will want to come to church too.” “I doubt that,” I said without thinking. I really didn’t want to make Roxy sound evil, but truth is… she was out there. “Well, you never know,” said Marie, sounding too hopeful for me. “Maybe if you invite her, you’d be surprised.

Sometimes all people need is an invitation.”

Chapter 10 The Big Night Before I realized it, I’d agreed to visit Marie’s church. I even said I’d see if Roxy wanted to come. Why I’d agreed was really beyond me. I think I was just tired and didn’t feel like being on the phone anymore. Saying yes was the only thing I could think of that would get Marie off my back and off the phone fast. I wrote down her cell phone number and

told her I’d call her on Saturday when we were on our way. Of course, I’d decided that I’d make up an excuse when I saw her at school on Monday; but for now, I’d let her believe that I’d actually show. After I hung up, I jumped in the shower to get that grass itch off of me, then went to Mom’s room and kissed her goodnight. I yelled, “Goodnight,” to the twins and hopped into bed. That night I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that Roxy and I ended up going to Marie’s church and Roxy jumped up on stage

during the middle of the sermon and started doing that old dance… the running man. When I woke up the next morning, I knew that I definitely was not going to invite Roxy to church! It was for everyone’s good. Saturday morning came quick and I was back in Ms. Rita’s chair getting my ends cut. As usual, she acted like she did when she’d first cut my hair. “I stiiiiiill can’t believe your mother let you cut all that hair off!” She added some sauce to her dramatics for the sake of her other customers; who had mostly heard this

story before. I looked at them with pity as they smiled at Ms. Rita and acted like they’d never heard a word about this until today. I was pretty sure Ms. Rita was getting senile, but I would never say that to Mom. She would just tell me I was being disrespectful. So, I kept my mouth shut as Ms. Rita went on and on about my hair. Finally, Aunt Layla walked through the door and her, Ms. Rita, and the other ladies started gossiping about somebody named Lynn. Of course, they didn’t say much because I was sitting there, but as

soon as Ms. Rita put me under the dryer, I could tell the story had gotten juicy by the way they were rolling their necks and giving each other high fives. Every now and then a “Girl, stop!” would be so loud that I could hear it from under the dryer. But, besides that, I was watching a silent movie and it was funnier than anything I’d seen in a long time. When my ears were practically burnt from the heat of sitting under the dryer, it automatically went off. I got back into Ms. Rita’s chair, she styled my hair, and

Aunt Layla and I were on our way. Of course, I would change the style after she dropped me and Roxy off, but until then… Plain Jane it was. I don’t know how I managed to stay calm and not give it away that me and Roxy were going to meet Bryan Dunlap for my first date instead of going to say goodbye to our fake friend Camille! Where was she supposed to be moving to again? Dang, I couldn’t even remember. I hoped Aunt Layla wouldn’t ask me. For as long as I’d been alive, she had always been my favorite aunt. She just had that thing

where she was easy to talk to. I could tell her anything… except this. I wasn’t about to be the one to ruin my big night. I’d seen Bryan in the hallway at school on Friday after 5th period. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and stepped in front of me to stop me from walking past him. Of course, I didn’t want to make it obvious that I was glad he did that, so I played it cool. A few people noticed. Unfortunately, that hater Zoe was one of them. She was standing nearby at her locker and I swear I heard her gasp; but, when I looked her way, she turned her

head like she was looking for something and didn’t even notice us. Yea right. I wasn’t buying it. I knew she saw us. And, I knew she was jealous too. Practically all the girls wanted Bryan to notice them; ‘cause like I said before, he was fine and he had his swag on 100 at all times. That day was no different. Everybody seemed to be in a hurry to get to 6th period and then to the weekend, so we moved out the way so we wouldn’t get ran over. I bent down to get a drink from the water fountain and when I looked back up, I caught Zoe staring at

us with her mouth wide open. I signaled for her to pick her chin up off the floor and she stomped away embarrassed. Bryan caught the whole thing and started laughing. “I’m gonna pay for that one, I’m sure,” I told him. Still laughing he said, “Don’t worry about her. I heard about how you popped off on her. She probably ain’t gonna say nothing to you ever again.” “I doubt that,” I muttered. “Anyway,” Bryan said. “We still good for tomorrow night, right?” He was trying to sound cool, but it wasn’t working. I could tell that he was

just as excited as I was. “Yea, we’re still good,” I said back; trying to keep my voice straight in spite of the frog that had jumped into my throat all of a sudden. “Good!” Bryan said staring down at me with a big kool-aid smile. And just as I started to get lost in his eyes, the warning bell rang. Shoot! I didn’t even say bye. Instead, I ran off like Cinderella did from the ball when she was trying to beat the clock and get home. I couldn’t afford to be late to Mrs. Carter’s class again.

Chapter 11 Close Call As soon as Aunt Layla and I pulled into her driveway, I was ready to bolt outta the car. We’d talked most of the way to her house, and I’d successfully avoided every question about fake Camille; but, I knew I couldn’t keep it up. I’m surprised Aunt Layla couldn’t see straight through my lies like I know my mom would have been able to do. But, if she believes all

the lies Roxy tells her, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. I called Roxy’s name as soon as I walked inside the house, but no response. “She’s probably upstairs in her room with her headphones on. I keep telling her not to do that when she’s home alone, but that girl has a head as hard as a watermelon.” I always felt like Roxy and Aunt Layla definitely had it better than me, Mom, and the twins (at least when it came to where and how they lived) thanks to Roxy’s dad (Aunt Layla’s ex-husband),

Perry Mitchell. I used to call him my favorite Uncle Mitch until one day Roxy told me they were getting a divorce because he had cheated on her mom and left her for a woman almost half his age. How Roxy knew every single detail was still beyond me. But sure enough, just a few hours later, Aunt Layla confirmed it with Mom. You would have thought Uncle Mitch cheated on my mom the way she reacted; but as she said, “You do wrong by my sister, you’ve done wrong by me.” I might have understood more if I had a sister, but I guess I could kinda

relate since I had Max. Anyway, Roxy and Aunt Layla were ballin’ because of my ex-favorite Uncle Mitch. Since he didn’t hold back on the fact that he had cheated, and went on to marry “the youngin’” as Aunt Layla and Mom took to calling her, half of everything he had automatically became Aunt Layla’s. And he had a lot! So, her and Roxy walked away from the divorce with a huge house, a new black on black Benz (which was just one of three cars), vacation homes in the Hamptons and on South Beach, and a ridiculous stack of

money in the bank. I always wondered since Aunt Layla was doing good, and her and Mom were so ride or die for each other, why we couldn’t at least have one of those expensive cars that just stayed parked in Aunt Layla’s garage? But, Mom said that was none of my business. She said, “Your Aunt Layla’s always there for us when we really need her and that’s all that matters.” I knew better than to push the issue, unless I wanted hands laid on me for trying to be all up in grown folks business; and I sure didn’t want that.

I ran up the winding staircase two at a time and busted into Roxy’s room like I was the Fed’s. I scared her so bad, she screamed as if an axe murderer was about to kill her and cut her into tiny little pieces. I fell out laughing from the look of horror on her face. “Dang! I should’a had Instagram up to catch that. Your face was classic. Somebody woulda’ saw that and hired you for the lead in a scary movie,” I said laughing so hard I thought I was gonna pee on myself. Roxy on the other hand didn’t think it was funny at all. She was still

trying to catch her breath, which only made me laugh harder. I seriously had to pee, so I ran into her overly decorated pink bathroom and locked the door behind me. I knew better than to leave it open because judging by the look on Roxy’s face, she was out for revenge, and I didn’t want her to get me while I was in the bathroom; that’s the worst. When I went back into Roxy’s room, she looked much calmer. I figured she’d let me think I’d gotten away with it and get me back later. That’s usually what she did. She was known for waiting ‘til you

forgot all about what you did to her. That girl knew how to hold a serious grudge. I was about to apologize when she blurted out, “I’m not going.” “What? You’re not going where?” I figured she was talking about somewhere Aunt Layla wanted her to go. “I’m not going with you. Tonight. I’m not going.” I searched her face to see if she was serious or just trying to get me back for busting in and scaring her, but her expression didn’t give anything anyway. So, I questioned her again. “You’re not going where?” “I’mmmmm notttttt

goingggggg withhhhh youuuuuu, ‘Yanaaaaa,” Roxy said dragging out every word in order to make it even more painful for me. Then she said, “You wanna mess with me? Well, let’s see how you like to be messed with.” I was shocked. Even for Roxy, this was overboard. She was being beyond dramatic. “Dang, Rox,” I said, trying not to whine. “I was just playing with you.” I sat on the bed next to her and put my arm around her. She pushed it off like it was a boulder that was too heavy for her shoulder,

stood up, walked to the other side of the room, sat down in her leather desk chair, and folded her arms across her chest. Why Roxy had a leather chair at her desk never did make any sense to me. Why she had a desk didn’t even make sense. She hardly ever did her homework anyway. But, I couldn’t think about that right now. I had to focus on the matter at hand. “Look, Rox. I’m sorry. I was just being silly. I’m sorry I scared you, ok? But, I really need you to go with me tonight. You know how much this means to me.”

“Exactly,” she said staring back at me with a raised eyebrow and a serious attitude. “What?!” I said trying not to sound as mad as I felt inside. “I was just playing. Why are you being so mean?” I asked. For at least one minute, Roxy didn’t answer. She just looked past me like I wasn’t even there. Finally she blurted out, “I was just about to smoke some weed when you came in. Girl, I thought you were my mother busting up in here. My heart jumped into my throat. I just knew I was caught and going down like a weed head on one of those old

episodes of Cops!” I was still trying to process Roxy’s confession… smoke… weed… Cops… when Aunt Layla knocked on the door. “Come in,” Roxy said, while giving me a look that could have killed all nine of a cat’s lives in one tragic accident. I knew better than to say a word to Aunt Layla, or anyone else for that matter, about what Roxy had just told me. “So, what time do you girls want me to drop you off?” Aunt Layla asked while looking at Roxy. I shot her a pleading look and tried to send her the subliminal message,

“Just come through on this for me, Roxy. I really need it!” Roxy looked away from her mother and directed the question to me. “What time do we need to be dropped off, ‘Yana?” Aunt Layla was looking right at me so I couldn’t give away my relief. Roxy was actually gonna go! I said a silent thank you to God. I know thanking God was wrong on a lot of levels since we were lying to our parents about this whole Camille thing, but I was too excited to really think it through. Roxy and I had gone over our story a

few days before, so I was ready to answer Aunt Layla’s question without fumbling. I boldly looked her in the eyes and rattled off the information I had rehearsed in my mirror over and over again the night before. “The send-off party for Camille starts at 5:00 pm. Can you drop us off at about 4:45 pm so that we don’t miss anything? Please.” “Sure,” Aunt Layla said. I couldn’t get over how much she trusted me and Roxy… especially Roxy after all the dirt she’d done. My Mom would have had endless questions. She would have even

asked for Camille’s mom’s number just in case of an emergency, or just in case she felt like calling. ‘Cause like she always said, “Checking up on you all randomly is my prerogative.” As Aunt Layla turned to leave, she stopped suddenly, looked at Roxy and said, “I forgot. Where am I dropping you two off at again? And where is Camille’s mom taking you?” My heart sank. I know she was just asking questions, but she asked Roxy, not me. Did she finally figure out that we were up to something? Roxy was quick on her

feet though. I guess she’d been rehearsing our lines too. “You can just drop us off at Reid Park, Mom. Camille lives right around the corner. I don’t want everybody looking at us like we need my mom as a chaperone,” Roxy whined. “I’ll call you when we get there. It’ll only take us five minutes, I promise.” Aunt Layla cocked her head to the side, stood in the doorway with her hand resting on the doorknob, and waited for the answer to the second part of her question. But instead of answering right

away, Roxy balled up her face and let out an over-exasperated sigh. I wondered why she had to have an attitude. I was convinced that she was going to mess things up with Aunt Layla big time because had it been my mother, I would never have made it out of the house alive! Catching an attitude was not something that Ms. Lisa tolerated. I would have caught a beat down… quick. Finally though, Roxy answered the second half of Aunt Layla’s question. “Then Camille’s mom is gonna take us to IHOP. Not my favorite, but Camille

loves it,” she said with a shrug. Even though she came super close to killing our chances of making it out of the house, I had to give it to Roxy for her Emmy worthy performance! Deep down I know that I shouldn’t have been, but I have to admit that I was pleased with the both of us for not lying about every detail. At least the part about going to IHOP was true. “Ok, Roxy,” she said. “I’ll loosen up the reigns a little bit and let you walk over to Camille’s house from the park; but, you better call within five minutes of me

dropping you off or I’m coming right back. You hear me?” “Yes, ma’am,” Roxy said with enough sweetness to kill a honey bee. The fact that Aunt Layla thought she was “loosening the reigns” on Roxy was crazy. What reigns did she think she had on her?! That girl ran free like a wild horse. In that moment, I thanked God for making Aunt Layla so amazing and gullible at the same time. Looking at her diamond-encrusted watch, Aunt Layla furrowed her eyebrows and told us to be ready and downstairs by 4:30 pm. Then, just as she

started to close the door, she flung it back open and said, “I forgot to give you money. Did you get your friend a going away present or do we have to stop somewhere?” Her eyes searched Roxy’s room, and when she didn’t see a gift bag she continued on. “If we need to make a stop at the mall, we’ll definitely have to leave earlier. That crowd is crazy on Saturday’s.” A gift? Dang it! That was the one thing we hadn’t thought about. But, Roxy stayed as cool as a cucumber and came through one more time. How this girl fabricated all of her lies so

quickly was beyond me. “Mom, these aren’t like your days when people gave gifts for every little thing. We’re gonna keep in touch with Camille on facebook. She don’t need no gift.” “She doesn’t need a gift,” Aunt Layla said while correcting Roxy and closing the door behind her at the same time. As she walked away from Roxy’s room door we heard her say, “These kids are so weird. Lord, help me.” I busted out laughing; relieved that we’d pulled it off. Roxy on the other hand, jumped up off her bed, rushed to her

desk, pulled out the drawer that had pens and paper in it, and snatched off a little clear bag that was taped to the bottom. “I’mma go smoke this so that I can be ready to turn up tonight.” Before I could respond, she disappeared into her bathroom and turned on the shower and the fan. I guess that’s how she masked the smell from her mother. Shaking my head, I wondered if having Roxy on my side was the good thing I’d thought it was less than 24 hours before. But, I really didn’t have time to worry about her and her issues. I only had two

hours to get ready for my date with Bryan, and I needed to make every minute count!

Chapter 12 Love Anyway Even though Roxy had the fan on in the bathroom, it still had the strong stench of an ashtray when she came out. I wasn’t about to go in there and come out smelling like straight trees (that Aunt Layla would definitely pick up on). I had to give it some time to air out. So, instead of jumping right into the shower, I went down the hall, got the iron and

ironing board out of the closet and set it up in Roxy’s room. “That stuff made me hungry and sleepy,” she giggled while eating from the bag of Cool Ranch Doritos she had stashed under her bed. I shook my head and rolled my eyes while ironing my clothes, but I didn’t let her see me. I didn’t have time for her to get dramatic on me again and change her mind about going. Twenty minutes later, when the bathroom finally smelled decent again, I wrapped my hair, threw on my shower cap, and washed up. Feeling fresh, I came out and

put on the outfit I’d ironed and hung over the back of Roxy’s desk chair. Then I realized Roxy was snoring; she was knocked out! I shook her as hard as I could, “Wake up, Roxy! You gotta get ready.” “Huh?” she responded groggily. “You need to get ready!” I snapped at her. I would never have done that if she wasn’t so out of it, but desperate times called for desperate measures. When she dozed off to sleep again, I knew what I had to do. Roxy was young, but she had curves in all the right places. Those curves made

her heavier though; but, I finally managed to prop her up on my shoulder and drag her into the bathroom. I used my free hand to turn on the water in the sink, and managed to grab some to splash on her face. Immediately Roxy started flailing her head all over the place like she was a fish out of water. “’Yana, what the heck are you doing?” she sputtered. “I’m trying to get you to wake up and not ruin my big night before it even gets started,” I shot back. “Ok, ok!” she said angrily. “I’m up. Stop splashing me in my face!” I let go of her

and she stood on her own; so, I turned on the shower for her and walked out. Hopefully she’d have the good sense God gave her to get in it and pull herself together. We managed to make it to the top of the steps at exactly 4:29pm. Aunt Layla wasn’t a lot of things, but she was a stickler for time. Roxy and I knew better than to be late. As we made our way down the winding staircase, Aunt Layla looked us over from her position at the bottom. When we got to the last step, her eyebrows rose slightly and she nodded

her head towards Roxy’s shorts, which immediately sent Roxy into defense mode. “Mom, why are you looking at me like that? My shorts pass the finger test! Look,” Roxy said holding her hands down at her sides. Sure enough, her shorts stopped right at her middle finger. What she should have said was, “My shorts barely pass the finger test.” But, I wasn’t about to side with Aunt Layla, so I quickly spoke my agreement. “Yup, they sure do,” I said beaming at Aunt Layla like Roxy had passed the test with flying colors.

Obviously not in the mood to fight with Roxy, for probably the billionth time about her clothes, Aunt Layla let it slide. To ease the tension, she looked over at me, winked, and told me that she loved my “I’m the Beauty & the Brain” t-shirt. A few months before I’d begged Mom to buy it for me, and it just seemed perfect for tonight. “Awww. Thanks, Aunt Layla,” I said back. Roxy took that as another opportunity to let out an exaggerated huff. I guess she was growing impatient. “Are you two done with your love fest yet?” she asked

sarcastically. We both looked at her and laughed. This was one of those times we just had to see past Roxy’s flaws and love her anyway.

Chapter 13 The Big Date When Aunt Layla pulled up on the side of Reid Park in her freshly washed and buffed black on black Benz, heads whipped around to get a closer look at who was in the car. They probably thought it was some big time celebrity. So, when I stepped out followed by Roxy, everybody went back to what they were doing; girls sat on the bleachers

trying to get the attention of the guys who were playing on the court. They must have been playing shirts against skins because half the boys had their shirts pulled back over their heads. I always wondered why they did that instead of just taking their shirts off, but I knew better than to ever ask David or Darren. They probably would have told me something that wasn’t true anyway. So I figured that one day if I got curious enough, I’d just ask one of the boys who did it. That day hadn’t come yet. As we started to walk away from the

car, I spotted Bryan on the court. He had on a gray t-shirt, black mesh basketball shorts, and black and gray Jordan’s. Even on the court he kept his swag. He saw me too and immediately that koolaid smile spread across his perfect, cute face. I started to walk towards him like I was in a trance, but Roxy grabbed my arm and guided me back towards the sidewalk. “What are you doing?” I asked while pulling away from her grip. “Trying to save you from slipping up and missing your big date,” she said through clenched teeth. I looked back and

realized that Aunt Layla was still parked in the car and watching to see where we were going. We had to at least act like we were walking to Camille’s fake house. So for now, I would have to ignore Bryan. When he realized that we weren’t coming towards him on the court, his smile faded and he went back to dribbling the ball. “Come on man, you gon’ play or not?!” I heard a guy yell out. “Yea, I’m playing,” I heard Bryan say back. “You wouldn’t be rushing me if you knew I was about to take it to the

hole,” he added. After that, the crowd of girls on the bench started chanting for Bryan, and I almost broke away from Roxy to go get in somebody’s face. But, what was I gonna say? “Stop chanting for my man?” Bryan wasn’t mine. We hadn’t even gone on our first date yet. And we never would if I didn’t stay cool and keep walking. So, Roxy and I rounded the block and walked through the neighborhood next to Reid Park for about five minutes. Then she called Aunt Layla to say that we were at Camille’s

doorstep and about to ring the bell. Aunt Layla seemed satisfied and told Roxy to send her a text when we made it back to Camille’s house from IHOP so that she could come and pick us up. I heard what she said through the phone and shot Roxy a petrified look. That was another thing I hadn’t considered in my supposedly fool-proof plan. Even Roxy seemed stumped for a minute, but as usual she rebounded quick. “Actually, Mom,” Roxy said with that innocent tone she seemed to have mastered when talking to her mother,

“Can you just pick us up from IHOP at 9:30 pm?” Aunt Layla hesitated for a minute then said, “Ok. 9:30 pm. That’ll give me a chance to meet Camille and her mother.” I shot Roxy a look that said, “We’re dead!” But, she just smiled and said, “Ok. Thanks, Mom.” “What the heck are we gonna do when she picks us up and doesn’t see fake Camille or her fake mom?!” I screamed at Roxy. That got us looks from two girls sitting on their stoop, but I didn’t care. I needed an answer before this all blew up in my face. “Dang, ‘Yana. Calm

down,” Roxy said while holding up her hands. “I’ll just tell my mom Camille’s mom got a call from one of the other girl’s mom’s and had to take her home. I’ll tell her that the IHOP Manager was watching us to make sure we were ok.” I raised an eyebrow and gave Roxy a look but she seemed convinced that her lie would work, so I exhaled and finally started to relax. This had better be an epic night after all of this stress! We started to make our way back through the neighborhood towards the basketball court, and stopped half-way so that I

could fix my hair into a style that made me look like one of the older girls I’d noticed when we’d passed by the court earlier. When we got back, there was a small gap in the stands next to two girls that I recognized as cheerleaders from the twins’ school, so Roxy and I squeezed in. They looked over at me like they knew me, but quickly turned away when the rest of the girls in the stands erupted in cheers. I looked out on the court just in time to see Bryan with the ball; positioning to shoot a lay up. When it went in without touching the rim, the

girls on the bench cheered even louder. “Ok,” I said to Roxy, “I guess Bryan is popular with the ladies everywhere.” “Yea, I can see why,” she said back without taking her eyes off of him. “You didn’t tell me he was so fine.” “Oh yes, I did!” I said; not noticing her dreamy tone of voice or the glint in her eye liked she’d just seen a prize she wanted. As if on cue, someone on the court called half-time and all the guys rushed over to the stands to see which girl they could convince to rub their sore shoulders. I knew better than to be that

thirsty, but I did wonder if I’d do it if Bryan offered up his fine body. Just as the thought rushed through my mind, he ran over to where me and Roxy were sitting. “Hey Ayana,” he said as he flopped down next to me on the metal bench. “I’m glad you came! I would give you a hug, but as you can see…” he didn’t bother to finish his sentence. Instead he just extended his arms wide as sweat dripped down his face and shirt. “Yea, I understand,” I giggled. “I hate to interrupt,” I heard Roxy say from over my shoulder, “But, my cousin

‘Yana here is being so rude,” she said to Bryan in her sweetest voice. “I’m Roxanne, but everyone calls me Roxy. I’ve heard that some of the boys even call me Foxxy Roxy. You can call me Foxxy Roxy too if you want. Bryan, right?” she said and reached across me to shake his hand. What the heck was Roxy doing?! Not wanting to be rude, Bryan took her hand and shook it, but dropped it quickly when Roxy started batting her eyelashes at him. Ignoring her, he looked at me and said, “We’ll be done soon. You still

wanna go hang at IHOP afterwards, right?” “Yea,” I said with a smile. “Ok. Stay right here and cheer me on then,” said Bryan. “In case you haven’t noticed… you have a fan club. I doubt you’ll be able to hear me,” I told him. “I’m sure I’ll know your beautiful voice above the rest, Ayana,” Bryan said just as they called all of the players back to the court. My smile from his compliment quickly turned into a scowl as I turned to Roxy and fussed, “What was that all about?!” “What?” Roxy asked trying to act

innocent. “You were flirting with him right in front of me, Roxy. Even a blind man would have been able to see that! Why would you do that?” “Ah, it was nothing, ‘Yana. Just calm down! At least now you know he’s loyal.” “Yea,” I thought to myself, “But, what about you?!”

Chapter 14 Glad You Came Once again, I let Roxy’s foolishness slide and decided to focus on the game so that I could cheer Bryan on like he’d asked. Sure enough, every time I yelled for him, it seemed like all the other girls in the stands did the same. But, I refused to let that bother me either. By the time the game was finally over, with Bryan’s team walking away as the

winners, Roxy had been approached by a couple of guys. They all came with the same hook, but Roxy took the bait and ate it up every time like she’d never heard it before. As her cousin, and as close as we were, I should have seen it sooner; but, it took all of that for me to realize just how starved for attention she really was. Bryan walked over to us and asked if we were ready to go. I nodded my head, “Yes,” and he grabbed my hand to help me step down off the stands. “Oh, I guess the cousin don’t get no kinda

love,” Roxy said with an attitude. I shot Bryan an “I’m so sorry look” and grabbed Roxy’s hand myself to help her down. We followed Bryan to the other side of the court and over to the crowd that was going to IHOP. As he introduced us to everyone, the cheerleaders from Darren and David’s school were the only other girls, so I tried to be extra nice. Roxy on the other hand was stand-offish and barely said hello to them. I shook my head, embarrassed that she obviously didn’t care the least bit about helping me make

a good impression with Bryan and his friends. We were about to leave and walk the five blocks to IHOP when someone called out, “Yo, B. Wait up,” and ran over to us. Bryan turned around and dapped the tall boy with the fade and earrings in both ears. Out the corner of my eye, I could see Roxy raise an eyebrow. Bryan turned to me and said, “Ayana, meet my cousin, Samuel. He was supposed to be out here earlier, but he came up with some lame excuse. I guess he just didn’t feel like getting

killed by me on the court today.” “Come on, Bruh,” Samuel said and laughed. “I could whoop you with both hands tied behind my back.” This time both him and Bryan laughed. They looked so much alike that I’m sure people mistook them for brothers pretty often. “I had to help my Mom out with some last minute stuff. You know I gotta hold it down for the fam,” Samuel said seriously. “Yea, I know,” Bryan assured him. They looked at each other in silence for a couple seconds, and then Samuel broke the ice.

Turning to me he smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Ayana. Bryan told me everything about you. In fact, he won’t shut up about you!” Of course he expected Bryan’s reaction, so he moved away before he could get an elbow to the chest. I looked at Bryan and smiled and he looked away embarrassed. Then Samuel saw Roxy and asked, “And who is this you’re with, Ayana? Are you and Bryan trying to hold out on me?” Before either of us could introduce her, Roxy stuck out her hand and gave Samuel the same “Foxxy Roxy” lines she’d spit to

Bryan earlier. He and I looked at each other, laughed, and walked away. Samuel would find out who he was dealing with soon enough. Bryan and I led the way to the IHOP. Well, he led the way and I walked beside him. As we talked and laughed, I couldn’t help but wish that my time with him would never end. But, before I could drift off into full blown fantasy land, imagining Bryan and I ten years from now graduating from the same college and planning our wedding, everyone started clowning us.

“Look at them. They think they so cute,” Roxy said loud enough for us to hear. One of the cheerleaders chimed in with, “Yea, they got their heads in the clouds.” “I bet they think it’s gonna last forever,” the other one said. “But, ain’t nothing forever except Heaven,” said Samuel. At that, all the girls busted out laughing and Bryan and I turned around and did the same. “Heaven, Dude?” Bryan asked. “That was random. How’d you pull that outta thin air?” “I don’t know, Bra,’” Samuel said, now laughing at himself too. “I guess I got inspired by this church

or something.” Just then, one of the heavy, iron church doors swung open and Marie came running out toward us. “I’m so glad you came, Ayana! I have to admit, I didn’t think you would come but I kept praying anyway. This is so cool! I love it when God answers my prayers. And you brought people with you! Wow!” As Marie rambled all I could think was, “What the heck?! What is she talking about? What did us walking to IHOP have to do with Jesus answering her prayer?”

Everyone else looked equally as confused as they glanced back and forth from Marie to me then back to Marie. Still oblivious, Marie started introducing herself to everyone. Turns out the cheerleaders names were Jas’mine and Jabby. I’d been so caught up in hanging out with Bryan that I’d never even asked them. “Oh well,” I thought, “Marie served her purpose.” Ready to get my date back on track and the crew to IHOP, I started to brush Marie off. But, when I hesitated to come up with a quick enough exit speech, she

grabbed my hand and started walking me towards the same iron door she’d come out of. I grabbed Bryan’s hand and pulled him along with us, while calling Roxy’s name at the same time. If I was going, I wasn’t going alone!

Chapter 15 Church Flow I heard the heavy door shut behind us and for a minute my eyes strained to get used to the darkness. Why was it so dark in here anyway? I thought church was going on? Why was Marie purposely messing up my date?! Before I had a chance to grow any angrier, lights started flashing and I could feel it under my feet when the bass boomed from the

speakers. The lights flashed like they do on tv during a Super Bowl Sunday halftime show, and the cheer of the crowd sounded just as massive as a stadium full of fans. My eyes finally adjusted and I realized that Marie must have led us in from a side door because we ended up right in front of the stage where six kids, about my age, started to sing and rap. Everyone around us, including Marie, was singing alone. I looked up and saw the words on the most enormous tv screen I’d ever seen in a church. Well, I

hadn’t been to church in a while, but still. I had never seen a tv that big in church before. I looked behind me to see if I could make out Bryan’s facial expression. I was still holding on to his hand and by the way he looked back at me with a slight pain in his eyes, I’m pretty sure I was squeezing it too tight. Or, maybe being in church was painful for him. “Dang it,” I thought. “Why did we have to run into Marie?” She was messing everything up! I looked behind Bryan and saw that not only had Roxy been

dragged in, but so had Samuel, Jas’mine, and Jabby. The rest of the crew had gotten away. Good for them! I released the death grip I had on Bryan’s hand and turned around to talk to him. “I’m sorry about all of this,” I whispered. “After this song is over, I’ll tell Marie that we need to go. I’ll make up some kind of excuse.” “You mean you’ll lie… in church?” asked Bryan with a sudden look of horror on his face. I guess he imaged that God would strike me dead for lying in the church. Maybe he was right. “Uhmm, ok. I’ll tell her the

truth then… we don’t want to be here.” But, just as I leaned over to talk to Marie, one of the kids on the stage yelled into the mic, “We’re so glad y’all are here tonight! We’re excited about what God is gonna do in this place! Everybody bow your heads and close your eyes for prayer.” Right after prayer, another one of the kids on stage asked everyone to give it up for a guy named Pastor Paul. Then a tall guy wearing blue jeans, black Timberland boots, a red polo shirt, and a black and red fitted walked onto the

stage from a side entrance. The crowd behind us went crazy clapping. I’d never been to a church before where everyone was so excited about being there; especially not people my age. I looked over at Marie and she was lost in the excitement over this Paul dude too. “Thanks everybody,” Paul said. “That’s a great welcome for me, but now I want y’all to give it up for Jeeeesuuuus!!!!” He drug out Jesus’ name like he was about to bring a rapper to the stage; and, it worked too ‘cause the crowed went even more crazy. “Yea, that’s it!”

shouted Paul. “Give God all of the glory. You can appreciate me, but make sure that you only worship Him.” I looked over my shoulder to see how my crew was reacting to everything. Like I thought, they looked just as stunned as I’m sure I looked. I gotta admit though that I forgot all about being mad at Marie for dragging me in here; curiosity over what was gonna happen next kept me glued to my spot. It was like I was watching a movie and it was just starting to get juicy. Paul let the crowd cheer and scream for a few

more minutes; some of them even jumped up and down, while others like Marie just raised their hands and moved their lips (even though nothing came out). Just as I was snapping out of my trance and ready to leave without saying anything to Marie, Paul asked everyone to return to their seats and grab their Bibles. This was it. It was our chance to head out while everyone else was walking too. But, when I turned around, Marie was leading the way towards a row with seven empty seats and Bryan

grabbed my hand. “This is our chance to get outta here,” I whispered to him so that Marie couldn’t hear. “Don’t you wanna leave?” “What? Leave? Now? Ahhh, nope,” he said with a smirk on his face. “It’s just getting good! I wanna see what happens next. Don’t you? So far, this is better than any church I’ve ever been to. Maybe that Paul dude will elevate like David Blaine or something!” he said excitedly. I couldn’t help but laugh at Bryan ‘cause I knew he was just trying to be funny. He was right though. This was too kooky not

to want to know how it would end. Apparently, the rest of the crew was interested in seeing how this played out too ‘cause we all stood in front of our seats and stared toward the stage at Paul. “Alright, let’s get into this Word,” Paul said looking out at the crowd. “Turn to Matthew 3:13. If you don’t have your Bible, follow along on the screen.” Immediately the words to the scripture popped up on the jumbo screens on both sides of the stage. “Ok, everyone ready? Let’s read together. ‘Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized

by John.’ Short and sweet,” Paul joked and everyone around us laughed. “You may take your seats,” he said. “In case you didn’t know,” Paul continued, “John was Jesus’ cousin. If you saw John today you’d probably think he had a negative zero swag. As a matter of fact, you’d probably think dude was homeless.” I looked over at Roxy and even she had a smile on her face. This guy Paul was pretty funny. “John wasn’t concerned about his dress code. All he cared about was baptizing people, which was how he got his name.

Duh.” Paul stopped and laughed at himself. “Anyway, one day John was baptizing people like he usually did and his cousin Jesus came through. John wanted Jesus to baptize him ‘cause he knew his heart couldn’t be all the way right, but Jesus said he wanted to be baptized by John. John kinda hesitated, but he went on and did it anyway. He dunked Jesus in the water and when he brought him up, Heaven opened and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove. The dove stayed on Jesus and that’s when John knew that Jesus was the

Messiah; the one who came to save the whole world. That was the signal God had told John He would give him. But, God took it one step further. You know God’s the one who made up ‘Go big or go home’ right?!” Paul paused while the crowd laughed. “So anyway. While the dove was still on Jesus, a voice came from Heaven. It was God’s voice and He said, ‘This is my Son, who I love; with Him I’m well pleased.’” Paul paused and scanned the crowd again, but this time he didn’t smile. He looked around the room seriously and

when he talked, his voice was kind of raspy. “I remember how old I was when I first heard this story. I can also remember where I was and who I was with. Ok, since you asked I’ll tell you.” His laughter broke the ice. “I was at Mercy Mile Church for a youth service; a lot like this one. I remember it clearly because I didn’t want to be there. As a matter of fact, I hated that I was there. But, I had to be because this girl that I really liked had invited me. I was serious about getting her, so I sucked it up and came.”

He paused, looked out towards us in the audience, and winked at a lady on the front row. Marie laughed then looked down our row and said, “He got her too! That’s Pastor Paul’s wife.” Pastor Paul went on with his story. “That night, a guy named Pastor Mike taught this same message for the first time. He didn’t do it like me though,” he joked while popping his collar. At that, Bryan laughed out loud. “But, he did it in his own way. Pastor Paul also told us why we should get baptized. He didn’t shove it down our throats, so I won’t shove it

down yours either. I’ll just tell you what he said because I’ll never forget his words; they changed my life. Pastor Gabe simply said that we should get baptized in order to show that we have a new life in Jesus Christ.” “That’s it. It’s just that black and white,” said Pastor Paul. So, my question to you today is, have you been baptized yet? If not, we’re having a Baptism Service on the first Sunday morning of next month. I’d like to invite you to come and show everyone, but most importantly God, that you’re serious about your new life with

Him.” Pastor Paul closed his Bible and asked everyone to stand for prayer. The lady Marie told us was his wife joined him on the stage. They held hands and she asked everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes. “Dear God,” she said, “We love you today. We thank you for everything you’ve done for us in our lives so far. We know you’re going to do more in and through us, and we thank you for that too. Right now we ask that you will seal the word we heard tonight in our hearts. We

pray that over the next few weeks, you will give many here tonight the desire to be baptized, just like your son, Jesus, was baptized. We also pray that if there is anyone here tonight who has never accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior that they would come to the altar right now.” Feet rustled as people left their seats. I guess they were walking to the bottom of the stage like Pastor Paul’s wife had prayed. All of a sudden, I felt like my ears were clogging up. I was getting hot and my palms were starting to feel

sweaty. Pastor Paul’s voice sounded distant when he said, “Yes, come. Come now. Don’t let anything or anyone stop you from coming to this altar. The angels in Heaven are rejoicing.” Then, equally as distant, I could hear people singing. It sounded like the same kids who were on the stage earlier when we came in, but again I couldn’t be sure because my ears were muffling everything. The words to the song were faint, but it sounded like they said, “Your heart is racing. You’re not sure. But, He wants you more than

anyone. He loves you more than anyone.” For some reason that I couldn’t explain, those words felt like they were coming from inside my heart. Before I knew it, I was brushing past Bryan and Marie so that I could get to the altar. I stood behind a couple of other girls, and as hot tears streamed down my face I could hear them crying too. “It’s ok to cry,” Pastor Paul’s wife said. “God understands your tears. He’s happy that you came to Him and that you trust Him enough to cry in front of Him.” I felt

relieved by her words. “Now, raise your hands to God,” she said, “as a sign that you surrender your life to Him today.” I did what she said and it was like a wave of wind hit me. It must have hit the other girls standing there too because everyone dropped to their knees. “Don’t be afraid,” I could hear Pastor Paul say. “What you just felt was God. He’s here right now. Talk to Him like you would talk to your best friend. Tell Him that you need Him and you don’t want to live your life without Him anymore. Open your mouth and tell Him

that you don’t want to leave here today without knowing that you’re with Him and He’s in you.” I said everything Pastor Paul told us to say. Then I said some things I felt like I should, since talking to God was supposed to be just like talking to my best friend. I figured I should get it all out while He was listening. I stayed on my knees for what felt like a long time. I told God all about how much I missed my daddy, and how much I liked Bryan, and how I was sorry for all the lies I’d ever told, and how I felt bad for being

mean to my brother’s sometimes, and how I shouldn’t have been selfish about my date and instead talked to Roxy about her weed smoking, and how I’d try to be a better daughter and respect my mom more. I wanted to tell God more but I was worried that everyone else would be standing. So, I got up, wiped my eyes, and walked back toward my seat. Marie stuffed some tissue into my hand as I pressed back by her. Bryan looked down at me and patted me on my shoulder as I sat down. Before church was over, Pastor Paul and his wife

congratulated everyone who came to the altar. They said that we’d done something a lot of other people were scared to do. They told us that it was important to keep talking to God, reading our Bible’s and coming to church. They said they hoped to get to meet each and every one of us soon. Then they prayed that everyone would get home safely. The lights came on and without a word me and crew got up from our row and walked to the nearest exit.

Chapter 16 Enough is Enough “Did you girls have a good time tonight?” Aunt Layla asked when we got in the car. She had shown up at the IHOP at exactly 9:30 pm to pick us up… just like she’d said she would. Roxy had already run through our alibi about Camille and her mom having to leave, and Aunt Layla bought it without hesitation. “Yea, actually we did,” Roxy

said. After that, the rest of the ride to their house was pretty much a blur for me; just like it had been walking to IHOP, eating, and saying bye to Bryan, his cousin, and the cheerleaders. My body was there, but my mind was somewhere else. As much as I’d looked forward to this first date, all I could do was think about what had happened at church. Finally, Aunt Layla pulled the Benz into the middle garage and we all went inside. “For people who had fun, you two are really quiet tonight,” Aunt Layla

said as we walked into the living room. She laid her brown and gold-trimmed Louis Vitton purse on the end table and plopped down on the couch. “You all must be really tired,” she said while looking back and forth between me and Roxy. “I just have some things on my mind, Aunt Layla,” I said. She looked at me for a minute then broke out into a smile. “Sounds like boy trouble. Tell me all about him.” Before I could get a word out though, Roxy blurted, “Ayana got saved tonight!” “What? Really?” Aunt Layla asked, half

excited half confused. “How did that happen?” “Well, I know we told you we were going to Camille’s house to say goodbye. But, that was lie. We actually went to go meet the guy Ayana likes… Bryan somebody,” Roxy rambled on. “And while we were walking to IHOP, we ran into some girl Ayana knows and she ended up taking us inside her church. The Pastor was really cool. That’s when Ayana got saved!” Roxy let everything out so fast that Aunt Layla had to take a few minutes to play it all back in her head.

While she was doing that, I was wondering what the heck had gotten into Roxy?! On one hand, I was glad that we weren’t lying anymore (considering what I had just told God earlier that night), but on the other hand, Roxy knew my mom didn’t play that. Aunt Layla might not lay a finger on her, but my mom was gonna lay all five and them some on me! Breaking through my thoughts, Aunt Layla finally turned to me and asked, “Is this true, Ayana? Did you and Roxy look me and your mother in our faces and lie

to us about where you were going tonight?” I knew better than to say what I was about to say, but my senses escaped me and I said it anyway. “We didn’t lie about where we were going. We only lied about who we were going with.” “Is that right?” Aunt Layla asked with a raised eyebrow. “So, you’re telling me that what you did was ok then?” Back to my senses I said, “Oh, no ma’am. What we did was definitely wrong. I’m just saying… we didn’t lie about everything.” That’s when Aunt Layla’s voice got icy

and she said, “I need you to go upstairs and get your things together. I’m taking you home right now.” I knew better than to hesitate. As I turned to go up the winding staircase, I heard Aunt Layla tell Roxy, “Enough is enough.” About ten minutes later, Roxy barely got her room door open when I tore into her. “What the heck was that all about?! Why would you tell your mom we were lying?” “Calm down, ‘Yana. You know my mom is cool.” “What?” I huffed. “She’s not acting too cool right now! I’m about to go home and get hands laid on

me while you get off with a lecture.” “You’re probably right, ‘Yana, but it’s not like your mom’s gonna kill you. You’ll be ok.” I stared at her in disbelief. How could she be so terrible? “Plus,” she went on, “I felt soooo guilty. I had to tell.” “I felt guilty too!” I screamed back, “but I wasn’t about to be a guilty fool and tell on myself. Dang, Roxy. I can’t believe you put me out there like that!” I expected Roxy to yell back at me, but instead she looked at me and said softly, “For once, I actually did the right thing,

‘Yana. My mom was right… enough is enough. I had to tell and set us both free. I need a fresh start and looking at the way you were about to go, you need one too. It’s time for me to do better. I gotta make some changes. I know you’re mad at me right now, but I hope you’ll forgive me soon.” I grabbed my bag and bumped Roxy on the shoulder as I headed to the staircase and down to my doom. I was glad she was finally getting a conscience, but I hated that now that she was trying to be Ms. Goodie Two Shoes, I was gonna

have to pay for it.

Chapter 17 Done That one night cost me a sore butt for the rest of the weekend and I was grounded for three months. While she was giving me the belt, Mom said, “The only reason I’m not grounding you for the rest of your natural born life is because the Lord ordered your steps. You better thank Him every night that you got saved.” Being grounded meant I couldn’t talk on

the phone, I couldn’t have company, and I couldn’t go out with my friends. I guess that meant the only thing I could do was talk to God and thank Him. But, I wasn’t trying to thank God! Why would I do that when He’s the one who gave Roxy a conscience all of a sudden? As far as I knew, she hadn’t even tried to call me to apologize. She at least owed me that for turning into Mother Theresa on me. Now because of God and her, I would never get to have a real date with Bryan. As far as I was concerned, I was done with Roxy and God!

Monday couldn’t come fast enough. I didn’t feel like going to school, but that was better than being trapped at home like a prisoner. I met Max at our usual spot. As we walked to school, she told me all about her weekend while I gave her the mean mug. “What?” she asked laughing. “It’s not my fault you’re grounded. You know your cousin Roxy is always bringing you trouble.” “I know. I know,” I whined. When we got to my locker, Bryan was waiting for me. “Bye, girl,” Max said and walked away with a wave. Bryan

gave her a head nod as she passed him. “What’s up, Ayana? I heard you were grounded,” he said sounding like he hoped he was wrong. “Dang, bad news really does travel quick,” I said glaring at him. “Hold up,” Bryan responded while backing away with both hands up. “I was just asking.” “Well, how’d you know to ‘just ask’ in the first place?” “My cousin hollered at your cousin, and she told him.” Bryan said. “Yea, I bet she did,” I shot back. “Daaaang, why you say it like that?” he asked. “’Cause, I’m done with Roxy,” I

said with an attitude. “She’s too shady for me.” “Really?” asked Bryan, “’cause Sam said she called him crying. She said she felt bad you got in trouble, but she had to tell. Her conscience was messing with her. All that God stuff, I guess.” “Well, she picked the perfect time to care about God,” I said sarcastically. “Ok. I can see this is one subject I need to stay away from,” Bryan responded. “Lemme walk you to class.” “Fine,” I said and shrugged. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to see Bryan, but what was the point? It would be months before we

could go out again. “Uggghhhh… this sucks!” I yelled into the crowded hallway. Before Bryan could ask me what I was yelling about, Marie walked up beside us. “Hey!” she said with a smile. “It was really good to see y’all the other night. Are y’all gonna come back?” Bryan started to answer, but I interrupted. “It was cool Marie, but you won’t see us there again anytime soon.” I could feel Bryan’s eyes piercing through me. “Hold up, Ayana. You’re on your own with that,” he said. “I’mma go back ‘cause

that was the first time ever that I didn’t fall asleep in church.” Him and Marie both laughed, the bell rang, and I walked away and left them standing in the hallway looking just as stupid as they sounded. They could go to church all they wanted, but I was still mad about being grounded… and it was all God’s fault.

Chapter 18 You Got Jokes A week later, I was still on lock down and about to go crazy! While the twins wouldn’t stop talking about their campus visit to the University of Alabama that weekend, I was wondering how I was gonna pass the time with no phone, no tv, and no internet. On top of that, since Mom was flying to Alabama with the twins, I was going to have to stay with

Aunt Layla and Roxy… who I was still salty with. I was getting over my whole mad at God thing though ‘cause I realized He was the one person I couldn’t afford to stay mad at. After all, He was the reason I was breathing. Plus, Mom taught me never to bite the hand that feeds you and I'm not crazy. God was definitely making sure I was eating. As I packed my bag for the weekend, I started thinking about some of the stuff Pastor Paul had said at Marie’s church about John baptizing Jesus. I busted out

laughing when I remembered how he said that if we saw John today, we’d probably think he had “negative zero swag.” “What are you in here laughing with these walls about?” Mom asked as she walked into my room and plopped down on the edge of my bed. “I was just thinking about what Pastor Paul said at church.” “You mean, the church you ended up in after you and Roxy lied to me and your Aunt Layla?” I lowered my head as I mumbled, “Yes ma’am. That one.” “Do you know how lucky, no

blessed, you are that you all ended up in a church and not in some crazy persons van against your will? I know we went over this already, ‘Yana, but you have to be more careful about your choices. God really kept you in your dumbness. You do know that, right? He protected you, Little Lady. And don’t you ever forget it!” she said as she stared at me sternly. “I know He did, Mom,” I told her while nodding my head in agreement. “Even though I got grounded and I’m about to go crazy, I have come to my senses and remembered that He’s still good.”

Darren and David couldn’t resist being nosy, so they came in to see what Mom and I were talking about. “None of y’alls business,” Mom told them jokingly. “That’s right,” I chimed in. “This is an A & B conversation, so C & D your ways out.” The twins erupted into laughter and Darren said, “’Yana, you’re the corniest cornball ever. You sure you’re not from the mid-West? You know… where the cornballs grow.” He fell on the floor laughing like he’d just told the funniest joke ever. And even though it definitely wasn’t, me, David, and Mom couldn’t

help but to laugh hysterically too; more at Darren than at his joke, but it didn’t really matter. We were just enjoying the family time.

Chapter 19 Scott Free “Hurry up, ‘Yana! You’re gonna make us miss our flight!” David yelled. “I’m coming! Geesh, you act like I’m not hurrying. Maybe if you would help me with my bag instead of flapping your gums, I would already be in the car,” I fussed back. “Fine,” David said through gritted teeth as he snatched the bag out of my hand. “It’s not even heavy,” he added

grumpily. I had to laugh. I knew David was really nervous about their visit to Alabama. This was what he’d wanted his whole life and it was finally here. I figured I’d cut him a break and not snap back. He’d thank me for it later. Well, maybe not, but I’d always know that I looked out for him. Darren, on the other hand, was already in the car with Mom. He was as cool as ice with his chillmode on 100. I guess it had registered with him that they were already in; this visit was just a formality. I wish David had gotten that same memo to his brain

‘cause he practically threw my bag into the trunk and ordered me to, “Get in the car now, ‘Yana, so we can go!” “Ok. Ok,” I whined. “Mom, you gonna let him talk to me like that?” Mom looked up from texting and said, “It’s getting late. We need to go.” I took that to mean that she was gonna let David talk to me like that. Ok. Pass #2 for him, but that’s as many as he was gonna get from me today. Mom bowed her head to pray like she always did before we got on the road. It didn’t matter if our trip was 10 minutes

or 10 hours, Mom believed in asking God to cover us “to and fro” as she liked to say. “Heavenly Father,” she started, “thank you for this day. Thank you for blessing us with life. I thank you for blessing me with three beautiful babies who are growing up so fast before my eyes. As we travel today, I ask that you protect this vehicle and protect the plane that we will get on in just a few hours. Take us safely to our destination and bring us back home safely. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” “Amen,” the twins and I said in unison.

As Mom drove to Aunt Layla’s, the twins started their Alabama talk again and I started wondering how things were gonna go with me and Roxy. “Oh well,” I thought to myself. “I’ll find out soon enough.” A little while later, we pulled up in front of Aunt Layla’s house. Mom put the car in park and we both got out and gave each other hugs and kisses. Just as I expected, the twins threw me the deuces; so, I reached through each of their windows and smacked them one by one in the back of their heads. “That’s for good luck,” I said and ran off

laughing before either of them could retaliate. Aunt Layla was waiting outside and as I grabbed my bag from the trunk, Mom went to talk to her. They giggled like they were still teenagers and hugged each other goodbye. I loved their relationship. It made me want to straighten things out with Roxy. “Welllllll,” I thought… we’d see. I stood on the porch and watched as Mom and the twins pulled off and headed down the driveway and unto the street. I was gonna miss them, but I knew they’d be back in a couple of days. Until

then, I was going to try to see if I could get Aunt Layla to ease up on the terms of my grounding. I was hoping she’d at least let me watch some tv. As we turned to go inside, Aunt Layla put her arm around my waist and pulled me close. “I hate that you and Roxy lied to me and your mother,” she said softly. “I wish you girls understood that you can talk to us about anything. When we were growing up, we didn’t have it nearly as good as you two do. Your grandmother wasn’t trying to hear nothing about us liking boys. And if your grandfather had

gotten even a whiff that we liked a boy, he would’ve had us wearing paper bags to school.” At that, Aunt Layla let out a laugh as she remembered my grandparents. Roxy and me had never gotten the chance to meet either of them because they both died when we were babies, but I could tell that Aunt Layla missed them. “I’m sorry we lied, Aunt Layla. I don’t know about Roxy, but I’ve learned my lesson. I’ve had a lot of time to think since I’ve been grounded.” “I’m sure you have,” said Aunt Layla. “No facebook will take the fool right out of

you,” she added and laughed out loud again. “You can go upstairs. Your cousin is waiting for you.” As I walked up the stairs, I had mixed emotions about seeing Roxy. Sure, I wanted us to be close cousins like Mom and Aunt Layla, but I wasn’t sure if I even liked Roxy that much. I mean… if she wasn’t my cousin, would she even be my friend? I was still trying to figure out my answer when I knocked on her door. “Come in,” she said from the other side. As I stepped in and closed the door behind me, I could smell a faint hint of

weed. Hadn’t this girl learned anything?! I was the one who got grounded while she got off scott free, yet she was still up to her old, trifling ways; smoking weed in the house with her mother right down stairs. “Hey ‘Yana!” she said to me like nothing was wrong. I kept my cool and said, “Hey Roxy. I just came to say what’s up. I’mma go put my stuff down in the other room.” “You a’right?” she asked with her eyebrows gathering into a frown. “Yea, I’m good. I just didn’t want to interrupt… whatever you were doing,” I said slowly. “You can smell

it?” she asked me, while fanning the air with her hand like that was gonna do the trick. “Yup,” was all I had the energy to say in response. At that, Roxy got up quick and went to the bathroom. I could hear the water running. I guess she was washing her face. When she came back, she pulled her hair up into a high bun, grabbed her sweater, sat down the edge of her bed and put on her pink and white Nike’s. “I need to go for a run,” she said. I stared at Roxy like she was an alien. One minute she’s lying in the bed, high as a

kite, and then the next minute, she’s wanting to be all healthy and go for a run? “Fine,” was all I could manage to say as I opened the door and lugged my bag to the room across the hall. About twenty minutes later, Roxy knocked on the guest bedroom door and came in before I could even respond. She looked me dead in my face and said, “I gotta do better. I’m gonna do better. It’s first Sunday tomorrow. We’re going to church. Be ready at 10. By the way, I’m gonna get baptized.” Before I even had time to think about what she said or

ask any questions, she left. I could hear her walk to her room and close her door, and that’s where she stayed all day. “She hasn’t been feeling good the last couple of days,” Aunt Layla told me as we sat at the dinner table. “So, I guess it’s just you and me tonight, Kiddo,” she went on. In spite of her warm smile, I could tell Aunt Layla was worried. “Your mom said I could ease up on your punishment just a bit, so how about we catch something on Netflix tonight? I’ll let you pick.” I was worried about Roxy too, but the fact that I could actually

watch tv pushed that worry to the back of my mind. “Sounds like a plan to me!” I said to Aunt Layla happily. I ran upstairs, took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, threw on my pajamas, and grabbed a blanket. I stopped by Roxy’s room before heading back downstairs, but her door was still closed and the light was off, so I decided not to bother her. We’d seen “Coming to America” at least three times before anyway. It was our favorite old school movie. I went back downstairs and spread out on the couch next to Aunt Layla. Then,

just when the princes came to the hood and got their stuff stolen, my eyes started to get heavy and I realized I couldn’t hang anymore. So, I said goodnight to Aunt Layla and headed back upstairs. On my way past Roxy’s door, I could hear her crying softly. I moved closer to the door to knock and make sure she was ok, and that’s when I heard her talking… well, praying actually. “God, I know I messed up over and over again. You keep giving me chances though, so this time I promise I won’t let you down. I’m gonna stop sneaking

around behind my mom’s back and I’m gonna stop smoking. I promise. I just need your help, ok?” I didn’t want to eavesdrop anymore, so I turned to walk away. But then I heard her add, “And God, help me to be a better cousin. I could tell by the way ‘Yana looked at me today when she smelled the weed that she was disappointed in me. I want us to be close again. I know I got her in trouble, but please let her forgive me. I was just trying to do the right thing.” This time, I did turn and walk away from her door; and as I slinked into the guest

room, I felt horrible. How could I have been so quick to get mad at her? She was right. She was just trying to do the right thing. Yea, I did get in trouble, but I guess I had it coming for lying anyway. I was so mad about being grounded that I didn’t even realize how much Pastor Paul’s message had touched Roxy. As a matter of fact, it had touched Bryan too. And me. I hurried back downstairs to Aunt Layla who was still on the couch watching the movie. “I thought you were going to sleep, ‘Yana? I’m about ready to call it a

night too.” “I am, Aunt Layla,” I said. “I just wanted to know if I can send one text, please. I really need to.” She looked up at the giant clock on the living room wall, looked back at me and said, “I guess it’s not too late for one text. But, just one. I don’t want your mother thinking I let you go wild over here. I got my antennas up now. No more getting over on me.” “I know, Aunt Layla. And again, I’m so sorry. Just one text. I promise.” As she nodded her head in approval, I kissed her on the forehead and ran back upstairs to grab my phone.

Chapter 20 First Sunday The next morning, I could hear music coming from Roxy’s room when I got up to brush my teeth. I was surprised because she was usually the one you had to drag out of bed. I was thankful that I’d packed a dress because I figured since it was Sunday morning I couldn’t go in jeans like I did the first time. Well, according to Marie, I could… but, this

was gonna be a special day, so I wanted to dress up. By the time I got dressed and made my way downstairs to the kitchen, Roxy was already eating a bowl of cereal. She pushed one towards me and I sat down in the chair across from hers. “My favorite,” I said with a smile. “I know,” she said smiling back. We ate our Frosted Flakes in silence; both deep in our own thoughts. “What’s this, a kitchen or a library?” Aunt Layla asked jokingly as she bounced in looking like sunshine in a yellow dress with yellow and white

heels to match. Roxy and I both laughed. Aunt Layla grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and Roxy got up to put her empty bowl in the sink. I didn’t want to make us late, so I put the spoon down, raised the bowl to my mouth, tilted my head back, and gulped down the rest of the sugary goodness. “I just need to get my purse and then I’ll be ready,” I said as I climbed the stairs quickly. When I got back downstairs, Aunt Layla already had the car running and Roxy was waiting to lock the door behind me. I figured this was the perfect

time to talk to her about what I’d heard. “I heard you praying last night,” I told her. “And you don’t have to worry. I forgive you.” “You just don’t know how much that means to me, ‘Yana,” she said and hugged me tight. Then she whispered in my ear, “My mom doesn’t know I’m getting baptized today. I wanted it to be a surprise.” I smiled and nodded my understanding as we got into the car. We walked into New Hope and sat down a couple aisles from the front just as the choir was singing their last praise & worship song. When they were almost

done, Pastor Paul got up and walked to the center of the stage. “Good morning,” he said staring out at the sea of people. “It’s great to be in God’s house today. And I’m glad you all are here too. Even if you weren’t though, I would still worship Him.” He laughed and so did the congregation. “Seriously though, this is a special day. Not only is it first Sunday, but it’s also baptism day!” Some of the people around us clapped and cheered. The energy was electric. “We like to open our service with the baptism, so when I call your name,

please come and meet me up here on the stage.” I looked over at Roxy thinking she might be a little nervous, but she was the opposite; calmer than I can ever remember seeing her. Pastor Paul called about three names and when he said, “Roxanne Mitchell,” Aunt Layla’s jaw dropped and her eyes started to water. She hugged Roxy so long I thought she’d never make it to the stage on time. But finally, Aunt Layla let her go and she made her way up to stand in line. Pastor Paul called a few more people to the stage. Then he had a tall,

wiry-framed woman lead them to the back while we watched the announcements on the giant screens. After the last announcement, one of the screens rose up and there was a baptismal pool behind it. Everyone getting baptized was now dressed in white robes, and Pastor Paul and another guy were already in the pool. One by one, the people who were getting baptized walked down into the pool as their names were called. When they got to Roxy, Aunt Layla grabbed my hand and squeezed it. She was crying even

harder now. “I baptize you, Roxanne, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” said Pastor Paul. And with that, Roxy went down into the water. When they brought her up, I could see her smiling. And as she looked out and saw her mom, me, Samuel, Bryan, and Marie in the audience waving and cheering for her, I could see her smile get even bigger. The crew had gotten my group text the night before and found us during the announcements. And while we were all standing there staring at Roxy’s smiling

face, I realized that God had the perfect plan all along. More perfect than any of us could ever have imagined.

Chapter 21 After Effects About four months later, me, Roxy, Marie, Max, Bryan, and Samuel were sitting in a corner booth at IHOP, laughing about something crazy Pastor Paul had said at Youth Service that morning about Daniel in the lion’s den. I’d convinced Max to come with us to church so that she could see how much Roxy had changed. I could tell she

wasn’t totally sold, but at least she was willing to be nice. “The way he breaks stuff down is ridiculous,” said Samuel. “I know right!” Roxy chimed in while staring at him like he was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen in her life. I kicked Max, Marie and Bryan under the table and the four of us busted out laughing. “What?” Samuel asked, looking back and forth between us. “Nothing man,” Bryan said while holding back a smile. “You just keep doing you.” “We will, Playa. Same to you,” Samuel answered with a laugh

and a nod in my direction. I lowered my head and blushed. Bryan looked at me and put his hand on the back of my chair. I couldn’t have been happier about how good things were going with us. As a matter of fact, things were going really good overall. The twins were only a couple of weeks away from graduation, Roxy, Max, Marie, and I were inseparable these days, and church was giving us all life. I regretted being stupid enough to lie to my mom and Aunt Layla, but I was glad for the way God had worked things out.

Just like Pastor Paul always reminded us, “God made sure it all came together for our good.” I snapped out of my own thoughts just in time to hear Marie ask Roxy, “So, what made you decide to get baptized when you did?” “Yea, you never told us,” Samuel said turning his face so that he was staring Roxy straight in the eyes. “Wellllllll,” Roxy responded with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, “it’s kind of a long story; so, how about I break it all down for y’all another day? I promise… it’ll be worth the wait.”

Talk About It I hope that this book has made you laugh, cry, and laugh some more. But, I also hope that it’s made you think. So, take a few minutes to look over these questions, and your answers should lead you to make better choices than Ayana and Roxy did. 1. Did Ayana have the right intensions when she asked her mother if she could get her hair cut?

2. Was it ok for Ayana to sneak around behind her mother’s back to change her hair before school so that she could look more grown up? 3. Do you think the way that Ayana treated Marie in the beginning was ok? 4. Should Ayana have stopped being selfish and told her Aunt Layla that Roxy was smoking weed? 5. Did Roxy finally do the right thing by telling on herself and

Ayana even though it got them both into trouble?

About The Author Ms. Ty Scott King is an international poet, rapper, author, and speaker with a voice that is captivating generations. Founder of Smokin’ Penz Multimedia Group and the R.I.S.E. Up Arts Initiative, Ms. Ty Scott King is developing a global platform for poetry and music while mentoring youth in the area of creative arts.

Ms. Ty Scott King has successfully released her self-published poetic autobiography: Scott Free as well as two cd’s: E3:20 and Kings & Queens. Ms. Ty Scott King and her husband, Michael, are foodies who can be found traveling the world and ministering the gospel. To keep track of Ms. Ty Scott King, visit: www.mstyscott.com