Victoria walked down the hallways with a conceited sway to her saunter. She cockily grinned as people looked at her, some with appreciation, others with disgust. But, she didn’t care, nor had she any remorse. Blissfully, she ran her fingers through her long, dirty blonde hair before coming to Justin’s side.
“Hey sweetie!” she said bubbly.
Justin jumped a little, because he didn’t even hear her come up to him, since he was busy looking for his homework that was shoved in the back of his locker. He was always looking for something. He turned his head with a sideways grin on his face and replied her salutation with a short ‘hello’. Then, he went back to searching for his homework.
“Justin, how come you didn’t call me last night? I called your house twice, and your brother told me to call your cell phone, but you didn’t answer that either,” She furrowed her eyebrows at him because she wasn’t paying attention. “Justin, are you even listening?”
“Ah HAH! I found it!” Justin did a little dance and he was content again, seeing as if he’d found his Spanish homework. But, he stopped suddenly when he saw that Victoria had a sour look on her face. “Oh, I’m sorry sweetie. I was busy last night, but I’ll talk to you later. I’m gonna be late to class and you are too if you don’t leave.”
Justin quickly kissed on her cheek and turned in the opposite direction. Briskly, he walked down the large, and almost empty, hallway. Unfortunately, he wasn’t paying that much attention to what he was doing and he realized that when he turned around and saw Jerome standing at the door, calling him.
“Justin, class is this way, homie,” Jerome laughed.
Justin spun on his heels and quickly made his way to Jerome, quite embarrassed. “Right,” He said and walked into the classroom. He sunk into the seat and laid his backpack on his desk. The teacher came up to him, and collected his somewhat wrinkled homework.
“Justin, why is your homework so disheveled?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Uh, my little brother got to it,” Justin lied, uncertainly.
Jerome and Melanie laughed at Justin with amusement. When the teacher left Justin’s side, Melanie addressed him. “Are you feeling okay today, Justin?”
Justin turned around a little in his seat, “Yeah. Why?”
“Cause ya seem a little slow.”
“Mel, Justin’s has always been slow. I don’t see how someone can get hella good grades, but then be so retarded sometimes.”
Justin rolled his eyes, and let Jerome’s comment roll over the top of his head.
**
Thank God lunch is finally here! I am hungry as hell, man. My stomach has been making noise all morning. Slowly, I walked behind the masses of people that were separating me from the cafeteria. It reminded me of rush hour traffic back in LA. Of course, I’d always drive down the side of the freeway, if a cop wasn’t looking. I’m not a very patient person. I guess that explains why I’m kinda excited for the next basketball game tonight. I hope my mom lets me use the car, it’s my week to use it anyway. Damn, I miss not having to ask my mom to take the car…I used to be able to pick from the ten we had as a family.
Life was great back then. Now, my mom is talking about ‘jobs’. She got mad when I asked if she was gonna get another one. What was I supposed to say? “Oh sure, mom. I’ll go out and get a job.” Who does she think I am?
Finally, I could see the set of double doors, letting me know that I was getting closer to the cafeteria. Thankfully, I smiled, but then I heard a voice that made me loose it.
“Yo, Justin, my home-skillet! What’s crackin’ G-dawg?!” Mark called to me.
I rolled my eyes and tried to pretend I didn’t know this wannabe, but he had to make it hard and make contact with me. I grimaced when his hand touched my shoulder. I slowly looked up at him and noticed that he had a huge, ugly gold chain on his neck, along with a black visor turned upside down on top of his head. I shook my head in disgust, he was so obnoxious sometimes. “What do you want, Mark?”
“Damn, I just came to chill and talk to my homie, Justin.” Mark smacked his lips and turned his nose up, “Why you trippin, cuz?”
“MARK! Have you checked the color of your skin lately?! You are not black! So, stop acting like it, and take off that ridiculous get-up you have on, before your ass gets slapped with a dress code violation,” I said and proceeded into the cafeteria. Unfortunately, Mark was right behind me.
“You’re one to talk, J-man. I heard you were down there with all of them last night,” He commented. “Are you ditching us for them man?”
“First of all, Mark. There is no ‘us’ and there is no ‘them’. Second of all, I’d appreciate it if you and your ‘crew’ would stop trying to get all up in my ‘grill’ if you know what I mean.” I said.
I didn’t want to put up with his crap anymore, so I walked over to the table I usually sat at. Victoria looked up at me and pulled out the chair that was next to her.
“Sit down,” She said calmly, but she didn’t sound calm.
She probably had something else she wanted to bitch about.
**
Why do string cheese wrappers have to be so hard to open? Especially the ones without the little perforation marks! Forget it. I’m just not gonna try to open this thing anymore. I sighed as I tried to get into the conversation Chasity and Joya were having, but they seemed like they were long into it so I turned my head another way, and there I saw Justin sitting next to his ‘beloved’ girlfriend, Victoria. I watched him as looked passively at the people walking past him. By the look on his face, I could see that Victoria was nagging him about something and he wasn’t tryin’ to hear it.
Ha.
“What’s so interesting about them white folk that’s caught your eye all of a sudden?” Damien asked and sat down next to me.
“Nothin’, why? What’s wrong with you?” I asked. He had no reason to come at me like that.
“I heard you gave Justin over there a ride home.” Damien said and looked at me closely.
I guess he thought he was trying to intimidate me. “Yeah, and? I can’t give somebody a ride home now? You give lots of girls rides home, nigga. What’s up with that? You don’t see me all up in your grill, asking you shit.”
“Girl, don’t you raise your voice at me,” Damien pointed his finger.
“Or what?”
Damien shook his head and left our table. I watched him sit down with a pout on his face and shoot me a dirty look.
Chasity leaned over to me now, “What the hell is up his ass?”
“I don’t know, but he better get it out before I yank it out, and stick it in his nasty mouth,” I said.
**
“5, 6, 7, 8!” Melanie yelled at the Step Squad as she watched them execute the step routine they had learned earlier in the year. For the third time in a row, she had heard someone off beat, and she was beginning to become frustrated. Melanie aimed for perfection every time, whether it be practicing, or performing.
“You guys! How hard can the routine be? It’s like one of the easiest beats there are, and y’all are still messing up!”
“Melanie, we learned this a long time ago!” Nicole whined.
“I don’t care, girl! Somebody is off. Now, we are gonna do it again, and this time I’m gonna do it with you.” She said.
By now, they had gained an audience. They were outside on the basketball courts practicing. It made sense since they had to perform it on one later that night. Melanie looked around for a minute before wiping the sweat off of her forehead and patting down the loose wisps of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. Now, that they had an audience, it made things even worse. People would be seeing them when things were going wrong, and not right. But, it wasn’t like they would have less of an audience because they always drew a crowd no matter what. Everyone wanted to see them perform.
Melanie squinted her eyes when she saw Victoria drag Justin behind her. She locked eyes with Melanie, and looked at her expectantly.
“5, 6, 7, 8!” She ordered and the team went into the routine precisely and almost flawlessly.
Almost.
“Stop!” Melanie shouted and lifted her head to the sky.
Victoria chuckled and Justin nudged her in the side before giving her a stern look.
“Break into groups of 6 please,” There were thirty girls on the team, but Melanie was determined to find out who was messing up. “Chasity, come over here and help me watch.”
Chasity walked slowly over to Melanie and stood next to her. She put her hand on her hips and shifted her weight to her right leg. Chasity turned and looked at the people standing behind her.
“If all of y’all are just gonna stand around and talk, then you can leave. We need to be able to hear what they are doing…Victoria.” She said and rolled her eyes before turning back around to face the team.
Melanie called up the first six girls and instructed them to do the routine. They did, and it seemed as if were effortless, but they still looked good. So, Melanie let them sit down and called up the next group. Immediately, her eyes wee drawn to Tami, a sophomore, who was walking up front timidly.
“5, 6, 7, 8,” Melanie said. She watched with dominant concentration in her eyes, and they stayed on Tami. Surely, the girl looked like she hadn’t had the slightest clue of what she was doing.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Melanie said tiredly. “Take five,” She said and made her way over to Tami.
Intimidated, Tami backed up a little as Melanie approached her. A nervous look was plastered on Tami’s face.
“Girl, do you even know the routine?”
“Y-Yeah…kinda,” She shrunk back.
“Kinda?! There is a game tonight and we’re doing that routine that you kinda know. There is no such thing as ‘kinda’ in performances, Tami. I’m benching you. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t want you dressed,”
“Melanie, don’t be like that. My parents are coming to this one!” Tami whined and flailed her arms in the air.
“Well, tell them to go tomorrow…there are games all week. And, when they ask you why you’re sitting on the bench tell them that you only ‘kinda’ knew the routine,” Melanie said with attitude.
She didn’t have time to mess around, being the perfectionist that she was. A loud, aggravated sigh passed through her full lip, and she ran her fingers through her ponytail. “Does anyone else not know the routine fully? Speak now, cause you’re gonna be in a whole lot more trouble tonight if your ass is out there half steppin’. I’m tellin’ all of y’all now.”
When nobody answered, Melanie dismissed practice and slowly made her way to the front of the large school. As she walked, her calves throbbed and her back occasionally hurt. A dissatisfied look adorned her face as she began to get closer to the parking lot. She heard footsteps behind her, but paid no attention to them because she was too tired and too sore to turn around and see, but the person made themselves known. Melanie jumped slightly when an arm touched her shoulder gently.
“Hey,” Justin said softly.
Melanie glanced up at him momentarily, before grinning. “You need another ride home?”
“Nah,” Justin chuckled, “I came to ask you if you needed help with some of your bags there.”
Melanie stopped and looked at him as if he were crazy, causing him to back off a little. “You wanna help me with my bags?” Justin hesitated a little before answering, but he didn’t have to. “Here…be my guest.” Melanie said and handed him, what looked like, an overstuffed duffel bag.
Justin took it with ease and continued to walk with her, “So how did your day go?”
“Same as always…annoying.”
“Same as always?” Justin questioned and looked at her out the corner of his eye.
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh, “I may look like I love Calumet and everything just cause I dance around in a uniform, but it sucks ass sometimes ya know? I have so many things I have to look out for…my reputation. It’s like I can’t go one day without…just being whatever, or however. I feel like there’s always something or someone I’m competing with.” Melanie poured out for no reason in particular, she realized. “Wow…I just said a lot and you’re probably lost, but just forget about-”
“No, I understand where you’re coming from. I went through the same stuff at my old high school. It’s kinda like you can’t like let loose cause someone’s gonna see and spread it all over the school,” Justin agreed.
Melanie chuckled, “Don’t you go through that now?”
Justin grinned boyishly and looked up at the sky as if he were pondering something deep, “Ya know what? I do don’t I?”
Melanie laughed, “Well, you don’t notice it until you actually stop and look at yourself.”
“Yeah, I figured that out when I moved out here and was like, ‘Damn. I have to start all over again, during my senior year!’”
The two finally walked across the whole campus and now opened a pair of the large double doors that were at the front of the school. Justin held the door open for her and Melanie walked through, graciously.
“You’ll do fine though. Shit, you already are. You’re dating Victoria Jenkins, head cheerleader, and you play basketball.”
“But not for the school.” Justin pointed out, and slid on his blue sunglasses. Luckily, the sun was still out that day.
“That’s gonna change quick,” Melanie said and stood next to the door of her car. She dug in her backpack for her car keys, and let Justin contemplate over what she had said.
As Melanie searched for her keys and Justin thought, his cell phone rang. Justin slowly pulled it out of his pocket and the caller ID told him it was Jerome.
“Justin,” Justin answered.
“Milk Man!” Jerome said excitedly.
“What are you talking about?” he asked quizzically.
“That’s your new nickname, pimpin’! I knew yo sorry ass wasn’t gon’ come up with one by yourself…”
“So you came up with the most embarrassing thing you could think of?” Justin smartly replied.
Melanie looked at him, confused, after she’d finally found her keys. ‘Who are you talking to?’ she mouthed, and Justin answered her question.
“Jerome, I’m not using that damn nick name!” Justin whined.
Melanie joined in, “What nick name?” she asked excitedly.
Justin blushed and shook his head at her, “I’m not telling you.”
She playfully hit him in the arm, “Tell me, Justin.”
Justin shook his head and went back to his conversation with Jerome, “I’m not playing if I have to use that God-awful name.”
Jerome laughed, “What’s wrong with it, J? The milk-man can bring it to the front or to the back…if you know what I mean.” He hinted.
“No…I’m not using it, Jerome. You have to be-hello?” Justin looked down at his phone in disbelief when he’d seen that Jerome had hung up the phone. He scoffed, “Oh no he didn’t just hang up on me!”
Melanie laughed and held her hand out for her duffel bag. Justin handed it to her, and she grinned knowingly. “I’m gonna find out, Justin.”
“No, you’re not.” Justin said and slowly began to walk away while shaking his head at her.
“Mark my words, boy!” She called to him as he made his way to the other side of the parking lot.
Justin shook his head and smiled at her, and she laughed with mock evilness.
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