Loose Lips Sink Ships
Page 24
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A couple days passed before Avery could finally meet up with Kendra, the only girl who could both be trusted to carry out her plans and put up a decent fight against Ms. Downing. In a text message, Kendra told her she was at the library, which was strange because it was seven at night, but Avery went anyway to meet her.
“What are you doing in here?” Avery asked Kendra when she found her buried in a stack of books. This wasn’t even the school library; it was the city library, where people of a sort Avery didn’t like to be seen with wandered the halls. Kendra jerked up, groggy and looking like she was about to pass out. Her eyes were red and an empty Red Bull sat on the table between some strange and thick books. “Is this for school?”
“No, it’s not,” Kendra yawned. “I needed to do some reading about marketing and branding and we didn’t have anything in our library about it. Reading this stuff is practically killing me.”
“Then what are you doing it for? The only marketing you ever cared about was which cell phone company had hotter guys in their commercials,” Avery said, making Kendra shake her head.
“Ever since Paul put me on his website, I’ve been getting tons of offers to do Internet stuff. I told you it was a big deal. Here, look at my inbox.” Kendra flashed Avery the screen on her phone.
“Wow,” Avery mumbled, half-hearted and impatient to get to her own business.
“Now I’ve got to be up on this stuff so I can make it to the big time. I could be the next Paris Hilton!”
Kendra perked up a little, and Avery thought this would be the perfect time to make her proposition.
“Why not Lil’ Kim? But while you’re setting your sights on whores, why don’t we go after one a little closer to home. Ms. Downing is literally ruining my life. That’s why I need you to kill her for me.”
“Really?” Kendra gasped, staring at Avery in awe.
“Ok, not kill her, but I need to find a way to make her fight me without getting my beautiful ass kicked. I want to do it at the basketball team’s home opener so she’ll lose her job, if not end up in jail.”
Kendra nodded subtly.
“When I want to get a girl to take a swing at me, I just say the last guy who fucked her was thinking of me.”
“Ouch, that is cold. But the thing is I can’t do anything because she knows I’m going to be up to something. That’s why I need someone else to help me trap her,” Avery explained.
“So you need my help?” Kendra asked. There was a strange pause as the two girls sized each other up.
“Yeah.”
“You, Avery Leigh, need my, Kendra Brent’s, help?” she clarified.
“Yeah, I do. What’s the big deal?” Avery shrugged.
Kendra lowered her eyes at her, the intensity making Avery’s cheeks flush. She didn’t know what Kendra was getting at with her prolonged inspection, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
“The big deal is you have been constantly belittling to me for as long as I’ve known you. You never miss an opportunity to bring up my race or any of the stereotypes that, frankly, are really demeaning and offensive.”
Avery blinked rapidly, trying to interpret what she was getting at.
“So does that mean you’re not going to help me?” she asked.
“No, I’ll help you,” Kendra continued, “but you have to promise me, your most solemn promise ever, the kind of promise that if you break will have me hunting you down in the night, that you will never say those things about me or any black person ever again. I don’t want you asking me how the cotton fields are, telling me to go find some fried chicken, making any references to anything nappy, or saying any of the other terrible things you say, ever. Is that clear?”
Avery was taken aback, she couldn’t remember ever seeing Kendra so serious. It didn’t help that she was still looking ravenous from the studying either.
“What if I’m really upset?”
“Never!” Kendra shouted, banging her fist on the table. Some other people in the library looked at them, and Kendra put her hand up to apologize. Knowing she’d have no choice but to live up to her word on this one, Avery swallowed hard.
“Fine, I promise, never again, and I mean it.”
Kendra took a deep breath and a tiny, vindicated smile emerged onto her lips. She started to look pleased, and it made Avery feel good that she was the cause of it. The feeling almost made it worth it to give up her terrible habit all by itself.
“Ok, so what are we going to do?” Kendra inquired, leaning closer.