J.D. and the Family Business

by J. Dillard

  VIDEO:

  Vanessa Does It All shows a color wheel to the camera and selects a purple nail polish from the table.

  AUDIO:

  VANESSA: Now, for the bedazzle!

  VIDEO:

  Little plastic beads are glued onto every other nail.

  AUDIO:

  VANESSA: For the hair, this looks hard, but it’s easy. I’ll show you how to do two rows at home.

  J.D.: That might be easy, but an undercut is hard! You have to pay attention.

  Barber’s assistant, Justin, please hand me my clippers!

  What style do you want in the back, Jess?

  [Jessyka answers.]

  VIDEO:

  Vanessa takes down two of Jessyka’s rows of beads and adds yellow beads.

  Justin hands J.D. the clippers. J.D. stands behind Jessyka and starts cutting.

  AUDIO:

  J.D. and Vanessa together: That’s all for today, everybody!

  VIDEO:

  Jessyka shakes her hair back and forth as music plays.

  J.D. spins Jessyka around as the camera zooms in on her design.

  VIDEO:

  THE END.

  Not only had I written a script that gave us both time to shine in front of the camera, but I had even found a way to include Justin! Now this was a family business.

  I waited for Vanessa to clap and cheer. Maybe she’d even thank me for saving her Junior Business Scholars application by never copying me again!

  But all she said was, “Wow, you think Jessyka will let you cut her hair? Do you know how to do girl hair?”

  “Yes,” I said. “She used to ask me for designs during football season. And I cut Mom’s hair.”

  “Okay, J.D., whatever you say.” Vanessa shrugged again, but I caught the smallest smile before she turned to leave. I knew she’d like this idea!

  With a new script ready, we just needed Jordan’s directing skills and Naija’s camera.

  * * *

  »»««

  When I got to Jordan’s house, he was sitting in his room in the dark, with Minecraft glowing on his screen. There were empty bags of chips everywhere, and it felt hot, like he hadn’t opened his windows in a million years. I wished he would go back to NBA 2K or Madden. At least that was something I liked to play, too.

  “Hey, Jordan,” I said.

  I asked to pause the game for a second because I had big news that he wouldn’t want to miss.

  “We’re making another video today at Jessyka’s house. Want to help?” I said.

  “Do you need me to rewrite another script?” he said, laughing.

  I told him about the new script I came up with.

  “That’s fire, J.D.,” he said.

  Jordan was hard to impress, so I felt proud.

  “Do you know what would make it even better?” I asked. Jordan shook his head. “You as director using Naija’s fancy camera!”

  Jordan stepped back and rubbed his chin, like he was letting the idea sink in. Before saying a word, he walked into the hallway and opened a closet. Inside the closet were action figures, tripods, a ring light, and lots of Halloween costumes.

  “Whoa, where’d you get all this?” I asked. “This looks like Iron Man’s closet!”

  Jordan kept moving things around like it was no big deal.

  The camera sat on a top shelf. It came with two clip-on microphones and a big, bright white light.

  “This is it,” Jordan said. “It’s Naija’s, but it’s just been sitting in here for months. He didn’t use it much after he graduated from college.”

  It seemed wrong to let such a good camera sit in this closet when we could use it to film our videos.

  “Do you think we can take it to Jessyka’s house?” I asked.

  “Probably not, but who’s going to know?”

  Jordan grabbed an empty gym bag from the closet and put the camera inside. He grabbed some other equipment from the closet, too. I had no idea what it was, but Jordan did. I could tell that he was already thinking of more ideas for our video.

  * * *

  »»««

  When we got back to my house, Mom was at the computer finishing up the church bulletin she volunteered to work on. I asked her if she’d give us a ride to Jessyka’s, even Justin. She asked if we’d finished our chores.

  “Yes, Mom! I only had one left—that’s un in French—and it’s done,” I said. The French worked, and we piled into the car.

  Jessyka was waiting for us on her back porch, and she already had her beads and nail polish set up.

  Today, her beads were red, green, and black. She was wearing a yellow tennis uniform.

  “So you’re really going to tennis camp?” I asked Jessyka.

  “It looks that way,” she told me. “My dad says Venus and Serena Williams are going to retire soon, and somebody needs to take their spot. But I’d rather work on special effects. My videos look almost as good as Avengers: Endgame! I just need more time to work on one thing.”

  Jessyka looked down at her feet. Her parents always had her enrolled in something new. She once told me that her dad got close to playing pro football. I guess he wanted Jessyka to be a pro, too.

  “Forget about Avengers: Endgame!, Jessyka,” Jordan said as he walked up with the new equipment. “This video will look better than the last Star Wars movie!

  Jessyka squealed as she looked at everything Jordan had brought. She looked happier than after she’d scored a touchdown in peewee football!

  “Do you know how to use this stuff, Jessyka?” Jordan asked.

  “Yes, a little bit. I took a video-editing class last spring on the weekends when track finished.”

  Vanessa started passing out copies of our script to everyone. “Okay, let’s get ready to work!”

  I watched Jessyka as she read about her role this time. I got nervous. What would she think of the undercut?

  “Wow, J.D.,” Jessyka said. “Are you going to cut my hair today?”

  “Only if you want me to!” I said quickly.

  Jessyka read the script again and then jumped in the air and kicked her legs.

  “Yes!” she screamed. “I want a rose design in the back of my head, and can you color it yellow to match my outfit?!”

  “Sure,” I said, relieved. I whipped out my colored pencils to show everyone.

  Jessyka walked over to the camera equipment and explained the different settings to Jordan.

  “I will put my iPhone on a stand so we can film from another angle, too,” she said.

  Vanessa and I clipped on our microphones. My sister looked at Jordan and said, “Lights, camera, action!” and clapped a real black-and-white director’s board that Jordan had set on the table next to a bowl of yellow hair beads.

  Vanessa looked at the camera and started our brand new video.

  “Hi, I’m Vanessa Does It All!” she sort of sang out in her choir voice.

  “And I’m J.D. the Kid Barber!” I added.

  Vanessa followed the script until she started describing what I was going to do.

  “And my baby brother, J.D., will cut a design into the back of Jessyka’s head. My other baby brother, Justin, will be our shop assistant for the day.”

  I couldn’t believe she called me her “baby brother” in front of my friends! How embarrassing!

  When asked, Justin handed Vanessa the yellow beads. I watched as she took Jessyka’s beads off slowly, one by one, and replaced them with the yellow beads. How could this make for an exciting video?

  After Vanessa finished, Jessyka shook her head so fiercely that she looked like a yellow blur.

  Finally, it was my turn.

  “Now, Justin, please hand me my clippers,” I said.

  We followed the script, and Jessyka asked for a rose desig
n, yellow to match her dress.

  My heart started to beat a little faster when I turned on the clippers, like it did the first time I cut Mom’s hair for her graduation.

  I undid a row of braids in the back of Jessyka’s head. Next, I added a number two guard to my clippers, and I went to work as several puffs of hair fell to the ground. It was easy to buzz the hair off and smooth down Jessyka’s neck, but it took longer to make a rose.

  I spun her around to face Naija’s camera and asked Justin to give me my yellow pencil. I felt so proud as I colored in the rose.

  “I’m done, everybody!” I yelled out.

  “And on to nails!” Vanessa yelled out next.

  It took them about thirty minutes to finish. Justin sat there, mesmerized, until finally Jessyka got up and dangled her hands in front of the camera.

  “CUT!” Jordan yelled out. Jessyka did a spin. I think she was happy with her hair and nails, because she couldn’t stop smiling.

  She walked over to the camera and took out the SD card.

  “Are you sure this is going to look right?” I asked Jessyka. “It’s really long.”

  “Just wait,” she said. “You’ll see when I finish editing the footage with my mom.”

  Jessyka was explaining the things she wanted to do with the video when we heard a loud boom.

  The back porch door swung. It was Mr. Fleet, and he looked like he was in a rush. Mr. Fleet was a tall, clean-shaven man who kept a very neat fade all the time. He still looked like the best wide receiver in the state of Mississippi that he’d once been.

  “Okay, kids, time to wrap it up!” he said. “Me and Jessyka are going to practice hitting some tennis balls so she’s ahead of the other kids when she goes to camp!”

  Jessyka looked disappointed as she told her dad that we had just finished filming a great video and she wanted to start editing it right away.

  “Jess, once you’re the number-one tennis player in the world, you’ll be able to pay someone to make all the videos you want,” he said, looking her directly in the eyes.

  I tried to get Jessyka to look at me so I could tell her with my eyes that I was sorry, but she didn’t look my way.

  “Call your parents to come pick you up, kids,” Mr. Fleet said.

  Vanessa said she’d go call our mom. She took Justin and followed Mr. Fleet and Jessyka inside.

  While Jordan and I waited outside, I grabbed a football from the porch and tossed it to him.

  “I wanted to get the video up quick,” I said. “Think of the followers we’re missing out on!”

  Jordan caught the football. “Just go do something else, J.D. It’s still early. Maybe I can expand my map on Minecraft.”

  It felt like whatever magic happened during our shoot had disappeared.

  How could Jordan move on so quickly? I took the ball and threw it fast at him.

  Jordan missed the catch and started to trip backward. I closed my eyes when I heard a crash.

  “Oh, man!” I heard Jordan yell out. “What am I going to tell Naija?!”

  I opened my eyes and saw Jordan kneeling on the ground with the camera. I rushed over to inspect it. The lens was shattered to pieces! I tried to turn it on, but it wouldn’t work. And on top of that, one of the tripod legs was bent.

  At that moment, Vanessa came back with Justin.

  “Oooooooooooooo,” Justin said as he pointed to the broken camera.

  “What happened out here?” Vanessa asked. “Now I will never get my videos to look how I want for Junior Business Scholars!”

  Jordan got up and scrunched his eyebrows. “Wait a minute,” he said. “So, J.D., you’re doing this for some kinda homework assignment for your sister?”

  “No, not exactly,” I said, staring at my shoes. “Vanessa promised me we’d all be famous.”

  Jordan shook his head and let out a breath.

  “Well, good luck with that,” he said. “All I know is somebody is gonna have to pay for Naija’s camera. Thanks A LOT, J.D. None of this would have happened if I had stayed back home playing Minecraft!”

  A car horn beeped, and we knew my mom was here to pick us up. Justin helped Jordan shove the broken camera pieces into his gym bag. We piled into the back seat and didn’t say a word on the way home.

  CHAPTER 10

  The Debt

  It was extra hot inside church the next day. Or maybe I was feeling guilty about the broken camera. Did I even have enough money saved up from Hart and Son to pay for something like that? I bet it cost a lot of money.

  While Mom and Vanessa sang in the choir and Grandma and Granddad did their deacon duties of leading the hymns before the pastor started giving his sermon, my job at church was to keep an eye on Justin.

  “Good morning, parishioners!” Pastor Harris said as he calmly walked out to the podium. Pastor was a short, round man. He wore glasses and a deep crimson robe with a big cross on the back and long sleeves that flared out at the wrist. He wore his hair in a Caesar cut and had no facial hair. Even though he spoke in a booming, deep voice, he was always friendly and smiling.

  “Today, we are going to talk about LIES AND TRUTH!”

  “Yes, Pastor!” everyone yelled out.

  I shrunk down in my seat and started to sweat even more. Could Pastor Harris read my mind? What did Jordan end up telling Naija about the broken camera? Did he say it was all my fault? How long before Jordan’s parents would call my house? I’d surely have to go back to Hart and Son to pay for the camera . . . and probably worse!

  * * *

  »»««

  Back at the house, my family ate piles of greens, cornbread, black eyed peas, and the baked chicken my grandmother had started making because the doctor told her it was healthier than fried.

  “You’re awfully quiet tonight, J.D.,” Mom said. “Is something wrong?”

  My mom’s cell phone rang before I could answer. I couldn’t see who it was.

  “Excuse me, everybody, I’ll be right back,” Mom said, moving to the living room.

  We were always taught it was rude to talk on the phone at the dinner table, so no one ever did.

  Her voice was muffled, but I heard bits and pieces.

  “Oh, really? Hmm, thanks for letting me know. I’ll talk to both of them about it. Good night.”

  It didn’t sound good.

  When dinner was finished and I had scraped the dishes clean and placed them in the dishwasher, I tried to make a beeline for my bedroom.

  “Good night, everyone!” I said.

  “Hmm. It’s not that late, J.D. I need you and Vanessa to come have a chat with me in the living room.”

  Vanessa and I turned and looked at each other. Vanessa rolled her eyes. This is your fault! she mouthed.

  “So I got a call from Naija today, and he told me that you kids took his camera this weekend without asking.”

  I gulped, waiting for the rest of the truth to come out.

  “And he said it came back broken! Can someone please tell me what happened?”

  Since it was my idea to ask Jordan for the equipment, I decided I had better speak up. It wasn’t Vanessa’s fault. She didn’t deserve to get in trouble.

  “Well, Mom, it was an accident. Me, Vanessa, and Jordan were filming a video at Jessyka’s house, and the camera broke while me and Jordan were playing football outside,” I said. “Vanessa wasn’t with me when we took the camera equipment, and she wasn’t there when it broke.”

  Mom looked at me for a long time with a soft face.

  “Why did you need the camera in the first place, J.D.?”

  “We just thought having a better camera would make our YouTube videos look cool,” I said.

  Vanessa put both her hands up to her mouth, like I had done something shocking. I guess I just gave away our secret.

  “What YouTube videos?
” Mom asked.

  Vanessa stepped in front of me, like she was trying to shield me.

  “Mom, remember when I said I wanted to apply for Junior Business Scholars?” Vanessa asked. “Well, the career I picked is hair influencer.”

  “I could have sworn you told me you wanted to do a girls-and-boys salon,” Mom said.

  “Well, it is a salon, just on YouTube. J.D. is my employee. He’s working with me instead of at Hart and Son. We’re making videos with Jessyka.” That was it. All of it.

  For a second I forgot about the trouble we might be in, because I was mad she called me her employee!

  “You know you should have been more clear about what you were doing, Vanessa. I don’t feel you were completely honest with me.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” Vanessa said. “But I’m almost done with the project. I have to finish now. Can I show you what we did?”

  Mom followed us over to the computer, and Vanessa pulled up our Kidz Cutz and Nailz channel. Vanessa played her the video of me giving Xavier a hi-top fade with a ruler.

  Me and Vanessa watched Mom in silence as a smile crept across her face. We still only had a handful of views, but there were a couple of new comments.

  “That’s creative,” Mom said when everything finished. “But, Vanessa, you should have told me that you were doing this with J.D., and J.D., you should have told me that you stopped working at Hart and Son. The internet is not always a safe place for kids. That’s why I have the rule about having an adult in the room for your computer time.”

  I was hoping that after all that, she would’ve forgotten about Naija’s camera!

  “It doesn’t matter that Naija’s camera broke by accident—you still took it without asking. Someone has to pay for it,” she said. “A new one costs a thousand dollars.”