Work What You Got

by Stephanie Perry Moore

  “I mean, what was the alternative? Did you really want her to go to jail?”

  “Speaking of people that should be in jail—look, there’s Keisha walking toward us.”

  “Exactly. She’s still walking free and she almost killed somebody. Trisha should be able to have a second chance too.”

  “Alright, I hear you.”

  “Move over,” Keisha said to us as if we were supposed to split the sidewalk and let her pass.

  “I ain’t on your line no more, trick,” Bea said to her, just as grumpy.

  “What? Somebody want a beat down?” Keisha said, pushing Bea in the chest.

  “Guys, we’re still sorority sisters. Why we gotta act like this?” I said to the two of them, knowing I was basically talking to myself because they looked at me like I was on drugs.

  “I’m not sorority sisters with y’all. Y’all don’t even know how to run a yard.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bea asked her.

  “Look over there right now. Look at our rock. Look at our benches and look who’s walking through it like they don’t have no respect,” Keisha said.

  “So, people can’t walk on our stuff?” I asked her. I really wanted her opinion about this because this was something nobody schooled us on.

  “Do you walk through the Rho Tau Nu or the MEMs property?” she asked me.

  “My classes aren’t that way,” I said.

  “Well look over there at their side. The MEMs have someone manning their rock at all times. During the day they rotate somebody so folks don’t just stroll through. No one is watching our property and we’re getting no respect.”

  “But there’s stuff that you thought we should know,” Bea said. “Why can’t you just be a woman and tell us? You don’t have to try and diss anybody. It’s not our fault that y’all got kicked out.”

  “Whatever. Y’all were too weak to handle the small little pressure we were putting on you. I can’t help if y’all don’t have any real leadership. Y’all doing so much stuff wrong, it’s pathetic. Founders’ Day is coming up on March nineteenth. Y’all have anything cool planned for the Beta Rock? And every day this month we’re supposed to do something special. We ain’t even seen no service projects from y’all. And from what I hear, your grades are slippin’,” she said, looking at me. “President and first vice couldn’t even make sure that they kept their treasurer girlfriend in check. Yeah, y’all are pathetic and definitely not my sisters. Move!”

  “Oh no she—”

  “Just come on,” I said to Bea, before she said or did something we’d regret. “Let her go.”

  “Well, I’m sick of people thinking just because we don’t know everything that they can treat us any kind of way. Them MEM girls know not to walk all up in our space. If they didn’t do it last year, then why they disrespecting us now?” Bea saw Bridget walking toward our rock. “See, I’m about to cut her off right now. Hold my books.”

  “Bea wait! That’s my—” Before I knew it, she was gone.

  Why did this have to be a brawl between sororities? Everyone has their favorite, and honestly, though I prefer Beta Gamma Pi, all the sororities have good points. We didn’t need to create any beef with anyone. I certainly didn’t need my soror going at it with my roommate.

  I rushed over to our rock and heard Bea say, “You need to take your little self around the path. Y’all know you’re not supposed to walk all through our stuff. We don’t do that to you.”

  “Don’t blow this out of proportion. I’m just trying to get to class,” Bridget said, calmly.

  “I’m just sick and tired of all these other sororities on campus trying to act like because our prophytes aren’t on the yard no more, they can dog us out and laugh behind our back. We are still a part of the Alpha chapter. That’s right, everybody, the Betas are in the house!”

  “You are making a fool out of yourself,” I said to Bea. “Calm down!”

  “You better get your girl,” Bridget said to me.

  “Bea, go on and go to class. I’ma stay here for a minute, alright? Go to class!”

  “Hayden, you are the one that needs to be going to class. You’re the one sayin’ your grades are slippin’. Don’t get mad because I’m not scared of none of these fools standing around here. You say you wanna be a leader, but then you act all pitiful when one of your little roommates comes around. Forget her.”

  “Forget you!” Bridget said, as Bea stomped off.

  The two of us were left standing there. It was really sort of awkward. We’d been avoiding each other in the house. When I knew she was in the kitchen, I’d stay in my room. Thankfully, we each had our own restrooms, so I didn’t need to mix with any of my roommates for any reason other than to use the kitchen.

  “Really, Hayden,” she said, breaking the silence. “I didn’t know that this was taboo, but none of my sisters told anybody on my line. You guys are never here. I’m just trying to get to class and this is the quickest way. I wasn’t trying to show any disrespect. You know that’s not in my nature. You know that, right?” she said.

  “Yeah, I know. It’s just been really hard,” I said, sitting down on a bench. “I’m failing at everything.”

  Putting aside Greek partisanship, my dear old friend sat down beside me and said, “Girl, it is just not that serious.”

  “Uh, we’re probably breaking protocol right now; an MEM and a Beta having a conversation on my sorority’s bench. If my prophytes don’t want you to walk through here, they certainly don’t want me practically inviting you over to sit and break bread. So I can’t do anything right,” I said, as Bridget stood up to leave. “No please, I don’t want you to go anywhere. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. And just so you know, Creed dumped my chapter president, Tammy. She told me she didn’t have time for it anyway because she really thought he was still hung up on you.”

  For the first time in a long time, I kind of smiled. A couple of weeks had passed since the whole Valentine’s Day dance fiasco. As hard as I tried to get Creed off my mind, I still knew deep down I was hurt we were over.

  “He hasn’t called me, girl. That night at their party, I embarrassed him, so I know we’re through.”

  “You’re a smart girl though, Hayden. You’ll figure out a way to get back up. Before you know it everything will be right again.”

  I gave her the biggest hug and we kept talking while walking straight through the MEM block, not caring about what anybody else thought. Friendship was friendship. And ours was really true. It couldn’t be broken.

  Later in the week, I was just getting home from class, when I opened the front door and saw Chandra, Bridget and Myra were all sitting at the dinner table talking and laughing. Whatever one of them had cooked smelled so good and I was so hungry. I missed our time together, so putting my pride aside, I put my stuff down and walked toward the dinner table.

  “Hey y’all,” I said, looking pitiful.

  “Hey!” Myra said. “You hungry?”

  I looked over at the stove. There was turkey and collard greens. I wanted some badly.

  Myra said, “Macaroni and cheese, gravy and dressing are over there too. You’re welcome to some if you want.”

  “What’s this? Thanksgiving? You threw down!” I said, quickly going over and grabbing a plate.

  Myra said, “Yeah, I just felt like we needed some bonding time. Didn’t think you were gonna make it, but it’s good to have you in the house.”

  “Yeah, I’m glad you’re here,” Bridget said.

  I could hear Bridget kicking Chandra under the table. Because Chandra and I were so close, she held me most accountable for being out of touch. Myra and Bridget understood a little more because they pledged as well.

  Chandra nonchalantly voiced, “Whatever. If she wanna sit, she can sit.”

  “Bridget was telling us that you guys talked the other day,” Myra said, making small talk.

  When I sat down, I bowed my head. I needed to pray, but I also didn
’t want to deal with tough questions and heavy conversation. I just wanted to eat! So after my long prayer, I hoped she had forgotten her question.

  When I didn’t say anything, Myra said to Bridget, “This is gonna be so exciting. Rho Tau Nu and the MEMs doing a service project together. I know this is really going to make an impact.”

  I listened as the two of them talked. They were so happy about this collaborative project. Of course the green-eyed monster arose from within me, and it wasn’t from chugging down the collard greens. I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t asked me and my sorority to be a part of it.

  Chandra chimed in and said, “Out of all the things you guys do, a voter registration drive is completely something I’m for. The presidential election is coming up in November and too many college kids aren’t even registered. We’ve got power and don’t even use it. I’ll spread the word on campus of where you guys will be signing folks up.”

  They just kept talking around me and though I was eating the delicious meal, I wanted our old friendhsip back. So putting aside all the barriers, I said, “I owe y’all a big apology. And I guess I never thought it would be hard for me to say this, but I’m really sorry.”

  “For what?” Chandra said.

  “For everything. Being a jerk, walking away from you guys, being consumed by everything but the things that are most important.”

  “Well nobody’s saying that you leading a sorority isn’t important,” Bridget said.

  “Well, I was saying that!” Chandra added.

  “Girl,” Bridget said, taking her napkin and popping Chandra with it.

  “No for real, we’ve all been busy,” Myra said. “But we gotta make time for this. Whether we’re in a sorority or not, it should never break up this bond.”

  “Yeah, because I befriended some girls that honestly I didn’t really know,” I said. “And I have been hurt in trusting some of them.”

  “You wanna talk about it?” Bridget asked me.

  “Naw, I just need y’all to pray for me. But I really would like to be a part of this whole joint service project I’m hearing you talk about.”

  “Really? You think the Betas would want to be a part of it?” Myra said, doubt written all across her face.

  “I know we seem like we don’t have our act together, but yeah,” I said in an excited tone.

  “You probably want to talk to them about it first,” Bridget said.

  “I’m the president. I don’t need to talk to them. When is it?”

  “Tomorrow,” Myra said.

  “And y’all didn’t talk to me about it? Y’all didn’t even think about us?”

  “Girl, we hadn’t been able to catch up with you,” Myra said to me.

  “Alright, alright,” I said.

  Myra stood and said, “But I know it would be great to have the Betas on board. I’ll call my president to check.”

  “And I’ll do the same with mine,” Bridget said.

  “And I’ll send out a mass e-mail to my sorors,” I said, “giving them all the details once you both get the okay.”

  After getting clearance from the RTNs and MEMs, excitement ran all through my veins. As a leader this was something great. Getting the Betas connected with other sororities is huge. We had little riffs here and there, but this would squash all of that. With this project, we’d have a chance to collectively do something for the greater good of the university, while getting our voice back.

  However, the next day all my excitement about us participating vanished when again, I was the only one who showed up at the event. Girls from both the other organizations had most of their chapter members present. The girls were nice to me, but I was embarrassed.

  Livid, I called an emergency meeting at our room on campus and all of them heifers showed up instantly. “I just don’t understand. Where were y’all? You say you care about our name. You say you want to make a difference. But yet, anytime I need y’all to be there ain’t none of y’all around. But let me call an emergency meeting and everybody’s here. Y’all love the drama. All you guys seem to care about is partying and getting all up in folks’ faces and goin’ off on them. What about showing up to give back?”

  “Wait a minute,” Bea said. “When I got up in Creed and Bridget’s face, I was trying to have your back.”

  “Well, if you recall, Bea, on the line I had yours, okay?”

  “Hey, hold up now, Hayden, that’s the whole problem. You’ve been reading up on the rituals on how to be leader, but you haven’t been practicing what you preach. You sign us up for stuff but you don’t even talk to us about it. I had class, so I couldn’t go. How could you not ask us?” Dena said.

  Sharon said, “I was committed to a study group.”

  “So see, it wasn’t like we didn’t want to be there, but we had other things that we were committed to. You can’t give us a few hours notice and expect us to just be there at your beck and call. You’re our chapter president, not our dictator. And as you can see, you don’t have as much power as you think.”

  I couldn’t even stay in the room with them. I picked up my purse and slammed the door. This was crazy.

  I hated that I had to park so far across campus. I couldn’t find a close parking spot before the meeting, and now it was starting to drizzle, so I started to run.

  Once I got my jog on, I actually felt free. The tears mixed with the rain liberated me. I was having my own personal pity party and nobody could tell. No one was around me, so they couldn’t see the inner turmoil that I was going through.

  But then across campus by the entrance of the psychology building, I saw a familiar face having way too much fun. My professor of psychology was hugging and kissing a lady. As I got closer, I was surprised to see it was my uncle’s wife! It made absolutely no sense to me why she would be kissing a man that wasn’t my uncle.

  Already upset and full of emotion, I had to make sure she didn’t lay her lips on him for one more second. But before I got too close, I thought about it all. I mean, Dr. Griffin was my professor, and I hadn’t done so well in his psych class. Maybe if he saw me, he’d be forced to change my C into an A.

  What was I thinking? This wasn’t about me. This was about my uncle. This was his wife.

  “Hey Auntie, what’s going on?” I said, catching her completely off guard. She immediately pulled away from my professor.

  “Hey Doc,” I said to him.

  “Hey, you’re one of my students, right?” He managed to muster.

  Setting the record straight, I pointed a reprimanding finger at them and said, “Yeah, there’s not that many students in the class. You know she’s married to my uncle, the president of this school, right? What’s going on here?”

  “Hayden, this isn’t the time,” my trifling aunt said.

  “Oh no, it’s not what it looked like,” he added quickly.

  “What are you saying? It’s exactly what it looked like,” she said.

  I couldn’t believe that the two of them went from kissing each other to arguing about their relationship right in front of me. Thankfully this was just the medicine I needed to get over all the drama I was dealing with.

  “Don’t look at me that way, Anna. I’m not trying to lose my job over this. You’re not gonna tell your uncle, right?” he asked me.

  “She’s not gonna say anything. She doesn’t know what she saw.”

  “You can’t tell me what I’m gonna say,” I snapped.

  “Just leave, Drew. I’ve got this,” she said to my professor. Now I knew his first name.

  “Seriously, I’ve got a wife and three kids at home. I need my job,” he pleaded.

  I said, “So you’re not just gonna destroy my uncle with this little thing the two of you got going on here. You don’t care about destroying the lives of your wife and children?”

  “Stay out of this, Hayden. Nobody cares about the soap opera you’re making out of this,” she said.

  “Oh no, Doc here definitely cares. He teaches it. It’s not
what people do, but it’s about the reasons behind their choices that make the world go round. Isn’t what you’re doing going to have consequences that can never be fixed?” I asked him.

  “Anna, just talk to her. I got to get home. I knew this was a bad idea,” he said, putting his briefcase over his head to cover himself from the rain as he ran to his car.

  When she and I were alone, she said, “How dare you come up to me threatening to tell your uncle. I am a grown woman!”

  “Yes, and you’re his wife. Does he know what you’re doing?”

  “We have some things that we keep from each other, it’s our marriage. You have no business in it, no place in it. So stay out of it.”

  “I’ll let him tell me that,” I said to her.

  “You just don’t understand, Hayden. Things have been going south for us for a very long time.”

  “I walked in on you practically beating him a couple of months back and I overlooked that. My mom said he’s been miserable, and I just thought it was marriage pains, but this, what you just did, I can’t ignore.”

  “You and your mom are such busybodies. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He always compares me to your mom, his perfect little sister.”

  “She’s his older sister. That’s just it. You never got to know our family.”

  “Well regardless of what you think about me, your uncle is happy.”

  “He sure didn’t look happy when you were trying to strangle him in his office,” I said to her.

  How dumb did she think I was? Like I wasn’t going to tell him. As soon as I left her, I was going to squeal like a mouse.

  “You can’t tell your uncle, you just can’t!” she said, grabbing my arm, trying to be sincere with me.

  “Please don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. And let my arm go,” I said to her. “Now!”

  “No Hayden, you can’t. You gotta hear me out. You have everything. You’re young, beautiful, intelligent, and in a good college. You just got into the sorority you wanted to join all your life. Don’t take away the one thing that I need. Let me keep my marriage. Please don’t say anything, Hayden. If you make me lose him, I don’t know what I’ll do. I might have a breakdown.”