“Not if Lucinda doesn’t want me on it. She says that for letting her ride my bike for a while, she’ll make sure that I’m on the team.”
“So, you’re giving up your favorite bike, and fibbing about it, to do something you can do anyways. Lucinda wants to win, she wouldn’t keep you off the team….” She folded her lips in. “What else, Nikki?”
“Uggh, do you ever stop?”
“What else?”
Nikki’s sigh sounded like a tire going flat. “Oh my Josh! If you must know, she says she’ll let Tammy on the team and make sure no one teases her.”
“So basically, they’re just going to not bully her. We both know she’s made a team on her own, remember?” One of Sweet Apple’s first step teams was the Apple Dumpling Dancers. When she made it, the girls bullied her about her size until she quit.
“And…”
“And who?” My stomach tightened up a little.
“You. She said that she’d make sure you are on the team.”
My stomach fluttered. I could see Peaches, maybe even Tangie, watching me dance in front of strangers. I didn’t know whether to hug Nikki or holler at her. But she was Best Friend Nikki now. And regardless of the other fibs she may have told, I knew this one was true. Lucinda would want Nikki on her team because Nikki can dance circles around anybody. Tammy can dance, especially Dab, almost as good as Nikki. But me in a crowd, not so much.
I sat on the bed alongside of her. It felt like we were back in the gymnasium on the bleachers after I found I didn’t make the team.
She’d put her head on my shoulder. “We can practice more, next time,” she’d said. We both knew that wouldn’t make a difference if I forgot the moves soon as I stepped in front of a crowd. We’d sat there until the noise in the hallway quieted down, then we walked to her house. I put that out of my head and tried to focus on this New Nikki.
“This isn’t how it should be. We gotta stop Lucinda from thinking she can use people. If she wants to help us all be on the team, that’s cool, but she can’t take over your bike as a reward. That’s not fair to you. It’ll only get worse when school starts.” After I’d stopped talking, I wished that I’d made each word as strong as Marshall’s when he was talking about his friend.
“You never get it, do you,” she snapped. “I’m letting her ride it, not giving it up. Just worry about your new BFF.”
I folded my arms, trying to think of a quick comeback. I had nothing but a quivering bottom lip.
“Whatever!” I shouted.
Nikki rolled her eyes and plopped those Beats back on her head.
I could feel with everything I had that Lucinda was just using Nikki. Then I thought about Tangie wanting me to help with her hair and do our nails. I just got madder. Nikki didn’t need to say a thing because the more I thought about it, the worse I felt: If Lucinda couldn’t change so quickly, could Tangie?
The next morning, Nikki and I barely spoke as we made our own breakfast of Frosted Flakes and peanut butter toast, then headed back to her room. I didn’t sleep all the way through the night but woke up and counted the neon stars that Nikki’s daddy had painted on her ceiling. I’d wished that instead of her lying in her hospital bed, Peaches and I were playing hopscotch up there lost in a circle of light. As soon as I came back to reality, I got a sick feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t go away.
“Wanna play Pac-Man?” Nikki asked, instead of apologizing.
“I guess,” I said.
Nikki had lots of games, but we always ended up playing Pac-Man because she was always trying to prove she could beat me. It’s my dad’s favorite, and I’d play it with him for hours. Mama didn’t allow me to download games that made you kill people to win, and I was never that good at Angry Birds or Candy Crush. But I was queen of Pac-Man.
“You still mad?” she asked.
“Yep. Who wants a fibber as a best friend?”
“You act like you never told a story. You don’t want your mom to know we were at the hospital.”
“That’s different.”
I usually felt sorry for her during Pac-Man and let the Ghosts touch me on purpose, but not this time. I didn’t care if she never got a turn.
“What about the other stuff?” Nikki said.
“What other stuff?”
“You know, about Lucinda and Tangie.”
“Well, Lucinda has your best bike. Tangie doesn’t have mine.”
“That’s all you could come up with?” Nikki laughed.
“Whatever,” I said, knowing that it sounded better in my head.
“Georgie!” Mama’s voice rang from downstairs.
I tossed the controller on the bed. “Gotta go.”
“Geessh, you didn’t have to throw it down like that,” Nikki said, as the controller bounced. As I started heading out the door, she said, “If you leave, that means I won.”
“That’s not what that means,” I shouted, and dashed down the stairs. Seconds later, I flung my arms around Mama.
“Georgie, lower your voice,” Mama said, and smoothed my hair.
“Hey, Mama,” I whispered, lower than I needed to.
“Hello, silly,” she said, and hugged me tighter. When she called me “silly,” I knew she didn’t know about my hospital visit. That would have gotten me a “young lady,” or worse, “Georgiana Elizabeth Matthews.”
Mama smelled like Ivory soap. She hadn’t worn any perfume since Peaches had gotten sick. Instead of curls, Mama had combed her hair back and used my big butterfly clip to keep it in place. She didn’t even have on earrings, which Grandma Sugar says a lady should wear from the time she learns to talk until she says her last words.
“Are we going to see Peaches today?” I asked.
“Cream and sugar for your tea, Katrina?” Ms. Cora said over the whistling teapot.
“Just sugar,” Mama said, then she took my hands and kissed them. “Sweetie, your sister was in a special section called ICU.”
“Is she out now?” I asked.
“Thank the Lord. They moved her this morning…. But…”
“She still needs a transfusion?”
“No, thank God…. Wait, where did you hear that?”
I shrugged. Mama was too tired to challenge me.
Ms. Cora walked into the living room and set saucers and teacups on the coffee table.
“But what, Mama? When is she coming back home?”
Mama shook her head before her words followed. “They still can’t say exactly, sweetie. She has bacterial meningitis. And…” She glanced around for Ms. Cora before she spoke. “They caught it early, so that’s a blessing. But baby, Peaches may not be well for some time, even after she comes home.”
“What does that mean?” Pictures of every sick person I’d seen in my life flashed in my head. “Will she be able to talk or walk? She’ll have to take medicine every day?”
She shot another look at Ms. Cora, who seemed just as sad as when Mama brought me over yesterday.
“We’ll just have to take care of her, Mama,” I said hesitantly. “Right?”
“Baby, Mama doesn’t know what condition she’ll be in yet. The doctors are doing all that they can.” Every time I watch a TV show where somebody is about to die, someone says, “The doctors are doing all that they can.” I put my hand to my stomach as if that could stop it from somersaulting.
“You and Nikki didn’t give Jevon a hard time, did you?” Ms. Cora said, changing the subject.
If I thought I could get away with it, I’d have stomped so hard that the elephants on Ms. Cora’s coffee table would’ve tipped over. I wasn’t ready to change the subject, but it didn’t matter. “No, ma’am.”
Mama wrung her hands together like she used to do when Daddy upset her. She didn’t meet my eyes anymore, and I thought she’d start bawling any minute. She cleared her throat, her eyes glassy. The sadder Mama got, the less I held out hope that Peaches would ever come home. “I need to ask you a question, sweetie.”
“What i
s it?”
“Since we’re going to be at the hospital so much, would you like to stay here with Nikki for a few days?” Whatever they knew was locked in the Mama Vault. Mama wasn’t even gonna let me know what was going on with my own sister. All of that “big girl” stuff was for the birds.
I folded my arms. “No. I don’t want to be here. I wanna come home.” I didn’t know Nikki was behind me until I heard her stomp back up the stairs and slam her door. A part of me wanted to go to her, but right now, all I could think about was Peaches.
“What was that all about?” Ms. Cora asked. “Georgie, are you and Nikki getting along?”
“Probably mad ’cause I won’t stay and let her try to beat me in Pac-Man.”
“That’s all there is to it?” Ms. Cora asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I just wanna be home and in my room. All Peaches’s stuff is there.” Ms. Cora nodded, though I don’t think she bought it. “Did you feed Girl, Mama?”
“Tangie did.” Mama tugged at my ears. “I understand, honey. Give me a moment with Ms. Cora while you go get your things.” Mama picked up her tea.
I hurried back upstairs. Nikki had already cleared out my emergency drawer and put all my stuff in a bag. “If you don’t wanna stay over, I don’t want you to either, ever again,” she fumed.
Sometimes when she’s mad, she tells me that twenty times an hour. But she’d never cleared out my drawer before.
“Just want to be in my own room,” I mumbled.
“That’s not it! You wanna suck up to your new best friend.”
“Tangie’s not my new best friend. She’s my big sister. She’s a stepsister, but that’s good, too. You got a big brother. Jevon looked out for you yesterday. Ain’t nothing wrong with me wanting someone like that. Anyway, I think there is something no one is telling me.”
“About Tangie?”
“No, Peaches. My mom is hiding something. Your mom knows what it is I betcha.”
“Oh, they put it in the Mama Vault?”
“Pretty sure. And the only way to know for certain is if I go home and wait for someone to slip up. Frank’s not as good at keeping stuff like Mama.”
That was kinda true, since he asked Peaches and me wouldn’t it be cool to go to Disney World so many times, I swear even Girl figured it out.
“But what do you think it is?”
I could feel the chill bumps all over my arms. Within seconds I was back in Tangie’s room staring into the sadness in her eyes. It was possible that little sisters go away and never come back. It happened to Tangie’s li’l sister.
My lips parted, but no words came out.
“Well?”
“It can only be one thing—that Peaches is sicker than they want to say. Maybe”—I swallowed, my throat tight—“maybe she’s not ever coming home.” Even saying the words left me feeling like I wasn’t able to stand. I wrapped my arms around myself.
“No, Georgie. Don’t say that. Peaches is coming home. I promise.”
Hearing Nikki’s words made my eyes well. She only “promised” when I was really hurt and she didn’t know what else to do. Like the first night I told her I thought my parents were getting a divorce, and she said, “No, they’ll just argue sometimes like my parents. But they won’t get a divorce. I promise.”
I didn’t want to remind her of that. She was doing the best she could.
“If she’s coming home, then why does it feel like they’re not telling me everything? Mama keeps saying, ‘You’re a big girl.’”
“Parents just say stuff like that. Then treat us like we can’t handle grown-up stuff. We’re eleven. Not two.”
“I know,” I said. My shoulder slumped so far down, I felt like I was going to crumple to my knees.
Nikki pulled me by the elbow until I sat down next to her on her bed.
“If your mama’s not telling you, then my mama’s not telling me. That leaves us with one thing to do?”
“What’s that?”
“Secret mission.”
Nikki loved the word “secret.” Anything she thought anyone else didn’t know, she wanted to know. I was so desperate to find out about Peaches, it sounded like the best idea ever, whatever it was.
“Something’s better than nothing!”
“Trust me. This will work. I’ll make sure I listen to my mom talking to my dad or Jevon after you leave. I won’t let them find out I’m listening, though.”
“Eavesdropping?
“No, that’s sorta by accident. I’ll make sure I’m hidden away close by.”
“Spying?”
“Yeah. You got a better plan?” Her folded arms looked like skinny rails.
“Nothing,” I admitted. “Thank you, Nikki.”
“What are you thanking me for? I’m your best friend, and I’m good at spying. Big whoop. Just need to find out how Peaches is really doing.”
“Tell your mom that I need to talk to you to cheer me up, and she might give you your phone back.”
“Already thought about that.”
“Good. What about your bike?” I asked.
“What about it? I can get it anytime I want.” But then she glanced away and her lip drooped.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!”
“Tell me what really happened.”
“If I do, will you forget about it?”
“Yes.”
“And don’t cross your fingers!”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll let it go.” I mentally asked God for forgiveness at that second because I was fibbing—big-time.
“Georgie!” Mama called. “Unless you’re staying, you need to get yourself down here.”
“On my way, Mama!” I said, rushing Nikki with a flap of my hands.
“I didn’t tell her to drop it at Tammy’s. I said that she could keep it until the step-team tryouts.”
“That’s the rest of the summer!”
“I know. She said it was that or nothing. She’ll probably give it back if I told her I changed my mind.”
“Yeah, she might,” I said. She’d tacked that last sentence on with a feather. I didn’t have the heart to blow it away. But I was already thinking of a way to get her bike back and teach Lucinda Hightower a thing or two.
“Georgie!”
I hugged Nikki. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Duh. I gotta come downstairs with you. If I don’t, they’ll think I’m still mad.”
“Oh, you’re right.”
When we got downstairs the curtains were wide open and the living room furniture’s emerald-green color glowed.
“Call me if you need anything, Trina,” Ms. Cora said, and kissed Mama’s cheek. They held hands for a few seconds and rocked their arms like little girls do. “Peaches will be home in no time.”
“Thank you for everything, Cora,” Mama said as they walked to the door together.
“Peace out, rainbow trout,” Nikki said, and hugged me for show. “I’m on it,” she whispered.
“Bye, bye, butterfly,” I said as Mama and Ms. Cora hugged. I gave Nikki a thumbs-up. She winked at me like the time I ran for class president against Theophilus Jackson. He was sure he’d win, ’cause he told the boys that his big brother would give them discounts at Foot Locker if they voted for him. Don’t know what Nikki did, but I won by three votes.
At the door, Mama and Ms. Cora were still whispering, and between Nikki and me, we had to find out what that was all about.
I had to admit that being Nikki’s best friend was hard. But one time when we had a fight and weren’t speaking to each other, Mama told me that a best friend was a relative that you make for yourself. I thought about that every time Nikki made me mad. I figured since I made her, I just might as well keep her.
When we got outside, I saw that someone had written “Wash Me” in the dust on Frank’s van. I’d never even seen the windshield on his van or car dirty before.
As we buckled up, I glanced at Peaches’s booster seat. I closed my eyes and im
agined that she was in it, her head bobbing to music that only she could hear.
Since Mama didn’t talk, I didn’t either. I’m sure she was working on “getting her thoughts together.” I bet they were scattered all over the place.
A couple minutes later, at a red light, Mama said, “Thank you for being such a big girl through all of this, G-baby.”
“You’re welcome, Mama,” I told her, and gave her my best smile. But a part of me was hurt inside, because if Mama thought I was a real big girl, she would tell me the truth.
A horn blew when the light flashed green. Mama waved her hand in the rearview and hit the gas.
“Your daddy sends his love. Says he tried to call but your phone was dead.”
“Left the charger home. You still mad at him?”
“We’ll get through this,” she said.
“You forgive me for leaving Peaches?”
“Baby, I was mad at the entire world that day. You shouldn’t have left without your daddy’s permission. But neither you or your daddy are to blame.”
“What about Millicent?”
She shook her head a few times before finally speaking. “No, G-baby. No one. We might not ever know exactly when she contracted it. Nurses did their due diligence, but no outbreaks or anything reported.”
“Who’s there with her now?”
“Sugar and your daddy. He wants to know if you want to stay with him and Millicent. He’s at the hospital most of the time and his dealership the other, so you’d be with Millicent a lot. What about that? You’ll be closer to Nikki.”
Not that I didn’t think Daddy wanted me there, but it seemed like something Mama was just thinking up so I wouldn’t be home.
“Do I have to?”
“No, baby. Just know it’s an option. Everybody’s trying to make this as easy on you as possible.”
Thirty minutes later, Mama parked in our driveway instead of the garage.
“Heading right back out,” she said.
“Is Tangie here?”
“Probably in her room.” She tugged at her clothes, then stared at her hands and dingy sneakers. “I look a mess. I’m going to jump in the shower and try to make myself resemble a human being.” She laughed. “I don’t want to scare Peaches.”
Love Like Sky Page 12
