by Omar Tyree
“Ay, Carmen, that’s not the right way to do it!” a boy wearing a blocked haircut yelled.
“Shet up, Amir!” Carmen hollered back, smiling at him.
“I know, he always got something smart to say,” Jantel commented.
“He need to leave people alone,” Carmen added.
The block-haired boy sucked his teeth and spun around to show them his backside. “Y’all can all kiss my—”
“You get out of here before I tell the coach,” the tall cheerleading instructor interjected.
Amir curved his mouth after spotting her.
Tracy was excited for a second, wondering who he was. Amir looked as if he could be her twin. His skin tone matched hers perfectly, and only the coolest boys wore blocked haircuts.
Amir was the middle linebacker on defense, and he made most of the tackles. He had an obvious muscular build, Tracy could tell by his broad shoulders. He could tackle Steve, she thought. She couldn’t wait until after practice to ask more about him.
“Ay Jantel, give me the juicy fruit on Amir. You know, who does he go with, how old is he, where does he live? Girl, tell me everything,” Tracy piped.
Jantel broke into laughter. “Unt unh, girl, you don’t wanna talk to him.”
“Why not?”
“Because, he’s fresh. He be squeezing on girls’ butts and feeling all on them and stuff. That boy is freaky. I wouldn’t talk to him. But he talks to Carmen anyway.”
“Does Carmen know that he’s nasty?” Tracy asked.
“Yeah, but she don’t care.”
“She don’t?”
“Nope,” Jantel responded. Then she whispered to Tracy. “I think she be ‘doin’ it’ to him. I heard she fresh, too.”
“Oh my God. For real?” Tracy asked with a grin.
Jantel nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I heard.”
Tracy went home thinking about Amir. She didn’t want to be nasty with him, but she thought about him anyway. Steve had not been Tracy’s boyfriend for a week, and already she was planning on dumping him. Steve wasn’t any fun. Tracy needed to chase just as much as boys did. It was a game of choosing and chasing and dumping.
Tracy walked into her house and noticed her little brother smiling at her. Jason stared at her with his dark almond eyes as though Tracy was a ghost. Then he began to laugh. Tracy walked over to him, wondering what was going on.
Dave jumped out of the closet on her. “I GOTCHA!”
Tracy screamed as her father grabbed her from behind, “OOOWWW!”
He let her go and started to laugh himself. “I didn’t know I could scare a big old girl like you all that bad.”
“Yeah, dad, you surprised me,” Tracy told him while she caught her breath.
Jason dashed and jumped on his father’s legs.
“Dad-dy,” he yelped.
“Yeah, what’s up, little man?”
“He talks a lot, now,” Tracy said.
“I know. I talked to him while you were at practice. How’s the team turning out?”
“We 3–0, dad.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty good. Your mother told me you had one of them sitting on the step for three hours,” he said to her.
Tracy started to giggle, embarrassingly. “Aw, dad, why mom telling you my business?”
“Because you don’t have no business yet. And if you think you got some business, then I plan to stay in your business,” Dave told his daughter with a grin.
Tracy smiled back at him and decided to tell him her business. “Well, that was this running back named Steve. He makes most of the touchdowns.”
Her father nodded and started to reminisce. “Yeah, I remember when I played little league. I was the middle linebacker, crushin’ kids.”
“You played on defense, hunh, dad?” Tracy asked him, curious. Amir was middle linebacker, too.
“That’s right. I liked to hit. Them cats on offense were the soft guys.”
“Did you have a girlfriend?”
Dave smiled with boyish charm. “Well, I don’t think I wanna tell you about that.”
Tracy laughed, assuming that her father had had plenty. “Did the running backs have a lot of girls?” she asked him.
Dave answered, “Yeah. They had the most. All the girls were into the touchdown thing. They weren’t really into the hitting. They all liked the quarterback, too.”
“So what type of girls did you get?” Tracy pressed him.
Dave smiled again, knowing that he was planting some bad seeds in his daughter’s head. “I ended up with the girls who ran around chasin’ boys. I always got them rough tomboy girls. We had a bunch of fun though,” he answered her. “Your mother was a tomboy.”
Dave left back out that night, as usual, after filling Tracy’s head with his memories. Tracy was no tomboy, but she was more aggressive than most girls her age. She never planned on sitting around being prissy, and waiting for boys to talk to her. Tracy was a boy-chaser indeed.
Tracy observed Amir for the rest of that week. It became clear to her that he was known around the neighborhood as a bad kid. He had been run off of many neighborhood streets by angry parents. Amir was always into something.
Tracy watched Amir making tackles more than she watched Steve run hand-offs during their fourth game. It became exciting to hear those hard, cracking hits. Every time Amir would get someone good, the crowd would moan, “WHEW! Damn, that boy can hit!”
Amir knocked two opposing players out of the game. He had done it before, yet Tracy had paid the defense little attention before her father’s comments.
The fans talked about Amir’s brutal hits more than the touchdowns that fourth game. What a coincidence it was for Steve to be overshadowed right when Tracy was thinking about dropping him for Amir.
After the game, Tracy and Steve went to the movies along with Jantel and a few of Tracy’s other girlfriends. She wanted to leave Steve at home, but when Carmen hugged Amir after the game, Tracy decided that it was better to have something than nothing.
The movie line at the Cheltenham Twin Theater was long, filled with teens and a few adults. They all had to wait in line a half hour to see a new Chuck Norris film. Several boys from other teams were there. They all walked up and shook Steve’s hand as they talked about the upcoming games. That cheered Tracy up a bit, but it was not enough to keep her satisfied with him.
Steve bought her popcorn and found good seats. They sat quietly as Tracy’s girlfriends ran their mouths about who was who and who was cute and who was not while watching boys walking up, down and through the aisles. Tracy was bored. All she could think about was Amir and Carmen. She then asked for some candy. Steve gave her a dollar out of his allowance money for her to go and get what she wanted from the refreshment stand. Tracy then faked going to the bathroom several times before the movie started to look at other young couples, noticing how happy they seemed.
Life seemed dull with Steve. He never gave Tracy any tingles, except for when he scored touchdowns. She was beginning to see that she didn’t really like him as a person. She only wanted the star of the football team.
A pack of wild, yelling boys stomped into the theater after the previews had started. Tracy noticed a few of them from school. The boys jumped from seat to seat, joking around with each other. Tracy and her girlfriends began to pay them more attention than they did the big screen. They continued to wrestle each other right up until a few angry parents cussed them out.
“AY, AMIR, get me some popcorn while you up there!” one of the boys yelled.
Tracy couldn’t believe her ears. She watched the shadowy figure walk up the aisle. He was the right size and height, wearing a baseball cap. Oh my God, he’s here! Tracy thought, excitedly.
“I’m going to get a hot dog,” she told Steve.
“Yeah, I bet,” Jantel commented with a laugh.
Crowds of people packed the refreshment lines all hurrying to be served before the films started. Tracy eyed Amir’s broad back, with three people separ
ating them. She slowly walked nearby and showed herself off like a young model, hoping that Amir would notice her tight yellow sweater and Sergio blue-jeans.
“Dag, this line is all long,” she said to no one in particular. She was begging for Amir to respond to her.
Amir smiled at her. “You gon’ have to go to the end of the line, like everybody else,” he said. Then he began to laugh.
“Shet up, boy,” Tracy snapped at him, holding his name at the tip of her tongue.
Amir let her get up in front of him as the line moved. When it stopped, he leaned against her butt. Tracy felt him and wondered if he did it on purpose.
The line moved again. Tracy was reluctant to move with it, not wanting to move away from him. Amir then pushed her ahead.
“What’s your name?” he finally asked her.
“Tracy,” she said without turning to face him.
“Where you live?”
“Right around the corner from you,” she lied. Tracy thought that he would be shocked by this.
“How you know where I live?” he asked her instead.
“Because I’ve seen you around,” she responded, still moving forward.
“Well, how come you never said nothin’ to me?”
“I don’t know.”
“So you gon’ be out tonight?” he asked her.
“If it ain’t too cold,” Tracy answered. “I’m on your cheerleading team,” she finally revealed to him. It was eating her up inside that he didn’t know who she was.
“Wow, tell me something I didn’t know,” he said to her with a grin.
Tracy laughed softly, relieved. Amir had noticed her. “How you know?” she quizzed him.
“You hang out with Jantel and that girl Raheema.”
Tracy sucked her teeth at hearing her next-door neighbor’s name. “How you know her?” she asked with a grimace.
“Who?” Amir said, making Tracy have to say it.
She sighed and said, “Raheema.”
“Oh. My friend was trying to talk to her. I saw y’all hangin’ out in the mall before.”
“Oh . . . Do you think she’s pretty?” Tracy just had to ask.
“Yeah, she’s all right,” Amir told her.
They both seemed to forget about the movie. They stood inside the lobby and talked even after they had been served.
Amir asked, “Why, are you jealous of her?”
“NO! I ain’t jealous of her!” Tracy responded radically.
“Yes, you are,” Amir rebutted. “But I like you more than her.” He ran his hands over Tracy’s neck and shoulder and then through her hair. It gave her a chill. Tracy wanted more, but then Amir left her abruptly. Chuck Norris was in action.
Tracy followed him back inside the theater and returned to her seat with a bag of candy.
“That sure was a long trip to get a hot dog, Tracy,” Jantel joked. Her friends broke into laughter.
“Yeah, what took you so long?” Steve asked Tracy.
“The line was long,” she said with an attitude.
“Oh,” Steve said. He quickly dismissed it. Tracy was angry at how gullible he was for believing her. It was a waste of time to go to the movies with him. He is so boring! she thought to herself.
Tracy was glad to get back home from the movies with Steve. When she had arrived home, she found Raheema sitting out on her front steps.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, hoping that Raheema was leaving soon. Raheema had definitely become a rival to Tracy.
“I have to spend the night over your house because my parents are going out all night,” she answered, blandly. Raheema was not pleased with the idea of having to be baby-sat any more than Tracy wanted her over there.
Tracy saw it as an opportunity to settle their differences. She wanted to get to the bottom of things with her neighbor. Raheema was rejecting some top-quality boys for no good reason.
Tracy asked, “Do you know some boys named Amir and Todd?”
“Yeah, that boy named Todd wanted to talk to me,” Raheema told her, not at all excited about it. “He used to try and wait for me whenever I came home from school. I don’t know why. I kept telling him that I didn’t want any boyfriends.”
“What does he look like?”
Raheema gave Tracy a good looking over. “He’s a little lighter than you and shorter than you,” she said.
Tracy was taller than Raheema by at least three inches.
“You didn’t like him?” she asked.
“He’s all right.”
“So didn’t you want to talk to him?”
“I did talk to him. I told him that I didn’t want a boyfriend.”
Tracy sucked her teeth. “Girl, what is wrong with you? How come you get all of the boys?”
Raheema smiled. Tracy was really pissed off about the attraction that boys seemed to have toward her.
“I don’t know,” Raheema responded to her. “I don’t even pay them no mind.”
They walked inside the house.
“You don’t like boys at all, do you?” Tracy asked.
“I like your little brother. Jason doesn’t want anything from me like the other ones do.”
Tracy sat down on the couch. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“Boys only want one thing,” Raheema said, still standing.
“And what’s that?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” she answered, feeling embarrassed that she was asked to say it.
“Well, you probably never gon’ have a boyfriend then.”
“Tracy, like I said, I don’t want any boyfriends. I don’t want to be used.”
“Why you thinking that? I’m not used. I don’t give them nothin’,” Tracy bragged. They quieted down a bit once they heard Patti walking around upstairs and approaching the steps.
“Well, how are you two doing?” Patti asked them.
“Okay,” they mumbled in unison.
Patti looked at them suspiciously and mumbled, “Mmm hmm, you two are down here gossiping. Well, when you want some real answers about the dating thing, you just let me know. I can tell you two a lot of things about what not to do. But other than that, you’re on your own, because these damn men are definitely trifling,” she told them before heading inside of the kitchen to get herself some ice cream. “Damn selfish fool gon’ tell me that things are fine the way they are,” she continued to mumble to herself from the kitchen.
Raheema and Tracy began to smile at each other. But Tracy was a little embarrassed. She knew who her mother was talking about, and she was sure that Raheema was smart enough to figure things out.
They continued to sit, silently, until Tracy’s mother had passed them again. Patti then reached the top of the steps and told them, “You can go on back to your boy-talk now.”
Tracy and Raheema smiled at each other again.
“Are you ever gonna get married?” Tracy asked Raheema.
Raheema looked at her incredulously. “What? How you go from boyfriends to getting married?”
“Just answer the question,” Tracy snapped.
Raheema took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
Tracy looked over Raheema’s light skin and long, dark brown hair. She had given up on trying to figure her out.
“What did you do today?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I did my homework and watched TV.”
Tracy frowned. “That’s all you did today?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Ain’t you bored with your life or something? God!”
Raheema hunched her shoulders. “No, not really. I mean, sometimes I get bored, but everybody gets bored once in a while.”
“Yeah, but at least we do more than you,” Tracy told her, standing up.
Tracy went up the steps pondering how dull Raheema’s life seemed. They ended up playing board games while discussing their futures until three-thirty in the morning. They both slept hard that night with the future on their
minds.
Raheema wanted to become a successful doctor or a lawyer, and live in a big white house. She still didn’t know if she would marry or not, but if she did, she would not hesitate to divorce any man who would use or abuse her. She would wait her entire life for a loving, respectable husband if she had to do so.
Tracy wanted a house filled with kids and a fun-loving husband who would fulfill all of her dreams. Her husband had to be exciting, generous and full of surprises. Tracy didn’t care what her occupation would be. As long as she had a handsome husband who met all of her criteria with money to boot, she would be happy. “As long as we’re not poor,” she had told Raheema.
They awoke late Sunday morning and watched the Eagles play the Giants. Raheema didn’t show any interest in football. She ate sandwiches and talked about her teachers.
Ever since her sister, Mercedes, had left the house, Raheema had received nothing but A’s in all of her classes. Mercedes’ leaving seemed to be an inspiration point for Raheema to do the best that she could in school. Keith praised her and put her older sister down in the same sentence. “Raheema’s studying the way a smart girl is supposed to study, not like that crazy sister of hers. I can’t even remember her name,” he would comment with a laugh. But he really did miss his first daughter. He couldn’t get Mercedes off of his mind. Whenever his friends came over, he would tell them the same story of how Mercedes was his “darling girl” who had turned rotten on him, and how Raheema had turned out to be the good girl. “The Jekyll & Hyde Sisters,” he called them.
Tracy, on the other hand, had gotten A’s and B’s and had never missed a day in school, except for when she was suspended for fighting. Neither Patti nor Dave worried about Tracy’s schoolwork. They continued to treat her like a little woman. Patti let Tracy do almost anything she wanted. Tracy’s not a bad girl, she thought. She knows what to do and what not to do. I trust her. And her father trusted her as well. Tracy had had a good behavior record.
• • •
Steve heard about Tracy talking to Amir in the lobby at the movies during practice that week. Amir hung out with a rough crowd. Steve was intimidated by him, so he didn’t want any hearsay going around. He decided to keep the fact that he knew to himself, but he surely didn’t trust Tracy anymore.
