“No,” she says slightly sulky, then walks over and peeks out the window near where I’m sitting and then looks at me. “You go to school with my brother, Troy, right?”
I nod. I have no idea where she’s going with this.
“I think he likes you,” she says.
“Really,” I say.
“Do you like him?”
“I don’t really know him, but he’s okay as a friend, I guess.”
“No, I mean do you like him for a boyfriend. He likes you.”
“But he knows I already have a boyfriend.”
“Where is he, at Penn Hall, too?”
“No, he’s in college. He goes to Howard University,” I say. Hannah nods, then it looks like she wants to say something more, but she doesn’t. She just stares out the window again.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in dance class now?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Can you really do all that stuff you did in the YouTube video?”
“Yeah, I can,” I say. “Why?”
“I was just wondering,” she says, then pauses. “How long did it take to learn all that?”
“A long time—I’ve been dancing since I was four, remember?”
“I don’t get what they’re doing,” she says.
“What do you mean, in dance class?”
She shrugs again. “Yeah, in my hip-hop class. I can’t catch on ’cause they do it too fast. I left. I like it better when you teach class. You do it step by step and I get it then.”
“Show me what you think it looks like they’re doing. Maybe I can help and walk you through it slower. Do you know what song you’re dancing to? I probably have it. I have about three thousand songs on this thing.” She tells me. I pull the other earbud out of my ear and find the song. I turn the volume up all the way. The song comes on and she starts dancing. I watch her. She’s stiff and kinda uncoordinated.
“Okay, I remember that routine,” I say, then stand next to her. “Let’s start from the beginning and take it slowly.” We start dancing and I’m giving her hints and tips on how to make her body move in a more hip-hop style. After a while she looks a lot better. It’s obvious she’s getting it. We’re right in the middle of doing the routine again when the music cuts off. “Hold on, I have a text message,” I say, then check the small screen.
K, where are you? Jalisa texts.
Third floor—Studio A, I respond.
We’re looking for a place to park. We’ll be there in a few minutes.
Okay, I say.
“Okay, let’s try it one more time,” I say to Hannah.
“Was that your boyfriend?”
“No, my girls—they dance here, too.”
“You mean the ones in the picture with you?”
“Yeah, come on, from the top.”
“Would you come to my birthday party next Saturday?” she blurts out quickly. “It’s gonna be fun, I promise.”
Wow, didn’t expect that. It’s been a long time since I got invited to a for-real kid’s birthday party. “Um, I don’t know.”
“I know you’re old and stuff and you probably have other things to do, but if you can…”
“I’ll tell you what. If I can, I will. But I’ll definitely get you a gift either way. What do you want?”
She smiles easily and her eyes sparkle. “I want to dance like you.”
“Well, then, I guess we’d better get started. Ready?” I ask. She nods. I turn the music back on. We do the routine once more and this time she’s really good. Just as we end I hear laughter and talking down the hallway. I already know who it is—Jalisa and Diamond.
Nine
Life Is Good!
kenishi_wa K Lewis
I’ve learned to live by my actions and deal with the consequences. I take the bad with the good and deal with whatever comes my way. Right now it’s all good.
27 Apr * Like * Comment * Share
a few seconds later the studio door bursts open and Jalisa and Diamond come in. They’re laughing and talking loud and boisterous. “Hey.” “We’re here,” they say in unison.
“Hey,” I say, happy to see them.
“There she is, the download superstar herself,” Jalisa adds, laughing loudly.
“No way, she’s our download diva,” Diamond jokes.
“See, y’all need to stop with all that,” I say, knowing they’re just playing with me.
“Okay, I gotta go to class now, thanks for helping me,” Hannah says, then looks at Jalisa and Diamond as she walks out.
“Wait a minute, Hannah,” I say. She turns around. “I want you to meet my friends. This is Jalisa Saunders and Diamond Riggs. Ladies, this is Hannah Carson.”
“Hi,” they all say.
“Thanks again for helping me,” she says, then gets to the studio door and turns around. “Troy really likes you. You should get rid of your boyfriend and hang out with him. He’s not as bad as he tries to act.” She leaves quickly.
Jalisa and Diamond look at each other, then at me. “What’s that about?” Jalisa asks quietly.
“Hannah, she goes to class here. I was helping her with her hip-hop moves. She’s a little stiff. She needs to loosen up.”
“Who’s Troy?” Diamond asks.
I just shake my head. “He goes to Penn Hall. Y’all met him at LaVon’s party before. That’s his little sister—” I glance back at the door “—I guess we’re best buds now.” They turn and look, too. Then I start smiling again. “It’s good to see y’all.”
“You, too,” Diamond says.
“Hey,” Jalisa says again, much louder this time.
“Hey,” I repeat happily. Diamond repeats it, too. We hug and start talking all at once. It’s been almost two and a half weeks since we’ve seen one another. Sure, we talk on the phone, video, Skype, text and tweet constantly, but seeing one another is always the best.
“Oh, my God, girl, we saw you on YouTube,” Diamond adds excitedly.
“Everybody did. The whole school is talking about you.”
“Oh, my God, yeah, they’re sharing it everywhere and saying you’re the next Taj—it’s so cool. The video’s, like, going viral in Hazelhurst and everywhere else.”
“Oh, and you would not believe what else. Your girl Chili is about to lose her friggin’ mind ’cause you’re getting all the attention. She is seriously hating on you now, girl.”
“When’d you upload it?”
“I didn’t,” I say. “Li’l T did. He videoed me yesterday while I was practicing downstairs in the auditorium. I didn’t even know he did it until after everyone started talking about seeing it. I told him not to video me, but he did anyway. All I know now is that if he doesn’t take it down I’m gonna strangle him.”
They laugh. “Eew, look at this studio,” Jalisa says, looking around and seeing the messed-up ceiling and floor. “I thought you were exaggerating, but you were right. It looks horrible. The leaking roof did all this?”
I nod. Diamond starts looking around, then she sniffs and makes a face. “What’s that smell? A dead animal?”
“No, I think it might be the ceiling tiles getting all moldy or something like that.”
“We seriously cannot practice here.”
“I know. Ms. Jay already gave me the key to the auditorium. We can go down to the stage.” I get up and we all walk downstairs to the first floor. They keep complaining about what the building looks like now since they haven’t been here in a few weeks. When we get to the auditorium I unlock the door and turn on the lights. They flicker a few seconds, then finally come on full wattage. All of the sudden it’s super bright like daylight. We look around.
“Oh, my God, y’all remember when we us
ed to do our recitals in here years ago?” Jalisa says.
“Oh, man, those were crazy. I hated doing them. I was always petrified that I’d mess up and fall on my face,” Diamond says.
“Not me. I loved them,” Jalisa says.
“Hey, y’all remember when I broke my toe and didn’t tell?”
“Oh, yeah, I remember. It was about to turn blue and we made you tell Ms. Jay and she took you directly to the hospital. Your mom was so pissed at you for not saying anything and you were pissed at us for telling.”
“Yeah, ’cause I didn’t want to lose my place in the spring recital. Do you believe how crazy that sounds now? How old were we then?”
“I think we were ten or eleven, something like that.”
I start walking down toward the stage. “Come on, y’all, are we gonna stand around here talking all day or are we gonna dance?”
“Dance,” we all yell in unison, then run down to the stage. We drop our stuff backstage, then Diamond and Jalisa go to the front. I unlock the music cage and plug my cell phone into the dock. I pick a bunch of hip-hop, rock and rap songs. The music starts. We change to wear crop-top tees, tanks and fishnet tops, dance sweatpants, booty shorts and leggings, cargo shorts, fedoras and caps and then we go back on stage to stretch.
Jalisa puts on strap dance heels with leg warmers, I wear dance sneaks and sweats and Diamond wears pointe ballet shoes laced up her ankle. Three styles of dance are represented and for the next hour and a half we interchange and do it all. We dance, play, laugh, talk, joke and then dance some more. After a while people start coming in and out of the auditorium, but we don’t pay much attention to them. We’re having too much fun being together and dancing.
The rhythm goes hard. We’re instantly energized. We start to dance our routine, something we’ve been working on for a few weeks. We said that when it’s good enough we’re gonna show it to Gayle Harmon, the choreographer. We try out some new stuff Diamond came up with. Jalisa and I both add on to it. It’s really starting to look good. Seriously, it’s really hot. Some of the dance instructors come in to see us, including Ms. Jay.
They’re cheering and applauding by the time we really get into it. We’re all three doing the same step, but to a different downbeat, with different timing and different dance styles—hip-hop, ballet and jazz. The visual is different and exciting. When the music ends it looks like we have half the school in the auditorium with us. They’re applauding and cheering and we’re bowing and laughing. I usually don’t like the whole in-front-of-a-crowd audience-recital thing, but this time I really like the attention. It feels great.
So we leave about two hours later. It’s dark outside now and I’m happy Diamond drove her car. We decide to stop at Giorgio’s pizza place before home. This is the first time I’ve been in there since the robbery. And even though it’s been months, it still feels strange. Neither Sierra nor Ursula are here. They never caught all the guys involved in the robbery, so now I’m sitting looking around and thinking it could be anybody here right now. That gives me the creeps. We eat a slice, and then share a cookie like we always do. “So what are y’all doing tomorrow night?” I ask.
“Nothing, why?” Jalisa says.
“I have to work until eight, but after that I’m free,” Diamond adds.
“Cool, Terrence told me about this party tomorrow night. It’s at one of his frat brothers’ houses. It’s supposed to be nice, and Taj is supposed to show up. Do you want to come?”
“Where is it?”
“It’s in Virginia. I don’t know where exactly, but he said it’s not too far from where my dad lives, so it’s gotta be in the neighborhood someplace. He’s driving. Want to come?”
“Cool, sounds good. I want to go.”
“Yeah, me, too. I’m in,” Diamond says, munching on the last of her cookie.
We start talking about other stuff and just as the conversation turns to Darien being back, he walks in the door. I’m facing that way, so I see him and he sees me. Shit. He walks over to our table and looks down at me. “Kenisha.”
I don’t say anything. He leans down close to my ear and whispers so no one else can hear. “Miss me?” His hot breath tickles my neck, but I still don’t say anything. I just grimace and cringe away, looking at my girls sitting across the booth from me. “Do you really think we’re over? Nah, we have unfinished business,” he says, then leans up and walks away. It feels like my skin crawls.
He’s goes to the other side of the room, but I can still feel his body next to me and his hot breath on my neck. It’s creepy.
Both Jalisa and Diamond stare, then lean over looking at me. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call the police?” Diamond asks.
“What’d he say?” Jalisa also asks. “Did he threaten you?”
“I gotta go now,” I whisper.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Jalisa says, nodding.
“Come on, it’s getting late anyway. I need to get my mom’s car back. I’ll give you a ride to your grandma’s house.”
“I only need to pick up a few things for the weekend and then we can go to Virginia. My dad’s on one of his parental rampages. He wants me in the house by nine o’clock.”
Jalisa and Diamond look at each other. It was already close to nine-thirty. “I think you’re gonna be late,” Jalisa says.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s not gonna be home anyway. I heard him making plans for tonight with one of his skanks.”
“All right, let’s go and get your stuff,” Jalisa says.
We get up and leave. I spare one quick glance in Darien’s direction as we walk to the door. He’s sitting in a booth with another guy and he’s staring right at me. I look away, but not before I see him lick and then pucker his lips to blow me a kiss. Gross. My stomach turns and not in a good way.
We pile into the car and head to my grandmother’s house. It’s just around the corner and down a couple of blocks, so we get there quickly. I look up and see the timed lights are on and I know my grandmother’s still at bingo with her friends. If she was back her bedroom light would be on, too. When we get to my bedroom, Jalisa and Diamond crash on my bed while I start packing.
I only gather enough for the weekend ’cause I know I’m gonna be able to talk my father into letting me come back here and stay with Jade while Grandmom’s out of town. I leave a note and then we head out. As we drive through the neighborhood to get to Virginia, I start thinking about the craziness that’s happened in the past few months.
If anyone would have told me a year ago that I’d be living in D.C. with my grandmother and worrying about jobs, money and bills, I would have thought they were nuts. But here I am. This is definitely not how I always thought my life would be like. But I guess nobody thinks that.
So a while later Diamond drops me off and as soon I get in the house I see that my dad’s car isn’t there. No big surprise. I have a key now, so I walk in the front door. It’s quiet, so I decide to liven things up. I call out and an instant later the boys charge me. “Kenisha’s home, Kenisha’s home,” they yell and scream in the singsong way they do. I just start laughing and smiling. Jr. and Jason always crack me up. They’re like mini-me’s on a serious five-energy-drink high. They’re always jumping and dancing, always in trouble and always loving it. Out of everything that has gone on in our connected lives, they are the innocents. My dad, Courtney, my mom, me—we all make our decisions. They don’t have a choice right now.
“Hey, munchkin, hey, lollipop kid,” I say, giving the boys another new nickname like I always do. This one from The Wizard of Oz movie we watched the last time I was here. I bend down and grab them each up in my arms and hug them fiercely. “Miss me?”
They start jumping, dancing and yelling my name again. I join in the dance and we’re all laughing and having a good time. Then they start screami
ng, laughing and flapping their arms, pretending to be the winged monkeys. I can’t help but crack up. They are so funny.
At first, when we watched the movie, I thought they’d be scared, so every time the wicked witch and the monkeys came out I laughed. They laughed, too. Then they started flying around my bedroom just like they’re doing now. I love being a big sister.
“What the hell is all that noise going on down there? Stop it. I told y’all to get your asses in bed. I have a headache.”
The boys and I look up the staircase. Not seeing Courtney is almost as bad as seeing her when she screams and yells like that. I start humming the Wicked Witch of the West theme and they get even wilder, flapping and flying and laughing hysterically. So the more Courtney yells the louder we get, me humming and them laughing. Then she appears at the top of the stairs. Her long weaved-in hair is all over the place and she’s dressed in a tight miniskirt and crop top that, at sixteen, I wouldn’t even consider wearing. She’s trying hard to look young to keep my dad. But she comes off just pathetic.
After the stupid stunt she pulled with her lawyer, she’s doing everything she can to stay in good with him. That means she’s not bitching about money all day long anymore. It wouldn’t matter, anyway, because apparently my dad has completely cut her off. He’s paying everything in the house and she has absolutely no say. Seriously, it was a stupid thing to do and now she’s paying for it.
“Shut up,” she screams again as she gets closer.
The sudden sight of her makes the boys scream and hide behind me. It is so funny and I swear I didn’t make them do this. So now I can’t stop laughing and they start laughing and Courtney comes down the stairs looking even more crazy, if that’s even possible, and then she gets right in my face with her eyes blaring red. Bad idea.
“I am so sick of you messing with my children. As soon as you walk your ass in the door they start acting like this. They never do this when you’re not here.”
“Then I guess I’d better visit more often,” I say.
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