Loving a Slauson Boy

Chapter 1

September 2006 - First Day of School at Crenshaw High

The first time Khalil Mercer spoke to me, I pretended I didn't hear him.

Not because I didn't know who he was.

Everybody knew Khalil.

He'd already been at Crenshaw a whole year before Vanessa and I got there. By junior year, I'd spent two years seeing him in the halls and learning way too much about a boy I'd never even had a conversation with.

Girls talked about Khalil loud too. Like everybody needed to know.

His smile. His hair. His basketball games. Whether the girl wearing his jacket on Tuesday was the same one crying near the gym on Friday. Some swore he was kind. Others called him a player. More than one swore she could have him whenever she wanted, which didn't make no sense considering how often they argued over whose turn it was.

I never added nothing to those conversations.

I listened, though.

Quietly.

Crenshaw was extra loud that morning. First day back always was. Shoes squeaked over the waxed floors. Somebody's silver iPod leaked E-40 through white earbuds while a boy by the stairs played "Why You Wanna" by T.I. from his phone like the hallway needed a soundtrack. Girls yelled conversations across the hallway like walking over to each other required too much effort.

"Keep moving," a security aide called. "Y'all can admire each other in class."

Nobody moved any faster.

The sun stretched across the courtyard outside. A Metro bus pulled away from the corner, and the palm trees behind the fence barely moved.

Everybody had come dressed like somebody important might be watching.

Fresh shoes. New backpacks. Clean cuts and sharp lineups. Girls who spent the last week of summer claiming they didn't care about the first day came in with laid edges, fresh nails, and outfits that definitely didn't put themselves together.

Mine ain't either.

My black skirt hugged my hips and ended several inches above my knees, short enough to show off my legs without being short enough for Mama to send me back to my room. Black boots came nearly to my knees, fitted snugly around my calves with slightly rounded toes and a thick square heel that made each step feel more important than it was. Mama called them entirely too much boot for September.

I wore them anyway.

A fitted powder-blue camisole showed beneath my cropped denim jacket. Large silver hoops caught the light whenever I turned my head, and a small heart rested at the center of the chain near my collarbone. My curls had survived the bus. My lip liner was still where I put it. I checked myself by the main office and didn't find nothing that needed fixing.

The skirt had fit different when I bought it in June.

So did a few other things.

Mama said I was filling out. Maya said my butt got big. Vanessa said I got thick over the summer and Jordyn took one look at my skirt that morning and announced I was about to ruin somebody's first day.

I didn't look exactly how I did before summer.

Apparently, Khalil noticed too.

That morning, he finally said something.

**********

Vanessa walked on my left, close enough that our arms kept bumping. Jordyn was on my right, talking with both hands while her brand new Sidekick sat open in one palm.