As I down a bowl of cereal I hear David creeping down the stairs. I catch his eye and he whispers something.
"What?" I ask and he rolls his eyes.
"Is ma here?" He asks all whispery. I tell him that she left a while ago and he begins to relax.
"Why what happened?" I ask concerned. He turns his head up towards the top of the stairs and gestures for someone to come down. I then see Nicole come down in one of David's t-shirts.
"Really? You bought Nicole over, ma would kill you if she saw you" I lecture as if he didn't already know.
"That's why I asked if she was here" He responds in a duh tone and I roll my eyes and turn back to my phone.
Nicole takes a seat next to me and I toss her an apple that she catches and bites into. "So Kendra dance practice today?" She questions and I tell her that it's after school.
"We have to audition a whole set of new people so we have to pick a routine for them" I inform her.
"Did you hit up Jojo?" She asks and I roll my eyes once more.
Jojo is my new dance co-captain. Principle Hart demanded that our captains be of different ethnicities so Nicole got dropped. She was pissed but she knows I value her opinion more than Jojo's.
"Unfortunately, plus she has the audacity to suggest a Taylor Swift song like we listen to that" I inform her while taking a sip of my coffee.
"Compromise" David chimes in and I tell him to shut up and stick to breakfast. David mutters something slick under his breath but I ignore it.
"Why choreograph a whole new routine? Girl, just pick one from last year and have them do it you know Beyoncé lemonade album was the shit" She offers and I agree.
"Jojo said we needed more diverse music"
"So she picked Taylor Swift?" She questions and we both laugh at how dumb that sounds.
"Trust me, do the Freedom routine we did and they'll be fine," Nicole tells me and I high five her.
"And this is why you should've stayed captain" I compliment and she flips her curly locks and smiles.
David finally puts down some breakfast for her and I raise a brow. Cereal? Nicole just shakes her head and we continue our conversation about the dance team. This is our last year and we need to plan some fun things to do together.
"You know Nationals are in a couple of months?" She reminds me and I instantly get excited. Nationals is our opportunity to show up and show out. We're not sure where it will be this year but we have to be ready.
"Yeah you have an idea for us"
"Hell yeah it's a group dance with about ten people with this song" She suggests as she pulls out her phone. She scrolls through her music until she pulls up an album.
She presses on the song, #ChangeRightNow (feat. Amber Riley) and as the song plays my mind starts roaming on a routine we could do.
"This song is lit, whose is it by?" I ask as I search through her phone.
"It's by some guy named MAJOR. I stumbled across him somehow" She tells me and I tell her to send me the audio file and whatever else she finds that we could use. My phone suddenly rings and I realize it's my alarm clock. I groan at the thought of going to school.
"Ugh, do we have to go?" Nicole complains and I press my lips into a straight line.
"Unfortunately yes" I answer as we get up and head upstairs to get ready.
^.^.^
Tuesdays are just sucky days, to be honest. I mean Monday's are pretty unbearable but Tuesday's are just the worse. It's like the first drop on a rollercoaster. Monday's would be the track all the way to the top.
Jojo and I have been butting heads all day about the stupid dance auditions and eventually, she won because she went to the principle and shoved her hand up his ass.
I failed a stupid physics test and when Cole boasted about him passing with flying colors I became really annoyed. Nothing was going my way today and on top of that, I left my wallet at home so I'm hungrier than a motherfucker.
Jojo blows into her whistle way too close to my ear and I feel my blood pressure rise by the second.
"Alright girls! We'll start this audition off with a few stretches just so you don't pull a muscle" She announces in a high shrill voice. The twenty girls out on the floor look to one another before they get into a position to stretch.
I inwardly groan and walk away to stand with the other senior dancers on the team. Jade, Queen, Nicole, Iris, me, and two other boys named Pablo and Ray stand off to the side while Jojo instructs them.
"What's wrong Kendra?" Ray asks as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Jojo" I answer in an annoyed tone.
"Leave the junior alone this is her first year as captain" Queen tries to defend and I eye her.
"Sorry" She mutters while looking away and Pablo puts an arm around her shoulder, "I'll shield you baby" He jokes and Queen's face rolls up.
"In your dreams Pablo" She responds and Pablo pretends to look hurt.
I fold my arm while Jojo teaches them some stretches. After about twenty minutes I finally take the stand and tell them that they must be able to do it and I teach them the routine.
Once auditions are through we tell them that in a few days we'll send out a text about who made the team. We dismiss and I head straight for the locker room to get ready for soccer practice.
As I tie my sneakers I notice Vanessa rushing in and heading straight for her locker to get her stuff. The conversation about her and Mickey comes to mind and I figure now is the opportunity for us to talk about it.
I wait until the other girls have left to walk over to her. As she hurriedly puts on her jersey and her shorts I speak up.
"What's up Vanessa I haven't seen you all summer," I say to start the conversation.
She looks up and smiles, "Hey Kendra, sorry about that I was so busy with other stuff" She responds and I nod my head.
"That's funny because I thought you didn't have any plans"
"Well, I made some" She answers and I tilt my head.
"With Mickey Corbin?" I ask her and she looks up from her sneakers.
She chuckles and turns to me, "So I guess your little birdies told you" She says while tying up her hair.
"Is it true?" I ask.
"We hung out a little yeah"
"Hung out a little?" I ask and I catch small glimpses of irritation in her face.
"What's it to you?" She responds and I shrug my shoulders.
"Just curious about what side you're on now" As soon as the sentence leaves my lips she scoffs at me.
"Oh my God," She says and shakes her head.
"What?"
"We have practice, can you force your beliefs down my throat afterward?" She asks and I am shocked by her response.
"Excuse me?"
"It's amazing how blind you are to things, we're not at war" She answers and turns away.
I grab onto her shoulder and turn her around, "What the hell does that mean?" I ask.
"It means what Mickey and I do is none of your business" She states firmly.
"What happened to you?" I ask and she rolls her eyes.
"I realized not all white people are the same, that's what happened" She snaps and I feel anger simmering on the inside.
"Then you're a fool" I spit back.
"I'm a fool?" Vanessa steps closer to me insulted by my words.
"Yes, you are!"
"Why? Because I don't shout social injustice from the rooftops? I'm good sweetie"
"No, because you actually think you can trust him"
"Careful, you'll pull a muscle if you reach any higher. You don't even fucking know him, Kendra"
"I don't have to I know what people like him are like"
"That sounds a lot like prejudice. You know how us black people feel about that"
"Are you really defending white people? The ones who enslaved us"
"Mickey didn't enslave anyone"
"He's in the bloodline of those who did"
"Do you hear how crazy you sound right now? Angela Davis would not approve and you know shit about his ancestry" She questions
"I understand plenty Vanessa, I understand that you are crazy to want to date a vanilla I never would"
She rolls her eyes and points a finger at me, "That's right Kendra you never would. I'm not you" Vanessa shakes her head and turns to walk out of the locker room.
Her words make my skin crawl and it pisses me off. If she wants thousands of people looking at her because she's with a white boy then fine. I wouldn't want to deal with it. I couldn't even look at myself if I ever dated a white boy.
Finally, I make it onto the field and lucky us today we get to share with the boys. I take my place by my team and as we run drills I can't help but replay the entire conversation in my head.
I don't address her and she doesn't address me but the tension is there. It's so clear you can almost slice it with a damn knife. I can already tell this year will be crazy.