“Why are you guys sitting in the dirt?” I ask. “There are creepy-crawly things down there.” City girl here. Dogs poop in grass.
“Well, aren’t you the queen of England,” Melissa snarls with her mouth full of bologna sandwich. “There weren’t any more tables.”
“We sit in the grass all the time,” Tina chimes in. “It’s no big deal.”
I grab my sandwich off the tray and eat standing up. Sally just rolls her eyes and gracefully lowers, sitting with her legs crossed.
“And I thought she was the princess,” Melissa says, her mouth again full of food. Sally shoots her a look. “Sorry, but I did,” Melissa admits.
I stand a little while longer, not just because I don’t want to sit on the grass but because I am still keeping an eye out for the cutest boy I’ve ever met in my life. Where can he be? After realizing Charlie probably didn’t come to camp today, I plop down and join my team on the grass. It’s not so bad. Me. Grass. North Carolina. Hmm. What if my parents left us here? Would I be okay with this? I don’t know, but okay, it’s not half bad.
“Look! Ants!” a squeaky voice says.
“Where?” I quickly jump back to my feet, shaking and dusting off any possible ants, but there isn’t anything except juice dripping from my face. Ugh! All I hear is laughter. It’s the Bouncing Belles.
“The Brooklyn girl is afraid of bugs! Ha ha!” Ivy laughs.
“Yeah, I am really tired of a certain little bug with beady blue eyes.” I charge toward Ivy as I wipe juice from my face. Melissa holds me back.
“So this is your crew?” Ivy laughs to the other Belles.
“Yeah, you got something to say about it?” My Brooklyn attitude flares.
“First, you have a loser on your team,” Ivy says, referring to Sally. “Then a bunch of nobodies who probably can’t even skip single rope, much less jump double Dutch.”
“You might as well quit now,” the taller girl says. The Belles agree and snicker. Oooh—I wonder if she’s had lunch yet, because I sure do want to feed this girl a knuckle sandwich right now…but I can’t! I won’t let myself go there. If I get in any kind of trouble, that would not be good. Uuuggghh! I smirk, the way a superhero smirks before spitting fire or something awesome to crush an enemy.
“First, back up,” I say. She doesn’t. “Okay then.” I get closer and cross my arms to let her know she doesn’t scare me. “Second, my cousin is nobody’s loser.” I glance at Sally, but she cowers. The double Dutch divas grumble. “You just better get ready because this team—yes, this team—is going to ring your little Belles right out of the gym.” I think I put more stank on my confidence than I truly have for my team ’cause I’m not about to back down.
Then Ivy stands on her tippy-toes and looks right into my eyes. “Huh” is all she says. Suddenly the rest of her crew busts out laughing.
“Let’s go, Ivy,” the taller blond Belle calls. “We shouldn’t be wasting our time. They don’t even have a coach.”
“You’re right, Brie,” Ivy responds. “Why are we wasting our time?” They gather and saunter off like they know they’ve got us beat already. This sucks! That friggin’ runt is really getting under my skin, and there’s nothing I can do about it but beat them at the competition. I turn to my team.
“Since we won’t get any practice today, we’ll have to start over the weekend,” I say seriously. “Sally’s house. Seven a.m.”
“Seven?” Melissa grunts.
“But tomorrow is Saturday.” Tina isn’t happy either.
“Do you guys want to have a chance, or are you going to let those double Dutch bullies keep pouncing on us? Not me,” I say, then wait for an answer. But there is none. Until…Sally stands.
“I’m ready,” she says with determination in her voice. Suddenly I am so proud of her.
“Who else?” I try to keep the momentum.
“You’re right. I want to crush those heffas!” Melissa shouts. We all turn to Tina.
“Okay.” Tina shrugs. “See you guys in the morning.” She’s odd. At this point I don’t care if she and Melissa have two left feet. Tomorrow they are going to learn how to double Dutch if we have to stay up all night. I just pray they’re fast learners.
The next morning I am still so on fire from our little run-in with the divas that I don’t even eat breakfast. I grab my cousin Marc’s old boom box from his dresser and head outside to the driveway. We won’t need music for freestyle, but it might help us with our rhythm. Sally actually beats me there.
“Good morning,” Sally says as she tightens the laces on her sneakers. Who wears pink BeDazzled sneakers? My princess cousin, of course.
“Hey,” I reply, surprised. I think my cousin is really starting to show some signs of something, but I’m not sure if it’s determination to get back at the girls who have been dragging her through the mud for too long or if she’s excited about hanging up her ballet slippers for a minute to do double Dutch again. Either way, it’s a side of her I am really happy to see.
Tina and Melissa show up with their long hair tied in ponytails and their game faces on.
“I took this from my backyard just in case,” Melissa says, showing me an extra rope. “My mother is going to have a fit when she finds out I took her clothesline.”
“People still use those?” I ask.
“Yeah, the people who live in the trailer park,” Sally says nonchalantly.
“Got a problem with that, Princess?” Melissa grunts.
“No! I’m just saying.” Sally shrugs it off.
“She didn’t mean anything,” I reassure Melissa. “Let’s just get to work.”
“Well, buenos dias, bitches,” Tina says sarcastically. Did she just call us “bitches”? As much as I’ve heard
