“All right, then. Welcome to Haven House. We hope you’ll heal and regroup quickly here.”
“Thank you,” whispered Sasha. Gail closed the door behind her. Sasha sank to the naked mattress, dumped the linen on to the bed beside and covered her face with her hands. There were still some tears left.
Brielle
“You know your boy Damon dogged that girl, Sasha Anderson,” said Asia.
Asia was Brielle’s girl at school. She could always be counted on to have the latest gossip. She spit it out, quick and staccato, like she was a newswoman commentating a particularly exciting or gruesome news story. Usually Brielle was into it, but this was news about Damon, and not what she wanted to hear. The gossip got on Brielle’s last nerve.
“Really,” said Brielle. They were sitting into the cafeteria at the lunch table. Brielle was slowly eating a second piece of pizza. She saved the tossed salad and cookie for last, because by the time lunch rolled around Brielle was starving. If she ate too fast she’d throw up in the pool later and wouldn’t that be nasty. Asia continued talking about how fast Sasha was and what a dog Damon could be until Brielle wanted to scream. She put a stop to the commentary by standing up.
“I’ve got to go,” Brielle said. Asia looked puzzled.
“Got to talk to Mrs. King about my essay before class,” Brielle said.
Asia’s expression cleared up and she nodded. “Catch you later, girlfriend.”
“Okay,” said Brielle and walked away, stifling a sigh of relief.
Brielle was a more than a little irritated. Damon expressed the least interest in her; everybody wanted to know why. He hadn’t done much more than walk her to class, carry her books or sit next to her, and the whole school was buzzing about how she was different that Damon’s usual fare. Like Brielle was ugly or something. One girl named Charlene had even walked up to her in the locker room this morning and asked Brielle,
“What you got that I don’t have?”
“What?” Brielle had asked. Mommy was constantly telling Brielle that she should try to be tactful when she spoke to people, but Brielle had a hard time remembering that when she was put on the spot. Unless she was trying to stammer out words around Damon, her mouth had its own mind and the willingness to speak it. Brielle couldn’t figure out why she was so shy around him.
“What are you talking about?” Brielle asked the shorter girl.
“You heard me,” said Charlene. “What do you got that I don’t got?”
“I don’t follow you,” said Brielle, with a sniff. “But offhand, I’d say I’ve got height and correct diction.” She rolled one braid between her fingers and stared down at the shorter girl. She had just finished her morning swim class and her hair was still damp. She could feel a bead of water run down her thumb and she released the braid and rubbed her thumb and fingers together to get rid of it.
Charlene was one of those girls who had to be the center of attention. She was short, shapely and wore her clothes sausage casing tight for maximum effect. She tried to date the most popular boys in the school and thought that she sweated perfume. She traveled with an entourage named Susan and Ellen, two mousey girls, one white, one black, who in Brielle’s estimation, had never held an original opinion on any subject. Charlene was hawking on Damon something fierce, but Brielle didn’t like to make enemies if she could avoid it.
Brielle was not one of the popular crowd; swimming not being a mainstream sport for black girls. She’d never had a problem with Charlene. She was beneath Charlene’s notice. Or as her friend Sammie would say, she was above Charlene’s notice, since Charlene barely topped five feet in height. Word was that Charlene had tried to talk to Damon, but he’d let her know in no uncertain term that he was not interested. As a result, Charlene and her girls had a mad on with Brielle.
“Damon said you talked about me,” said Charlene. The two girls behind her nodded like trained lap dogs.
“That is a lie. Why would I?” asked Brielle.
“He said you said I act like a freak. Damon told me that I should act more like you, if I wanted to get with him,” said Charlene, looking like she wanted to spit. “So what you got?”
“Some dignity,” answered Brielle. She could feel her temper drop to freezing. “If he doesn’t like you, why are you fronting me off? Take it up with Damon.” She folded her arms in front of her and glared at Charlene.
“You’re not even cute,” said Charlene. “You’re all big and stuff. He must be trying to get with you because you’re giving up the honey.”
Brielle was suddenly so mad she couldn’t see straight.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Brielle, through clenched teeth. “Damon was right. You are acting like a freak.”
“Who are you calling a freak?” snarled Charlene. She pushed Brielle hard against the locker. Brielle righted herself, and shoved Charlene, causing the smaller girl to stagger back into her friends arms, but before she could launch what would have been a stunning blow, she felt someone grab her arm. She looked around.
“Don’t,” said Kyzie, who had walked up just in time to hear Brielle’s last statement and see the push. Eyes narrowed and she spoke very softly so the other girls had to strain to hear. “You get expelled, mommy will kill you. Besides, you have to swim tonight. Don’t mess up your arm.”
Kyzie turned to Charlene. “Step off, Tinker bell, before I let my sister dust you off.”
“Forget you,” said Charlene, giving Kyzie the finger.
“Oh, that’s classy,” said Kyzie.
Charlene took a step forward.
“Don’t,” repeated Kyzie, freezing Charlene with a look. She smiled, a
