“Tiara?” he said, causing her to whip her head around. “I like that name.”
“Thank you,” she returned his smile. “What’s your name?”
“Mario.”
“Mario? Hmm . . . fits you. Well, I’ll see you around, Mario.”
“I do hope so.”
Tiara hurried up and turned around before he could see her face turn beet red. Jen gave her a knowing look when she shut Principal Schroeder’s door behind them. She called a security guard with her walkie-talkie to show Tiara to her next class. He showed up in no time, but before he left with Tiara, Jen grabbed her hand gently.
“Can this please be the last time I see you in this office?” she asked.
“I can’t make any promises,” Tiara told her with a sly smile. “But I can try to make my next visit not so soon.”
Chapter 4
“Oh my gosh, girl, he was so fine!” Tiara was telling Brandy at lunch. “I have never seen anybody look so good except for on the Internet!”
Tiara had been waiting for her lunch period for what seemed like a whole year. When the bell finally rang in her AP Psychology class, she jetted out of the hallway to meet Brandy in the cafeteria. She spotted her instantly at the table they sat at every day with a few other girls, but Tiara didn’t really care for them to know her business all like that. She sat down and spoke in a low, excited voice to her friend.
“Is he like, ‘I’ll ride his dick fine’?”
“Girl, he’s ‘I’ll ride it, suck it, and swallow it’ fine!”
“Stop it!” Brandy laughed and hit her friend on the arm. “Your virgin ass ain’t swallowing nobody’s kids!”
“Shiiiiiit!”
“So is he like here for the whole day? Like did he start school here already?” Brandy asked, happy that her friend finally had a crush.
She secretly had started to think that her friend was going the other way because she never gave any guys at their school a chance. She was truly excited to see her girl interested in a boy. She could see the giddiness in Tiara’s eyes when she spoke about him and could only imagine what he looked like.
“Well, he was getting his class schedule, so I would assume that he does start today. He was also in his uniform.”
“See! It was meant for you to beat the shit out of Ericka today! If you hadn’t done that, then you wouldn’t have had to go to the office, and you wouldn’t have met the man of your dreams!”
Tiara burst out laughing. Brandy was really into that “destiny” mumbo jumbo, and she truly felt that everything happened for a reason. There was never anything left up to chance.
“Uh, man of my dreams?” Tiara raised her eyebrow still laughing. “I don’t know about that, but he is sexy, though. Come on, there’s enough girls here to hold the table down so let’s get in the lunch line.”
The two of them walked through all the students who had lunch that period and stopped when they got to one of the two lunch lines in the middle of the cafeteria. The two girls easily could have cut the whole line and nobody would say anything to them, but Tiara wasn’t the type to abuse her power. Like always, the two of them got in the line wherever they fell in it.
“Tiara!”
Tiara heard a familiar voice call her name. She leaned back and looked up the line. What she saw made her smile. There was Mario waving at her and telling the two of them to come cut in line with him.
“Come on!” Tiara grabbed Brandy’s hand, suddenly having a change of heart, and dragged her to the front of the line.
When Brandy’s eyes laid on Mario, she understood exactly why her friend’s mind was so gone. The boy was fine. Not just normal fine, like GQ magazine fine.
“Well, uh, hello,” Brandy said and nudged Tiara with her shoulder giving her the silent “OK.”
“Hey,” Mario flashed them a charming smile. “You are?”
“Her best friend. My name is Brandy. I already know your name; no need to introduce yourself.”
If looks could kill, then Tiara would have sent Brandy to an early death. Mario saw this and burst out laughing.
“You musta been talking about me then,” he said to Tiara who made a face. “It’s OK because I’ve been thinking about you too. I’m just glad that I could make a lasting impression.”
He winked at a very embarrassed and speechless Tiara. Luckily for her, it was her turn to grab a tray and choose her lunch. Tiara wasn’t a salad-eating girl. She chose a greasy hamburger, fries, and bought a lemonade with the tab her father had for her. When she reached the end of the line, she entered in her school ID and waited for the other two to join her.
“Do you have anywhere to sit?” Tiara asked Mario. “If not, you can sit with us.”
She looked at the table they had just come from and saw that there were only two available seats. She looked at Brandy for help, knowing that this might be the only chance she got to make an impression on him. She’d already seen the way the other girls were eyeing him like a hawk, and she wanted to sink her claws in him first. Brandy was quick on her feet. She spotted an empty table not too far from where they were standing and pointed it out to them.
“Y’all go sit over there,” Brandy said. “I’ll go sit at our usual table and listen to these boring hoes talk about basic bitch shit by myself today. I’ll see you after school, Ti Ti.”
She gave Mario another look of approval before she took her tray of food back to the table she originated from. Tiara led the way to
