Bust a Move (9 page)

I was going to take care of everything tonight,
Devane thought.
But I'm not sure what I can do to fix this.

 

 

 

“The competition is actually starting, and ill papi still isn't here.” Sophie felt like her skin was a size too small—just itchy and uncomfortable and
wrong
. “Something's up. Something bad.”

“You don't know that,” Emerson said. “He could be late for lots of reasons. Things just happen, Soph. Everyday things.”

Sophie shook her head. “This isn't a missed-bus kind of deal. It's something else. I know it.”

“Maybe we could ask his dad,” Emerson suggested. “Maybe ill papi even came with him.”

“If he came with J-Bang, he'd be here. J-Bang already introduced the first group,” she shot back. Her voice came out a lot louder than she meant it to. “Sorry. I didn't mean to get snappy. I'm just worried.”

“I know,” Emerson said. “I get it. Ill papi's always on time for class and everything.”

“How screwed are we if he doesn't get his butt down here?” Chloe asked as she and M.J. joined the pair.

“I don't even care about that,” Sophie said.

“What?” M.J. demanded. “We don't make the cut tonight and we have no shot at the championship. How can you say you don't care?”

“Okay. You're right. I care.” Sophie scrubbed her face with her fingers. “I just meant—don't you guys think ill papi has been acting weird the last few weeks? Don't you think something could be up with him? Something maybe he needs us to help him out with.”

“What are you talking about? Weird how?” M.J. asked.

Sophie knew it would sound stupid if she tried it put it into words. She couldn't say that ill papi hadn't been laughing at her jokes or talking to her that much. And that maybe it was just because he'd figured out she liked him.

No, she definitely couldn't go blabbing that to her friends. Not even to Emerson.

“Weird how?” M.J. repeated.

“I don't know. Just a vibe,” Sophie muttered.

“Has anyone even tried to call him?” Emerson asked.

“I heard Devane say she was going to call him for Gina,” Chloe said.

M.J. looked around the backstage area. “Devane!” he called, spotting her.

She hurried over. “What's up? I told Billy we needed at least twenty-five waters, and he didn't send enough. Are we out?”

“We just wanted to know if you talked to ill papi,” Emerson told her.

“I just got the machine,” Devane told them all. “I left all the competition info in case he got confused about the date or something.”

“No way,” M.J. burst out. “After all the extra rehearsals?”

“Anyone hear anything about ill papi?” Fridge asked as he headed toward them.

“No,” everyone in the group said at once.

“What are we going to do about the showstopper?” Fridge tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. “We need that jackhammer to one-arm planche. No one else can do it. And me and M.J. doing the crickets on either side of nothing isn't going to be that impressive. We're gonna get burned.”

Sophie knew she should be thinking about how they could still win without ill papi. But all she could think about was . . . ill papi. There was no way he'd have bailed on them tonight unless something big had come up. And if it was a good big, he probably still would have shown. Because good bigs didn't stop your life the way bad bigs did.

“At least we're not up until after intermission,” Rachel said.

“But if he's not here, then what?” M.J. asked. “Fridge is right. Ill papi's front and center in a lot of our routine. We're going to look damaged without him.”

“The judges are definitely going to notice something's off,” Chloe agreed. “Do you think we could get eliminated tonight?”

“We could get eliminated tonight. We might not even get a shot at the championship,” Ky said softly. He and Sammi stood side by side in the wings, watching the Storm Lords do their first routine. “I can't believe I'm sayin' that.”

“You guys are great,” Sammi told him. “
You're
great. And when you guys are up, I'm going to try to get a seat right behind the judges and clap as loud as I possibly can, just in case they aren't seeing how great you are.” She gave him a light punch. “I can't believe you've got me trying to build up your ego. It's already out of control.”

“Look at those guys,” Ky said, skipping one of his usual mock-conceited answers. “Three of them doing a jackhammer at once.” He shook his head. “I've got the cricket down, but I haven't been able to take it to the next level, not all the way. Ill papi's the only one in our crew that's got one. We need the illin' man tonight to keep up with this crew.”

“Where do you think he is?” Sammi asked.

“If you don't know, why should I? You're his keeper, right?” Ky asked, an edge to his voice. Then he shrugged. “I got no idea. It's not like papi to disappear.”

Sammi didn't like the sound of that. Had something happened to ill papi? She'd just been thinking he was late. Was something more going on? Something worse?

“Maybe Gina's heard from him by now,” Sammi suggested as the Storm Lords slammed to a finish and the crowd went crazy. “Maybe he's even shown up.”

“He best have,” Ky said. “Like I said, we need him tonight.”

Sammi reached out and gave Ky a fast, hard hug. “With him or without him, you guys are going to fire up the place.”

Ky grinned, his eyes most definitely firing up the place. “If you say so.”

“Allan, cough drops—with honey, no lemon.” Devane tossed him the box.

“Thanks.”

“What I'm here for,” Devane said. She swept her eyes over the room, looking for anyone else who looked like they needed anything. Gina definitely seemed to be stressing. Devane hurried over.

“There's nothing for you to do right now,” Devane told her teacher. “I've got everything under control. How about if I give you a neck massage? I do it for my mom sometimes when she has one of her double-job days. She says I'm the best.”

Gina smiled. “I'm sure you are. But a massage won't get ill papi over here, and, honestly, that's what I really need.”

“I'll leave him another message.” Devane pulled the cell Emerson had loaned her out of her pocket.

“That's okay,” Gina said. “One message is the same as twenty, right? You either get it or you don't. I just hope nothing serious has happened to him.”

So no more messages. What else could Devane do to get ill papi to the regionals? Because truth, the crew needed him. Especially without her.

Okay, what did she know about ills? From the contact sheet, she knew he lived in Liberty Heights. Too far for her to go over and get him—if he was home and not answering the phone or if the phone wasn't working.

But her mom's friend Tisha lived over there. So Tisha could go over to ill papi's and see what the sitch was and report back to Devane. And if ill papi
was
home, Tisha could drive him over here. Devane dialed as she pulled the contact sheet she'd used to call ill papi out of her pocket.

“Tamal, I need Tisha's phone number,” she said. “And let's just skip over all the negotiating. Get me the number without saying anything else and you get enough snickerdoodles to make you sick for a week.”

In less than thirty seconds, Devane had the number. She punched it into the phone. The thinnest cell she'd ever seen.

“Huddle up, everybody,” Gina called. “It's intermission. We need to talk.”

Devane moved away from the group and put one finger in her ear. She wished she could just deal with Tisha the way she had with Tamal. But Tisha would want manners and explanations and all.

“Hey, Tisha,” she said when her mother's friend answered. “It's Devane Edwards. How are you?”

Tisha wasn't one of those people who just said “fine.” She was one of those people who told you exactly how she was—starting with her bunions and moving on up to the roots of her hair, which she needed to have dyed.

Devane clucked and went “I hear you” until Tisha wrapped it up. “And how are you doing? How's your mom?”

Tisha saw Devane's mother almost every day at the Shop Rite where they worked. So Devane answered the first question. “I'm not so great right this second, Tisha. I thought maybe you could help me.”

“What's wrong?” Tisha sounded alarmed.

“No, wait. I'm not hurt or anything,” Devane said quickly. How could she have forgotten how fast Tisha could lose it? “I'm fine. Tamal's fine. Mama's fine. I'm just down at a competition for my hip-hop dance group. One of our dancers didn't show, and we really need him if we're going to win tonight.”

“You scared me half to death for that?” Tisha scolded.

“I'm sorry. Truly,” Devane apologized. “The thing is, he lives in your neighborhood. I was wondering if you could possibly run over to his house. I've been trying to get in touch with him—but maybe his phone is out or something.”

“Devane, I've been working all day. I don't have time to be your messenger girl. Does your mother know you're calling to ask me this?” Tisha demanded.

“No. She's not home right now. I just thought maybe—”

“If you needed me for something important, I'd be there in a minute; you know that,” Tisha said. “But not for this. I'm hanging up now.
Dancing with the Stars
is about to come on.”

Devane checked her watch. There was hardly any time left to get ill papi here from Liberty Heights—if that's even where he was. She had to think fast. Didn't Tamal have a friend who lived there? And didn't the friend have a brother with a car? Devane wasn't Devane if she couldn't talk that boy with his car into doing her a little favor. She punched in her home phone number again.

“Tamal, who is that friend of yours who—”

“Devane!” Gina called. Devane took the finger out of her ear and held it up, giving Gina the one-second signal. “I need the number of that friend of yours who lives in—”

“Devane, I need you off that phone immediately!”

“I'll call you back.” Devane hung up the phone and hurried over to the group around Gina.

She'd done it again. She'd spent hours racking up good-girl points. Then she'd thrown a bunch of them away by doing something that irritated Gina. If Devane kept messing up like this, she'd never make it off probation.

“Sorry, I was trying to find a way to track down ill papi,” Devane said quickly.

“I think we're going to have to give up on that as a possibility. We're up in just about half an hour.” Gina raked her curly hair away from her face with both hands.

“So what are we going to do?” Ky asked. “How are we going to—”

Gina held up both hands, palms out, like a traffic cop. “I'm talking. Here's the plan.” She looked over at Devane. “You've been rehearsing the routine. Do you think you could fill—”

Devane didn't let Gina finish. “I'm there.”

Gina nodded. “Let's use the time we have to walk through the routine with Devane in ill papi's spot. We'll have to make some changes. I was thinking we could substitute your cross-legged flare, hollow-back freeze for that last combo ill papi does,” she told Devane.

“Got it,” Devane said.

She so got it. It had finally happened. She was off probation! Her plan was rolling again!