Fair-Weather Friends (13 page)

“I wasn't tryin' to fight, but I'm not gon' let her just hit me either!” Tori yelled.

“You need to learn to shut your face!” Christina screamed back.

“I said, stop it!” Rachel shouted. “I know this isn't a school-sponsored event, but this sort of behavior can still get you suspended!” She grabbed both of their arms and shook them. “So you both need to chill out!”

Both of them snatched their arms away, but they did calm down.

Rachel sighed heavily, then looked at Tori. “Do you know how long your ancestors fought to escape this ridiculous bigotry?” She then turned to Christina. “And yours fought just as hard to overcome prejudices, and here you all are fighting each other.”

Rachel took a deep breath as the bus driver approached her.

“Mrs. Adams, if we're going to make it to New Orleans at a decent hour, we need to get loaded up and on the road,” he said.

Rachel looked like she was thinking for a minute, then finally she said, “Jerome, I'm sorry. But under the circumstances, I just don't think it's a good idea for us to be taking a trip right now.” She sighed and looked at us in disappointment.
“They're supposed to be going to help people. Obviously, that's not a priority for them right now. No, as much as the people of New Orleans need us, we got some problems here at home that we need to take care of first,” she said matter-of-factly.

Several people protested, but after the other chaperones backed Miss Rachel, I could see there was no changing their minds.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement, but deep down, I knew Miss Rachel was right. The trip had started off horribly before we even got out of the parking lot. We would've killed each other before the weekend was up. Yeah, we needed to get our own house in order before we went trying to straighten up someone else's.

I
could tell Miss Rachel was still upset with us by the disgusted look on her face as me, Alexis, Camille, and Tameka silently piled into the room. Surprisingly, Angel walked in just as we had gotten settled. She didn't speak to us as she walked and sat a couple of rows over. I couldn't believe we were at the point where we weren't even talking to each other now. This whole mess was making me sick.

Miss Rachel took her usual spot at the oak podium at the front of the room. Her eyes were misty. “You know, I look at you girls sitting there with these horrible looks on your faces. The tension in this room is so thick you can cut it with two knives. I see all of this and it just breaks my heart. What happened to the girls who swore to me that they would be friends for life? What happened to the girls who made me so proud because they were role models for their peers? Huh?”

I wanted to let Miss Rachel know I didn't have anything
to do with any of this. Everything stemmed from everybody else's desire to be in a stupid sorority. I was perfectly fine with things just the way they were before.

“Have I been getting through to you all at all?” Rachel said, after no one said anything. She looked around at each of us.

I finally nodded before speaking up. “I hear everything you say, Miss Rachel. But obviously, I'm the only one.
I
know what it means to be a true friend,” I stressed.

“Do you? Have you truly forgiven Alexis, or are you still harboring some anger yourself about the whole C. J. incident?” Rachel asked.

I folded my arms across my chest. “She's still breathing, so I must've forgiven her,” I snapped.

Rachel shook her head as she turned to Angel. “Angel, you don't have anything to say? Ever since this foolishness started you've been missing in action, and when you are here, you don't add anything to the conversation.”

Angel raised her left eyebrow. “I don't have anything to say.”

Rachel sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. “The sad part is that even if I get through to you all, it's not going to change what's going on at your school, in your community. It's not going to change this climate of hate that seems to be breeding.” Rachel took a deep breath before continuing. “I'm sure you all have heard the saying, ‘Love your neighbor.' Well, I wanted to remind you of one of my
favorite Bible verses from Matthew 5:44. It says, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.' ”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tameka asked, showing some interest for the first time since the meeting started.

“Loving your enemy is not as hard as it looks on the surface. It simply means respecting others and regarding their needs and desires as highly as we regard our own,” Rachel answered.

“Yeah, right,” I mumbled. “You have to give respect to get respect.”

“Trust me,” Rachel said. “I know how hard that can be better than anybody. Staying true to that thought is likely going to require the kind of assistance only God can provide. I mean, how can we learn to love people who treat us like dirt, especially when we don't even like them?”

She looked at me. I was hoping she didn't expect me to answer that because I was about to say, “You can't.”

“Perhaps the secret is to recognize that that person, whoever they may be, is someone who is just as worthy of God's love as you or I,” Rachel continued without waiting on me to answer.

After a few more minutes of her “love your neighbor” lecture, I heard her asking, “Does anyone have any suggestions on something we can do to improve this current situation? Not just among us, but in the community as a whole?”

The room was silent for a few minutes. Finally, I raised my hand. “What if you work with the school to put on a peace forum or something, you know, to promote unity.” I don't know where the idea came from, but I just knew we had to do something.

Rachel looked at me and a small smile crept up on her face.

“Jasmine, that is a fantastic idea! The principal of Madison is a member here at Zion Hill. I'm going to give her a call and talk to her about that because I think that's something that everyone can benefit from right now. Don't you think that's a good idea?” She turned to Angel.

Angel shrugged. “Whatever.”

I don't know if a peace forum was the answer, but watching Angel's nonchalant attitude, I knew we had to try something.

I
really was starting to question just what I ever saw in Kalvin.

As usual, he was going on and on about how great of a football player he was, how he was probably going to skip college and go straight into the NFL. He was a good player, but I don't know if he was all that. He never gave me a chance to compliment him though because he was too busy complimenting himself and it was straight getting on my nerves.

“So did you catch me shaking off that dude that tried to tackle me at the game Saturday?” Kalvin said, as he brushed his fade for the ten thousandth time.

“Yes, Kalvin. I told you already, you were off the chain in that game,” I replied in a monotone voice.

Kalvin and I were at the AMC Movie Theater near First Colony Mall, waiting to see this new movie starring Big Boi from Outkast. The previews were just starting and I found myself wishing the movie was over already.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm expecting the scouts to come knockin' down my door any day now,” Kalvin continued. “I mean, I know I'm just a junior, but I'm so cold, they not gon' be able to wait.”

I glanced over at Kalvin and wanted to throw up. I found myself wishing he would just shut up and sit there and look cute, since that's about all he had going for him.

I felt my phone vibrate and looked down to see that I had an incoming text message from Alexis.
How's it going?

I didn't even try to be discreet. I just typed back, Horrible. This is the first and last date.

Alexis replied with: LOL. Call me when u get home and tell me everything.

“Who is that?” Kalvin asked, peering at my cell phone. “I know you ain't got no other dude textin' you while you chillin' with me.”

I fought back a groan. “That wasn't another dude. That was my girl, Alexis. She was trying to see what I was getting into later,” I lied.

Kalvin smiled. “Did you tell her you were busy because you were all into me?”

I just stared at him to see if he was serious. He was. I shook my head, leaned back, and turned my attention back to the movie screen.

Of course, it didn't faze Kalvin. He continued talking about himself, and I continued to tune him out. Kalvin
rambled on for another five minutes, talking about what, I don't even know. But I did turn my attention back to him when I heard him snap, “Man, they make me sick.”

“Who are you talking about?” I asked, looking around.

He pointed to a group of at least six Hispanic guys laughing and joking as they walked in the theater, up the stairs, and to the seats a couple of rows behind us.

“Dude, you got a problem?” one of the boys asked after Kalvin turned around and continued to stare at them.

Kalvin stood up. “You my problem,” he loudly replied.

“What you say?” The boy stood and tried to make his way around his friend and back down the step. Kalvin stood up as well and poked out his chest.

“I didn't stutter.”

I was just about to freak out when a Houston Police Department officer working security in the movie theater looked our way. “Don't start nothing,” the officer called out. “Because I will take you to jail.”

Both Kalvin and the other guy stood glaring at each other. I grabbed Kalvin's arm to pull him back down in the seat.

“Kalvin,” I whispered. “What are you doing?”

“He'd better act like he knows,” Kalvin huffed, his chest still puffed out.

The guy glanced at the police officer, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his hand planted firmly on the gun at his waist. Then the guy muttered something in
Spanish, his friends laughed, and they made their way on to their seats.

“Do you know them?” I asked after Kalvin finally sat back down.

“Naw.” Kalvin said, still frowning.

A confused look crossed my face. “Then what are you talking about? Why do they make you sick?”

“They just taking over everything.”

“What in the world does that mean?”

“I mean, haven't you heard?—they're the new minority, as my history teacher likes to say,” Kalvin snapped.

“And? So what?” I replied.

“And that doesn't bother you?”

He was starting to sound just as crazy as Tori. “Why would it bother me? They've never done anything to me. And if one of them had, why would I have a beef with the whole race?”

Kalvin looked at me like I just wasn't getting it.

“So are you for real?” I continued, ignoring his stare. “You don't like Hispanics because you think they're taking over?”

“You doggone right,” he said matter-of-factly. “You know they make up half the football team now, and two of them trying to steal my spot as quarterback. As if that would ever happen.” He laughed.

It was my turn to stare at him crazy. “Football is competitive anyway. I mean, if it wasn't a Hispanic guy trying
to take your spot, it would be somebody else, right? What difference does it make what they are? If anything, that should just make you want to work harder.”

As the words came out of my mouth, I couldn't help but think about Angel. Why couldn't I have spoken up like that with the Thetas when it came to her?

“Boo, that's whack,” Kalvin said, snapping me back to our conversation.

“What? The fact that I'm not prejudiced?”

“Call me what you want. I'm just tellin' it like it is.” He leaned back and propped his feet up on the armrest of the chair in front of him, paying no attention to the people sitting there.

I was grateful when the opening credits began to play. I just wanted this movie to start and end. By this point, I think Kalvin was just as turned off by me as I was by him. Honestly, I didn't care. It was bad enough I had to deal with all that drama with Angel; I definitely didn't want to be dating a dude with jacked-up views just like Tori. If I'd been driving myself I probably would've just up and left.

As I watched Kalvin scowl once again at the group of Hispanic boys, I couldn't help but think Miss Rachel was right. There was a climate of hate brewing, and I had a bad feeling that it was about to spiral out of control.

I
was so excited that Miss Rachel had agreed to let some of the AKAs and Deltas from Prairie View A&M come and visit our Good Girlz meetings. She actually thought it was a wonderful idea when Alexis presented it to her. She had decided she was hosting the community peace forum next week and had even gotten a couple other churches to join. So she thought the timing on this would be good.

All of us—with the exception of Angel—had gone out to eat yesterday and it had done a lot to ease the tension. We'd laughed and joked all evening. But convincing Angel to come to tonight's meeting had proven to be a bit of a challenge. After she had basically told us off for even setting this up, Alexis and I had decided that it would be best not to tell Angel what the meeting was about. There was no way she would have come if she had known what we had up our sleeve.

I was busy filling Alexis in on my disaster of a date last
night since I hadn't called her because my mom was trippin' that I'd left my room such a mess.

“I just saw a bunch of girls parking their cars,” Tameka said, as she walked in. Angel was beside her. “What's going on at the church tonight? I didn't know there was another meeting here.”

Angel mumbled a dry hello as she took a seat on the other side of the room. Just from the look on her face, I could tell she probably would've quit the group if she wasn't required to come to the Good Girlz meetings. After we got in trouble for shoplifting last year, the judge had made our Good Girlz meetings mandatory. Otherwise, I'm sure she would've bailed out.