Famous (15 page)

Dionne
November 10@9:35 p.m. | Mood: Proud

The
girls all rushed off the stage with the audience still on their feet. They hugged each other and jumped up and down excitedly.

“
O-M-G.
Y'all, we did soooo good,” Marisol said.

“I can't believe we pulled it off,” Starr admitted with a smile as they all tried to catch their breath.

“We shut it down,” Dionne said, still feeling the excitement from their performance.

“Good job, ladies,” Headmaster Payne said. “And welcome to Pace, Miss Livingston.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice deep and husky after just singing her butt off.

Dionne shifted her eyes to Starr to see how she was handling it all, but she was surprised (and happy) to see that Starr just looked happy.

“Thank you all for coming to tonight's talent show,” the headmaster said as he stood center stage. “First, a little school business if you all don't mind,” he continued. “Due to some consistent and thoroughly inappropriate violations of the
dress code, the board held an emergency meeting tonight before the talent show and voted to reinstate our uniform policy effective immediately.”

Every student in the audience moaned, some even booed and hissed. The Pacesetters all eyed one another in surprise and disappointment.

Headmaster Payne cleared his throat. “And the winner of the five-hundred-dollar cash prize is…”

There was a drum roll.

“The Go Gettas.”

The girls screeched, instantly forgetting the blow to their wardrobe at Pace, as they ran onstage. Marisol grabbed the envelope and the mic as the audience applauded.

“Thank you. Thank you. We just wanted everyone to know that we have decided to donate the prize money to a charity to be decided at a later time.”

Huh? Who decided that?
Dionne thought as she continued to smile and applaud. Natalee's and Starr's faces were just as confused as hers.

All the other talent show contestants rushed onstage to congratulate them and Dionne pushed aside the money issue. None of the girls was hurting for cash anyway.

It took them at least twenty minutes to make it off the stage and into the auditorium to find their parents. Dionne headed straight for her mother and father, glad that they survived a night sitting together without arguing.

“You did good, my little Brick City baby,” Risha said, looking nice in a wrap dress and heels—so different from her usual uniforms or jeans.

Dionne had decided to pay homage to her hometown in
her rap. Once she made that choice, finally the sixteen bars easily came to her. It was her way of saying goodbye to her city since they had purchased the house in South Orange.

Lahron the Don took his fitted cap off and set it on his daughter's head. “Regular chip off the fly block,” he joked, before hugging her close to his side in his linen military-style shirt and jeans.

“Thanks,” she said.

She wished Hassan could have come, but he had a game. She wasn't quite ready to introduce him to her friends. Not yet. Although she missed him like crazy, everything had worked out for the best.

She searched the crowd for her friends. “I want you to meet my friends,” she said, still holding her mother's hand.

Risha squeezed her hand and looked surprised. “Really? Me? I can come out of the closet now,” she joked.

Dionne pushed aside her guilt. “I'll be right back,” she said, moving through the crowd of people filling the halls outside the auditorium.

It took her a minute to gather up Starr and Marisol, but soon she was pulling them behind her toward her parents.

“You did pick a good school, Lahron, so congrats on doing something right,” she heard her mom say.

“You really need to look into why you stay mad at me, baby,” he snapped back.

“I ain't your baby,” she snapped.

“You wanna be.”

Dionne froze, deathly afraid her parents were about to have one of the balls-to-walls arguments. “Hey, y'all,”
she called out, hoping Starr and Marisol had missed the exchange.

Risha and Lahron turned their heads to look at Dionne and the girls with big grins. Thank God.

“Chitchat with Daddy about why he think Mama still likes him,” she added.

“Ma, Pops, this is Starr, the bossy one,” Dionne said with a grin.

“Huh?” Starr said playfully, as she looked at Dionne before she stepped forward to offer them both her hand.

“Hi, Mr. Hunt. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Hunt.”

Dionne saw her mother frown. “We weren't mar—”

“And this is Marisol, the sassy one,” Dionne said, completely cutting her mother off.

Marisol stepped forward and hugged Risha excitedly, giving each of her cheeks a kiss. “Nice to meet you.”

Dionne looked over her shoulder and saw Natalee standing by her parents, looking over at them with her usual bored expression. Oops. She headed right toward her. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Livingston,” she said politely. “Can I steal Natalee for a second?”

“As long as you bring her back,” Mr. Livingston joked.

Dionne smiled before pulling her toward her parents and the other girls. “And this is Natalee, the new one,” Dionne said.

“Hi,” Natalee said, waving her thin white hand.

“Little girl, you got some pipes on you,” Lahron the Don said. Natalee smiled.

Starr looked bored.

Marisol looked proud.

“So what's up with the Go Gettas now?” Risha asked.

Watch Mama now.

“This was it. We're retired,” Starr stepped up to say.

“Awww. Too bad,” Risha said.

Dionne and her dad cut her a knowing glance, since she was against the group from the start. “Can I stay at Starr's?” Dionne asked.

Risha shrugged. “That's fine with me just as long as the girls come and stay with you sometime,” she said.

Baby steps, Mama, baby steps.

“After we move,” Dionne added, giving her mother a hard look.

“Of course,” Risha said.

The girls all walked back to their parents with a final wave. Dionne eyed them. “Mama, please be safe on that road home. Call me as soon as you get there.”

“Who said I'm going home?” Risha responded with sass.

“Mama might have plans for the weekend.”

Dionne remembered the look on her mom's face that time she was on the phone.

Lahron snorted in the back of his throat.

Dionne remembered the god-awful sight of Candylixxxious's barely covered butt as she strutted around her father's apartment.

Daddy was living the life. Maybe Mama needed a little love, too.

“Are you trying to say I don't have, won't have, or can't have a man?” Risha snapped.

Dionne grabbed both their hands. “Let me walk y'all to
your cars,” she said, knowing there was no way she could leave the two of them alone. It was best to send them both on their separate ways.

Marisol
November 10@10:35 p.m. | Mood: Proud

Marisol's
eyes searched the crowd for Percy. She knew he was here, but where did he go? As the girls made their way back to the Go Gettas glam station, Marisol headed straight for her pocketbook and pulled out her cell phone to text Percy.

 

Where r u?

 

Everyone in the room was still buzzing about their performance as they finished packing up their things. Marisol felt her stomach get weak with nervous energy. Something didn't feel right.

“There goes my baby…”

Marisol almost dropped the phone as she scrambled to answer.

“Love is a dangerous game,” Starr drawled.

 

On the way home.

 

She frowned. He'd left without even seeing her and saying goodbye. That was big-time weird. She didn't bother to even text him back.

“Boys are big-time dumb,” she mumbled, slamming her things into her overnight bag. “I hope my mama is having a girl so that she doesn't add to the male population.”

“Your mom's pregnant?” Starr asked, saying it like the idea of it was similar to a dog giving birth to a cat.

Marisol nodded.

Eli tugged at one of her shoulder-length ebony curls. “Honey, don't ever let a boy stress you out. It leads to bad skin and muffin tops over your jeans,” he said.

Marisol smiled.

“Plus I got you an audition for the video, so I need you focused,” he whispered to her.

Marisol perked up. “Really?” she mouthed to him, her eyes bright.

He nodded.

She was glad he didn't broadcast it because Marisol didn't know if Starr could take it. She handled Natalee being the lead and even cracked jokes about her singing—or lack thereof.

As they finally packed up and left the now-empty school, Marisol was imagining her dance performance in her head.
Maybe I should hire someone to choreograph something fierce for me,
she thought as they all climbed in Starr's Range Rover parked behind her parents' waiting Denali. She barely heard any of the girls' excited chatter. Her thoughts floated back and forth between her audition and Percy.

“Your mom is cool, Dionne,” Starr said.

“Yeah, we're real close,” Dionne answered.

Marisol was sitting by the door and she turned her head to lean forward to look at her. “I didn't know you were moving,” she said.

“Yeah, my dad bought us a house in South Orange and we want to be in it before Thanksgiving,” she said.

Marisol reached in her purse for her lip gloss. She happened to look up just as they drove past Cooley's and peeked inside the brightly lit restaurant. She gasped at the sight of Percy and some girl with an ultrashort hairdo who she didn't know sitting at a table in front of the window.

The girls' chatter continued around her as Marisol turned in her seat to keep her eyes locked on the sight of Percy laughing as the girl made motions with her hands.

Percy was a cheater?

Marisol's stomach was hot and her heart pounded like crazy as she whipped out her phone and dialed his number. He never answered. Three times it went to voice mail.

Not wanting to alert the girls to her drama she texted him:

 

U & ur boo look real good 2gthr in Cooley's. Do I even have 2 say u need 2 give me 50ft from now on? On to the next 1.

 

She hit Send without any hesitation.

Boys were all about
drama.

“What's wrong, Marisol?” Dionne asked.

Tears were filling her eyes but Marisol shook her head. “Nothing,” she said.

Starr whipped her head around from her seat in the front by the driver. “What happened, Marisol?” she asked.

“I just saw Percy at Cooley's…with another giiirrlll,” she wailed before the waterworks kicked off.

“Awww,” everyone sighed in unison.

“Marcus, take us back to Cooley's, please,” Starr said, reaching back to squeeze one of Marisol's trembling hands.

Dionne took the other.

Natalee reached behind Dionne to pat Marisol's shoulder.

Their kindness made her cry even harder until she was trying to keep snot from running out her nose. By the time they circled the block and came back and pulled up in front of Cooley's, Percy and his mysterious date were long gone.

Dionne
November 26@9:00 a.m. | Mood: Thankful

Dionne
rolled over onto her back and nestled in the middle of her bed as she looked up at the octagon-shaped skylight above. The skies had never looked bluer and the leaves on the towering trees had never looked brighter. She truly had so much to be thankful for as she looked around her spacious, new bedroom. It didn't have the grandeur of her mother's suite but was a miniature replica of the larger master bedroom complete with its own fireplace, spa bathroom, walk-in closet and mini-balcony that really was just big enough for her to stand on to get some fresh air.

She rolled out of bed in her warm and toasty pajamas, making it as neat as a pin before she headed to the bathroom. Her outfit for the day was already laid out on the chaise longue in the corner of the room, but she threw on sweats and a tank top after her shower and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.

The smells of Thanksgiving were in the air. Dionne's stomach growled, but she'd already planned to skip break
fast to keep puh-lenty of room for the turkey and all the fixings.

“Mornin',” she said, eyeing her mother and Mama Belle cooking away.

They looked up at her. “Cut up the collards,” Mama Belle said.

Dionne could only shake her head because she knew there was no time for niceties. There was work to do and some of it had her name written all over it.

She used the remote to turn on the small flat-screen TV over the kitchen table. They always watched the Thanksgiving Day parade. Always.

“Dionne, you talk to your daddy?” Risha asked as she opened the oven door to check on the turkey and to slide Mama Belle's six sweet potato pies in the other oven.

“Yeah.”

Mama Belle cleared her throat.

“I mean yes, ma'am.”

The older woman nodded approvingly.

“Your grandma Les coming?”

Dionne glanced at Risha because she knew her mother and her father's mother never really got along.

“Yes, and thank you for inviting her, Ma.”

Risha shrugged, but it was major that she even extended an invite to her. For several years now they hadn't spoken, and once Lahron hit it big with his music the tension between them had just gotten worse.

Risha's mother had passed when she was just ten and Dionne never had the chance to meet her.

“They should be here around one, Ma,” she said, rolling
up the washed greens and then cutting them the way both her mother and her great-grandmother had taught her.

“Do I get to meet your little boyfriend today?” Mama Belle teased.

Dionne shook her head. She hadn't seen Hassan since the move although they talked, texted, Twittered and were on Facebook all the time. When she'd invited him for Thanksgiving dinner, he'd said his parents wanted to spend the day with him and Dionne's spirits had just plummeted.

“Not sure if you're old enough for a boyfriend,” Ma Belle said as she poured lemon over her pound cake.

“He's a nice boy from the old neighborhood,” Risha said, giving Dionne a wink. “I know his parents, he's on the football team, and he gets good grades in school.”

Dionne smiled with pride. Hassan was a cool boyfriend. Not a bit of thug in him, although he wasn't a punk.

“Humph, I hope y'all talk about sex or the lack of it,” Mama Belle stressed.

Dionne flushed in embarrassment. “Mama Belle.”

“Yes, we have and I told her more than once to keep her panties up and her skirt down and she'd be okay,” Risha joked.

Mama Belle huffed. “Truer words have never been spoken.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Risha said, deferring to her elder.

“All little boys want one thing from little girls,” Mama Belle said.

“It must be conversation, because that's all I'm offering,” Dionne said truthfully.

Mama Belle just sucked air between her teeth.

“There's Keke Palmer,” Dionne said, using the remote to turn the volume up on the television and hopefully changing the subject.

“Ooh, her outfit is cute,” Risha said, helping Dionne change the subject.

Dionne nodded. She loved, loved, loved Keke Palmer since
Akeelah and the Bee.
“Love the black sequined pants with the purple wool trench.”

“Humph,” Mama Belle grunted.

Dionne and Risha just shared a look before they both stopped what they were doing and put Mama Belle in the middle of a love sandwich as they hugged her tight and pressed kisses to her cheek.

That turned her frown into a smile.

 

Hours later, Dionne came running down the stairs as soon as she heard the doorbell ring. She smoothed her off-the-shoulder sweater dress with a big bulky belt as she pulled the door open wide. Her dad carried two big bags but Dionne weighed his neck down as she hugged him real close—especially when she didn't see Candylixxxious with him. “Happy Thanksgiving, Daddy,” she said, grinning like a fool as she left a big gooey lip-gloss smear on his cheek.

“Whaddup, baby girl,” he said, looking real nice in his suede blazer, V-neck sweater and jeans.

“Where's Grandma Les?” she asked.

He shook his head and laughed, his grill shining. “She ain't ready to be messed with again.”

Dionne was hurt. “She'd rather choose hating Mama
than seeing me?” she asked. “I'm her only grand…far as I know.”

Lahron lifted his shades to eye her. “Don't play with me and how 'bout next weekend me and you both go spend it with her. How 'bout dat?”

Dionne's first thought was “Bump her,” but she just nodded, remembering to always have respect.

“You all preppy,” she said, stepping back from him.

“Trying to dress it up a little bit for the holidays and the new house,” he said, looking around as he stepped inside the foyer.

“Daddy, please don't argue with Mama. Not today,” she pleaded, only half playing.

He laughed. “I got you. I got you.”

She pushed the door closed and moved to follow him into the den where a football game was on the flat screen.

“Can I come in?”

Dionne froze and whirled around to see Hassan standing in the doorway with a huge bouquet of flowers in his hands. She smiled as she felt herself go weak as she rushed to him and pushed him back out the door to reach up and grab his face. “Has,” she breathed.

“You surprised?” he asked, his cologne surrounding her along with the cold winds. “Your dad picked me up and—”

Dionne got on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his, enjoying having him near her again.

Hassan brought his hands up to lightly touch Dionne's hips, the tips of the flowers brushing against the ends of her hair.

Chills…up and down my spine.

“Humph.”

Dionne whirled to find Mama Belle standing in the doorway eyeing them. She motioned for them to come inside and mumbled something about throwing cold water on them.

Dionne and Hassan both tried to hide their smiles as they walked into the house.