Ola Shakes It Up (12 page)

I lowered the binoculars to think for a minute. There weren't any rules against putting leaves on your lawn, but there was a recommendation about keeping your lawn neat and clean. I picked up the binoculars again and looked out at Otis's house. Yup, his bike was still there rusting on the lawn. That wasn't exactly breaking the rules, either, but it wasn't following them. Then I thought about Mr. Portello.
He followed all the rules about getting special permission for late-night visitors, but he followed them so well it made the Sterns mad. That was just as good as breaking the rules. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought there was something going on with the people in this neighborhood.

“Ola, what are you doing in here?”

I put the binoculars down and turned around. Aeisha was standing behind me with her hands on her hips.

“Aeisha, you wouldn't believe how weird our neighbors are.”

“This is my room. That means you can't come in it without permission,” Aeisha said, scowling.

“Don't have a cow, Aeisha. I just wanted to look outside your window.” I was telling half the truth, anyway. My bedroom window looked over the backyard, and there hadn't been anything going on there. But I had also come into her room to see if I could find out more about Aeisha's grades. Aeisha would call that snooping, but I called it helping. As soon as I could figure out why Aeisha was doing so badly, I could come up with a plan to help her.

“You shouldn't be spying on people, anyway.” Aeisha dropped her hands from her hips and walked over to her desk. She started pulling her schoolbooks together and packing them in her backpack. “It's rude.”

“What's the matter with you?” I asked. Aeisha was super grumpy. I had a feeling all that extra studying wasn't working, 'cause the more Aeisha studied, the worse her attitude became.

“Girls!”

Aeisha and I jumped. Mama had burst into the room all
of a sudden and was standing there waving her arms up and down excitedly.

“Are you okay, Mama?” I asked.

“Family meeting. Now. In the living room. Let's go,” Mama ordered. She looked really pretty in her red pantsuit and gold hoop earrings. She had gone to a luncheon for work earlier and she was still dressed up.

“I have to study, Mama,” Aeisha protested. She had finished stuffing her backpack.

“It can wait a half hour. Let's go,” Mama said again. She turned around and disappeared as fast as she had come in. Aeisha and I hurried after her. I figured it must be serious. We hadn't had a family meeting since we moved in here. That was because Dad hadn't been around enough to torture us with one. But here it was right in the middle of a Saturday afternoon and Mama was calling a meeting.

Khatib was already in the living room when we got there. He was stuffing his face with some of Lillian's
pate.
She had left them for us before going to her first English class that day. “Dad's not here. We can't have a family meeting without Dad,” he said.

Mama shrugged and turned away. “We sure can.”

Uh-oh. Khatib, Aeisha and I looked at each other. We knew Mama must be really mad with Dad to be shrugging him off like that. She had been upset earlier when Dad told her he couldn't go with her to the luncheon because he had to work.

“Somebody has to run this family,” we heard Mama mutter. Aeisha and I sat down on the green-and-rose sofa. The new living room furniture had just been delivered the day
before, and we hadn't had time to check it out yet. I bounced up and down on it. It was comfy.

“Now.” Mama sat down on the tall wooden chair with the long arms. She looked like a queen, with her arms resting on the chairs arms and her back held straight. “Talk,” she commanded.

“Talk about what?” Aeisha asked. She sounded nervous, but I bet I was the only one who knew why.

“About you — all of you. School. Home. Basketball. Your dad. I want to know what's going on with you all. It's been so quiet around here, it doesn't feel like home. Something must be up.”

Aeisha, Khatib and I looked at each other again. Then we looked at Mama. I knew that Mama was right; something was going on with Aeisha and Khatib. But I also knew that Khatib would never admit it and that Aeisha would kill me if I told everyone about her grades. She would think I had been spying on her. Besides, I knew I wouldn't have to say anything for Aeisha. She always spills out all her problems at family meetings. Dad always starts with her at our meetings 'cause she's supposed to serve as an example for the rest of us.

I decided to speak up first. “I still think that it would be a good idea for me to quit school. I'm not really learning anything I couldn't learn at home and—”

“Ola, we already talked about that,” Mama cut me off.

Shoot. I closed my mouth. I had talked over my idea for a home teacher with Mama early that week and she had said one thing: no.

“Khatib, how's basketball practice?” Mama asked, turning
to him. He had sprawled out on the floor on his back, resting on his elbows.

“No problem.” Khatib nodded.

“Aeisha—your new classes?”

I looked over at Aeisha, waiting for her to spill it.

Aeisha heaved a big sigh.

Here it comes, I thought.

“Well,” Aeisha said slowly, “I miss Dad. He's never around anymore.”

“Yeah, me too,” Khatib chimed in, sitting up. “He's like the Invisible Dad since we moved here.”

Mama nodded. She looked really pleased with what Aeisha and Khatib were saying. Then she started to look sad. “I know. I've tried to talk to him about it.”

“He hasn't asked me about basketball in weeks,” Khatib said. “Not that I mind, that is.”

I tried to keep my mouth from dropping. Khatib always minded when people didn't ask him how many points he had scored in a game or how well he had done in practice.

“He hasn't been around to check my homework,” grumbled Aeisha.

Everybody looked at me.

“He was supposed to help me redo my star chart,” I pitched in. This was the weirdest family meeting ever. Aeisha wasn't talking about her real problems and Khatib was shrugging off basketball. It was true that Dad hadn't been around much lately 'cause of work. We had all felt it. But it was like Aeisha and Khatib were using that as an excuse not to talk about other things.

“Your dad feels like he has something to prove in his new job,” Mama explained, frowning.

“ 'cause he's black,” Aeisha said, nodding.

“And because he's new and he's older than many of the other engineers in his position.” Mama didn't sound like she was mad at Dad anymore.

“So what do we do?” Khatib asked, leaning back against one of the chairs.

“Maybe we should schedule an appointment with him,” Aeisha suggested, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

Mama grinned at her. “Aeisha, child, you've got it.”

“Got what?” I asked, confused.

Mama explained, “Maybe if we all start making family appointments with your dad, he'll start getting the point. We should all schedule time with him individually. Drive him crazy with it.”

Aeisha, Khatib and I nodded and smiled back at Mama. This was gonna be fun.

Mama gazed at the three of us. She looked like she wanted to say more but thought better of it. Instead she raised her eyebrows and said, “Can I get a witness?”

We all laughed at her. That was always Dad's line at our family meetings. We all raised our hands and sang out, “Yeah.”

“Then I guess we're adjourned.” Mama sighed. I could tell that she knew something more was going on, but Mama never likes to push. That's Dad's department. He's more like me. He'll dig and dig until he finds out what is bothering one of us, and then Mama fixes it. These family meetings just don't work right without Dad.

I followed Aeisha out of the living room. I was worried about her now. Something really big must be happening for her not to have said anything about her trouble with school. And since Dad wasn't there, it was up to me to find out why she was keeping such a huge secret.

Aeisha turned around to look at me when we got to her room. “What, Ola?”

“What's the matter with
you?”
I asked, putting my hands on my hips. I was hoping that Aeisha would tell me what was wrong
before
I told her that I'd found her test.

“Nothing.” Aeisha walked into her room and picked up her loaded backpack. It had so many books sticking out of it, she couldn't even close the zipper. Then I noticed that she was dressed up. She had on a jean skirt with a pink sweater and pink tights. She even had on shoes.

“Where you going?” I asked, moving toward her.

“Nowhere. And don't follow me,” Aeisha ordered. I edged toward the window seat slowly. Aeisha's binoculars were still sitting there, and she hadn't said anything about not
watching
her.

“Where are you going?” Aeisha asked suspiciously.

I stood still. “To my room. I got homework to do, too, you know.”

“Don't follow me, Ola,” Aeisha ordered again. She gave me a look to say that she meant it, and then she walked toward the door. But before she got to the doorway, the zipper to her backpack slid all the way open and every single one of her books and papers spilled onto the floor.

She bent down and started picking them up fast. “Don't touch anything, Ola.”

I didn't pay any attention to her. This was perfect. I'd been carrying her test paper with me for a few days, waiting for the right time to ask her about it. I pulled it from my pocket and let it float to the floor casually.

“Uh—Aeisha,” I said quietly. She was stuffing the books back into her pack hurriedly.

“What?”

“You missed one.” I pointed at the paper and widened my eyes. “Aeisha, you got a C?”

Aeisha ran over to pick up the paper. She stared at it, then crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash can by her desk. Then she went to sit on the edge of her bed. I walked over to her slowly. I hoped Aeisha wasn't gonna cry. Aeisha, Mama and I all have the Benson crying syndrome. One of us can't start crying without starting the other one off.

“So what's going on?” I reached over to pat her hand, just like Mama does when one of us is having a problem.

Aeisha snatched her hand away. “First you have to promise not to tell anyone—'cause I'm taking care of it.”

“Okay,” I promised. “Taking care of what?”

Aeisha hesitated. “I'm not doing so good in my science class.”

“How come?”

Aeisha wouldn't even look at me. She was talking straight to her shoes. “I don't know. I guess I'm not smart enough.”

I couldn't believe that. Science was Aeisha's best subject.

“It's the teacher.” Aeisha spoke again, slowly. “I don't think he's grading me fair.”

“How come?” I asked, standing up.

Aeisha shrugged one shoulder. “I don't know, Ola. I'm
studying harder than I've ever studied. I study until I know all the answers, but he always finds something wrong with them. I don't think he likes me. Our first day of school, he kept picking on me to answer questions — and I hadn't even got our science book yet.”

I put my hands on my hips, mad. “What's his name?”

“Mr. Stillwell,” Aeisha muttered. “That's not all, Ola. When I went to him for help, he said that he didn't think I belonged in the advanced class. He suggested that I go back to the regular science class.”

“Aeisha, you gotta tell Mama and—”

“You can't tell anyone. I'm taking care of it.” Aeisha stood up and went over to her backpack. She stuffed the last book back into it and zipped it up all the way.

“What are you gonna do?” I asked. Aeisha didn't look sad anymore. She looked angry.

“Otis is gonna help me.” Aeisha slung the backpack over her shoulder.

“Help you do what?” I asked, following her as she headed toward the door.

“Catch Mr. Stillwell.” Aeisha had a gleam in her eye that I'd never seen before. “Otis is in the same class as me and he always gets As. We're gonna put each other's names on our tests, so Mr. Stillwell will think my paper is Otis's.”

I was impressed. Aeisha had come up with a great plan. “But what about your handwriting? Won't he be able to tell? I'm coming with you.”

“Otis and I are gonna practice each other's handwriting. I'm going over there right now to work on it,” Aeisha said, going down the stairs. “You can't come.”

I leaned over the railing. “Aeisha, if you need any help, just call me!”

Aeisha didn't answer me. I stared after her for a moment. I couldn't believe she had been going through all this stuff and hadn't told anybody about it. Aeisha was sure acting different since we moved here. Here I was trying to think up a plan for her for a whole week and she didn't even need my help. I decided to go look for Grady. He needed me. The two of us could take a walk over to Mr. Elijah's — maybe he would know why that lady was putting the leaves back on her lawn.

I whistled for Grady a couple of times and waited. Nothing. Grady didn't come running from one of our bedrooms or up the stairs. That was weird. I walked around upstairs and asked Mama and Khatib, but they hadn't seen him anywhere, either. Maybe Aeisha had taken him with her. I went downstairs to check around. If Aeisha had taken him out, she should have told me first. Grady was
my
responsibility. I walked around the front part of the house and then into the kitchen. Still no Grady. I stopped still when I heard a low voice coming from the backyard and then a short whistle. I walked over to the kitchen window. Lillian was in the backyard, all bundled up in Mama's old winter coat, and Grady was with her. I heard Lillian say something in Kreyol and watched in amazement as Grady started chasing his tail around and around in a tight circle. Then Lillian said something else, and he fell over on his back and stuck his legs in the air. He was playing dead.

Lillian was training my dog. And it was working! He was doing some of the circus tricks from the second part of Ms. Pitapat's book.