Secret Saturdays (11 page)

“Bye then,” Sean said, and walked back to his eighth-grade boys.

I couldn't believe Sean had just clowned me.

Sean stopped and looked back at me like he could feel me hating on him. “You want to come hang with us?”

Me? Flush myself down the toilet with them?

“Nah.” I tapped my backpack. “I need to do these assignments.”

I slung my book bag onto my shoulders and walked out the cafeteria into the courtyard, zipped up my coat, and sat on a concrete bench. I felt like hitting something. Even though it was cold out, mad kids ran around. Playing Chinese handball and tag, and jumping rope. One girl, getting chased by another girl, passed me and smiled. I smiled back but didn't feel smiley. I felt sick. Sick of how Sean had switched up on me. Sick of everything. It looked like my days of being tight with Sean were over.

I pulled out my binder to do my two incomplete assignments. Screw it. I shoved it back into my bag. Instead I yanked out my rhymebook and a pen, and started writing.

I closed my rhymebook. Feeling better, I decided to sit with Kyle in the cafeteria and finish my two incomplete assignments. Even if Sean didn't want to work on them or hang with me and Kyle. I didn't feel as angry with him as I had before but wasn't fully ready to throw away our friendship.

ME AND SEAN WALKED TOGETHER INTO OUR LAST CLASS,
Advisory. The same gang guy from before was standing with Ms. Feeney. Jay. The man with the messed-up family.

Me and Sean sat next to each other. So close our elbows touched. Sitting that way was how we sat as best friends. Maybe Sean did that to let me know we were still good. On the other hand, I didn't feel best-friend vibes between us. I bumped Sean with my elbow. He turned his eyes real slow to mine and looked dead into my grill.

“We should kick it after class,” I said.

He nodded. “Yep,” and smacked his lips on the
p
. Like Yep-puh! All obnoxious.

What he did that for?

Ms. Feeney made her peace sign and walked into the middle of the circle. Today, her outfit was fancier than normal. Dark brown suit, skirt plus blazer. Light pink blouse. Shiny high heels. Maybe she was going somewhere nice after work.

“Class, you remember today's guest speaker,” Ms. Feeney said. “I think we need to hear what Jay has to say. Months ago, he was here but you interrupted him.” She looked at Manny and Manny smiled, all devilish. Sean was clueless that Ms. Feeney stared at him too. He was leaned over, wiping a smudge off his brand-new white kicks. “Since then, Jay has been to schools all over the United States sharing his message. I invited him back for a second time and we're lucky his schedule allows him to visit us again. Please be more respectful this time.”

Jay stepped into the circle. He was dressed again for work or church. “I just want to see how good your memories are. The last time, what did I start talking about?”

Manny snorted. “Family.”

“Good,” Jay said. “Let's pick up there.”

Manny raised his hand and, out of nowhere, said, “Was your father gay? Boys with fruity fathers grow up to be fruity.”

Jay and Ms. Feeney looked like they had plugged their wet thumbs into electrical sockets and gotten zapped.

“W-what?” Jay stuttered.

“Was he fruity?” Manny said. “Like gay. Because Sean's dad's fruity and Sean came out fruity.”

Everyone's eyes popped out. Even mine. We knew Manny was crazy and sometimes said wild things, but I couldn't believe what he had just said to our guest speaker.

“You have detention,” Ms. Feeney snapped at Manny.

Manny shrugged and grinned. “I don't care. What I said is true.”

“Manny, you the gay one,” I said. “That's why you always riding Sean's jock and dissing him.”

Sean raised his hand before I could say anything else and Ms. Feeney could slap me with a detention. “Can I go to the bathroom?” he asked real polite.

Ms. Feeney looked at Sean, proud. “Yes.” I think she was happy Sean chose to leave the room instead of staying and dissing on Manny. Kids probably thought Sean was butt for bouncing and not beating up Manny with his words, but I was proud of Sean too. I didn't want him getting into trouble with Ms. Feeney.

Sean stood up and tugged at the bottom corners of his navy blue shirt. He made sure he was crisp. He brushed some lint off his shoulders and went to leave the circle. Manny was sitting right by the door. “Excuse me,” Sean said nicely. Manny didn't move his leg to let Sean pass.

Out of nowhere, Sean punched Manny in the face. Hard! He rocked Manny with a left punch, then clocked him with a right. He just kept snuffing Manny and snuffing him. Manny grabbed Sean's waist and tried wrestling Sean to the ground, but Sean started dropping elbows on him.

Most of the class jumped up and pumped their fists, screaming, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Some stood on their seats and shouted. A few kids were like me. Stuck on stupid. Shocked and watching.

The guest speaker and Ms. Feeney rushed Sean and Manny at the same time. Without realizing it, I got up to help too.

They pulled Manny one way and I yanked Sean in the opposite direction, but then Sean swung around and shoved me.

“Back up!” he yelled. “I'm good! I'm good.”

He looked down and fixed his shirt. He examined his white kicks for marks. He found nothing there so he walked all hard toward the door.

“Sean! Get back here!” Ms. Feeney demanded.

Sean turned to see Manny holding his bloody nose. Sean stuck his middle finger up at him, flung open the door, and left.

Ms. Feeney chased after Sean and popped her head out the door. “Security!” she yelled.

A security guard who was as fat as The Nutty Professor and as dark as a Snickers bar was down the hall, playing with his cell phone. The guard looked up at screaming Ms. Feeney, then at all-relaxed Sean.

“Take him to the principal's office,” Ms. Feeney shouted. “His name is Sean and he just fought in my room.”

“Come on, son,” the guard said, all friendly, putting a hand on Sean's shoulder. Sean shook his hand off like a pit bull that didn't want to be chained.

“Don't touch me!” Sean barked. “I'll come. But don't touch me.”

“Whatever.” The guard held up his open hands in “I surrender” style. “Send me the other kid who fought,” he told Ms. Feeney. She sent bloody Manny to catch up with Sean and the guard.

“Let's go,” the guard said.

Sean pushed the swinging exit door open and him, the guard, and Manny disappeared into the stairwell.

Somebody patted me on the back and said, “Yo, your best friend laid Manny out.” But all I could think was that the Sean who had just left wasn't my best friend. That was the new Sean. The old Sean never lied and never fought. This new Sean was a liar and let a dis faze him so much that he made Manny's nose bleed.

Dissing was about finding something wrong with someone and blowing up their spot. Did Manny find the right thing wrong with Sean? Because Sean had exploded. Was Sean gay? Was his father gay? Suddenly I realized something. Lately Sean's disses were almost always about kids' dads.

What happened with Sean and Manny got Ms. Feeney so angry, she grabbed a red Sharpie marker, pointed it at three trips on her wall calendar she had planned to take us on, and said, “Class, you see this trip, this one, and this one? They're all canceled.” She X'd each one out. Most kids got mad because they couldn't wait to go on those trips. Big deal. I was thinking about Sean.

“After what I just saw here,” Ms Feeney said, “forget trips and guest speakers. You want to jump on chairs, yelling, ‘Fight, fight.' ”

She called the names of the kids who had done that.

“You all have after-school detention today and we're calling your homes.”

Then she made them get their loose-leaf binders and write two-page apology letters to the speaker.

“Make sure you explain what was wrong about what happened, how you should've behaved, and what's the right thing to do the next time you see a fight.”

She complimented the few kids who hadn't done anything bad, then told the whole class to read for the rest of the period. Then Ms. Feeney and that gang guy sat at her desk and talked quietly for the rest of the time. About what? I couldn't hear and didn't care. Before his fight with Manny, I told Sean we needed to speak because I wanted me and him to get right with each other. I wanted to tell him I was angry at him but he was still my boy. That I still had his back. No matter what, I needed to show him that now.

ADVISORY ENDED
and I rushed to my homeroom class for my coat, then jetted to the main office. It was packed with kids and adults. The secretaries were busy giving bus cards to students and speaking with teachers.

I snuck past the busy secretaries to Principal Negron's office and peeked in. Sean and Manny were at his conference table. Principal Negron was yelling at them. His face wasn't sad for Sean anymore. It was hard-cop mean. Even more now that Principal Negron had shaved off his white beard. The only thing left was a white goatee that made him look like evil Santa. Sean and Manny had their arms crossed, and their tight faces looked at the floor. From the corner of his eye, Principal Negron spotted my head poking into his doorway.

“Justin!” he said. “Come in.”

I walked in feeling dumb because he had busted me peeking. But at the same time I was happy too. Maybe I could talk to Principal Negron and get Sean out of trouble.

“Remember what I said the consequence was if something happened with Sean again?” Principal Negron asked me.

I nodded.

“Well, I just handed Manny and Sean suspensions for the week after Christmas break. Their parents are coming up to get them.”

I talked fast. “Can I say something? It's not fair that Sean gets the same punishment as Manny. Manny disses on Sean every time we in Advisory. Plus, today, Manny started first.”

Principal Negron smiled at me, half hard and half soft. I didn't know what that meant.

“Justin, you're absolutely right. That's where fights begin, don't they? With disses. So maybe I should double Sean's suspension?”

Sean looked at me like, “Stupid. Get out of here before you get me into more trouble.”

“From what I've heard,” Principal Negron continued, “Sean disses on kids a lot. Should I punish him for those times? You said it yourself. Fights start with disses.”

I couldn't respond. Principal Negron was right.

“I like you, Justin. You stick up for your friends. But I told you I mean business, and I asked you in here to show you I do. You can leave now.”