Fitting In (Is Hard to Do) Semester 1

WHEN I LOOK AT Quincy I think.... Hmmm... He cute. He on the basketball team, play football for Westbrook. Popular as heck. Yeah, I could get with that.

  But when I look at Roman... Mmm mmm ... Roman. Just the sound of his name gives me goose bumps. When I look at him, I really be looking at him. Not just about the way he looks or the sports he plays. It's like I can look into his soul and know he was made for me. It's just the certain way I feel when I'm around him. I want to marry him, make him my husband, and even have a few kids by him. I feel like I would do anything for him. Heck, he makes me want to lose any bit of religion I do have.

  I was more than happy when Symphony asked me to walk with her to her locker. I couldn’t wait to get away from Roman. Even though I was crushing on him big time, the pressure of being in his presence was too much for me to bear.

  I had to figure out how to get to the movies with Roman. Shoot, I still haven’t found me a date for Winter Formal. Symphony has obviously made it apparent that she has her claws in Roman. Looks like Hunter and Quincy are going together, but she seems like she could not care less. But right now that was the least of my problems. No way was my mom going to let me go, especially not at 10 o’clock at night.

  Symphony told me she didn’t want to be the only girl, I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to be the only girl either. Just like Symphony said, I owed her from when she did my make-up that time. I would do anything in my power to make good on what she did for me. Shoot, I’m just hoping she will do my make-up again. I be asking her to do it again, but she always blows me off. I feel like I’m a crack-feign and she holds my rocks. But the way I figure, I ain’t going keep on asking… I’ll get me some sooner or later.

  On the real though, I had to level with Symphony and tell her the truth on how strict my mom was and that spending the night with her would be out of the question.

  “Well, what if I came over to meet your mom? She might let you spend the night then?”

  I hated to disappoint Symphony even though I knew she secretly hated me. I couldn’t help but think, if I do this one thing, then maybe… just maybe… we might be cool in some sort of weird way. I was at a loss for words on what to tell Symphony without sounding lame.

  “No worries.” Symphony grabs the books she needed for her next classes. “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way. I’ll tell the guys to maybe push it back till tomorrow or something.”

  “Okay, cool.” I still didn’t know what to say or how to even respond. All I knew was I was going to have to come up with a master plan that somehow involved Willow. At the moment, me and her were on silent terms again. It didn’t matter though, she knows she can’t go more than a day without talking to me.

  “Hand me your phone so I can put my number in it.” Symphony held her hand out waiting for my cell phone.

  There was no way I was going to tell her I didn’t have a phone. “I-I must have forgotten it at home.” I felt my back pockets and fiddled around inside my purse.

  Symphony raised her left eyebrow higher than the other. “Yeah, okay… hmm.” She held out her cell handing it to me. Instead of grabbing it, I stared at it like it was a foreign object. “You don’t even have a damn cell, do you?”

  I reluctantly shook my head no.

  “Liar.” Symphony laughed and placed her cell back into her purse. “Once you start a lie, you’re supposed to stick to it, dummy.”

  ♥♥♥

  After Praise Dance practice, it was a piece of cake sucking back up to Willow and Ryder. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have even talked to Ryder with that stunt he pulled a while ago. But what was I to do, he came with the territory.

  So far, the plan I had conjured up, was to spend the weekend with Willow. I didn’t know what else I was going to do after that, nor did I have a plan B. This scheming and conniving thing was new to me and I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable with it. One thing was for certain, letting the squad down, weren’t an option.

  I had talked Willow into helping me coax my mother into letting me spend the night; which wasn’t hard to do because Willow was all too excited. It had been a while since I had spent the night and Willow thought this would be a nice time to hang out like old times, pop some popcorn, and watch reruns. Nevertheless, to my dismay, my mother wasn’t budging.

  “No, Amber, I thought you and I would spend some time together tonight.”

  “Aw, c’mon ma!” I begged giving my mom my best puppy dog eyes.

  “Are you wearing make-up?” My mom said inspecting my face.

  Oh I forgot, in good faith, Symphony did a rush job on my face before we headed to class. She covered my dark spots really quick with foundation, some eyeliner, and a shot of the troublemaker lipstick. I have to say, I am loving that lipstick.

  “What? No!” I shook my face away from my mom’s hands.

  “Well, it looks like you tried to put on some eyeliner or something.” I gave my mom the… ‘You know, I know, better look’.

  Please believe as soon as I made it home, I ran into the bathroom to wash my face. Symphony’s liquid liner was the hardest, so yeah, my mom might’ve saw some faint traces of liner.

  My mom told me to wrap it up and she will be outside in the church parking lot waiting. She did however say maybe tomorrow I could spend the night at Willows because she had to work late.

  “If I was you, I would run straight to the altar right now and repent.” Willow whispered into my ear.

  “For what?”

  “All those l-l-lies you told to your m-m-mom.” Ryder butted in.

  “I ain’t tell no lie. If you were listening carefully, her question was, are you wearing make-up? And I simply said no because technically I’m not because I had washed it off.

  “Yeah okay. Play word games with God if you want to. You’ll be burning in the fiery pits of hell.” Willow slid her feet inside her shoes. “So what do you want to do tomorrow if your mom lets you spend the night?”

  “I dunno. I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.”

  ♥♥♥

  I lay there in the dark watching my curtains blowing from a nice breeze. My room had a nice glow from the street lights outside. I tried to work on my plans in my head when I heard a hissing sound coming from outside. I didn’t know what it was, so I tried ignore it but it was hard because all I could do was focus on a dark figure coming from behind my pink curtains.

  I opened my mouth to scream for my mom but nothing came out. I was frozen stiff with my eyes locked on the dark shadow approaching. Then something moved my curtains back and whispered, “PSST… Amber.” More light illuminated into my room as a car went down the street. I slowly eased over to my bedroom door and cracked it closed. I couldn’t close it all the way because believe me my mom would know. I went in front of the window and sat on the floor.

  “Quincy? What are you doing here?” My heart was beating overtime for a few reasons, one, I was almost scared to death, two I couldn’t believe this dude was here at my window at 11:00 PM, and three I didn’t want my mom to catch me.

  “Sup baby girl?” Quincy flashed his smile exposing his slightly chipped front tooth.

  “Symphony wanted us to come by. Said she forgot to exchange numbers with you for the plans tomorrow.”

  WOW! I couldn’t believe this. I was wondering how I was going to get in touch with Symphony. “Wait, you said us… is she here?”

  “Nope, I am.”

  OMG! I think I just peed my jammies a little. I was about to melt like butter when I saw Roman. I mean, Quincy had me feeling like margarine in the fridge. It’s only soft a little. But Roman, I was like melted butter in a microwave set for sixty minutes on a hot summer’s day when it was like 100 degrees outside.

  “Why are we whispering?”

  “’Cause my mom’s in the other room.”

  Quincy pulled his head further into the window. “Let me see what you got on. Stand up.”

  I was about to stand up when Roman pushed Quincy out the way. “You ain’t gott
a’ listen to that nigga.”

  “Aye, where your pops at?” Quincy and Roman fought to share a spot at my window.

  “I dunno. Home I guess.” Then a thought occurred to me. “How did you guys know where I lived, let alone which window was mine?”

  They both laughed, and I freaked. “Shhhhh! Y’all going to wake up my mom and get me in trouble!” I went towards the door to make sure I could still hear the faint snoring of my mom.

  “Nah man! I’m a tell you what happened, right.” Roman licked his fine lips as he continued to speak. “We’ve been here for a minute, right. And this nigga had first looked into your mom’s window.

  “Damn! Man, how old is your mom’s ‘cause she is bangin’!” they laughed themselves away from the window this time so it wouldn’t echo inside of my room.

  “Dude, was you spying on my mom?”

  “I couldn’t help it. Why don’t you hook me up with your mom’s for real though?” Quincy asked this time looking serious.

  “Eww! Are you serious?”

  “Hell yeah! Why… you don’t think I can hit that?”

  “Man, get yo ass out of here.” Roman pushed Quincy out the way.

  “Amber? I know you ain’t on my phone this late at night are you? And do you have your door closed?”

  I jumped into my bed and Quincy and Roman disappeared. I hopped back out of my bed and fell crashing to the floor with a loud thump because my feet had become entangled in my sheets.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Ah, nothing.” I was sure I was about to have a heart attack because this night was more excitement than I’d ever had in my life. I crack my door open a little.

  “All the way, Amber. And you and Willow stay off my damn phone, it’s almost midnight!”

  “Okay Ma!” I open my bedroom door all the way and climb back in bed. I smile to myself, thinking of Roman and Quincy at my window. Me of all people. I couldn’t wait to throw this in Willow’s face. Then my heart plunged all the way down to my belly. I grab my stomach and rub it, feeling a bout of the bubble guts coming on. In the mist of all the excitement, I’d forgotten to give them my phone number for Symphony to call me.

  My pity party was short lived because I couldn’t contain my happiness. I had to do something to express myself. I couldn’t jump on the bed because the squeak from it would be too loud. I climb out of bed and decide to quietly do a happy dance from the floor. I squeeze my eyes shut and wail my arms in the air and whip my head back and forth. I could do this all night, and then I break out into the Carlton.

  As I twirl around toward the window, I open my eyes and see Roman standing there staring at me. Again! How does he always pop up when I’m doing something crazy and embarrassing? I wondered if he’d been there the whole time. I was so humiliated I cover my face with my hands. When I look up again, Roman put his thumb and pinky finger to his ears reminding me of the phone number.

  I jot my number down on a scrap piece of paper and hand it to him. Roman lick his lips and whisper, “Is this for me?”

  Saying I cheesed from ear to ear was an understatement. I wanted to be bold enough to grab Roman by the face and plant one of the biggest most sensual kisses on his lips. I often fantasized about romantic things I’d seen in a movie. I move in closer to the window and smile.

  “Why are you in the window!?”

  My head flung around to meet my mom’s stare in the doorway. A few drops of pee really escaped my body this time. I stood there speechless and motionless. What is she? A freakin’ nosey vampire! Why don’t she go to sleep!

  “If you’re that hot, turn your fan on.” My mom walked completely into my room and clicked my fan on. I looked back at the window but Roman was already gone. I didn’t know whether to thank God or declare my mother my nemesis.

  I place my hands over my heart to feel how fast my heart was beating. I try to shift more weight to my feet in order to make my legs stop shaking. I couldn’t believe what a close call that was.

  “Close your window. You don’t want too much air on you.” My mom went back to bed and I walk over to the window to close it, but not before sticking my head out to search for Roman. He was slowly walking down my driveway. He looks back and smile. I smiled back.

  17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  HUNTER SANTOS

  Don't be fooled by their mask. Fake people eventually show their true colors. Just wait until their mask needs cleaning.