Blessings in Disguise Read online

  “You are lying,” Camille said, her eyes wide.

  “If I’m lying, I’m flying,” I responded.

  “Alexis doesn’t steal. She doesn’t need to,” Angel said, as if the idea itself was absurd.

  “That’s the same thing I said. She didn’t actually take anything but she knew what Trina was doing.” I leaned in and lowered my voice. “I think they’ve been doing it awhile. And get this—I think they may be getting ready to sell the stuff.”

  “Jasmine, you must’ve misunderstood—” Camille stopped mid-sentence and all of us turned toward the door as it slowly opened.

  “Hey, everybody. What’s up?” Alexis said as she walked in. All three of us stared at her as she walked in and dropped her Gucci purse in a chair.

  I looked at Alexis, unsure of what I should say. She must’ve read the look on my face because she crossed her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes. “I guess you told them.”

  “You guessed right,” I replied. All four of us had grown tight over the past year so Alexis had to know that I was going to tell Camille and Angel.

  “So? It’s no big deal anyway,” Alexis said as she took a seat.

  “So it’s true?” Angel said, walking over to Alexis.

  “It’s not as serious as I’m sure Jasmine made it out to be.” Alexis cut her eyes at me.

  “Alexis, what’s going on?” Camille said, sitting down next to her.

  Alexis broke out into a huge smile. “Trina and I have this cool business going on. She and her cousin get the stuff and then we sell it out of my house.”

  “So you are selling the stuff?” I threw my hands up in disgust. “That’s just great.”

  Alexis ignored me and looked at Camille. “See, the stores all have insurance that replaces the lost stuff so it’s not like it’s hurting them.”

  Before Camille could respond, our group leader, Rachel Adams, walked in. She was the first lady of Zion Hill and the founder of Good Girlz. The room grew silent when she entered.

  “Don’t stop talking on my account,” Rachel said as she eyed all of us suspiciously. “You all want to tell me what you’re talking about that you don’t want me to know?”

  We looked at one another. Part of me really wanted to tell Rachel what we were talking about. Maybe she could talk some sense into Alexis. But, of course, I didn’t want to sell out my friend like that.

  “We were just discussing community service project ideas,” Alexis said. I stared at her. I couldn’t believe she was sitting up in church lying to the first lady.

  Rachel gave us a sly smile as she walked to the front of the room. “Sure you were. But since you say you’re on the subject of community service projects, let’s hear some of them.”

  I sat down as well. We spent the next hour going over ideas but my mind was everywhere but in that room. I knew I was wrong, but I sure was glad when Rachel started praying because that meant we were about to wrap up the meeting. I was anxious to talk some sense into these girls. They were from these prissy worlds and just didn’t understand the kind of trouble they were setting themselves up for.

  After Rachel dismissed us, Alexis dang near broke her neck trying to get outside. I caught up with her at the car, where she was leaning over whispering to Camille and Angel.

  “Okay, Trina wants to meet us at my house at nine. She had to go to the wake of a great aunt, that’s why she’s not here tonight. But she still wanted us to get together tonight so we could open for business tomorrow because the Ladies of Distinction are having a slumber party and they’ve all promised to come by.” Alexis talked like she was brokering some million-dollar deal. I stood just outside their little circle with my arms crossed.

  “What?” Alexis said when she finally noticed me. “Don’t start, Jasmine.”

  “I just can’t believe you,” I said. “I mean, how did you even get caught up in something like this?”

  “For your information, Miss Goody Two-shoes, Trina’s cousin hooked her up, then she had me just helping her out. It’s not that serious.”

  “If you get the stuff from her cousin, why y’all out lifting stuff?” I asked.

  “What, are you the police now?” Alexis replied. I knew she was getting agitated but I didn’t care. “Fine,” she huffed. “If you must know, we don’t usually take the stuff ourselves. Trina just started getting some special requests for outfits, so she came up with the idea to open our own little business and pick up some stuff ourselves. Is that answer good enough for you?”

  I couldn’t do anything but shake my head.

  “Dang, Jasmine. You act like we’re taking stuff from you,” Alexis said. Finally, she threw her hands up and turned back to Camille.

  “You still coming?” Alexis said.

  Camille was standing there looking all bug-eyed. It was obvious both she and Angel were excited. “What kind of stuff do you have?” Camille wanted to know.

  “Trina got some of everything, girl.”

  “So, she just walks in and takes the stuff off the rack?” Angel whispered.

  “Let’s not get into how she got it. All that matters is she got it. Now, if you all want in, let me know.”

  “Oh, I can’t steal anything. Angelica needs me and I can’t take the risk of going to jail,” Angel said, referring to her six-month-old baby girl.

  “And you know I did a week in juvie. Me and jail don’t get along,” Camille added.

  I couldn’t believe Camille was even thinking about anything that could get her in trouble. After her boyfriend broke out of jail, didn’t tell her he broke out, and convinced her to hide him at her grandmother’s house, she’d been arrested. Camille almost lost her mind, but the judge told her she didn’t have to go to jail as long as she took part in the Good Girlz group.

  “No one’s going to jail,” Alexis said, rolling her eyes at me. “For some reason Trina gets off on taking the stuff. And she only does that occasionally. Her cousin usually gets all the stuff. All she wants us to do is get the customers in and store the merchandise because her mother is so nosy.”

  “Is that all she wants?” I snapped. “Alexis, this is crazy. You’re freakin’ loaded. Why are you doing this?”

  Alexis ignored me and kept talking. “Camille, why don’t you guys just come by and check it out? If you’re game, you can help us sort the stuff. And hey, maybe even pick up a thing or two for yourselves.”

  Angel pulled up Camille’s arm and looked at her watch. “I really have to be getting home. My mom is with Angelica and she has to go to work at ten.”

  “How’s your mom with the baby?” Alexis asked.

  I knew she was trying to get attention off of herself by asking about Angel’s relationship with her mom, which had been shaky because Angel had gotten pregnant at fifteen.

  “Nah, she’s cool now,” Angel said. “She’s really come around and she loves Angelica. But she was serious when she said I wasn’t gon’ run the streets. She totally trips if I leave Angelica with her too long.”

  “I bet she’d trip even more if she knew you were off stealing clothes,” I said, shaking my head.

  “I’m not even trying to hear you,” Alexis said as she turned to Camille. “Are you coming or not?”

  “Hey, why not?” Camille shrugged.

  I looked at her. “I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m just going to look and see what kind of stuff they got,” she responded.

  “Whatever.” I threw my hands up just as my grandmother pulled into the parking lot. “Just let me know when visiting days are.” I shook my head as I climbed in my grandmother’s car. I could see they were gon’ have to learn the hard way.

  3

  “J asminium Nichelle Solé Jones! If you don’t get your tail in this kitchen, you will live to regret it!”

  I absolutely, positively hated my name. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why my mother would give me such a dumb and long name. I hated it even worse when people used the whole thing. And I especially c
ouldn’t stand it when my mother screamed it the way she was doing right now.

  Maybe if I don’t answer her, she’ll go away. I rolled over and turned up the volume to BET, which was showing the new Usher video. I was just grateful to have the TV to myself for a change. Everybody except my mother was gone to church. I had acted like I was sick and even then my grandmother didn’t want me to stay home, talking ’bout “the Lord will heal what ails me.”

  I hated my life. I couldn’t stand my mean brothers and my lazy sister. My grandmother got on my nerves, too. Mostly because she slept in the same room with me and snored so loud that it kept me up most nights. But my mom drove me the craziest. I knew she thought I didn’t appreciate how hard she works for us, but I did. It was just that she works my nerves, always griping and fussing about something.

  My family just didn’t get how hard it was being me. Even though I was a middle child, you’d never know it because it seemed like everything was my responsibility. Nikki, who was two years older than me, worked part-time and used that little job at the beauty supply store as an excuse to get out of doing any chores.

  My mother worked two jobs—as a housekeeper at the Westin Hotel and as a security guard—so she was never here to help out. And my grandmother had arthritis so bad, she could hardly do anything. So everything basically fell on my shoulders.

  I was nothing but a glorified maid. Shoot, scrap that, I wasn’t even glorified. I was just a maid.

  I sighed as I watched Usher dance across the TV screen. He reminded me of C.J. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that the only boy I had ever remotely been interested in had called me Grape Ape at school on Friday. I had thought about punching C.J. in his jaw when he said it. And I would have if I didn’t get butterflies every time I got near him.

  Then on top of that, I was flunking PE.

  “How do you flunk PE?” my mother had screamed. My mother screamed everything. Sometimes I wondered if she even knew how to talk in a calm, rational voice.

  I had just shrugged. I didn’t bother to tell her it was because I refused to change clothes. Since I was the biggest girl in the class, I didn’t want to wear those dumb, skimpy little gym shorts. I’d just take my F. It wasn’t like I was going to college anyway. We couldn’t afford to buy one book at college, let alone pay for a whole semester’s worth of tuition.

  “Jasmine, do you hear me talking to you?”

  I looked up. I hadn’t even noticed my mother standing in the doorway to my bedroom. I really wasn’t in the mood to go at it with her. I found myself wishing it was next weekend already. We were spending the night over Alexis’s house and I looked forward to anything that took me away from here.

  “What?” I said.

  “What? Did you tell me what?” my mother yelled. She was standing there in her security guard uniform.

  “Mama, I’m right here. You ain’t gotta yell,” I calmly said.

  “Don’t tell me what I ain’t gotta do! This is my house. If I want to yell at the top of my lungs, I will! And you ’bout to get knocked upside the head, telling me what.”

  I took a deep breath. Did I mention I hated my life?

  “Why is that kitchen like that?” my mother asked. “I told you before I left last night to clean that kitchen up.”

  “It’s Nikki’s turn.”

  “You knew Nikki was going out with Tony. That’s why I told you to do it.”

  I wanted to scream. How could going out with a boy get you out of chores? I guess it probably had something to do with the fact that Tony was a superstar basketball player at his high school across town and everybody expected him to go pro straight out of high school. Nikki was hanging on to Tony for dear life, hoping he was her ticket out of our pitiful lifestyle. My mother let Nikki get away with murder when it came to Tony.

  “So I guess all I gotta do is find me a boyfriend and I won’t have to do anything around the house, either,” I groaned.

  “I guess you better watch that smart-aleck mouth.” My mother shot me an evil look. “Why aren’t you at church anyway?”

  “Because I’m”—I paused to cough—“I’m sick.”

  “You might have fooled your grandmother with that nonsense, but I know better. I done told you about missing church.”

  How she even fixed her lips to say that was beyond me. Especially since she hadn’t been to church in almost six months. “I went to two Good Girlz meetings at church this week so doesn’t that mean that I’ve met my church quota for the week?”

  My mother sighed heavily. “I’m tired. I’ve worked all night and I don’t have time for your smart mouth. I’m goin’ to lay down. When I get up, I betta not see them dishes in the sink. And when you’re finished doing the dishes, mop the kitchen floor.” She spun out the room.

  I stuck my lips out and fell back on the bed. I couldn’t say it enough. I hated my life.

  4

  I t seemed as if someone had opened the floodgates in the sky. Rain was pouring down, and I was hoping it would let up because I had to catch the bus to the Good Girlz meeting this evening. I was not in the mood to get drenched.

  I had just gotten in from school and was leaning in the refrigerator looking for the pizza I had saved from this weekend. I’d wrapped it up in some foil and pushed it way in the back behind the milk so no one would see it. I’d even written my name on it, along with “DO NOT EAT,” with a black Magic Marker. I moved the milk and just about everything else on the top shelf. Nothing.

  “Hey! Did somebody eat my pizza?” I yelled as I slammed the door shut and stomped into the living room where my three brothers were strewn across the sofa watching Fear Factor.

  “Hey, did one of you fools eat my pizza?”

  Nobody responded.

  I kicked my oldest brother’s foot. “Jaquan, did you hear me?”

  He moved his leg, but kept his eyes on the TV. “Naw, girl. I didn’t touch your pizza.”

  I went and stood in front of the television, my hands planted firmly on my hips. “Y’all playing dumb, but I know one of you ate my dang pizza.” At that moment, I noticed the paper plate sitting on the end table. On it were three pizza crusts.

  “I don’t believe this!” I rushed over and picked up the plate. “I told you not to touch my stuff!” I started waving the plate around and the crust went flying to the floor. “Who ate it?”

  “Wasn’t me,” all three said in unison.

  I was burning mad. It wasn’t just the fact that I was starving because I hadn’t eaten lunch, but I was so sick of never being able to have anything, from food to clothes, because one of my stupid brothers or my sister was always taking my stuff.

  “I hate all of you!”

  “You of all people don’t need pizza anyway.” Jaquan laughed. My other brothers—Jaheim and Jalen—laughed along with him.

  I was fed up. I lunged toward Jaquan and had him pinned to the floor before he knew what hit him. He screamed and punched with all of his might but couldn’t get the upper hand.

  “Have y’all done lost your minds?”

  We stopped tussling and turned toward the front door. My grandmother stood there, her bulky purse slung across her shoulder. Several grocery bags filled her hands.

  “I know y’all not up in my living room fighting like some hooligans,” she said as she walked in and closed the door.

  “Jaquan ate my pizza,” I cried as I pulled myself up off the floor.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “You did!”

  “Would you two stop it! I have a headache and I don’t feel like hearing all this noise.” She motioned toward Jaheim. “Jaheim, come get these groceries. You see me struggling.”

  Both boys jumped up and took the bags from my grandmother. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Now,” she said as she reached in her purse. “I didn’t realize until I got home that I forgot to get some bread and some bologna.” She pulled out her wallet. “Jasmine, I need you to take my EBT card and run back to the grocery store.”

/>   I looked at my grandmother like she was completely crazy. “That’s a food stamp card,” I said like she didn’t know.

  “And? It’s how you eat every night, so don’t go acting like you too good to use food stamps.”

  I just stared at the card, which my grandmother held out toward me. Tori Young from my school worked at that grocery store, which was just down the street. There was no way I was going to be seen up in there using a food stamp card. “Why can’t Jaquan go?”

  “Because I’m telling you to go,” my grandmother said as she thrust the card toward me.

  I wanted to protest some more. But I knew my grandmother. There was no reasoning with her. I reached out to grab the card and my grandmother pulled it back.

  “I just know you were not about to snatch this out of my hand.”

  I lowered my head.

  “Do you hear me talking to you?” my grandmother asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. And no, I wasn’t about to snatch it.”

  My grandmother huffed as she handed me the card. “Don’t ever think you too good for something, you hear me?” she said as she stomped into the kitchen.

  I looked over at my brothers. They were all sitting on the sofa trying not to laugh. “Y’all make me sick,” I muttered before slipping on my flip-flops and heading out the door.

  It took me less than ten minutes to walk to the store. Once there I made a mad dash to get the bread and lunch meat. As I approached the counter, I looked around to make sure I didn’t see anyone I knew.

  “Good,” I mumbled when I didn’t see Tori working at any of the registers. I walked to the register with the shortest line and stood impatiently behind a woman with two kids.

  I almost died when the woman pulled out a stack of coupons. I turned to go get in another line and bumped into the cutest boy I had ever seen in my life.

  “Dang, what’s your hurry, girl?” the boy said as he grabbed the meat, which I’d dropped when I ran into him.