Blessings in Disguise Read online

  I didn’t even hear my grandmother’s keys in the door. By the time I realized she was home, Jaheim and Jalen had started picking up the mess all over the living room.

  “What’s going on here with you two?” my grandmother asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Jaquan just finished his video game and was just about to go and clean the kitchen like you told him to before he went to bed last night.”

  He shot me the evil eye, but he didn’t dare say a word.

  “I keep telling y’all to stop spending hours on those video games, nothing gets done around here!” my grandmother said as she placed her purse on the table.

  “I keep telling them the same thing, Granny,” I said in a singsong voice, twisting my neck as Jaquan sulked toward the kitchen. Now who was laughing? Not only was he mad about the game, but I knew he was even more upset about having to clean the kitchen. If I knew my brothers, they were probably playing to see who would have to clean it. So many times before they’d bet each other and the loser had to do the chores. I was usually on the losing end of those bets even though I was never a part of them. If chores stayed unfinished for too long, I was always the old reliable backup. And I had gotten tired of it a long time ago.

  “Whew! I’m so tired,” my grandmother said. “I’m about to go lie down for a spell. Jasmine, wake me up in about forty-five minutes. Did you clean that chicken yet?” she asked.

  “No ma’am. Um, I was about to, but I couldn’t because the sink was so full of dishes. And I know how you don’t like it when food is near all those dirty dishes,” I offered.

  My grandmother looked at me and frowned. “Get in there and help your brother straighten up that kitchen. Then clean that chicken.”

  I lowered my head. “Yes ma’am.”

  She looked at Jalen and Jaheim. “And clean up this living room.”

  The minute I walked into the kitchen Jaquan removed his hands from the sudsy water and doused me with it. He started cracking up.

  “Oh no you didn’t!” I felt my hair, which had gotten wet. That was the last straw. God as my witness, I wanted to take his head and drown it under the dishwater. I walked over to the sink and stomped on his foot.

  “Ooouch!” he screamed, doubling over in pain.

  That was when I made my move. I quickly grabbed his head and held it in the crook of my arm. I pulled it near my chest and squeezed. He immediately started clawing toward my arm, and I tightened my grip.

  “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I heard Jalen begin to sing.

  “Oh, she gettin’ you, Jaquan. She gettin’ you, man,” Jaheim said as he raced into the kitchen.

  The more Jaquan squirmed and tried to break free, the tighter I held his head. I could feel him starting to sweat, but I hung on for dear life.

  “Now what, you little punk? Now what?”

  “You betta…” he managed to say, even though it was nothing more than a whisper.

  “I betta what? What you gon’ do now, huh? What? You not talking any more mess now I see,” I challenged.

  Things were going good until we bumped into the kitchen table and made a crashing noise. I lost my footing and we tumbled to the floor. He was too fast for me. Once he was free from the headlock, he climbed on me and pinned me to the floor.

  “Get off of me!” I yelled.

  “Oh, now what?” he said.

  “Get her, man, get her,” Jaheim sang.

  Once he had me pinned on the floor, he used his knees to keep my arms to the floor.

  “You better stop, Jaquan, I ain’t playing with you!” I struggled to get up, but I couldn’t. I looked up and hanging between his lips was a long line of spit.

  “Eeewww, if you spit on me, I swear, I’ma kill you!” I squirmed, trying to twist and turn my head away from him. I turned to the left; he and his spit followed me. I turned to the right and he did the same. My brothers were such disgusting little freaks!

  “If you spit on your sister, I’m gonna smack you into next week,” my grandmother said, suddenly appearing in the doorway. “Now quit that horsing around, get up, and clean this place up! This house better be spick-and-span before you leave outta here for that meeting, Jasmine.” She watched me as I struggled up off the ground. “And look at you. You ought to know better. Now, I suggest y’all get busy in here. If I gotta come back in, y’all ain’t gonna like it!” she promised. She turned and stormed out of the room.

  I glared at Jaquan as I grabbed a dish towel. Today confirmed it—I needed to get out of this place before I went stone crazy.

  8

  I couldn’t believe I was standing here giggling like some little junior high girl. But that was the way I felt every time Donavan stood within an inch of me.

  We were outside in the courtyard at school. It was lunchtime and people were running all over the place. But I might as well have been alone with Donovan because no one else had my attention.

  “Jasmine, I’m really feeling you,” Donovan said with his signature smile. “I mean, not only are you funny, pretty, and fine, but I just love your height.”

  I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Me funny, pretty, fine? And I dang sure hadn’t ever had anybody tell me they liked my height.

  “Thank you.” I blushed. It was hard to believe it had only been three weeks since we met. Since we talked every day, it seemed like much longer. I was nervous as all get-out because I just knew our phone would get cut off this month. I was so glad when I heard Mama tell Granny she was broke because she paid the phone bill. The last thing I wanted was to have Donovan call me and then get a recording saying our number was disconnected.

  “You know I love talkin’ to you on the phone, but when are we gonna be able to go out?” he said, taking my hand.

  Before I could reply, Camille and Angel walked by. “Hey, Jasmine, we missed you at lunch today,” Camille said coyly.

  “Yeah,” Angel added. “I think this is the first time Jasmine ditched us for lunch.” They both turned to Donovan. “What’s up, Donovan?”

  “Nothing much, ladies. How are you all doing?”

  “Fine—a little sad because our girl seems to have dumped us for something better,” Camille said as she looked Donovan up and down.

  I gave them the evil eye, hoping they weren’t about to embarrass me.

  Donovan laughed as he looked at me. “Oh, am I the something better?”

  I felt my throat go dry. I was getting mad at myself because I still got all flustered and stuff around him. Getting flustered behind a boy wasn’t my nature, so this was coming as a shock.

  Luckily, Camille came to my rescue. “Yeah, you’re definitely the something better. All she talks about is ‘Donovan is so cute, Donovan is so fine, Donovan is so smart,’” she said mockingly.

  Now she was going a bit too far. Donovan just laughed. “That’s good to know because I was starting to wonder if she was feeling me like I was feeling her.”

  Camille and Angel giggled. Me? I was silently willing the knots in my stomach to go away.

  Donovan was just about to say something else when Tori and her group of snobby friends walked up. “Hey Donovan,” Tori said, ignoring the rest of us. “Are you getting settled at our illustrious school?” She swung her long, jet-black hair over her shoulder.

  “I am,” Donovan said. I was pleased that he didn’t flash her a smile. Tori usually made guys smile. She was about five-foot-five and a size six, had long beautiful hair and was a beautiful chocolate color. She was also a snob who had lucked out and got voted Miss Madison, captain of the cheerleaders, and president of the honor society. I couldn’t stand her.

  “We’re looking forward to you playing in the UIL tournament,” she said, trying to sound all sexy.

  “Yeah, I’m looking forward to it, too,” Donovan dryly replied. He had enrolled at Madison after Hurricane Katrina forced his family out of New Orleans. He’d told me he was a star basketball player at a high school in New Orleans.

  “Is Donovan the only one you see?”
Camille blurted out.

  Tori swung her head around, looked at Camille, turned up her nose, and said, “The only one that matters.” Her girls giggled as she turned her attention back to Donovan.

  “What?” Camille said. I was wondering what was wrong with me. Normally, I would’ve been the one to check someone like Tori, but Donovan had me all messed up in the head. Dang, I wasn’t even being myself.

  Tori ignored Camille as she adjusted her backpack. “Look, the homecoming dance is in two weeks and since you’re new and all,” she said as she licked her lips, “I was just wondering if you’d like for me to be your date.”

  Okay, I felt the old me coming back because I was about to straight stomp this skank. She sees him up here talking to me and she just gon’ totally disrespect me. My knots were gone just that fast as I stepped toward her.

  “Excuse me…”

  She looked at me with disgust. I had to take a deep breath to keep from going off on her. Donovan, however, didn’t give me a chance. He stepped in front of me.

  “Tori, I’d love to go to the dance with you…”

  I felt my heart drop. Camille and Angel looked shocked as well. Tori got a big grin.

  “But,” he continued, “I already have a date. I’m taking my girlfriend.”

  Tori’s smile faded. I wanted to cry myself. How this fool gon’ be all up in my face and he got a girlfriend? Low-down dirty dog.

  “Oh,” Tori said, obviously caught off guard. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

  I wanted to tell Tori she wasn’t the only one.

  Donovan looked at me and smiled. “She didn’t know it, either.”

  I looked confused.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Tori said, looking back and forth between me and Donovan. “Jasmine is your girlfriend?”

  “My girl”—Donovan turned away from Tori, stepped closer to me, leaned over, kissed me softly on the cheek, then pulled away—“Jasmine”—he kissed me again, then pulled away—“is the only person I want to go to the dance with.”

  “Oh. My. God,” Angel said.

  My sentiments exactly.

  “This brother got major game,” I heard Camille try to whisper to Angel.

  Donovan put his arm around my shoulder and turned back to Tori, who was standing there with her mouth hanging open. “So, thanks, Tori, but no thanks.”

  Tori huffed, rolled her eyes, then stormed off with her girls following quickly behind her.

  “You are the freaking man,” Camille said as she shook her head in amazement. “That has to be the tightest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

  Angel was still staring at Donovan all dreamy eyed. “Yeah, Jasmine. He’s a keeper.”

  Donovan laughed. “I hope I didn’t put you on the spot,” he said to me.

  I shook my head. With two kisses he had reverted me back to a driveling schoolgirl.

  “It’s just that girls like Tori make me sick,” he said.

  “So did you mean it about her being your girlfriend or was that all an act?” Camille said, getting all up between us.

  I was so glad she said that because I sure was thinking it.

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah, what?” Camille said. “Yeah it was an act, or yeah you meant it?”

  Donovan didn’t take his eyes off me. “Yeah. I meant it. That’s if she’s interested.”

  “Shoot yeah, she’s interested,” Camille said, pushing my shoulder.

  “I need to hear it from her,” Donovan said.

  I took a deep breath. I’d never had a boyfriend. Never thought I’d have a boyfriend. I couldn’t believe that the first one I got would be somebody like Donovan.

  I smiled, trying to play it cool. “Yeah, I’m interested,” I repeated.

  Donovan laughed as he put his arms around me and pulled me into a big hug.

  I no longer thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I knew I had.

  9

  T hank God they hadn’t started yet. I was more than certain I’d be late to the meeting, but when I got there it looked like Alexis, Trina, Camille, and Angel were just getting there, too.

  I brushed down my top and made sure my jeans weren’t revealing any panty. All of a sudden, I wished I had some cute low-riders like Camille and Alexis wore and not these old baggy jeans I had on. Usually, I couldn’t care less about my clothes, but I swear ever since I started going with Donovan last week, all I could think about was how I dressed. I guess because Tori always dressed so cute.

  “What’s up, Jasmine?” Camille spotted me first.

  “Nothing much,” I responded. I looked at Trina, who had just sat down at the table next to Alexis.

  “We were just talking about what happened at the mall yesterday.” Trina winked.

  Since Donovan and I started going together I hadn’t been around much. I missed the last two meetings because I had to babysit while Nikki and Jaquan went to some school function. So I didn’t know what was going on with their little business.

  “What happened?” I asked, easing down into an empty chair. I wondered where Miss Rachel was, ’cause honestly, I didn’t feel like getting all caught up in their little boosting scheme.

  “We’ll have to fill you in later,” Trina said. She turned to Alexis. “I found the perfect platform sandals to go with that throwback skirt I got.”

  I know lately I’d been concerned with my clothes, mostly because they were shabby. But that was really all they talked about—the latest clothes, this bag, those shoes. Give me a pair of jeans or a velour sweat suit and I’m usually straight. But I did have to admit, ever since I met Donovan, I have been thinking a lot about my appearance.

  “What are you over there daydreaming about with that geeky smile plastered on your face?” Trina said, nudging Angel. They started laughing at me.

  “I think who is more the question,” Camille tossed in.

  “Yeah, I heard you got the finest boyfriend in school,” Alexis said.

  “You heard right,” I said. “But I’m stressing because he wants to go out and, well, you know how my mom is. She said I can’t date until I turn sixteen.”

  “But you turn sixteen in three weeks,” Angel said.

  “I know, but she agreed yesterday to let me go to the homecoming dance. I don’t want to push my luck by asking her can I go to the movies, too.”

  Camille nodded like she had it all figured out. “You’ll just have to tell her you’re going to the movies with us.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I’m going to have to do.”

  Just then Rachel came strolling into the room.

  “So, are you ready to talk about the fall project?” she asked, looking at us.

  Everyone nodded. At first, none of us were too keen on doing a youth project involving the Ten Commandments, I mean, how boring was that? But Alexis had come up with the idea for us to do a skit or something creative involving each commandment and it had actually turned into a lot of fun.

  I reached for my backpack and couldn’t help but notice that everyone else, Angel included, had designer bags. I shook off my thoughts and pulled out a piece of paper. “Well, I jotted down a couple of ideas about things we could do for the commandments where we don’t have anything yet,” I said.

  Everybody looked at me like I was speaking French in Turkey or something. Rachel had told us all to bring some ideas to today’s meeting. It wasn’t my fault they didn’t do it.

  “Yeah, Miss Rachel, we all worked on the ideas and had Jasmine put them on paper,” Camille joked.

  Rachel looked at us like she knew Camille was lying. She shook her head. “Jasmine, since you’re the only one who brought ideas, let’s hear them.”

  I flashed a gloating look as I began sharing my ideas. I could tell Rachel was feeling them because she was getting all excited.

  “Those are some great ideas. I think the kids—” Rachel stopped talking when the church secretary stuck her head in the door.

  “Sister Rachel, th
ere’s a problem in the sanctuary that needs your immediate attention,” the woman said.

  Rachel nodded and turned toward us. “Girls, I’ll be right back.”

  Rachel wasn’t out of the door good before Trina turned toward us. “My cousin got a new shipment in.”

  Why was she talking like her cousin was some legitimate retail buyer? What she probably meant was “my cousin hit up another delivery truck.” I’d overheard her telling Alexis that was how they got all the clothes. Her cousin would get the stuff off the trucks before it was even delivered to the stores.

  “So when are we gonna open up shop?” Trina asked.

  “Well, my mom is going out of town this Friday, so we can do something after school. If we start spreading the word, we should have a nice little flow,” Alexis said.

  I was trippin’ at the ease over which Alexis seemed to be down with this. Even though she could be self-centered some times, she was still one of the sweetest people I’d ever met until Trina joined the group. Now she’d turned into someone I didn’t even really know anymore.

  “Okay, I’ll let Sarah know. And you know once she knows everybody else will, too,” Trina said.

  Now, I was no Miss Goody Two-shoes or anything like that, but I just couldn’t get into this stealing thing. I especially didn’t understand why they needed to do it. And if you were goin’ to do dirt, it seemed like to me you wouldn’t let everybody and their mama know about it.

  “Afterward, we can just hang out at my place and watch movies or something,” Alexis continued.

  Angel and Camille looked excited.

  Trina looked at me. “So, are you in or what?”

  “I guess,” I said. I wasn’t down with their little game but I loved hanging out at Alexis’s place. I mean, it was a mansion—why should I turn down a chance to live large? Even if it wasn’t my place.