Little Divas Read online

  Philana Marie Boles

  Little

  Divas

  For Jada and Linsey,

  our little divas in training.

  And in loving memory of one of

  my dearest friends from childhood,

  Lance Corporal Michael Dale Myers,

  United States Marine Corp.

  You are forever “Tuna” to me.

  Table of Contents

  one

  two

  three

  four

  five

  six

  seven

  eight

  nine

  ten

  eleven

  twelve

  thirteen

  fourteen

  fifteen

  sixteen

  acknowledgment

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  “Look,” Rikki said under her breath.

  It was pretty boy Darwin Mack, and he had just finished with his game. Now he was waving his arms in the air. “Yo! Rikki!” he called.

  I winced when I saw the smile on Rikki’s face. Great. Just great.

  Rikki undid her braids, pulled all of her hair back into a big, bushy ponytail, and started walking real slow. “Let’s go on over there,” she said.

  As usual, I saw no choice but to follow.

  June 15

  Dear Mom,

  Well, you’ve finally left for Africa and here I am with Daddy. I had a great time with you yesterday—thanks for taking me to the mall. I love this new journal, and I promise to write in it all the time and let you read it when you get back, just like we planned. I know I am going to miss you over the next year, but I’m glad I have good memories to think about too.

  You’re probably still worrying about whether or not Daddy can handle taking care of me while you are gone, but don’t. He and I will take good care of each other. There are already lots of reasons why I think living with Daddy is going to be cool. Want to hear them?

  My brand-new pink and white canopy bed and all my ruffled pillows.

  In the morning he listens to funny songs on the radio about liking big fat women and not having enough money to pay the bills. It’s called the blues, and Daddy says that B. B. King sings them best.

  Tonight Daddy watched music videos with me, and he didn’t complain once that rap isn’t real music. He said that hip-hop is a culture, just like the blues, only it’s talking real fast instead of singing.

  Daddy’s new house is so big that I feel like it’s a castle, and like I’m the princess.

  He is the coolest father ever, Mom. I swear! And so are you. The coolest mom, I mean. It’s going to be a great year, I promise.

  one

  “Psst Cassidy,” Rikki whispered as she passed me the mashed potatoes during dinner, “I’ve got a secret to tell you!”

  Now what’s the point in telling someone that you’ve got a secret when you know you can’t say what it is until later? Talk about annoying. I just rolled my eyes and kept eating.

  Rikki and I are the same age and have been best friends all our lives, but for some reason, this summer we haven’t been as close as we used to be. We don’t agree on anything anymore. For instance, she can’t wait to turn thirteen, but me? I’m happy being twelve. And if I had a secret to tell her, I would just wait until I could reveal what it was before bringing it up.

  Later, after dinner we were camping out downstairs in Rikki’s basement so that we could help her older sister, Mary, sneak out. Just like Rikki, Mary likes to do what she wants, when she wants, and as often as she pleases. The big difference is that Mary is a whole lot nicer to people in the process, me especially. Maybe that’s because she’s sixteen and closer to freedom than Rikki and I. I don’t know.

  Mary was once again sneaking out to see her boyfriend, Archie, and it was taking her forever to leave. I could tell by the way Rikki was acting that she wanted to wait to spill the big, huge, gigantic bowl of beans until after Mary was gone. So, I just tried to think about other things in the meantime, like how Aunt Honey and Uncle Lance’s basement is such a funny place.

  There’s a long lamp with shimmering shingles that reminds me of potato chips. A laundry chute through which dirty clothes come bursting down from the upstairs bathroom is in the back corner. Out of nowhere, phrump, you can look over and right there, lying in a basket, will be a pair of Uncle Lance’s socks or one of Aunt Honey’s bras.

  An old floor-model television that we aren’t allowed to turn on without permission sits in the corner, along with a stereo that is also a no-no unless Tremaine Hawkins, CeCe Winans, or some other gospel singer’s voice is coming from the speakers. Also, there’s a shelf lined with old, leather-bound books, which Aunt Honey says are antiques that we’re not to touch. It’s funny—Rikki and I call this basement our private refuge, yet everything down there is off-limits to us.

  I watched as Mary took her time applying her makeup. Annoyed, Rikki tugged impatiently at one of her braids, her dusty-colored hair divided perfectly in two sections with thick yellow ribbons on both ends. She says she’s the last twelve-year-old in the world who’s still wearing that hairstyle, and I think maybe she’s right. Daddy and Uncle Lance are brothers, but Uncle Lance would never let Rikki wear her hair down the way Daddy lets me.

  I respect that Uncle Lance is a minister and everything, but he and Aunt Honey are so strict that Mary and Rikki say they feel like they’re in prison, and honestly, sometimes it really does seem that way. I don’t know. Maybe if Aunt Honey and Uncle Lance didn’t give us speeches about sinning and damnation and being righteous all the time, my cousins wouldn’t stress about growing up so fast.

  Still, if I were in their shoes, I’d just wait. Being grown up isn’t that far off. Easy for me to say, I guess. My parents don’t have nearly as many rules as Aunt Honey and Uncle Lance. They don’t even live together anymore. As a matter of fact, I moved in with Daddy two months ago because Mom moved all the way to Africa.

  I still remember the day Mom announced that she was going to volunteer for an organization called People for Peace. Daddy was dropping me off after a movie, and Mom surprised both of us by inviting Daddy to come in. Something was up. I could feel it. Ever since the divorce a few months earlier, my parents rarely stay in the same room together for long. So when Mom actually asked Daddy to have a seat, I started feeling real nervous, and my throat was tight and dry.

  Mom started in by saying that the divorce had helped her realize how much she regretted not having done some of the things that she’s always wanted to do. Then she said that she needed to have “peace of mind” about that. I guess that’s why they call it People for Peace. Ha, ha.

  Anyhow, she was going to be gone for a year, and even though she knew that it would be a tough adjustment for all of us, she needed to know what we thought about me living with my Aunt Beanie while she was away. Daddy immediately called that idea ridiculous.

  “Why in the world,” Daddy demanded, “should my daughter have to go live with your sister when her very own father is right here in the city?”

  “Excuse me?” Mom quickly retorted.

  I shook my head, sighed, and closed my eyes. Here we go again, I thought.

  But actually, I felt just as upset as Daddy sounded. It was one thing that Mom was leaving me for a whole year, but she also wanted me to go live with Aunt Beanie? To share a room with my cousin Tosha of all people?

  “I’m her father,” Daddy reminded Mom. “And if she’s going to live with anybody, it’ll be with me!”

  “Well, well, well.” Mom made a ticking sound. “Isn’t this something? Now, all of a sudden, poof, you’re actually going to have time to be home every evening? So what
, me leaving the country is what it’s gonna take for you to put down the saxophone, Ray? I’m supposed to believe that you’ll actually see to it that your daughter is fed, stays out of trouble, and has clean clothes?” Mom chuckled at the thought.

  Daddy reminded her that he’d quit the band and wouldn’t be touring anymore. He said he’d reserve Saturday nights for gigs and suggested that on those nights I could stay with Uncle Lance and he’d join us at church every Sunday and take me home afterward. How was that?

  I opened my eyes, held my breath, and waited. Please let her say yes. Please, please, please. Puh-leeeeease!

  But Mom laughed at that, too. Uncle Lance had been trying to get Daddy to go to church for years. Was she really supposed to believe that now, all of a sudden, he was going to go every Sunday?

  Daddy took a long, deep breath and looked Mom in the eye. The room was quiet, without so much as a sigh from any of us as we waited for his answer.

  “Yes,” Daddy finally replied.

  Mom was silent, and still. She didn’t so much as blink.

  Daddy took a deep breath and spoke a little softer when he said that all he would focus on from then on was being a father. Sure, he was going to start refurbishing the house he’d just bought, and yes, he would have to spend time running the computer repair company he was starting up, but that was it. Maybe their marriage hadn’t worked out, Daddy said, but didn’t he at least deserve a second chance to be a good father?

  Amazingly, Mom was convinced. And boy, was I glad.

  And so for the last two months, Mom has been in Africa teaching Ghanaian children to speak English, and Daddy rescued me from having to live with my aunt Beanie for a year. Now I don’t have to share a room with my know-it-all, GOOD-GOODY, oh-so-perfect cousin Tosha. You have to pronounce her name “Toe-shuh,” not “Tah-shuh,” otherwise she gets upset. Even though she is only a year older than Rikki and me, she doesn’t act like it. Tosha goes to a stuck-up, all-girls private school, and thinks she’s so mature because of it. In June she left to go to some fancy foreign-language camp, so I haven’t seen much of her this summer. Not that I care, though. I say good riddance.

  So now I only have to put up with Aunt Beanie while Daddy’s at work during the week. She watches my every breath and listens out for my every tiptoe, but at least Daddy is home by five o’clock, so it could be worse. And, just like Daddy suggested to Mom that day, on Saturday nights I stay over at Rikki’s.

  This particular Saturday night Aunt Honey and Uncle Lance were upstairs watching some movie on the USA network, far out of listening distance, and Mary was sitting beside me on the couch. She had just finished applying her lip gloss and was taking a moment to blot. Rikki was eyeing me from the swivel chair she was twisting and turning in, sending urgent glances like she was getting ready to burst open if she had to wait any longer.

  “Okay, girls.” Mary finally sounded as if she were about to leave. “If everything goes as planned tonight, I’ll take you down to the Court after church tomorrow. Okay?”

  But Rikki looked unimpressed. “What else you got?”

  Mary was a little shocked. “What is this, a negotiation?” She laughed.

  “Well.” Rikki shrugged. “You’re the one who wants to go drool all over Archie.”

  Mary sighed. “Okay…” She thought for a moment before snapping her compact closed. “I’ve got it! How about on my next payday, I’ll also take the two of you to the mall? How’s that?”

  Rikki cut her eyes over at me.

  I shrugged. “Sounds cool to me,” I said, quite pleased with the results of Rikki’s bargaining.

  “Fine,” Rikki agreed. “That’ll work.”

  “But,” Mary said, “that’s only if you keep me covered until I get back. Comprende?” Mary had been teaching us the Spanish she was learning from a girl at the Dairy Queen where she worked. Did we understand, she wanted to know?

  “Sí,” we agreed.

  “And be sure to make at least some noise down here, okay? As long as Mom and Dad can hear some Mississippi Mass Choir or something gospel coming from the stereo, they won’t bother to check up.”

  “I know, I know,” Rikki groaned.

  “Cassidy?”

  “Gotcha,” I said. Now even I was starting to feel eager for Mary to leave. Hadn’t we been through this routine a dozen times since she’d started seeing Archie?

  Usually Rikki and I pass the evenings by sitting on the floor, our backs up against the couch, looking through Mary’s high school yearbook. With pencils, so we can go back and erase things, we like to draw hearts around the faces of guys we think are cute. Tonight, though, I had something else on my mind. The sooner Mary left, the quicker I would get to hear this secret.

  Mary sprayed a little peach body mist on the back of her neck. “Just please, don’t you dare go to sleep until I’m back in the house,” she said.

  “We know….”

  “When I get back”—Mary recapped the plan once more—“I’ll go around to the back of the house first. If their bedroom light is off, then I’ll know they’re asleep. If not, I’ll wait in the bushes. You know the signals. One knock on the window means I’m in the bushes waiting—”

  Rikki spoke up. “And then we wait for the next signal.”

  “Right,” Mary said. “But two knocks—”

  “We know, we know, we know,” Rikki interrupted again. “Open the window and let your stupid butt in.”

  Mary hummed as she blotted her lips once more. “Yeah, I love you, too, little sister,” she quipped. “Listen. I just don’t wanna forget anything, okay? Tonight is important, and it has to be perfect. So let’s see… What else?”

  “You still haven’t told us where you’re going,” Rikki pointed out.

  “That’s because I don’t know. Just somewhere special where we can be alone.” She sprayed another dose of that body spray.

  “You big goofball,” Rikki snapped. “What if he takes you somewhere and chops you up? How are we supposed to know where to find the pieces?”

  Mary laughed. “Please. Archie is a complete gentleman. He would never.” Whoa. A third shower of body spray? Tonight must really be special.

  Suddenly I felt worried about Mary. I wanted to tell her to be careful. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Mary looked so excited, especially with the way she kept fixing her hair and slathering more lotion on her arms, so I forced myself to look happy instead. “Have fun,” I suggested. I hardly ever say the things that I really mean.

  Mary winked and gave me a gentle smile. “I will, kiddo. Be sure and wait up for me, okay?”

  I watched Mary’s brown sandals as she climbed on top of the television, pushed open the window, and crawled out into the dark woods. She’d done this so many times before, but for some reason, just like everything else in my life lately, tonight felt different.

  two

  Rikki locked the window behind Mary and turned to face me. It seemed too quiet in the room. My throat felt dry, but there was no way I was going upstairs to get something to drink. What if Aunt Honey told me to tell Mary to come up? What would I say? A Carter girl would never tell the truth if it meant getting another one of us into trouble. But I’m nowhere near as good at lying as my cousins are, so I’d just as soon stay thirsty.

  “Man, have I got something to tellll you.” Rikki clasped her hands together. “Are you ready?”

  Naturally my cousin had to make a big deal out of making her announcement. She bit down on her bottom lip and took too long to think of the same big, huge, gigantic secret that just a little while ago she’d been dying to tell. Then she pressed her finger to her temple and sat there with a look on her face like she was trying real hard to remember. I hate it when she does that.

  “Oh yeah, oh yeah,” Rikki finally began. “First of all, do you realize that I had to stay completely still for ten whole minutes for this information?”

  I knew that she was exaggerating, but I acted as if I was impressed. “Really?”

&nb
sp; “Yes! Mama would kill me if she knew that I was in the hallway eavesdropping.”

  “Okay,” I said. “And so the big secret is…?”

  “Mama and some lady were in the kitchen having coffee and talking, right? I don’t know who the woman was—couldn’t see—but I’m pretty sure that she was from church.”

  “Okay…”

  “First the lady asked Mama if she was ready for school to start back up. Mama said ‘yes,’ but then she said ‘and no.’”

  “‘And no’?”

  “That’s what she said. She said yes because maybe then me and Mary will stop complaining all the time about not having anything to do.”

  “And?”

  “But then she said ‘and no.’”

  “Why?” My cousin can be so frustrating sometimes.

  “Well, that’s when she said that she doesn’t know how she’s gonna deal with telling me about you going to private school.”

  I felt my heart ripple. “Huh?” I said. “Going where?”

  “Yup. Mama says Uncle Ray is sending you to Clara Ellis.”

  This time my heart crashed against my ribs. “What are you talking about?”

  She spoke slowly. “Mama says that Uncle Ray—”

  “I heard you,” I interrupted. “But, yeah, right.”

  “Like I would joke about something this serious, Cassidy. Come on.”

  “Like I said, yeah, right.”

  Rikki sighed. “Sounded to me like it was true.”

  I dismissed such nonsense. “Yeah, well, I think that I would know about it if my father was going to do something that crazy. Don’t you?”

  Rikki thought for a moment. “But remember how they were with the divorce?”

  She was right! Rikki was the one who told me that my parents were separating. Several days before they sat me down in the living room with hot chocolate and graham crackers, telling me in somber voices that there was something that we needed to discuss, I already knew what was coming, thanks to Rikki.