Careful of the Company You Keep Page 15

  With a wink, I moved into my patient’s room and suddenly remembered I had to go and get Tamara.

  Thirty minutes later I was pulling away from the hospital heading to the school, grinning like crazy because I was spending the evening with my man. Mrs. Danielle Garrett. That had a wonderful ring to it, or maybe Brooks-Garrett. Yeah, that way I could hold on to my identity.

  “Maybe Kayla won’t be the only one walking down the aisle this year,” I mumbled to myself. Wouldn’t that be exciting? Kayla and I getting married. Nadine hopefully having a baby with Jordan. And Renee getting a divorce. I had to smile at that one, because my girl has always had the world at her fingertips. Now she was struggling to keep from falling to the bottom.

  Damn, I don’t know why I was thinking so badly about Renee. Regardless of how crazy she is, one thing she’s always had is my back. And I love her for it. She just pissed me off so damn bad. I was ready to go to her house and hold her down until she apologized. Now that I had Chance, there was no reason for the two of us to be mad over a man neither of us was with. Or at least I hope she isn’t with Calvin. Nah, he wouldn’t be blowing up my phone and coming to my job if he was.

  I pulled into the school parking lot, parked in a visitor’s parking spot, and hurried inside. Hickman High School was huge but I didn’t need directions. I had been in this place so many times for my daughter it wasn’t funny. Her hypochondriac ass always had one excuse after another as to why she needed to come home. I had to take a deep breath because just thinking about the roller-coaster ride she put me through, I was starting to get angry again. Just thinking about my man will keep a smile on my face.

  Sliding my purse farther on my shoulder, I moved down the hall hoping that Renee hadn’t arrived and I had come all this way for nothing. Tamara was my goddaughter and I would do anything for her even if I wasn’t speaking to her mother at the moment.

  I turned at the corner and just as I was about to step inside the office, I spotted Portia standing in front of a row of lockers at the end of the hall with her best friend Celina. I froze in my spot and knew the exact moment she spotted me because her eyelids flew open. While we stood there staring at each other, I eyed her from head to toe. I hadn’t seen her since I dropped by my parents’ house two months ago and saw her sitting on the couch reading a book. Portia had ignored me and I had done the same.

  Her face had grown rounder. Her thick black hair was longer and the ponytail made her look so young, too young to be an expectant mother. Her stomach was large. I wanted to run across and get my baby. Portia had always been a little on the thick side, so pregnancy hadn’t changed her much.

  I don’t know how long I would have continued to stand there if the bell hadn’t rung. Celina slammed her locker shut and turned and headed in the other direction. Portia gave me one final look, then went to catch up with her friend. My heart sank, but what did I expect? An apology this late in the game? As far as Portia was concerned, she didn’t owe me anything. And I’d be damned wasting another second thinking about it.

  Snapping out of it, I stepped into the office and spotted the secretary behind the desk reading a book. I had to clear my throat twice to get her attention.

  “May I help you?” she finally asked.

  “Danielle Brooks to pick up Tamara Martin.”

  “One moment, please.” She punched a button on the phone, announced my arrival, then hung up the receiver. “Mr. Peterson is the last office on the left.”

  I groaned because I really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture from the principal’s big football head. Victor Peterson attended high school with me back in the day and was a pain in the ass even then. Angrily, I moved down the hall. I was anxious to get to the store so that I could fix my man his steak. Now I was going to have to rush.

  I stepped through the double glass doors and found two big cornbread-fed girls sitting on the bench outside his office with their heads hung low.

  I hope good and damn well these aren’t the girls Tamara got into it with. Both of them looked like they needed to start pushing their chairs away from the table a little sooner.

  I knocked once on the door, and as soon as I was summoned, I stepped in. Mr. Peterson was sitting behind his desk with Tamara sitting in the chair across from him. She had a busted top lip.

  “Tammy, you okay?” I asked with a concerned look.

  She nodded and I moved over and examined her closer. She didn’t look okay, but I would worry about that later.

  “Ms. Brooks, so good to see you again.”

  I don’t know why he sat there and said that lie. He rose and reached his hand across the desk. I shook it, then took a seat in the chair beside Tamara.

  “What happened?” I looked from her to the principal.

  “Apparently there was a little altercation in the lunch room this afternoon. The two girls sitting outside the office and Tamara got into a squabble that resulted in fists being thrown.”

  Tamara glared over at him. “She shouldn’t have stuck her foot out and tripped me!”

  Mr. Peterson gave a skeptical look. “Unfortunately, we have rules, and you should have come to us to handle it.”

  Tamara drew back on the chair. “And look like a punk? You’ve lost your mind.” She emphasized this with a roll of the eyes.

  I agreed. She would never be able to hold her head up again.

  Tamara turned to me. “Aunt Danny, they’ve been picking on me all school year. I tried to be nice but today was the last straw. As soon as I got off the floor, I punched one of them in the mouth. Then her sister gonna jump in it!”

  I looked from her to Mr. Peterson, who gave her a long look, then folded his hands on the table and turned his focus to me. “It’s really a shame that it had to come to this. Tamara is an honor roll student, but the school district has established a no-tolerance policy for fighting.”

  “But y’all wasn’t doing anything! I kept telling you them big girls were messing with me.”

  “And I called and talked to their mother.”

  It was time for me to intervene. “Well, Mr. Peterson, obviously that didn’t help.”

  He shook his fat head. “I’m really sorry.”

  I just bet his sorry ass was. “So now what?”

  “All three girls will be suspended for the rest of the week and can return on Monday.”

  “Let me get this straight. You’re suspending her for defending herself.”

  “Rules are rules.”

  “And rules can be made to be broken.”

  He cleared his throat and I could tell he was getting a little agitated. “We just can’t tolerate that kind of behavior in this school.”

  Tamara swung around and faced me. “Aunt Danny, because of fighting I’m getting dropped from National Honor Society.”

  I remembered Tamara calling me and how excited she was when she was asked to be a member of an organization that was predominantly white. “What’s one got to do with the other? She’s still an honor student.”

  “Students in the organization set an example for the rest of the students. Students that are caught fighting are not positive role models.”

  I rose from the chair and slammed my hands on the desk. “That’s a bunch of BS. So just because she got into a fight she is no longer deemed worthy of being part of an honors organization.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not half as sorry as you’re gonna be when her mother gets here.”

  As if she had been standing outside the door waiting for her cue, Renee stepped into the office. She looked from her daughter to the fat man across the desk and pursed her lips. “What the hell is going on in here?”

  27

  Renee

  I had dropped my phone in the damn toilet. Can you believe that shit? Yep, exactly. In a toilet full of shit.

  It was hooked to the side of my jeans. When I raised them and turned around to flush, my phone fell off and into the toilet. By the time I fished that damn thing out it had already suffere
d water damage. I went down to the phone company only for them to tell me it wasn’t covered by my insurance, so I had to buy a new one that cost me almost three hundred dollars. I wanted to scream. By the time I got home and got the message that Tamara had been suspended, it was already an hour old.

  I glared over at Victor’s buck-tooth ass. I remembered when I was seventeen. Victor had a mad crush on me back then. And I was curious what it was like to be kissed by a white boy. I let him but he kept scraping my tongue with those big-ass teeth of his.

  “I asked a question. What is going on in here?” I glared across the desk. Obviously, Victor had no idea Tamara was my daughter because he looked like he was ready to pee on his big ass. By now, you know I have no sympathy for mothafuckas that pee on themselves.

  Danielle blurted out. “Nae-Nae, he got the nerve to suspend Tamara for a fight she didn’t even start, and that’s not the worst of it. She’s been removed from National Honor Society.”

  My girl Danielle, I should have known she’d have my back. She looked like she was about to tear him a new asshole. And that was good, because I was going to help her dig it.

  “Victor, you know good and damn well Tamara is no troublemaker.”

  Nervously, he adjusted his collar. “I realize that, Renee, but rules are rules.”

  “And rules are made to be broken. That shit ain’t fair and you know it. Look at my daughter’s face.” I rushed over and cupped her chin. I took in every scratch, every bruise, getting angrier by the second. “Which one of those big Amazons hit my daughter?”

  “Both of them, Mama! They were trying to double-team me.”

  “What?” I looked over at Victor and rolled my eyes. “Didn’t I tell you two weeks ago my daughter was having a problem?”

  He leaned back in the chair. “Yes, and I addressed your concerns with their mother.”

  “Obviously your addressing didn’t work, otherwise her face wouldn’t be looking like this. Y’all supposed to be protecting my daughter. I mean . . . come on. Who’s supposed to pay these medical bills?”

  His brow rose. “You don’t have health care?”

  “You damn right I have health care. I’m not some project ho. But just because I have insurance doesn’t mean I have to pay for this. Your school should be held accountable.”

  He gave a short laugh. “Come on, Renee, you’re being ridiculous.”

  “No, I’m not. In fact, I think you’re still holding a grudge because I wouldn’t date your big-headed ass.”

  “Mama,” Tamara whined under her breath, then sank low in her chair. My daughter was embarrassed by my behavior, but so what. She better be glad someone was trying to take up for her.

  “Renee, I think this discussion is inappropriate.”

  Danny started laughing. “Actually I think it’s quite amusing, especially since he’s been trying to hit on me for months. Maybe that’s why I got called to the office all the time.” She turned to me. “Renee, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that sound like sexual harassment to you? He wouldn’t even drop one of Portia’s detentions until I came to the office to meet with him.”

  “Yep, sounds like harassment to me.” I glared over at him, daring him to say something.

  He took a deep breath and I could tell he was trying to choose his words carefully. “Listen, you both are blowing this out of proportion. I am suspending Tamara and dropping her from the organization for participating in a fight. When Danika tripped her, if she had just come to me instead of hitting her in the nose, none of this would have happened.”

  I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, wanting to make it loud and clear I had straight attitude. I could tell the exact moment Victor knew I was about to blow, because his pale ass turned beet red.

  “Okay, so let me get this straight,” I said loud and indignant. “If a kid is getting beat up by another student, they are supposed to just act like a punk and get their butt kicked in front of the whole school?”

  “Well, I . . .”

  “But that’s just what you said. So if my daughter receives bodily injuries or even worse, is killed behind some BS, the school would be liable, right?”

  He mumbled something that wasn’t understandable.

  “You gonna have to speak up, because it sounded to me like you said no.”

  He cleared his throat. “Renee, you’re putting words in my mouth.”

  “Then you need to man up and explain.”

  Victor sat up straighter in the chair. Men, black or white, hated when you call them a punk. “I’m sorry, Renee. But the school cannot be held accountable for the behavior of their students.”

  “Oh, but you’re going to be liable for any damages that happen to my daughter.” I swung around and faced Tamara. “Princess, are you all right?”

  She looked nervous as hell. “Yes.” I gave her the look and she quickly started shaking her head. “No.”

  I leaned in and took a closer look. “I’m no doctor, but it looks to me like you might need some stitches in your top lip and you’re holding your neck funny. We might need to get that looked at. Danny, you’re a nurse. What do you think?”

  Danielle chimed in. “I think she might need to be checked for a concussion.”

  I nodded in agreement, then moved to lean over, resting my palms on his desk. “And I’m sending all those bills to the school, and don’t even think about not paying them because I’ll slap a lawsuit on the school district and get the NAACP involved.”

  Tamara pleaded with her eyes for me to shut up and quit embarrassing her. Whatever. That girl should be glad Danny and I were taking up for her.

  “Renee, I-I don’t think we . . . we have to take it that far,” he said, stumbling over his words. “I think I can make an exception and let Tamara continue to be a member of that National Honor Society.”

  “Wise decision. When can she return to school?”

  “She can return on Monday.”

  Danielle rose from her seat. “And what about homework? Because up until this point my goddaughter has been an honor roll student, and this event in no way had better affect her academically!”

  “I know that’s right.” I gave Danielle a high five.

  I could tell he was intimidated at having two black women leaning over his desk because he reared back in his chair. Any farther and he would fall back onto his big ass.

  “You can pick her homework up every evening or I can ask the teachers to e-mail you.”

  “E-mail would be more convenient,” I replied roughly.

  I turned toward the door. “Come on, Tamara, let’s get out of here.”

  She scrambled out of the seat, anxious to get out of the office and home as quickly as possible. I still don’t get what she’s embarrassed about.

  As we stepped out of the office I almost ran right into the two Amazons’ mama and could see that they both got it honest. Big Bertha was at least six feet with a pair of boobs that almost put my eye out.

  She turned to the daughter on the right. “Is this the girl that got y’all suspended?”

  Grinning, the nappy-headed one to her left nodded, then looked over at me as if to say, “Ooh, you fin to get it!”

  I reared back. “Correction, your daughters got my girl suspended over some BS. What you need to do is teach them some home training.”

  “They get plenty of home training!” she barked back.

  “Obviously not, because if they did they would have had sense enough not to double-team my daughter.”

  “Uh-uh, Mommy, I jumped in to help Kiandra,” the fattest one insisted.

  Tamara smacked her lips. “I wouldn’t have hit her if you hadna tried to trip me.”

  I chuckled. If she jumped in, then that meant Tamara was beating that ass! You go, girl. I straightened my face and glared. “It sounds like your girls started the whole thing.”

  “Nah, they finished it,” she slurred, sending spit flying across at me and Tamara. We both wiped our faces in disgust.

  Daniell
e moved forward. “Damn, if we needed a shower, we would go home and take one.”

  “I know that’s right. Keep them gorillas away from my daughter, otherwise I’m coming for yo ass.”

  She glared at us and we glared back.

  Mr. Peterson finally got off the phone and hurried to escort the family of Amazons into his office. “Sorry for the delay, Mrs. Tolliver. Please come on in.”

  She pushed her girls into the office and it wasn’t until she brushed past me that I noticed the back of her dress was bunched inside a pair of holey-ass grandma panties. I bumped Danielle in the arm and signaled with my head for her to look. We both started laughing.

  Mrs. Tolliver swung around angrily. “What’s so funny?”

  “You.”

  “And those holey-ass drawers you’re wearing,” Danielle added, then grabbed my hand as we both ran out of the room cracking up.

  “Did you see their faces?” Them four-eyed girls and Mr. Peterson were all stuttering when they realized her big booty was on wide display. I was too through.

  “Gosh, y’all are so embarrassing!” Tamara groaned when we reached my car.

  “Girl, you need to be glad you got us in your corner.”

  “Why do y’all always have to be so loud?”

  Danielle moved over and gave her a hug. “Poor Little Tammy,” she began in a baby voice. “You know I’m going to make sure no one messes with my little girl.”

  “I know that’s right. Now stick your lip in and let’s go and get some ice cream,” I ordered with a playful pat to the head.

  Danielle agreed, then hopped in her car and followed us over.

  We each ordered a sundae with everything on it. After Tamara gobbled hers down, she excused herself and went to the bathroom.

  “You think she’s going to be okay?” Danielle asked.

  “Yeah, she’s a soldier just like her mother. You know Tamara is all about appearances. She was more embarrassed having me come down than she was getting jumped by them two girls.”