Fair-Weather Friends by Reshonda Tate Billingsley

Christina was speaking for her.
    â€œAngel …”
    Christina moved closer to me. “Bounce,” she repeated.
    Since I wasn’t trying to fight nobody, and it was obvious Angel wasn’t in her right mind right now, I left.
    I couldn’t believe Tori had just straight out admitted the real reason they rejected Angel. What was she thinking? Our school was about half black and half Hispanic, so the last thing we needed was some racial problems. But judging from the mean mugs on Christina and her friends’ faces, it looked like there were definitely about to be some problems.

20

Camille
    â€œH el-lo.” Kalvin waved his hand in my face. “Are you even listening to me?”
    I snapped out of my daze. Kalvin and I were walking down the hallway between classes. I had tried to talk to him about how upset I was over Angel, but as usual, he switched the focus back on him and was telling me about something that happened at football practice. He was so not the prize I’d initially thought he was. I’d zoned out of his conversation as my mind drifted back to Angel.
    â€œYou know, I’m not used to girls tuning me out,” Kalvin said, stroking his chin.
    â€œI’m sorry. I just have a lot on my mind.”
    â€œObviously.” He turned to see what had captured my attention now. It was Angel, walking down the hall laughing and talking with Christina and two other girls.
    â€œLook, handle your business. Holla at me when y’all work all that Theta drama out.” Kalvin stomped off. Idebated following after him. But I couldn’t really deal with Kalvin right now. This whole thing with Angel was getting ridiculous and it was consuming my thoughts.
    Angel hadn’t hung out with us all week long. She’d been too busy all up under her new so-called best friends. She hadn’t returned my phone calls and she hadn’t been to a Good Girlz meeting. She’d even been ignoring Miss Rachel’s calls. That’s why when I watched her walk toward me, I made up my mind: she and I were going to talk and we were going to talk right now.
    â€œAngel, can I holla at you for a minute,” I said, stopping her as she approached me.
    Before she could respond, Christina stepped in front of her again.
    â€œWhat do you need to holla at her about?” she said.
    I put on a confused look. “I’m sorry. I thought I said,
Angel
, can I holla at you.”
    Christina wiggled her neck as she stepped in my face. “Well, Angel don’t wanna holla at you.
Comprende?
”
    I suddenly wished Jasmine was around. Christina was at least five feet, eight inches—a good five inches taller than me. But even though I may have been a little scared, I wasn’t going to let her punk me, especially not in front of the nosey crowd of people that had started to gather around us.
    â€œNo, I don’t ‘
comprende,
’ ” I replied. “This is between me and Angel.”
    â€œWell, Angel’s business is now my business,” Christina said defiantly.
    I was just about to say something else when Tori, Raquelle, and Alisha walked up. “What’s going on, Camille?” Tori asked, eyeing Christina and Angel. “Is there a problem?”
    â€œIt’s only a problem if you’re about to make one,” Christina replied as she stared back at Tori.
    The last thing I wanted was to get into it with Christina and her friends. And I dang sure didn’t want the Thetas getting into any trouble over this. I just wanted to talk to Angel.
    â€œNaw, Tori, I’m straight. I was just trying to talk to Angel, that’s all.”
    Christina laughed as she turned toward one of her friends and said,
“Ella necesita hablar a esa muchacha negra acerca de que alzó teje.”
    I had no idea what she said, but the way they were looking at Tori and laughing, it had to have been about her. Tori must’ve sensed it, too, because she