Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick Page B

opened and slammed. There was more banging, of groceries heaped onto the counter, then keys smacked onto the table. Reesie rushed in the direction of the sounds.
    Her glowing, grinning face met her mother’s scowling, vexed one. Jazz hopped off her chair and danced around the two of them, humming her new Boonie Girls tune.
    â€œGuess what?” Mama sucked her teeth as if she were the middle-school student.
    â€œDaddy’s coming for Christmas!” mother and daughter both said at once. Then, in stunned silence, they each took in the other’s reaction.
    â€œHo, ho ho!” Jazz sang out loud, but changed her lyrics. “Boonie Girls glad and mad!”

 
    Chapter Seventeen
    Reesie’s Christmas spirit continued to rise. The next day, her mother agreed to allow her to go shopping with Dadi at the mall. Then Aunt Tish, who had won quite a few awards for her television acting, had intervened at school to get Reesie’s phone back. More important than any of that—most important—was the text Orlando had sent while her phone was locked away in Worthy’s room.
    B N NJ @ XMAS!
    That afternoon, Reesie showed Dadi the message before she bit into a Jamaican patty in the food court. It was the closest thing she’d discovered to a Louisiana meat pie.
    Dadi sat across from her, peppering her with questions. With her mouth and hands full, Reesie couldn’t answer her friend right away.
    â€œI bet you can’t wait! What are you going to do? When’s he getting here? Where’s the first place you’re going to take him? When can I meet your boyfriend?” Dadi stared at Reesie with her eyes twinkling, propping her skinny olive elbows onto the table. “You must miss him like crazy.”
    â€œFelicidad, I told you that Orlando is not my boyfriend!” Reesie washed down the last of the flaky crust with orange soda.
    â€œBut it’s amazing that your boyfriend is coming all the way up here to see you!” Dadi hadn’t touched her cheese fries yet, but Reesie knew she’d scarf that order down and then get another, because according to her, a dancer’s metabolism made her hungry all the time.
    â€œHe’s not my boyfriend.”
    â€œWell, he kissed you.”
    â€œIn the middle of a hurricane when he was out of his mind looking for his brother! It was a freak-out kiss.”
    Since Orlando had never mentioned it, Reesie found it hard to convince herself now that he’d meant anything by the kiss, although he hadn’t failed to text every day since he’d found her, and even called when Dr é and Tree had hitchhiked their way to Texas.…
    â€œReesie, are you listening to me? You never listen to anybody. Maybe that’s why you haven’t made more friends at school.” Dadi was inhaling her last two fries. “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but sometimes you’re out there … like, not here , where the real world is.”
    Dadi’s comment irritated Reesie a little, and that tiny spark of anger made her want to talk.
    â€œIt was my birthday that day, you know? Birthdays won’t ever be the same for me.”
    â€œWow.” Dadi stopped chewing. “You mean the Katrina day? You never said!”
    â€œYeah. Maybe the problem at school is y’all don’t understand what the real world is!”
    Dadi pouted and crossed her arms. “I’m included in that? I thought we were friends. You never told me anything , except about your boyfriend.”
    Reesie squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. She was grateful that a loud family with rustling shopping bags hustled into the booth next to them.
    â€œI was with my neighbor. She’s, like, eighty. She was making—made—my birthday cake. And Orlando’s brother showed up—”
    â€œWait! The one he was looking for when he kissed you?” Her voice got louder, and a girl near their table snickered. Reesie made a