Getting Played by Celeste O. Norfleet Page A

really hate his guts.”
    â€œI know what you mean,” I commiserate.
    â€œSo I heard you got pulled out of first period.”
    â€œWho told you that?”
    â€œLi’l T,” she says.
    â€œHow did he know?” I ask.
    â€œGirl, you know how Li’l T be playing like that. He knows everybody’s business. I swear the FBI and CIA need to hire him.”
    I nod. It’s so true. “It was nothing. Ms. Grayson, my U.S. History teacher, wanted to talk to me. That’s all. Apparently, she doesn’t like my attitude in her class.”
    â€œI didn’t know you had Grayson. I had her freshman year for World Geography. She’s nice. I like her.”
    â€œShe’s okay, I guess. She’s just all up in my business.”
    Ursula nods and smiles knowingly. “I know that’s right. But she means well. She likes helping students. It’s her thing. Whenever you have a problem, go to her, seriously. Her grandfather is some big shot senator or something. And for real, she talked me down from trying to poison Darien’s butt most of my freshman year.”
    I laugh. Knowing how Ursula hates Darien, I can just see Grayson trying to calm her down. “I guess it worked.”
    â€œBarely,” she says. “But seriously, why don’t you get a job here? I think you’d like it.”
    I think about saying no again, but I figure, why not? I was already back in The Penn, so working in the neighborhood wouldn’t be that bad. And if money was going to start being tight with my dad, I needed to get a job now. “I don’t know, maybe. Where do I get an application?”
    â€œI’ll get one for you.” Ursula quickly grabs an application and I fill it out right then. There isn’t much to it since this would be my first real job. I list working in the office at my dad’s company as work experience and use my grandmother as a reference. I give the application back to Ursula, and she takes it to the owner. I am leaving when Ursula calls me back. The owner wants to meet me.
    I go back to a tiny little office next to the kitchen and talk to the owner. I’ve been coming here forever, and I swear I had no idea this guy was the owner. We always spoke ’cause me and my girls were in here after dance so much. I thought he was just some guy who hung around working and getting free food. He was always cool with us, and he knew I was okay. All this is to say that I got the job. I still can’t believe it happened that fast. They give me a large pepperoni pizza and I hurry home to tell my grandmother, but she isn’t there. I go to the kitchen and put the pizza on the table. I get a slice and sit down to eat. I see my grandmother’s bill folder on the table again.
    Curiously, I open it and pull out the bills I saw earlier from the hospital. There are four of them and they total some insane amount of money. It was crazy that my grandmother owed that much money. I wonder about her healthcare insurance. She is old, she has to have something. Then I start wondering if she has some kind of major health issue. My grandmom looks completely healthy. Maybe she was sick before and she just never said anything to me. I wouldn’t even know if she was.
    So I start reading the dates and the diagnosis to find out what is actually wrong with her. As much as I can figure, the dates are all wrong. Whatever was going on happened before my mom and I moved here. Then I see that the bills aren’t addressed to my grandmother, but to my mom. This is weird. My mom wasn’t in the hospital. But she must have been paying my grandmother’s bills. Now that she’s dead, I guess my grandmother has to pay them herself. But then the bills are all addressed to my mom.
    Then I start thinking about it. There were a lot of things I didn’t know before. I grab my cell and call the customer service number on the bill. It’s a recording. I hang up. I