Island Boyz by Graham Salisbury Page B

time I almost came over to see if you wanted to sneak away and do something intelligent,” Lynnette said.
    “Why didn’t you?”
    Lynnette shrugged. “Shy.”
    “Shy? You?”
    “I don’t make friends easily. My daddy says I’m way too opinionated. He said people don’t like it.”
    Maya laughed. “That’s what my mom says to my dad.”
    Lynnette tore a piece of paper out of her spiral pad and gave it to Maya. “Here. Write me your number. Next time let’s make plans to escape.”
    Maya scribbled it out.
    Lynnette nodded and smiled and jammed it into her pocket. “We got to stick together. Only way to survive, ah?”
     
    On the fourth day Frankie showed.
    Along with the criminal brothers.
    We had one bag of four-day-old saved stuff that we’d only nibbled at, since we were low on cash.
    Lynnette looked just like one of us—short, and not nearly old enough to be an eighth grader. That’s right, she was in the same grade and same school as Frankie Diamond.
    But she didn’t know that name.
    Which is why when she first saw him she whistled low and said, “
That’s
Frankie Diamond?”
    “The one and only,” Maya said.
    “Ni-i-ice,” Lynnette said, dragging it out.
    “Nice like a stink bug,” Liddlebiddyguy added.
    “What’s he doing with Mike and Tito? I know those two, and what I know ain’t good.”
    “He’s new around here,” I said. “Maybe he just doesn’t know who to stay away from.”
    Willy snorted in disgust. “Those brothers should stay away from
him.
He’s the one robbing us, not them.”
    Frankie started toward us with his bad-news grin that would be long gone after Lynnette got through with him. Mike and Tito, slouching along on either side of him, made it look like the gunfight at OK Corral. This was going to be something.
    Yeah!
    “So that’s Frankie Diamond,” Lynnette said. “I’ve seen him around but didn’t know his name. He’s cute.”
    I glanced at Willy. I didn’t like the sound of that.
    “Heyyy, Shrimpy-boy,” Frankie said to me, walking up. He nodded to everyone else and added, “Whatchoo got for me and my frens today?”
    “Nothing,” Lynnette said. “Sorry.”
    Frankie’s gaze wandered over to Lynnette, slow and amused, his white eyes smiling that magic that made Maya’s heart jump. “Eh look,” he said, turning to Mike and Tito. “The bugs went grow by one more since las’ time.”
    Mike and Tito grinned. I guess they knew Lynnette and were thinking: This is going to be good.
    Frankie walked up to face Lynnette, standing just inches away from her. “And what’s your name, ah?”
    “Does it matter?”
    “No, cuz I going make you one new one, jus’ like I did for all these liddle men las’ week.”
    Lynnette crossed her arms, cool as ice.
    “Let’s see,” Frankie said, posing like he had a smart brain and was thinking. “As I remember, we got Shrimp, we got Mouse, Louse, we got Zulu and Liddlebiddyguy. Am I right?”
    “Liddlebiddyguy?” Lynnette said. She smiled and looked back at us. “That’s good. Who’s that?”
    Rubin scowled, glaring at all of us, who’d done nothing. But who wanted to glare at Frankie?
    “You like that?” Frankie said.
    “Not bad for one half-eye babooze, I guess. So whatchoo going call me, ah? Liddlebiddygirl?”
    Frankie’s grin grew when Lynnette broke into talking in pidgin English the way he did. He stepped back and looked her over as if he were just now seeing her for the first time . . . and was liking what he saw.
    “Well,” he said, his squinting eyes zeroing in for the kill, “I t’ink I going call you Liddlebiddybigmout’, how’s that?”
    Mike and Tito shifted and giggled, ribbing each other. Huh? I thought. They giggled?
    Frankie turned to them and smiled.
    “Big mouth?” Lynnette said.
    Frankie turned back and studied her. “Yeah, big mout’ . . . Cuz you liddle bit sassy, ah? I like that.”
    “You do, huh?”
    “Yeh.”
    They stared at each other a long time, neither turning