Little Divas (11 page)

Rikki, of course, told Uncle Lance and Aunt Honey the same thing, and they agreed to let Golden stay the night, stressing that they expected us back home as soon as Mary got off work.

So the plan was set.

Golden did my hair in crimps, and Rikki wore hers down too, more full and curly, though. Rikki said that if Golden was going to come with us, she had to let Rikki do something with her hair. So Rikki had brushed it up into a real high ponytail like
I Dream of Jeanie
and, for the first time, I realized how lovely Golden’s eyes are. They’re a butterscotch-tinted shade of hazel.

Golden hadn’t told her mother anything about where we were going. Not the truth, not even a lie. In fact, when Mrs. Anders cheerfully asked where we were going to hang out for the day, Golden had clenched her teeth together and groaned.

“I’m sorry, honey,” Mrs. Anders had said. “Too pushy?”

“Way,”
Golden replied.

I could tell by the smile in Rikki’s eyes that she was impressed. As we finished primping in the bathroom, Rikki asked Golden how she managed to keep her mother in check like that.

“What do you mean?” Golden asked.

“She doesn’t even
care
where you’re going?” Rikki asked.

“She saw me with my swimsuit,” Golden said. “I mean, come on. She’ll say anything to make me talk to her. All because a guy comes by in his big blue van and tells us that we need to communicate more.”

I’d seen that man the other day. Long silver hair in a ponytail, wearing khaki shorts, Birkenstocks, and a white T-shirt. I asked Golden if that was her mother’s boyfriend or something, and it was the first time I heard her laugh.

“Yeah, right,”
she said. “Please. That’s Mr. Burns. Our headman.”

I didn’t know what a headman was, and I wasn’t sure if I should ask. Rikki was eyeing me suspiciously, with an I-told-you-so look on her face.

Hadn’t I prayed for normal neighbors? The Anderses might turn out to be even worse than the Thompsons. Would a headman be scarier than a mortician?

“What in the
world,”
Rikki asked Golden, “is a headman?”

Golden didn’t answer at first, and I thought that maybe she was dismissing the question with silence.

“He’s a shrink,” she finally said. “My mom makes Freddy and me talk to him about the divorces and stuff because she thinks we can’t handle it all on our own. Like we’re still babies or something. It’s so stupid, though. If anyone can’t handle things, it’s her. I hate talking to him. He’s gross.”

Rikki started shaking her head, and I took a deep breath and swallowed. How many times had Golden’s mom been married?

Golden thought some more. “He makes me
sick,”
she added. “He thinks he knows so much, I swear.”

Without saying a word, Rikki just kept shaking her head back and forth. There was something very secretive about Golden, but now she was opening up to us a little. I didn’t want to risk annoying her by asking too many questions, though, so I decided to just let the subject drop. Golden could tell us more whenever she was ready. Besides, I didn’t want whatever Golden had to say to give Rikki a dozen more reasons why we shouldn’t be friends with her.

We could hear Mrs. Anders coming up the hallway, and she stopped in the doorway of the bathroom with her big Nikon camera. Again.

“Mom,”
Golden said, “isn’t that the whole roll yet?”

Mrs. Anders was smiling from behind the lens as she snapped yet another picture. “Nope,” she said, and snapped again. “How about a group one, girls?”

We pressed our faces together and smiled as Mrs. Anders snapped away some more.

“Okay, Mom,” Golden said. “Enough.”

But Mrs. Anders giggled, and snapped one last candid picture before she left us alone.

Golden got out huge pink towels from the linen closet for us to use as wraparounds. We helped one another put them on and tie them up in big fat knots at our sides.

Usually at pool parties I wear my jean shorts over my suit and just put my feet in the water. I’d never worn a swimming suit in front of a boy before, and I was having second thoughts. But I looked in the mirror and saw Rikki’s and Golden’s faces reflected back at me, their approving smiles, and I reconsidered. Everyone was so excited. I couldn’t back out now. And, hey, maybe Darwin’s pool party would even turn out to be fun.

“You look awesome, Cass,” Golden assured me.

“Yeah,
Cassidy.”
Rikki rolled her eyes a bit. She was still refusing to use my new nickname. “You do.”

“And so do you, Golden,” I added.

“Well, I think we
all
look good,” Rikki declared.

Just before we left the bathroom, Golden yanked open the drawer under the sink, fumbled around, and grabbed a few tubes of lip gloss, all pretty shades of pink.

“Girls,” Mrs. Anders yelled, “Mary’s here!” “We’ll put it on in the car,” Golden said as we headed downstairs.

Mary had wanted us to make a big entrance, so we got to Darwin’s late. When we pulled up, she told us, “Now remember, I get off at eight, so I’ll pick you up at the corner at eight-thirty.”

“Okay,” we all said.

Mary smiled. “You girls look so adorable. Have fun.”

We could smell the barbecue, hear the laughter, and feel the bass from the blaring stereo as soon as we got out of the car. The closer we got to the fence, the louder the music became. A cardboard sign was hanging on the gate with bright red graffiti letters:
PARTY OF THE SUMMER HERE.

As soon as we walked through the gate we saw Mr. and Mrs. Mack, Darwin’s parents. Mr. Mack was wearing a black and gold apron with “BBQ King” on the front, and Mrs. Mack was carrying a stack of paper plates over to a table.

“Glad you could make it,” Mr. Mack said.

“Plenty of food,” Mrs. Mack added with a smile. “Hot dogs. Potato salad. Brats. Burgers. It’s all over on the table, so go on. Enjoy.”

“Okay.” Rikki sounded all sweet and innocent. “We will, Mrs. Mack.”

Everyone watched us walk through the yard. Or maybe not. Maybe it just seemed like it. Maybe it always feels like people are watching me and they aren’t. I tried real hard to make my nervousness disappear.

The Macks’ backyard is huge. Some kids were in the pool, but others were scattered throughout the yard, sitting on lawn chairs or at picnic tables. Quite a few were dancing up on the wooden deck. Several people were just leaning up against the fence, cooling out and chitchatting with canned sodas in their hands. Rikki spotted some lawn chairs that were outside of splashing distance and suggested we grab them.

I looked back at the gate. What if Uncle Lance or Aunt Honey had followed us? What would they think? What would they do to the three of us, half naked in front of adolescent boys?

“Yo, Rikki!” Darwin’s voice called out from the makeshift dance floor. He had been doing that new hustle, the Forrest Hills Flow, but he had stopped midstep to throw his hands in the air. “What up?” he yelled.

Rikki nudged me and couldn’t help smiling. “Let me go dance with him real quick. Be right back, okay?

“Or,” she added cautiously, “ya’ll can come if you want.”

I looked at Golden, who was looking around at the backyard full of kids. “That’s okay. We’re cool.”

I filled Golden in on the history between Rikki and Darwin as Rikki walked away. “They always try to act like they don’t like each other, but they can’t be in a room together five minutes without getting close. Been that way since the beginning of sixth grade.”

Golden got a good look at Darwin and said, “He’s hot.”

“You must like pretty boys,” I joked. “But Darwin’s nice. You’ll see when you meet him later.”

As I looked around the backyard full of familiar faces, I gave Golden the lowdown on who was going with who, who used to go with who, and who
she
should never go with.

“Who’s
that?”
she asked with a raised eyebrow. “He’s hot too.”

I followed her gaze. Splashing around in the pool, squirting a water gun at anyone within aiming distance, was Travis.

“Oh,” I said. “That’s just Travis Jones.”

“Really?”
Golden stared a little longer. “As in
the
Travis?” Rikki had filled her in on my hatred of Travis on the car ride over.

“He’s gotten better looking over the summer, trust me.”

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Golden said. “But I’ve seen him before. Somewhere… I don’t know….”

“He was in California all summer,” I said, “so I doubt it.”

“Hmmm.” She crossed one leg over the other. “Maybe not.”

“Like I said, he’s gotten
a lot
better. He discovered lotion, got taller, darker, braces….”

“Well, he looks better than some of the woofs I used to know at my old school.”

“You ever go with anybody?”

“Not at my last school,” Golden said. “But at the school before that I did. I kissed this lame-o named Jeff last year, but that was about it. I think I was bored or something.”

Great. I was officially the last girl in the entire world who had yet to be kissed.

Golden looked around some more. “So who do you like?”

“Yeah, right.”

“Not even a little bit? Nobody?”

I shrugged. “They’re all just annoying.”

“Hey,” she asked, “what about those three, over there by the fence.”

“Nate is on the left. Mario is the one with the glasses; you have to watch him, though, because he likes to crack on people. The skinny one is Sam. Sam’s cool. All of ’em hoop.”

“Does Travis?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But he usually sits the bench.”

Travis looked up from the pool then, like he sensed that we were talking about him, and nodded his head up.

“S’up?” he called.

I mumbled to Golden, “I can’t stand him.”

“You could at least say ‘Hi,’” she suggested. “Since he did.”

So Golden and I both waved.

Why, oh why, did we do that? Travis climbed up the ladder, got out of the pool, and came right on over. Before I knew it, Travis was standing in front of me, his green shorts dripping water everywhere. Inside I was cringing.

“What’s up?” he asked. “Thought you weren’t coming.”

“Changed my mind,” I said.

His braces sparkled when he smiled. “Tight suit.”

“Thanks.” I folded my arms across my chest.

Glancing back at the pool, he said, “Comin’ in?”

“Maybe later.”

He noticed Golden. “Who’s your friend?”

“She’s new,” I said, “so be nice. Her name is Golden Anders. Golden, meet Travis Jones.”

“Straight up?” Travis said. “Where you from?”

“Around,” Golden replied. “I used to go to Lake. And my last name is Mahoney, not Anders.”

Instantly I wanted to apologize. I hadn’t even considered that Golden would have a different name from her mother’s. Then I heard the surprise in Travis’s voice. “Yo! You went to Lake? When?”

“Last year.”

“For real? So you know my cousin then, huh? Tony?”

“Tony Jones?”

“For sure.”

“Yeah,” Golden said. “I know Tony. He’s cool.”

“So you comin’ to King now? Our team is gonna run it,” Travis told her. “Bet.”

“Cool,” she said.

And then Travis looked at me. “You eat yet?”

“No.”

“Hungry?”

“No.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Thirsty?”

“No.” I kinda laughed. “I’m cool.”

“What? You still mad at me? You want me to leave?”

“I’m not mad,” I said. But I really did want him to leave.

“Then why you throw my ice cream away?” Travis asked. “If you weren’t mad?”

Golden cracked up laughing, which made me do the same.

Travis laughed a little too. “It’s cool,” he said. He glanced at me as he headed back to the pool. “You gonna dance with me later, though, right?”

My stomach got tight and my teeth clenched.

Why
did that keep happening?

I shrugged.

“All right then,” he said. “But I’m gone get you in that pool.”

Travis smiled, and a flutter shot through my stomach and went up through my chest. I watched as he dove back into the water and started splashing around again.

I told Golden,
“Now
do you see how annoying he is?”

“I
knew
I’d seen him before,” she said, ignoring my question. “He used to come hang in my old neighborhood with Tony and his crew.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I remember him because this girl named Keisha used to really like him.”

“And what happened?”

“She was kinda dorky, and I hear he’s real picky. His cousin Tony is too.”

I watched Travis as he flicked water in girls’ faces.

“Travis?” I said. “Picky? Really?”

“Uh-huh,” Golden said. “Selective. And you’re right, he did get taller.”

Come to think of it, I couldn’t recall Travis ever really liking a whole lot of girls. He teased
all
of us, but who had he ever really
liked?

Erica Turner in the fourth grade, but that was about it, and she moved to Philadelphia last year.

“It sure is hot,” Golden said. “Let’s go get in.”

Panic hit my chest, and I gripped the knot on my towel. “The pool, you mean?”

“We might as well,” Golden said. “Since we’re here.”

I was
so
glad Golden was with me. There was no way I’d have moved from my seat if she weren’t. We left our towels on the chair and headed over to the pool.

We decided to just sit on the edge at first, to let our feet get used to the temperature for a while. We didn’t talk much. It was so hot that all we really had the strength to do was sit there and take it. The water on our feet hinted at relief, and I knew that eventually Golden would want to get in, and I was dreading that.

All around us were people that I had gone to school with for years, which wasn’t surprising. If Darwin throws a party,
everyone
wants to be there. There was one person missing that I could see, but just then she arrived.

twelve