Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend (10 page)

“
I’ll tell you something
all right.” Sammi pointed her finger in each girl’s face as she
walked by and spoke to them. “You girls might have thought a little
bit of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of Bo-”

“
Actually it was a lot of
hot sauce, pepper and salt,” Joy corrected with a slight grin. “I
mean, you should have seen the way we just piled it…OUCH!” Joy
screamed after Daryn elbowed her in the side.

Sammi plastered a fake
smile on her face. “Then I stand corrected…you girls might have
thought that a lot of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of
Bo-and it might have…for the night. But it didn’t get rid of my
feelings for him.” Still pointing, Sammi continued chastising the
girls. “Now, I’m going to go upstairs and take a shower so that I
can get cleaned up.” Sammi looked down at the punch that Bo had
spit out all over her. “And so that I can think about what I’m
going to say to Bo when he calls me.”

Kennedy cupped her hand
around her mouth and whispered to Daryn, “If he calls her,” then
stifled a chuckle.

Sammi only glared before
continuing. “You girls, on the other hand, are going to go clean up
that kitchen and get ready for bed.” Sammi made her way back to
Kennedy. “You got that, head sister in charge?” Her finger was idle
in Kennedy’s face.

Kennedy was speechless, and
not because of the fussing out she had just received, but because
of what she had just noticed. “Your ring…” were the words that fell
out of Kennedy’s mouth. “You’re not wearing your wedding ring
anymore.”

Sammi looked down at her
left hand. It was now vacant of the wedding ring she had worn for
years, even after her late husband’s death. “Don’t try to change
the subject,” Sammi said, not knowing how else to respond,
especially after seeing the hurt look on each of her daughters’
faces. “The issue at hand is that you girls ruined the entire
night, and perhaps my entire relationship with Bo. Now I’ve got to
go figure out a way for us to make it up to him.”

“
Us?” the girls
shouted.

“
Yes…me…you…we…all of us,”
Sammi replied. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
Sammi made a quick exit without getting back on the subject of the
ring. She sighed a sigh of relief after she was around the corner
and out of the girls’ sight.

“
Harrumph,” Kennedy sighed
a few seconds later as she folded her arms and flopped down on the
couch. “We’ll see about that. We‘ll make it up to Mr. Bo Hart all
right; we’ll make up something to top what we did
tonight.”

“
Yeah,” Daryn said,
flopping down next to her older sister. “I wish I might fix my lips
to even apologize to that jive turkey for what we did tonight, let
alone make it up to him.”

“
Me either.” Joy joined her
sisters on the couch.”

Kennedy shook her head
after thinking for a minute. “I don’t know, girls. I think Mom must
really be diggin’ this dude. I mean, she took her ring off that Dad
gave her.” Kennedy looked at her little sisters who nodded in
agreement. “So, you girls know what that means, right?” Kennedy
sighed.

“
What?” Joy and Daryn
said.

“
That if Mom does get back
in Bo’s good graces…this time we have to try even harder to get rid
of him…for good! We’ll really have to out do ourselves.” Once
again, Kennedy looked at her sisters for approval. When a gleam of
support twinkled in their eyes, Kennedy put her fist out. Daryn
placed her fist on top of Kennedy’s, then Joy’s on top of
Daryn’s.

“
Soul Sister’s Operation
Get Rid of Mom’s New Boyfriend; Mission incomplete,” Kennedy
stated. “Now for phase two…”

Chapter Eleven

Don’t Hate the Player, Hate
the Game

“
Mother was still really
upset this morning,” Daryn said as the three sisters got off the
school bus and headed toward their school entrance.

“
Yeah. I heard her on the
phone last night with Miss Rachel telling her everything that went
down.” Kennedy had immediately began bouncing her basketball when
she stepped off the school bus. “But, hey. She’ll get over it.
She’ll come out of this little funk she’s in and things will be
back to normal in no time.”

Joy shook her head. “I
don’t know. Rebecca-Joe said that her big sister told her that when
a woman breaks up with her boyfriend, things don’t get back to
normal until after she loses five pounds from depression and then
has a girl’s night out on the town with her girlfriends.” Joy put
her finger to her forehead and thought for a minute. “Or is it the
other way around?”

“
But even then, who’s to
say that things will be back to normal? Especially if that loser,
Bo, accepts Mom’s apology and stays on the scene,” Daryn
said.

“
Daryn’s right,” Joy
agreed. “Bo might not step off so easily.”

“
If he knows what’s good
for him he will,” Kennedy threatened. “But just in case this cat
really does have nine lives, we need to have something else lined
up to get rid of him once and for all?”

“
Yeah, but what?” Daryn
shrugged.

“
Come on, girls; walk with
me, talk with me,” Kennedy ordered as she shot out some ideas for
phase two of their operation.”

The girls made their way
into the school building. At this point was usually when the girls
separated from one another. They barely even talked to each other
at school unless it was to pick up where they’d left off in an
argument that had started at home. Now that the girls had joined
forces, now that they shared and walked on common ground, both
Daryn and Joy stood with Kennedy at her locker. They proceeded to
throw out some ideas for their next mission. That was until a loud
voice interrupted them.

“
So, who do you think is
going to take the trophy this year at the Father-Kid Basketball
Tournament?” this uppity girl named Lilac, said to her two
sidekicks, Vanilla and Hennessey.

The three eighth grade
girls, given the moniker, The Triplets, by most of the kids at
school, stood next to the Soul Sisters. Lilac’s locker was directly
next to Kennedy’s. Practically every morning the Triplets would
huddle around Lilac’s locker and talk; or more like taunt
Kennedy.

Kennedy sighed. She
despised Lilac’s bourgeoisie, high-pitched voice. She despised even
more what she knew was coming next.

“
I knowwwww,” squealed
Vanilla. She knew everything. At least she always claimed to
anyway.

Then there was time for the
dreadful parrot that Kennedy despised the most.

“
Yeah, so who do you think
is going to take the trophy this year at the Father-Kid Basketball
Tournament?” Hennessey repeated Lilac‘s initial inquiry. Hennessey
repeated almost everything the ringleader said.

That was just one of the
annoying conversations amongst the threesome Kennedy had to endure
everyday. Those three acted more like sisters than Kennedy, Daryn
and Joy. They were practically joined at the hip, taking almost all
of the same eighth grade classes together. The only class The
Triplets didn’t have together was math. Hennessey just happened to
be in Kennedy’s math class. But Kennedy had to admit that Hennessey
wasn’t that bad to tolerate when she was by herself. As a third
wheel, though, she was a little wobbly.

Even though from the
outside looking in Lilac, Vanilla and Hennessey appeared to be
sisters, they weren’t. As a matter of fact, they weren’t even
related. Because Lilac and Vanilla’s mothers had been best friends
since high school and their daughter’s had grown up together, the
two girls pretended to be cousins. Although Hennessey was pretty
tight with both the girls too, Lilac and Vanilla were like Beyonce
and Kelly Rowland from the singing group Destiny’s Child, while
Hennessey was like the extra chick in the group. Still, Hennessey
was dedicated and loyal to the clique, even if she really didn’t
seem to fit in.

“
I can’t
say for certain, but I think me and my pops have a pretty good
chance at winning the tournament,” Lilac smiled. “Daddy’s hired one
of his good friends, a former pro ball player, to train us for the
big game.” Lilac looked over her shoulder at Kennedy. “Of course, I
still don’t know if that’s good enough to beat the
school’s
star basketball
player
.” Lilac’s tone couldn’t have been
more sarcastic in her reference to Kennedy.

The three nemeses chuckled
while rolling their eyes at Kennedy. Kennedy pretended to ignore
them, but The Triplets weren’t about to be ignored.

“
So, Kennedy, you playing
in the big tournament this year?” Lilac asked as she grabbed a
couple books from her locker. “Oh, that’s right. It is a Father-Kid
Basketball Tournament, and since you don’t have a
father...”

The girls chuckled
again.

“
But I don’t know, girls,”
Lilac said. “Maybe I shouldn’t make room on my shelf for the trophy
just yet. Kennedy’s mom still has plenty of time to find a
boyfriend or someone who can substitute as Kennedy’s
daddy?”

“
I knoooow,” Vanilla
agreed.

“
Yeah, girls. Her mom still
has plenty of time to find a boyfriend or someone who can
substitute as Kennedy’s daddy.” Hennessey was repeating Kennedy
again.

Both Daryn and Joy stood
next to their big sister with solemn faces. Their expressions
weren’t so much because of what The Triplets were saying, it was
because of the look on Kennedy’s face. They’d never seen their
sister look so defeated in their lives. Kennedy was already for a
fight. And now here one was being handed to her on a silver
platter.

Daryn and Joy waited for
Kennedy to shoot the girls a slick comeback like she would have
done either one of them, but not a word ever came from Kennedy’s
mouth.

The school bell interrupted
the taunting session by The Triplets, on which Kennedy was on the
receiving end of. After Lilac sneered at Kennedy then closed her
locker, she, Vanilla and Hennessey disbursed.

“
Look, I gotta go to
class,” Kennedy said to her sisters, slamming her own locker
closed. “We’ll discuss our next move on the way home.” Kennedy
headed off to her next class with her head down, leaving her two
little sisters standing at her locker dumbfounded.

The big sister walking away
from them was not the big sister Daryn and Joy knew from home. The
sister they knew would have never allowed those Triplet girls to
get away with that. Who knows? Maybe Kennedy was deciding to pick
her battles, and perhaps the battle at hand, the one of getting rid
of their mom’s new boyfriend, took priority.

“
Come on.” Daryn nudged
Joy. “We don’t want to be late for our classes.

Both Daryn and Joy parted
ways in the direction of their own classes. It looked as though the
planning stages were on hold…but not for long.

Chapter Twelve

Do the Twist

Sammi lay in her bed with
her arms folded across her stomach. With her right index finger and
thumb, she rubbed the bare ring finger on her left hand. Had her
ring been there, she’d been doing the twist thing she does with it
whenever she’s nervous. But she’d removed the ring yesterday before
Bo had come over for the disastrous spaghetti dinner.

She had decided to take off
the ring for her own personal reasons. If she planned to truly
start a lasting relationship with Bo, then she needed to move on.
She needed to give Bo her whole heart and mind, but how could she
do that if every time she looked down at her wedding ring she was
reminded of her late husband?

The ring symbolized the
bond and the vows she’d once shared with him. Well, now she wanted
to try to form a bond with Bo. However, Sammi didn’t want to forget
about the man she’d married and shared an incredible life with
either; the man she’d had three wonderful daughters with. Nevermind
the fact that the daughters weren’t acting so wonderful right about
now.

After praying on it, Sammi
realized that removing the ring didn’t mean she was removing
memories of her children’s father. It just meant that she was
removing one thing in order to make room for something else. Not
that that meant she wanted Bo to propose to her any time soon with
a ring of his own. It just meant that if the day ever did come, she
wanted to be ready.

Ironically, though, now she
wished she hadn’t taken off the ring. Not because she had lost all
hope of straightening things out with Bo, but because she needed to
cure her nervousness. Right now, she needed more than anything to
do the twist with her ring. Taking a deep breath, Sammi figured
there was only one way to cure her nervousness. It wasn’t to put
her ring back on. It was to just go ahead and get the task at hand
out of the way.

After waiting all day for
Bo to call her, Sammi decided to make the first move and call him.
She looked over at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was almost
nine o’clock on a Monday night. It was getting late. If she was
going to make a move, then she needed to do it fast, before it got
any later.

After picking up the phone
and dialing Bo’s phone number, Sammi put the phone to her ear. She
heard dead silence; no ring, no nothing. “Hello,” she said into the
phone receiver.