It's All Good Read Free Page A

sun. Things that I’m not even supposed to know are possible. Bad things that would result in Gwen ending my life.
    But, who am I to say that the boys aren’t lying? It wasn’t too long ago when Romeo lied on me to everybody. He had his entire little crew thinking I was out there all like that. And I totally was not!
    Here’s the thing, though. If they are lying on Valerie, she doesn’t seem to care one bit. I think she likes having a bad reputation.
    So, tell me why someone who enjoys having a bad name would join our little purity class?
    Methinks something is rotten in Denmark.
    Oh, come on, people ... Hamlet? Shakespeare? Required reading!
    Anyway, I don’t think Valerie will last very long in a class run by Gwen the punisher.
    â€œOkay, Valerie,” I reply, “you can come to the purity classes. They start on Wednesday evening at our church.”
    â€œCool. Does anyone else have any announcements?” Valerie asks.
    Jewel raises her hand. “The rally girls are having a prestate party on Thursday night.”
    Valerie says, “Thanks for the reminder, Jewel. We’ll all be there.”
    Hold up. Wait a minute. Before Homecoming, Valerie tried to institute an all Hi-Steppers ban on the rally girls’ parties. Of course, I ignored the ban, because my cousin Hope is a former Hi-Stepper, current rally girl. Plus, they have slamming parties.
    â€œI thought we were reclaiming our title as spirit ambassadors,” Kelani says. “Can you make up your mind about what we’re doing?”
    Valerie gives Kelani some pretty evil side eye. Kelani is pushing it. I’ve only seen Valerie act civilized in very small doses. We’ve already been blessed with more than thirty minutes of sweet Valerie. In about five seconds she’s gonna start tripping.
    â€œYes, we are the spirit ambassadors, but that doesn’t mean we won’t support other Longfellow groups. We’re all one school.”
    If you know Valerie, like I know Valerie (and some of you do), then you know something isn’t right. She has this look on her face that reminds me of Sylvester the cat, right before he tries to jump up and snatch Tweety out of his cage.
    Yes, Tweety is a boy.
    Like I was saying, Valerie has a devious expression on her face, like she knows something the rest of us don’t.
    Valerie says, “Everyone is dismissed from the meeting! Holla!”
    Before leaving the gym, Kelani and Jewel storm over toward me. They don’t look happy. I never thought I’d see this day, when Twiddledee and Twiddledum are not on the same page.
    â€œGia!” Jewel says. “Are you gonna be in our hotel room?”
    â€œYeah, sure.”
    My hip buzzes. Well, not my hip, but my phone that’s on my hip. It’s a text.
    Â 
    SAT prep class starts week after next. want me to sign you up? Kev.
    Â 
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    I reply. Absolutely.
    â€œWho was that?” Candy asks.
    â€œNobody. Just Kevin.”
    â€œWhat did he want?”
    â€œHe wanted me to tell you to mind your own business.”
    Sometimes it’s cool having a younger sister, although I’m still getting used to it. But other times, I just want to tell her to step. You know what I mean?
    Kevin and I are planning to get as close to perfect scores on our SAT exams as possible. We’re both trying to get full scholarships to college, because we’re not exactly from privileged families. Ricky will probably get an athletic scholarship, although he really wants to go to Morehouse to study medicine.
    I haven’t decided where I want to go yet. I might go the Ivy League route and take all this fabulousness up to Brown or Columbia. Or, I might do the whole historically-black-college thing. If I go to Spelman, Ricky and I can kick it like on that old-school television show A Different World. That would be the hotness.
    Candy and I walk out of the gym and Ricky is waiting outside for us. He’s posted up