The Perfect Present Read Free Page A

I could play your little game,” Jayla said.
    â€œIf it is so little, you need to go play your own game,” I huffed under my breath.
    â€œSo what do you girls do for fun here in the whack town?” Jayla asked.
    I had to squeeze my pillow tighter. I was just going to ignore her, that’s what I was going to do.
    â€œWell, sometimes we go skating with the youth group at church. We also go to the library with our friends for afterschool activities,” said Tionna.
    I couldn’t see her, since I was ignoring her, but I could tell she had her nose all turned up just by the way she sounded. “Church group and the library? Please.You are as whack as this town. I am going to have to liven you girls up!” Jayla said.
    Okay, that was it. My momma and grandma was just going to have to be mad at me. I’d had enough.
    â€œWe are fine just the way we are. We don’t need any help from you!” I yelled.
    â€œObviously, you do!” Jayla screamed right back. “You whack. Your town is whack! And you can have all the nice stuff in the world, and you still gonna be whack.”
    â€œThen why don’t you get out!” I shouted.
    â€œGirls, are you okay? What is all that noise up there?” Grandma Bessie yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
    Tionna stuck her head out the door. “Nothing, Grandma. We’re fine.”
    â€œWell, come on down so we can eat,” Grandma called.
    Jayla and I stared each other down. Finally, I said, “Let’s just go downstairs and get this fake dinner over with. The sooner she is gone, the better.”
    I pushed past Jayla and headed downstairs.

Chapter 2
    I had tried to put Jayla out of my mind. I knew my first reaction to her was right on the money.
    We were back at school and Tionna and I were excited because some of the kids in our youth ministry went to Monroe Middle School. Teresa and Valarie James were twins and the coolest seventh graders at the school. They were very popular. Both of them were cheerleaders and on the dance ministry at church and lived on the same street that we lived on. They also were Tionna’s and my best friends.
    â€œHow are you chicks enjoying your first day of being hall monitors?” said Teresa after hugging me and Tionna.
    â€œThere are so many people here. I hope I don’t get anyone lost,” said Tionna, looking around the hallway, which had students running everywhere.
    I was just about to say something when I was distracted by another sight - Jayla. I hadn’t seen her since that day at my house last week. My grandmother had asked me if I’d called her, but I kept making up excuses.
    Jayla came walking through the door wearing a black tutu skirt and pink glitter Toms that matched her shirt.
    â€œHey, isn’t that the girl that is staying with Mrs. Lois? She is rocking that outfit,” Vanessa said.
    â€œYeah,” Tionna said. “That’s her.”
    â€œWhatever.” I rolled my eyes.
    â€œGirl, what is wrong with you?” Vanessa asked.
    Tionna said, “Jayla and Jazz don’t like each other.”
    â€œWho is Jayla?” the twins asked at the same time.
    â€œJayla is the girl rocking the outfit,” Tionna said.
    Jayla was standing bedside a tattered quilt that hung in a cabinet. My grandmother’s class had knitted that quilt when she was a student at this middle school. That’s how old the quilt was. But Jayla was standing, staring at it like it was the newest ‘It’ thing.
    â€œWell, my momma told me that she is having some family issues and we had to be nice to her,” Vanessa said
    Teresa was nodding her head in agreement.
    â€œDidn’t she come over to your house for dinner?” said Teresa.
    â€œGirl, yes. She and Jazz got into it,” Tionna said. I gave Tionna the eye, but she ignored me and kept talking. “I had to step between them. It was bananas.”
    â€œWhat!” the twins said