pedicures,â I said.
Momma brightened a little. âThatâll be fun,â she said. âDani will be hereââ
âAunt Daniâs coming to town?â I asked, getting excited.
My aunt, Loretta Danielle Dennis, is twenty-one, only three and a half years older than me, so sheâs really like my big sister. She and Momma are half sisters, and they are nothing alike. Momma is all about church and taking care of us kids; Aunt Dani wouldnât be caught dead in a church. She spends every weekend partying, and she has no problem living off all the men she dates. Daddy says sheâs a bad influence, but I love hanging with her whenever she comes to town. Sheâs been living in L.A. the last few years, pursuing modeling and dating this music producer named Triple T. Before that, she lived in New York with her mother.
She e-mails me every now and then telling these crazy stories about hanging out with celebrities and all these modeling gigs sheâs gotten.
Her last e-mail a few weeks ago said she had gotten the lead in a national hamburger commercial. I stayed up three days trying to catch it, excited to see my aunt on TV. It wasnât until I saw this ad for, like, the tenth time that I realized Aunt Dani was in it. I didnât recognize her because she was wearing a hamburger costume.
âShe said sheâll be here later today. Iâll call her when I get to work.â
âOkay,â I said, really looking forward to it.
We rode the last few minutes to school in silence. I wanted to ask Momma if everything was okay with her and Daddy, but past experience had taught me that it was none of my business. When we finally arrived, I leaned over and gave Momma a kiss. âHave a great day,â I said. âI love you.â
Momma looked at me and smiled, and her espresso-brown eyes lit up. âI love you, too, baby. Youâre a really good daughter,â she said.
âAnd youâre a great mother.â
âThank you. I needed to hear that,â she said.
I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but before I could, my best friend, Sabrina Davis, ran over to the driverâs side and called out, âCourtland, come on.â She looked past me at Momma. âHey, Mrs. Murphy.â
âGood morning, Bree,â Momma said, and just like that, the moment was gone. âHave a good day, baby.â
I nodded and grabbed my things from the backseat.
Momma walked around to the driverâs side and quickly got in and drove away. I watched her, wondering if she was really okay since she normally waited until Cory and I were safely inside the building before she drove off.
âYou coming?â Bree asked.
âYeah,â I said.
We hurried to the auditorium where we sat through the boring first-day orientation where the principal reviewed the doâs and donâts of the school. Since I had heard the same speech the last two years, I tuned him out and gazed around the auditorium, wondering if I would spot any new faces. I checked out the other juniors and seniors first, since I had no interest in dating freshmen or sophomores, but everyone pretty much looked the same. A few people waved, and I waved back, amazed at some of the transformations that had taken place over the summer. Girls had gotten breasts and some had to have bought some hair because there is no way they had grown all that in a few months. Some of the boys were now sporting facial hair, and a few of them were looking kind of good. I wondered which would have the pleasure of being the first guy to date me, and as though in answer to my thoughts, a commotion started at the back of the room.
Bree and I turned to see what was going on. Walking down the aisle as though he was right on time was Allen Benson, and he was much finer than I rememberedâhe looked even better than he did in my dream. He had been on television a couple of times during the summer, but I hadnât seen