Always Upbeat / All That (4 page)

“Why didn't you just wait for your mom to come pick you up?”

“I'm going to the eleventh grade. I didn't want my mom to pick me up.”

“So you'd rather hop into Hallie's unreliable car with your friends? That's crazy.”

“You know her dad is a mechanic. It might not look like it can make it, but it's got all new parts.”

“Still … and then you are relying on some boy.”

Knowing my father wanted me to have my own stuff, I said, “I need my own car. I've been telling y'all that but …”

“There's no but. You're right. You need your own car.”

Then my dad whipped the car into the BMW sales lot. Everything in me was sparkling. There was a small, shiny black, four-door sedan dazzling on the showroom floor.

“Do you like it?”

“Like it? I love it!” I uttered back, amazed.

We got the salesman to take it outside. When I test-drove it, I felt like I was flying. The automobile was flawless. Ninety minutes later, after all of the details were finalized, it was mine.

Driving it home, I realized I didn't get to press my dad about what was going on with him personally. I had a car of my own. My thoughts were diverted, plus my daddy told me that he loved my mom. I had to believe things were going to work out for them. Besides, that was their business. At this moment I could not let anything get me down. My relationship with Blake was going great. I was now captain of the cheerleading squad, and I had the bomb ride.

As soon as we pulled up into our yard, I ran up to my dad and threw my arms around him. “I love you so much!”

My mom came outside and her mouth dropped. She was not pleased. But when I ran up to her and kissed her too, she didn't make him take it back. She was not happy at all.

“I'm gonna be responsible, Mom. I'm gonna keep my grades up. I'm gonna shoot for a three-point-seven-five or a four-point-o this year. You won't have to worry about anybody driving me home. I'll drive the speed limit. I'll obey all laws. Mom, I got a car!”

My dad came over to my mom. He told her I really needed the car. Then he handed her four one-hundred dollar bills.

She asked, “What's this for?”

“Money to go and get that child a new phone. Waiting two weeks is ridiculous when the one she has right now won't hold a charge.”

Frustrated, she vented, “Whatever Charli wants, Charli gets, huh?”

My dad asserted, “Whatever she needs, she's going to get, yes.”

“I … I … I can wait. I'll go charge my phone now,” I said, not wanting my parents to argue.

“Can I take you guys on a ride? Please. Mom, come on, isn't he beautiful?”

“Your car?” my mom said, shaking her head.

“Yes. This is Sir Charles,” I uttered, naming the beauty.

“Let me go change outta this suit, and I'll be right back,” my dad said.

With my arms wrapped around my mom, I said, “Mom, please don't be mad.”

“I just would've liked to discuss this with your dad. We'd already said we were gonna wait until second semester to get you a car, and he just goes out and does it.” She looked away.

And then she brought my chin to hers and said, “But you are a good girl, and you deserve it. Sir Charles is beautiful. I'm happy for you.”

She gave me a big hug. I was ecstatic. Having my mom's approval was major.

As I drove my brand new car, all was right with the world. Sir Charles was packed to capacity with all my girls inside. We were following my parents to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and heading to a rented mansion for the weekend. I was determined to have a good time because as soon as we got back, it would be time for cheer camp. And school would soon follow. This was the last big break before my world was about to turn crazy.

I needed a serene moment. However, I didn't consider the Eva factor. She always had something smart to say, and this time was no different.

“I'm surprised you invited us. I thought we'd be kicked to the curb again for Blake,” Eva said, obviously still as salty as movie popcorn.

I peeked in my rearview mirror and saw her rolling her eyes at me. A part of me wanted to pull over, right on an isolated stretch of Highway 16, and kick her out. But I couldn't. One, because I was following my parents. Two, because I didn't have it in me to ever be that cruel. Three, I knew deep down Eva cared but just didn't know how to show it.

Instead of getting upset, I made a caring gesture. “I'm sorry, you guys. I should've stuck to my word and gone with you guys the other day.”

“You don't owe us any explanation,” Ella said.

Randal said, “You wanted to celebrate with your guy. If any of us had a man, we'd be doing the same thing.”

Eva was in a mood. “Speak for yourself, girl. I gotta man.”

“Uh, one-night stands don't qualify as having a man,” Hallie added.

“I know, right?” Randal said, as the two of them slapped hands.

Ella looked at her sister and said, “Don't even respond back because she's right. If you can't take the heat, you need to leave the pressing comb alone.”

Everybody knew Eva was faster than the rest of us, but now it seemed all Eva cared about was being satisfied. Maybe this weekend would give us all the chance to talk to her so she could start off this year with a better reputation.

About an hour later, we were pulling up to the house in Wexford. It was a gated community with a country club, and the property we rented had five bedrooms, four baths, a swimming pool right off the water, and a boat. My dad told us we would take it out a little later on in the evening.

My parents appeared happier. My goal for this weekend was for me to hang with my friends and allow them to have time to themselves to bond. We did not have to worry about cooking or cleaning because my mom had hired a maid and a caterer to do the job. We were to relax and be pampered. I certainly brought the right friends along for that.

As Ella, Hallie, Randal, and I relaxed on the beach, Eva strutted away.

“Why does she always have an attitude?” Hallie asked, saying what we all were thinking.

“There's just a lot going on with our family right now,” Ella said. “She tries to act tough, but she doesn't know how to deal with it.”

“Anything you wanna talk about?” Randal said.

“My dad's marrying his girlfriend. They already have one son, and now she's pregnant again.

“Eva just feels like it's a slap in our face. My dad didn't wanna raise us, but he's happy raising sons with this other lady.”

“And did you tell them the other part?” Eva came up behind the four of us and said. “He has back child support due. My mama's struggling. He's playing house with somebody else. Just isn't right. I'm sorry, Charli, if I'm not happy you got a brand new car. I can't relax on the beach and enjoy this lavish house we're staying in when my world is not right. It's not all good for me, and I can't pretend that it is.”

I got up, dusted some of the sand off, and said, “I'm not asking you to pretend, nor am I tryna flaunt anything in your face.”

“You gotta admit,” Hallie added, “your life is pretty together. My dad might be about something, but he's still a single parent. My mom is strung out on drugs somewhere, and every time I mention trying to find her and help her, he goes off.”

“And it ain't cool being mixed either,” Randal said. “My mom has no clue about my world or about my hair. My dad's so busy with work. Sometimes I wonder if he stays away so much because he's ashamed of his mixed family.”

I so badly wanted to tell my friends that though my life looked like it was all together, it wasn't. If they only huffed and puffed, my walls would come tumbling down too. I could not talk to them about my parents because they were with us this weekend. Besides, I didn't want anybody examining my crazy parents.

I had always been taught to keep my business to myself, but these were my girls. They thought I had it going on. Maybe it was better if one of us did because if we were all too messed up, who could hold us all together? Being the rock was my job.

I picked up a little sand and threw it below their waists. With black girls, you couldn't put sand in their hair because it wasn't like we were tryna get in the water. It would take a lot of effort to get out the sand. Plus my parents already said we were taking the boat out, and we were going to hang with other families who had vacationed with us for years.

“Watch the sand,” Eva said. “We have enough to worry about. I don't want to add our hair to the list.”

“That's right,” Hallie said to her.

“We all need to relax and enjoy,” I said. “We got each other, and we're going into the eleventh grade. We're cheerleaders—varsity cheerleaders. We got a chance to win state on a competition squad. Forget boys. Forget problems. For the next couple of days, let's just have a real vacation.”

That's exactly what we did. We rode bicycles. We went putt-putting. We took long walks on the beach. We slept in late, and we laughed ourselves silly. Looking out on that beautiful blue water, I wished things could just stay this way. I was just so happy. Blake was texting me, telling me how much he missed me. I had come up with some new moves that I knew were really going to make us competitive. My parents were really enjoying each other. Life was great. I was on cloud nine.

O
h so you can't come and swoop me up after all the rides I've been giving you?” Blake asked, trying to make me feel guilty.

“Honey, it's not like I don't want to see you. Of course I'm going to give you a ride in the car, but I got to get to practice early. You've been captain for a while. Your dad gives you all the extras you need to make sure your team is on and popping, but me, I'm new at this. I want to get with Coach Woods, get her expectations, and be an example for my squad. Leadership starts at the top. So I can't pick you up today.”

“Dang, give a girl some power and she loses her mind,” Blake uttered. “I needed to talk to you.”

As I sat on my bed putting on some lotion, I put the phone down and hit the speaker button. “See, you're tripping. Nothing about me has changed. Just because I'm taking my job seriously, you've got an issue with that. I didn't say anything when you had to go to the gym in the morning, watch film after that, lift weights in the afternoon, run around the track in the evening, and eat your food and mine because you're trying to gain all this weight so you can pass some eyeball test for scouts. Plus, you're there early on days you want to, so why can't I have my guy's support, huh?”

“I'm just playing. We can rap later. Dang, when you put it like that, go to practice. But take it from me, you don't want to be too hard on your girls, or they'll resent you.”

“I hear you. But I can't be too soft on them either, or they'll think I'm a pushover. I got this.”

Driving to practice, all I could think about was how happy I was that everything in my life was right. While I appreciated Blake giving me his advice on how to be a captain and not alienating my team, I did have to realize that girls and boys were different. I truly felt in my gut that if I was too soft, we wouldn't accomplish anything. All they would want to do is chat and text and do everything but get us ready to win the state competition this December. This practice started the countdown, and while cheerleading might not mean the world to most people, it meant everything to me. I was not going to allow one girl on my team to be a slacker.

“Okay, so where is Coach Woods?” I uttered to myself when I pulled up to the gym an hour before practice and saw no cars in the parking lot.

We had already corresponded through email. She knew I was planning to be there early. If her plans had changed, why didn't she text me? Corresponding was only right. It was only responsible. And I knew she would expect it of me. Coach or not, I expected it out of her. When my cell phone rang, I thought Coach was reading my mind. However, when I looked at my new cell, it wasn't Coach at all. It was Randal.

I said, “Hey, girl. Are you on your way to practice?”

“No, we got fifty minutes.”

“Well, you want to make your way over here. You don't want to be late,” I told her.

“Well, that's what I was calling for, to see if you wanted to come swoop me up.”

“Ha-ha, no, honey. You should have gotten with me beforehand. I'm already at practice.”

“How can you be at practice?” she questioned. “It hasn't started yet.”

“I'm the captain, remember? There are things that I need to do with Coach before you guys even get here. I mean, I wouldn't have had any problem bringing you with me. You could have warmed up, and you know, learned some cheers or something. All the extra practice is great, but I can't leave now to come and pick you up. Sorry. You should have called me earlier,” I reiterated a second time.

Tired of me, she gasped, “Okay, I got it.”

Thirty minutes later, twenty minutes before practice was supposed to start, Coach Woods still wasn't there. I was pacing back and forth in front of the gym door, wondering where in the world she was. There was no way I could conduct practice outside if she didn't show up. I could not start late because I valued my squad's time, and JV practiced after us.

Five minutes later, I saw her car pull into the parking lot. I didn't even give her time to get out.

I quickly ran up and said, “Coach Woods, where have you been? Practice is about to start in a few minutes, and we had planned for you to be here a long time ago. I need to get your cell number right away because the only numbers I had were your home and your office number. I called both several times. I was thinking maybe somebody might have dropped you off even though I didn't see any cars. Where have you been? Why didn't you call me?”

“Okay, Charli Black, you're excited. You're dedicated. I see that you're on point. Could you give me a chance to answer one of your questions before you keep rambling? An emergency came up with my child at daycare, and I had to go by and take care of all that. Is that okay with you? I lost power in my phone, so I couldn't call you. I got here as soon as I could.”

When she mentioned power being lost in her phone, I couldn't get too upset because I had just got a new phone for that very reason. The barracuda in me calmed down. I became more like the loving koala.

In a sweeter tone, I asked, “Is your child okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

She was taking her time getting out of the car, and I said, “Can I help you get inside the gym? The girls will be here in a minute, and I want to have the mats set up.”

“But it's everybody's job to help put out the mats.”

“Yes, and it also takes extra time to do that, so I figured if different girls would rotate and come a couple minutes early to practice, the mats would be ready to go. We wouldn't lose any time.”

Squinting, she looked at me and said, “It's hard to get people to come on time, Charli, much less come early.”

“Coach, my squad, my rules. Feel like if we all have some ownership and make a little sacrifice, we'll give more, and we'll compete harder. And at the end of the day, you'll be smiling when we win. Can we at least try it before you say it won't work? Please?”

“Sure. You're ambitious; I'll definitely give you that. And Whitney thought you wouldn't have any backbone. I have a feeling that her opinion is
way
off base.”

I had the mats all ready to go with one minute to spare because Coach Woods helped me. When it was time for practice, only two girls were on time. They were sophomores Chrissy and Hunter. The other three sophomores were nowhere to be found, nor were my friends or the seniors.

Five minutes passed. I stood in the doorway and saw Hallie's car pull up. It was jerking, and smoke was coming out of the back. It made it though, and my four girlfriends got out as soon as it came to a stop.

Hallie ran up to me and smiled. “Hey, captain! We're here and ready for a great practice.”

“Hey, Charli.” Ella tried to give me five, but I did not put my hand up.

With a little attitude, Randal said, “Sorry we're late. They had to come pick me up because somebody wouldn't.”

I rolled my eyes. I was not smiling. This was practice time, and I felt they were not taking my leadership seriously.

Eva looked at me and said, “Okay, what's up your butt? You better pull it out before you stay constipated.”

“You guys are late, okay,” I said to her in a brash tone.

“Whatever. Where's the rest of this squad? There's got to be some kind of grace period. Right, Coach Woods?” Eva yelled out.

But Coach Woods was on the phone with the daycare center, so she didn't hear Eva. The four of them saw I was seriously disappointed. They should have been on time.

“I get to discipline anyone who does not follow the rules. It's unacceptable that you guys were late for any reason. Go stretch and be prepared to do some laps when everyone gets here.”

“Oh heck nah!” Eva said before Ella and Randal pulled her back.

It wasn't until twenty minutes later that the whole squad was there, and I quickly said, “Everybody's running … everybody except me, Chrissy, and Hunter. We were the only three here on time.”

“I'm not doing any jogging,” Whitney came up to me and said.

Not backing away, I stood my ground. “If you want to stay on this squad, you will!”

I heard tons of groans. Since they had attitudes and didn't appreciate what I was trying to instill, I had to punish them. It was not until they ran twenty times around the gym that I said stop. I got all kinds of dirty looks, but I knew it would be worth it when we won the trophy. I ran this team, and they were going to respect that. I bet they would be on time to all other practices.

“Okay, everything is just right. Thank you, Mom, for letting me have a swim party over here for my team.”

My mom said, “Well, you tricked me on this one because you know I don't like last minute surprises.”

“I know, I know. But I've been really hard on them this week. I haven't heard from Hallie and the girls. I know they're upset with me.”

“You're not being rude to your girlfriends, are you?”

“No, but I mean … look at it from my point of view, they were sort of taking advantage of me being the captain. It was like them thinking because we're tight and all, I'm not going to hold them accountable. They elected me. They should have known how I'd be.”

I could tell by her face that my mom thought I was too over the top. “That might just be it. You might be acting differently than what they expected you to be acting like,” she said.

I thought my mom was wrong. My team needed a tough leader. Being in charge was not easy, but you must be willing to do whatever it takes to get dynamic results. I was willing. This party was proof.

The doorbell rang and before I could answer it, my mom said, “Charli, just remember to treat people as you would want to be treated.”

“Yes, ma'am. I want a leader that's on it. I hear you. I'm with that. I got this, Mom,” I said, needing her to ease up.

Walking to the door seemed to take forever. I couldn't understand why everyone was telling me to ease up. We were not just pom-pom girls. Cheerleading was a sport. We were expected to be winners. If I did not demand their full commitment to our practices and the rules of the team, then how could I expect them to deliver excellence in their performances? If I held back from wanting them to give me their best, then I felt like I would be doing them an injustice. And that just wasn't in me.

“Hey, come on in.”

Balancing her keys and bag in one hand and her slushy in the other, Hallie said, “Hey, girl!”

“Be careful with the punch,” I said to the four of them when I looked at their lidless Quik Trip cups.

“You want us to take our shoes off too?” Eva said, flaring her nose.

I said, “Don't trip. You know the rules of my mom's house. Yes, take off your shoes.”

My friends could not blame me because my parents took care of the things we had. Other people had junky rooms, junky cars, and junky houses because they just allowed people to abuse their stuff. That was not the way it was for my family. I was not going to allow anybody to make me feel bad because we had standards. But of course Eva looked at me like I was speaking another language, so I bent down, picked up one of her feet, took off her flip-flop, and frowned when I saw her unpolished toenails.

“Don't you trip,” she said to me. “Everybody doesn't have money to go to the spa, all right?”

“We figure out a way to do what we want. I have some of that ninety-nine cent fingernail polish upstairs. You can have the whole bottle.”

Randal then pulled me aside and said, “Okay, do you have to be such a brat? Did you forget Ella and Eva are going through some things? Lay off of them.”

Remembering their dad had a new family, I eased up. “Okay, I'm sorry guys. You know I'm just a little tense with the squad coming over. Thanks for getting here early. I need y'all to play hostess for me.”

“Why should we help you out when you haven't been helping us out in practice?” Eva said. “And you've been treating us just like everybody else, so if you are rolling out the red carpet for the rest of the team, you need to be rolling out the red carpet for us.”

Eva sashayed into my house, and the other three followed behind her, not wanting to assist me. The doorbell rang. I just threw up my hands and was like,
Whatever
!

To the back of my girls' heads I yelled, “You know how to get out to the pool. Just do whatever.”

I'd been there for them countless times. I went overboard helping Hallie learn cheers for tryouts. I would give Eva and Ella dollars to buy the latest threads. I helped Randal understand black culture anytime she had a question, which was often. They could treat me cruel.

“Hey, girls,” I said to the sophomore crew when I opened the door.

The two who were always on time, Chrissy and Hunter, were smiling and happy. The other three frowned at me like I was the wicked stepmother or something.

Just as I'd left the girls at the pool, my cell vibrated. I looked down and saw that it was Blake.

I quickly answered and said, “Hey, baby!”

“Hey, girl. Wassup? We hanging out tonight or what? You been putting me off for all this cheerleading stuff. It's our time, right? I get that ride you promised me earlier in the week?”

“I thought I told you …”

“You thought you told me what? What time you were picking me up?” he asked, starting to get an attitude.

“No, I thought I told you the cheerleading squad was coming over here for a little swim party.”

“Oh! You ain't said nothing but a word. The boys will be over in just a minute.”

“No, no, no. My mom said guys can't come. It's just for the girls to bond. It's not going to be that long. We'll hook up later, okay?”

“You putting me off again? Come on now. I need to share something. You know I need a little bit of loving … affection … something.”

“Blake, the pressure is not fair,” I said, irritated with all his whining. “Just like you're trying to win a state title, well, I'm trying to as well.”