Spin it Like That (4 page)

“What are you talking about?” Mama asked, walking into the room.

I groaned to myself. I'd been hoping that I could tell Daddy everything and he could pass the information on to Mama.

“Jas got asked to deejay at a teen party every week. It's a really great opportunity,” Derrick said.

I smiled my thanks at him for having my back.

“That's great, baby,” Daddy said, leaning over to give me a kiss.

“How are you feeling, Mama?” I asked, trying to gauge her mood.

“My headache's much better,” she said, walking over to stir the ground beef. “Thanks for starting dinner. So tell us about this club thing.”

I sucked my teeth and looked at the floor so no one would see me roll my eyes. Mama had absolutely no tolerance for anything dealing with music, always calling it a “thing.” Derrick kicked me under the table, and when I looked at him, he shook his head, which meant I needed to chill.

I repeated the details, and she seemed unimpressed, although Daddy was really excited.

“I use to play that club back in the day. Remember, baby?” Mama didn't have a chance to respond before Daddy turned back to me and Derrick. “A lot of rap pioneers got their starts at that club. A lot of the younger cats did, too. It was a great place to vibe and just hang out,” he said, grinning. Luckily he didn't wait for us to respond. He turned to me. “This will be great exposure for you.”

“I know,” I said, thankful that I had sold Daddy on the idea.

“It would be great exposure,” Mama said with her back to us, “if she needed exposure, but since she's going to college, she can put this music thing on hold.”

She dumped the spaghetti sauce into the meat, then turned to look at us. “Besides, you all seem to have forgotten—Jasmine and Derrick are on punishment for the rest of the summer. And after you got fresh with me last night, you deserve it.”

Alarmed, Derrick and I looked at each other. I glanced at Daddy with pleading eyes, knowing he was a sucker for them. He smiled at me and winked before heading over to the stove, where he wrapped his arms around Mama.

“Baby, maybe we overreacted last night,” he said, kissing her on the neck.

I wanted to throw up—they were too old for that mess—but I knew Daddy was doing this partly for my benefit.

Mama turned around in his arms. “You ain't slick. You keep at it, and you'll be on punishment for the rest of the summer, too,” she said, pointing a wooden spoon at him.

“What?” he asked innocently, kissing her on the lips.

“You know those kids were wrong last night,” she said, throwing a glance at us.

“But they're really sorry. Right, kids?”

I nodded so hard my curly hair was bouncing all over my head. “It won't happen again,” I said as it occurred to me how I could seal the deal.

I jumped up and hurried over to them, but before I could tell them, Mama looked at me strangely. “You say
you've
got a job. Derrick's not going to be doing this with you?”

I glanced at Derrick, but there was really nothing he could say. “No. They just wanted me to do it.”

“You keep saying ‘they.' Who offered you this job?”

My first reaction was to get defensive. Mama had never asked me who I was working for before, but then, Derrick had always been with me. I knew if I told her DC Records, she wouldn't let me take the job.

“The club hired me. One of the teachers at school recommended me,” I said quickly.

Mama looked at me like she knew I was lying. “So why is there a letter from DC Records on the coffee table?”

“Oh, that was because of the talent show. They just sent a letter congratulating us on winning.” I couldn't believe how easily the lies were flowing. I didn't look at Derrick, but I knew he wouldn't say anything.

I changed the subject. “I forgot to tell you the best part of all,” I said.

“What?” Daddy asked. Despite everything, he was still excited.

“They're going to pay me a thousand dollars every week for the entire summer, so I'll have the money to pay for school myself.” The thought hadn't crossed my mind until a few minutes earlier, but I was desperate to get Mama and Daddy to say yes. Although they hadn't said so, I knew it was going to be a struggle putting me and Derrick through school at the same time, not to mention the cost for Derrick to go to med school after that.

Mama grew suspicious when I mentioned the part about college.

“A thousand dollars a week? Who pays a sixteen-year-old that kind of money?” she asked. “Are you sure?”

I nodded and turned to my brother. “Right, Derrick?”

“Yep. She'll be able to pay for school and still have some spending money,” he said. “Shoot, she might be able to pay for me to go, too.” He was teasing, and we all laughed.

“Maybe I should call them,” Mama said.

“No,” I yelled, and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Mama, I can't have you calling. I'll look unprofessional.” I turned to Daddy. “Please, let me do this myself.”

I thought about showing them the contract to prove that I wasn't lying about the money, but then they would know my deal was really with DC Records. I realized I was going to have to handle things myself. I had planned to have my Uncle Henry look over the contract before I signed it, but I knew he would tell Mama and Daddy, so that was out. I was on my own on this one.

T
he day of our graduation was extremely gray and dreary, but I was so excited. Finally, I was about to move on with my life.

I had sent my signed contract to Jessica over at DC Records, along with my own contract, and she had immediately sent it back complete with DC's signature. He had been released due to lack of evidence the day before, and I was relieved.

I stood in front of my mirror, trying to get my hair to cooperate. The weather was humid, which made my hair frizzy, so I finally decided to pin it up before slipping on my white sundress. Although I liked the dress, I was extremely uncomfortable, since I usually wore jeans and T-shirts.

“You look beautiful,” Daddy said, watching me from the doorway.

“Thank you,” I said. I smiled at him in the mirror as I applied my lip gloss.

“What happened to my baby?” he said.

I laughed and went to give him a hug. “I'll always be your baby, Daddy.”

“I know,” he said, kissing me on my forehead. He looked around my room, and his eyes landed on my turntable.

“Remember the first time I showed you one of those?” he said, pointing to it.

“Yeah. I was five. You were cleaning out the garage, and we found the turntable and some records in a box,” I said, smiling at the memory.

“Even back then you had talent. Never lose sight of that,” he said. “No matter what path you find in life, don't give up on your dreams. I think that's my one regret, that I didn't follow my heart.”

“Why didn't you go back to music after Derrick was born?” I asked.

“I thought about it, but your mother and I agreed that it was best that I find something more stable.”

“But you could have done it on the side,” I said.

He nodded as he took a seat on my bed. “Yeah, I could have, but then I wouldn't have been able to spend much time with my son, and that was important to me. I didn't want to just be the daddy he knew from a distance.”

“But you had so much talent,” I said. Every now and then Daddy would play tapes of him and Uncle Henry, and they were really good.

“And so do you. That's why I'm telling you to never give up on your dreams.”

Derrick came and stood in the doorway. “You guys ready?” he asked.

Daddy stood and nodded. “I'm so proud of you both,” he said, gathering us to him for a hug.

We headed to the living room, where Mama was waiting with her camera. She made us put on our caps and gowns, and then we took what felt like ten thousand pictures before we piled into Daddy's Toyota 4Runner and headed to the school. Derrick and I had to go line up so I didn't get to see the rest of our family—our grandparents; Uncle Henry and his family; and Mama's sister, Lela, and her family had all come.

Derrick was pacing, nervous about giving his speech.

“You okay?” I asked.

He glanced up from the paper he was clutching and nodded.

“You're going to be great,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said as he pulled at his tie.

“Relax.” I placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping my calmness would rub off on him.

“Mr. and Miss Richardson,” Mrs. Winston said, “how are you this evening?”

“Fine,” Derrick and I said, turning to greet her.

“Miss Richardson, I need to speak with you.”

I gave Derrick one more smile of encouragement before I followed Mrs. Winston to a corner of the cafeteria where all the graduates were gathered.

“I read that speech you gave me at practice Wednesday,” she said, shaking her head and looking annoyed.

“What was wrong with it?” I asked. I really hadn't expected her to read the notes I had turned in.

“It wasn't a speech,” she said.

“Oh, I must have misunderstood you. Sorry,” I said, and smirked.

She put her finger in my face, and I took a step back. “Little girl, don't play with me. You better not get up there and embarrass me.”

I laughed under my breath. “What are you going to do if I do?” I said. “It's not like you can send me to detention.”

I knew she wanted to say something, but instead, she walked off and announced it was time to line up. Derrick and I took our places next to each other at the front of the line, and the graduation march began.

As we entered the auditorium, I thought back on the night Derrick and I had won All-District. I felt so happy that I was leaving school behind and getting on with my dream. I searched the crowd for my family, but there were so many people I almost gave up—until I saw the sign one of my cousins had made. I pointed it out to Derrick, and we waved.

The graduation ceremony was so boring that I wished I could sneak out. When we got to the part in the program where Derrick and I were supposed to speak, Derrick started getting really nervous and began bouncing his leg.

“Yo, Derrick, look at getting onstage like you're about to do a rap,” I whispered. He nodded and flashed a grateful smile.

“And now it's time to hear from our valedictorians,” Mrs. Winston said from the stage.

Derrick slowly walked to the stage, and he made it through his speech without tripping up. Finally, it was my turn.

Mrs. Winston gave me a look of warning, but I ignored her as I took the podium.

“Good evening,” I began. “Teachers, administration, family and friends and the Queens Academy's amazing class of 2007.” I had to stop because the roar from the seniors was so loud no one could hear me. “I'm so happy to stand here and say we made it through. It's time for us all to take things to the next level. Everybody go for yours, and don't settle for anything less. Congratulations and good luck.”

My classmates gave me a standing ovation as I returned to my seat. Derrick just shook his head.

The rest of the ceremony was pretty much a blur, with the exception of the moment when Derrick and I actually received our diplomas. Mama was standing at the bottom of the stage to take our picture, and Mrs. Winston posed with us, like I was her favorite student. I didn't say a word, because I knew I never had to see her again.

Afterward, we headed back to the house, where Mama had laid out a spread. There were oxtails, curried goat, rice and peas, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and greens, all of which Derrick and I loved, along with an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins. I ate so much I thought I would be sick.

After Mama cut the cake, everybody took a seat in the living room.

“So what do you guys have planned for the summer?” Uncle Henry asked.

I smiled. “I have a job,” I said proudly.

“Really?” Uncle Henry said with interest.

“Yeah, I'm going to be deejaying at Twilight on the weekends.”

Uncle Henry looked at Daddy and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“What about you, Derrick?”

“I have a job at Flushing Hospital,” he said, and Uncle Henry nodded his approval.

“An internship?” he asked.

“No, I'll be working in the mailroom, but at least I have my foot in the door.”

Uncle Henry frowned. “Why didn't you get an internship?”

“I thought I was too young,” Derrick said. “I didn't find out that I could apply until about a month ago, and by then it was too late.”

“You need to be more proactive,” Uncle Henry said, and turned his head like he was dismissing him. “You know, Shawn has an internship at the White House for the summer; then she'll be starting law school in the fall,” he said, nodding at his daughter and smirking at Daddy.

“Oh, that's cool,” I said politely, although I really didn't care.

“Daniel is going to London next week,” he added, smiling at his nerdy-looking son, who was a sophomore at Cornell.

After that, I tuned him out. He was always bragging on his kids, and I was tired of hearing about it. When the room grew silent, I saw it as my chance.

“Can we leave now?” I asked Mama. Some of our friends were having parties, and Derrick and I had been asked to perform at quite a few of them, but we decided not to, since we wanted to celebrate just like everyone else.

Mama nodded. We said our goodbyes and headed out after Mama shoved some money into our hands. Kyle had rented a hotel room, and a bunch of kids were spending the night. We were supposed to be partying all night long to celebrate our graduation and our independence. I'd been surprised when Mama had taken us off punishment as a graduation present. It had finally hit her that we would be leaving for college soon, so she was starting to let us go. It felt so good to be treated like an adult.

The following Thursday, I spent the day chilling, since Derrick was at work and I had the house to myself. It would be my first night deejaying at Twilight, and I wasn't sure what to expect.

By noon, I was bored out of my mind, so I decided to call Loretta and Kyle to see what they were getting into. Loretta's voice mail picked up, but I hung up. Her message went on for like two minutes, because she listed every way humanly possible to contact her in case it was an agent or something calling. I texted her, and she responded that she was at a photo shoot and that we could hook up later.

I called Kyle.

“Hey,” I said after he picked up. “What are you doing today?”

“Just chilling,” Kyle yelled. I could barely hear him over the thundering beats in the background.

“You want to hang out?”

“Cool.” He turned down the radio, but not by much. “Where are we going?”

“There's a record shop in Hempstead I've been meaning to check out. We could go there,” I said.

“Okay,” Kyle agreed. “You driving?”

“Yeah,” I said, wondering why he even bothered to ask. Kyle drove entirely too fast for me, and if at all possible, I avoided riding with him. “I'll pick you up in twenty minutes.”

We hung up, and I ran to my room to change out of my sweatpants and baggy T-shirt. I threw on a pair of my favorite jeans and a T-shirt with a picture of a vinyl album on the front and the words,
I
'
D RATHER BE SCRATCHING
on the back, then ran a comb through my curls. I checked my backpack to make sure I had my notebook and then I was out.

Kyle was outside tossing a football with his little brother, Tony, who had on a Batman costume, when I pulled in. Tony ran over to me, cape flying, as I got out of the car. “Hey, Jas,” he said, giving me a hug.

He was only six, and Kyle said he had a crush on me, which I thought was so cute.

“Hey, Tony,” I said, returning the hug. “You hanging out with your big brother?”

Tony nodded as he smiled, exposing his missing front teeth. “Do you want to come see my room?” he asked. “Mommy bought me some Batman sheets.”

“Okay,” I agreed. He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, and Kyle followed.

It didn't take that long to check out Tony's room. The floor was covered with action figures, so I had to watch where I stepped. As we were heading back to the kitchen, we passed Kyle's room.

“Oh, I forgot to show you the flyer,” he said. We headed into his room, and I sat in his desk chair while he booted up his computer.

“Jas, do you want some Kool-Aid? I made it,” Tony said proudly.

“Sure,” I said as Kyle shook his head.

Tony ran out of the room.

“You shouldn't have said yes,” Kyle said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“He put too much sugar in it.”

I leaned back in the chair. “Oh, man.”

Tony returned a few minutes later with a huge cup filled with red Kool-Aid that was sloshing over the side. “Here,” he said, thrusting the cup at me, spilling the Kool-Aid on my chair.

“Thank you,” I said. I pretended to take a gulp and accidentally swallowed some. It was horrible. “Uh, Tony, could you go get me a paper towel so I can wipe up this Kool-Aid?”

“Okay,” he said, and ran off.

I looked at Kyle and silently pleaded for help. He shook his head, grabbed the cup, then headed off, I assumed to the bathroom. He returned a few seconds before Tony, and I pretended I was just finishing the Kool-Aid. “That was really good,” I said, patting him on the head.

He handed me the paper towel, and his smile was so big I could almost see his tonsils. “Do you want some more?” he asked.

“Uh, maybe next time,” I said. “Kyle and I are getting ready to go.”

“Can I come?” He climbed onto my lap and slung an arm around my shoulder, and in that moment, I realized how much he resembled Kyle.

“Maybe next time, little man.” His eyes got glassy, like he was about to cry. “What about if I bring you something back?”

Instantly the tears faded. “Okay,” he said. “I'll make a surprise for you while you're gone.”