Page 43 of Wings of Ebony
She goes. I duck into the kitchen, close enough to see but not be seen. Ms. Leola comes back from the hall, dusting off her clothes.
“Now who in creation is ringing my bell this early?” She peeps through the door hole. There stands Bri, glasses pressed to her freckled face, wearing ’bout five pounds of makeup.
“Uhm, hi!” she says before Ms. Leola can get the door open good. She sticks out a hand and the onyx fused to her wrist glistens In the sun. “Oh, uhh…” She jerks it back, blushing. “Sorry! I… uh… forgot to wash my hands. You don’t want to touch these.” She nervous laughs. “I-I’m looking for—”
“Bri!” I rush to help Ms. Leola with the door before theyaccidentally touch. “It’s fine, she’s a friend.” Closer now, Bri’s cheeks are Pepto pink and her lips are bright red. “Where did you look up your makeup tutorial? Barnum & Bailey?”
“This is me blending in.” She raises her chin, knowingly.
You really can’t tell her nothing sometimes. “I guess. Try YouTube next time.”
“You what?”
“Nothing.”
“Well come on in before y’all let out all my AC,” Ms. Leola says.
It takes only about two and a half minutes for Ms. Leola to sit Bri down to two plates of food and her own wedge of pound cake. Bri has no idea what she’s dealing with, by the looks of it.
“I don’t think I can actually eat all of this.”
“You betta try.” I wink. Nothing ruder than refusing a plate from somebody’s grandma. I catch Bri up on the coffee shop dude, the run-in with the cop, and the snake tattoo. Since we are in front of Tasha, I make a point tonotmention reaching for my magic. She isn’t nearly as alarmed as I was, but she’s doubly curious about the tattoo. She also apparently loves cats, which make her and Tasha immediate best friends.
“We’ll bring you over to our side.” Tasha nudges me with her elbow.
“Cupcake’ll win you over.”
“Wouldn’t count on it,” I say. “Dogs? Sure. Cats…nah.”
“So, Ghizon… Rue, things arebad.Like, bad, bad. The Chancellor posted pictures of your face in the dorm halls and told students if anyone hears from you we’re supposed to report it. He even reprimanded your da—Aasim.”
“What do you mean, reprimanded?” I ask.
“I don’t know. That’s just what I heard. Something about his magic is restricted. Like he can’t do anything. He’s a straight up turd—that’s what we call kids who get their magic suspended for a period.”
Why would they do that? He didn’t have anything to do with me leaving. I catch myself: What does it matter anyway? I got ninety-nine problems, but Aasim’s ain’t gon’ be one of ’em. I shrug. “Good luck with that.”
“So did you find the tattoo in the scrapbook?” Bri asks.
Moms’s things are in piles of boxes in one of Ms. Leola’s spare bedrooms. Most of the boxes are half taped together and falling apart. Nothing’s labeled. But the scrapbook was in my room under my bed so it should be with my stuff. Tasha and I couldn’t get two boxes open before Ms. Leola had us at the table eating dinner last night.
“Not yet, still looking,” I say.
“Y’all catch up.” Tasha hops up. “I’ll keep looking for it. Nice meeting you, Bri.”
“You too.”
“What does it look like again?” Tasha asks, heading into the hall.
“It’s a book covered in pink heart stickers. Hard to mistake for anything else.”
She teases me and disappears down the hall.
Bri sighs when Tasha rounds the corner. “When all this is said and done, I need to update you on boy drama.”
“Boy drama? I need to lay Luke out? Because I will.”
She laughs “No. I don’t know. Maybe. He’s being dumb. Let’s talk about it later.”
