Page 34 of The Prodigy 2: Rise of a Queen

14

Malika

“HeyChase-ypoo!”

“Hey, Titi!”

My nephew ran at me and jumped in my arms, almost knocking me over. He was growing so fast.

This was exactly what I needed after the week I’d had. To be with family. Myrealfamily. Even a rowdy little four-year-old who smelled like outside.

After hugging him tight and dotting his cheeks with kisses, I set Chase down and let him pet Nugget. Then I took his hand, walking him into the kitchen. Dionne watched us, not saying anything. She didn’t seem happy to see me.

“Are y’all hungry? I ordered groceries this morning, so I don’t have anything cooked, but I can whip up something real quick.”

“No, we’re good.” Dionne sat on a counter stool. “We ate after we left the park.”

“Something to drink, then?”

“Juice!”

Dionne shook her head. “You already had juice with breakfast. You can have water.”

Chase pouted, of course, but he and I both knew he was out of luck. Dionne was strict about his sugar intake, so water it was.

Chase ran off with his bottle and Nugget on his heels. I set a bottle in front of Dionne and smiled. “So…I did a thing.”

“Oh yeah?”

I nodded happily. “I applied to Bonner. For fall. I’m going to college.”

Her eyes lit up. “Are you serious?”

“Yep.”

She stood and ran around the counter to grab me in a hug. She smelled like outside, too, but I didn’t care. She rocked me back and forth, making me laugh, and whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”

That meant a lot. Because I’d said those words to her plenty of times before, but she never really had an occasion where those words were fitting to say to me. But now, I was finally doing something that would make her proud. That would make my daddy proud. And my mother.

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I blinked them away.

We separated then, and she went back to her seat. She was quiet, and then she perked up, like something had just come to her.

“How are you gonna pay for school?”

That was a good question, because money had always been an object. And a hurdle. I used the Hightower money to pay for her to go.

But the pride left me when she asked, because I knew she wouldn’t like the answer. An answer that only furthered the accusation she’d tossed at me when she was here the first time.

Oh, well.

“Jakari’s paying.”

She stiffened in her seat. “Oh. Okay.”

“You don’t approve?”

“It ain’t for me to approve or not. It’s your decision.”

---