AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bria scanned the area, surprised to see that the bleachers were almost full. It wasn’t even 7 yet. Was it because of the tribute? She hoped not. She felt bad enough already without imagining all of Nyleah’s family crying in the stands. When she pictured them in her head, she saw not just Miss Nicole and Nyleah’s sister Faith, but hundreds of weeping people. Old people, young people, babies, and all of them with Nyleah’s dark brown hair and glowing brown skin.
She tried her best to clear her mind as she lined up with the rest of the girls. She really should have accepted Miss Angela’s offer to be captain after Nyleah died, but she had been too upset and guilty. So instead, Bria claimed co-captain, and Kai replaced Nyleah.
The girls walked—in unison and lockstep—into the stands and got into formation. Once there, they stood at attention. This gave Bria a few minutes to people watch out of the corners of her eyes. The first place she looked was the field.
The football players were already out there warming up. Bria spotted Bakari, number 38, doing stretches with a partner. He was lucky; he would be in the locker room during the tribute.
The drum majors lined up to march in. She couldn’t see Jace’s face under his visor, but he was probably frowning. He never really seemed happy, about anything, and it had only gotten worse since Nyleah died.
Avianna and the other cheerleaders were already in formation on the other side of the stands. It was Bria’s first time seeing Avianna that week. She had missed a couple of days of class, but she didn’t look sick.
Sweat crawled down the side of her face, and she prayed it didn’t take her makeup with it. The girls all had the exact same sew-ins, because Miss Angela insisted that everything—hair, nails, makeup, even smiles—were part of the uniform. Bria’s mother said it was a waste of money, because Bria had her own hair, but the weaves really did help when it was hot and humid like this. No frizz or flyaways.
“This is gonna be so hard,” announced Ashley, who always stood to Bria’s left. “I hope I don’t cry.”
“Yeah, me too.” She was all cried out at this point, but that didn’t mean she was unaffected. She scratched at her palm and wished her mother hadn’t wrapped her bandage so tightly. Miss Angela had agreed to let Bria wear it, but only if it was the same color as her skin. Miss Angela was light-skinned, so that was easy for her to say. It had taken Bria twenty minutes to get the bandage to just the right shade of brown. She’d used three different markers.
The band marched in to a cadence and the crowd went nuts. The student section was especially rowdy. Her parents were there, as were Danielle’s parents, Avianna’s mom, and Bakari’s parents, of course. They came to every game. They were all sitting in the same vicinity, and there, about seven rows down, was Nyleah’s family
Bria inhaled sharply. She hadn’t seen them since the summer. She’d wanted to go and visit Miss Nicole, but her mother told her to give the woman some space. Seeing them now, even in a crowd of people, filled her with fear. It was an odd feeling, since technically, Bria had done nothing wrong. And then came the memories, and the guilt. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She just needed to get through this night. There was peace on the other side.
LadonnaandMarcussatin the bleachers on their cushioned black and red Stockton High stadium chairs and watched the crowd. Well, Ladonna watched. Marcus had his face in his phone doing God only knew what.
Something about being up under those Friday Night Lights did something to her. Reminded her of her own adolescence, maybe, but mostly it was the vibe. Everyone was there to have fun and enjoy themselves, and that was hard to come by lately.
The smells of French fries, catfish, chicken fingers, pizza, and funnel cakes—food her diet didn’t let her eat anymore—wafted through the air and made her mouth water. The players practiced lightly on the field and the cheerleaders were doing their warm-ups. She spotted Avianna down there doing backflips and felt anxious. She prayed the girl didn’t break her neck.
The band played scales, and the low hum was relaxing. Dr. Gordon drank from a bottle of water with one hand and conducted with the other. The dancers were on the other side of the band, so Ladonna could only occasionally catch a glimpse of Bria. But knowing she was close by was a comfort. No matter how many games they attended, she never tired of the shows, or of seeing Bria dance. The girl came alive when she moved.
Ladonna felt a nudge on her back. She turned around to find Iesha and Joe. Like Marcus, Joe was deep in his phone and paying no attention to his surroundings, only glancing up once to flash a quick smile at Ladonna. His wife, on the other hand, was ready to get down to business.
“There they go,” she said, and Ladonna knew exactly who she was talking about.
The dance moms.
And no, not the minivan-driving, topknot and Lululemon yoga pants moms who ferry their little ballerinas or wanna-be hip-hop dancers to and from rehearsals with wine hidden in their bedazzled flasks. These dance moms were something else entirely.
These women are the former it-girls, the thick girls, the ones who got all the boys 20 years ago when they were dancers or cheerleaders or homecoming queens at high schools named after Civil Rights Leaders. These were the ones who hadn’t yet accepted that the baton has been passed to their daughters. A couple were still brickhouses, but a few looked more like bandos, and all were showing their age in the face and in the midsection. Which is normal. But normal wasn’t good enough for them.
Brandy, Katrina, Rae, Donette, and Sharonica all had t-shirts made every year with the school logo on the front and “Dance Mom” on the back with their daughters’ names at the top. They would pair these shirts with jeggings and stilettos and do their own stroll into the stadium after the girls were seated. Somehow, someway, they were gonna siphon off however much attention they could while their daughters did all the work. Ladonna had been asked to take part, but she refused to participate in their foolishness.
“Girl, look at Brandy. She can’t even walk in them damn shoes,” she said to Iesha. The two laughed. Their easy rapport mostly revolved around gossip and mess.
“I heard they made up their own dance routine,” Iesha said.
“Stop playing!” Ladonna said with a loud laugh. Could it get any worse? Deep down, she hoped it did. She needed the levity, and ki-kiing with Iesha always made the football parts of the football game much more enjoyable.
But her joy was short-lived. She spotted Nicole Faust a few rows down and to the right. Dr. Hill, the principal, was seated to her left and Nicole’s sister Faith was on her right. She must have flown in from Denver just for the tribute.
“What?” Iesha asked, and Ladonna tilted her head in Nicole’s direction. Iesha looked, saw, and sat back still and straight without another word.
The first half of the game was uneventful, or it was for Ladonna, at least. Marcus yelled out and jumped to his feet several times, but she didn’t know what was going on or why any of it was exciting. The band was on point, as usual, but not enough to distract her from Nicole and what was coming.
Truthfully, her guilt was eating at her. She hadn’t spoken to Nicole since they returned from Destin. She should have reached out, and she was baffled by her own reluctance. She hadn’t even reached out when she thought Nyleah committed suicide. She and Nicole had never been close, and certainly less so after the business between the two girls, but right is right. Her behavior was inexcusable.
Would it be proper to approach her tonight?she wondered. Probably not. Nicole might see it as convenient. Which it was. But if she waited, she might miss the window. Ultimately, she decided to google it when she got home. Surely someone, somewhere had an answer for “how long is too long to wait to call someone after a death?”
The girls were lining up to go down to the field. Ladonna took several pictures of Bria, who looked adorable. Marcus hated the catsuits, hated them with an all-consuming passion, and always refused to post any photos of Bria in them on his social media. Ladonna understood his perspective, but she had no such fatherly constraints. She posted everything.
