I’m waiting right here until she gets off the phone and gives me an explanation. That is, if I don’t get so mad I start crying. I’ve shed enough tears in this office. Don’t count on that promotion, homeboy, Nike warned me. Girls be sticking together. Especially those women’s lib types like Cookie and Barb. I didn’t believe that and tried to defend Barb without admitting everything to him. Nike, with his one-track mind, read that wrong and started insinuating things. Yo, you messin’ with Barb, Smiley? You can tell me. Yeah, buddy! She fine, though. Like an older, Puerto Rican version of Kelly from Charlie’s Angels. I pretended Nana needed to make a call and hung up on him. I’ve been a part of Saint Aloysius since I was five years old. Not only did I go to school here from K through eight, Mama enrolled me in the summer day camp from its start. As soon as I turned fourteen, I came to work for Barb. For the past three years, I’ve been a counselor during the summer and a youth mentor in the after-school program she runs from September through June.
