The two girls plopped down at a big table overlooking the tennis courts. Students buzzed around them, filling plates and catching up with friends. Sophia took in their leather bags, new shoes, preppy jackets, and decorated hairdos. They were carefree and comfortable. How could Sophia find solace in this new space when everything was so different from what she had experienced at Brooks High?
“This school has so much of everything,” she blurted.
“That’s exactly why my parents sent me here. My father always tells me you must be with the best to be the best.” Willa sipped her lemonade. “What made you choose Forest?”
“I guess you can say Forest chose me.” Sophia told Willa about the program that she’d applied to and how she had received the scholarship to attend.
“That’s cool.” Willa squirted mustard on her hot dog. “Before you arrived, I thought I’d be the lonely only. At least we’ll have each other. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.”
Willa took birdlike bites of her hot dog while Sophia had to restrain herself from lifting her dish and slurping the food down. Everything tasted delicious. It was the best meal she had eaten in a while.
“Evening, ladies.” A wide-framed boy, about six feet tall with a close-cropped fade and dark-rimmed glasses, sat down at their table.
Willa made the introductions. “Sophia, this is Louis Clark.”
She touched her napkin to her mouth. “I’m Sophia Clark.”
“Wonder if we’re kin.” Louis took a good look at Sophia. “Where are your people from?”
That was a weird question, one she did not have the answer to, though she thought about it often. Her people were Ma Deary, the Old Man, Uncle Wayon, and her three brothers. She hadn’t known grandparents on either side of the family. According to Ma Deary, they had all died before she was born.
“It’s just us, and we all you need,” Ma Deary would insist whenever the questions of extended family came up. It was even more painful in her elementary years, when she had to draw her family tree with a mere seven people and present it at school next to kids going back with two and three generations of relatives.
She gave Louis the only answer she knew. “Southern Maryland. How about you?”
“I come from a long line of proud Virginians. Grew up in Norfolk, not far from Norfolk State University.”
“Louis was the first of us to enroll here,” Wilhelmina supplied in between nibbles.
“I was here a whole semester before Max and Claude joined me in the spring.” He bit into his corn bread.
“Was it scary being here all alone?” Sophia asked.
Louis winced, but then he turned to her and smiled. “Like Dr. King, I’ve done my best to keep it peaceful. We’ll just leave it at that.”
Willa blurted, “Louis is being modest. He already told me that a blue-blooded boy spat on him in the quad and he chased the boy into the principal’s office.”
“Was the boy punished?” Sophia looked from Willa to Louis.
Louis swallowed a forkful of cabbage. “After a small deliberation, he was given detention. I haven’t had any trouble out of him since.”
Willa cracked up, like it was a story she had heard several times but still got a kick out of. Sophia dropped her fork, suddenly having lost her appetite.
“Are the other guys still at basketball practice?” Willa asked.
“Far as I know.”
“I want you to meet Max and Claude, our other two,” Willa said, but Sophia had stopped listening. She didn’t want anyone chasing her, spitting on her, or anything else. She had seen on television how the police had thrown nightsticks, powered fire hoses, and let loose dogs on the Negro youth, same age as her, who had marched in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama.
“Don’t look so worried.” Louis patted Sophia’s hand. “You’ll be fine. Just remember that you are here to learn, so give it everything you’ve got. We have all committed to doing whatever it takes to be at the top of our classes. The best revenge is to outsmart them.”
Sophia nodded, but a heavy fatigue came over her. Though the conversation continued between Willa and Louis, it became increasingly difficult for Sophia to concentrate on what was being said. Maybe she didn’t belong here after all. Perhaps Ma Deary had been right and Brooks High School was good enough. At least there she didn’t have to contend with the hatred of people. But then Sophia stopped herself as she remembered being tormented by Maxine and her crew with monkey sounds and slurs about her hair.
Louis broke into her thoughts. “Do you play sports?”
“No.”
