"I got a call from the school. You and that girl were fighting again," my mother said over the sink, peeling some kind of fruit for a smoothie.
"It wasn't-
"Nothing?" my mom finished for me, eyes still focused on the fruit in her hands. She didn't say anything for a moment, and I stared at her, my body sore as my backpack felt like it was getting heavier and heavier every moment on my shoulders.
"Luckily, they explained you weren't to be suspended. Some new rule. But if this girl is bullying you, Gialla, I'd like for you to tell me," she said after awhile, finally meeting my gaze. "Over ten fights over a span of four years, Gi?"
"It's not bullying," I shook my head, dropping my bag by the bottom of the counter and walking towards my room.
"Gialla Collins. Look at me," my mother said sharply.
My mother was all perfectly proportioned injections, brown skin, and utter bluntness. "Yes?"
"Ma'am," she finished for me.
"Yes ma'am," I mumbled.
"Is this girl bullying you?" she repeated, stopping her peeling process and looking over my face. I'm sure I looked like shit and I knew for sure I felt like it. I wish she'd just speed this up. I said she wasn't bullying me, damn.
I shifted my legs, sighing. "She ain't bullying me."
"So why this girl keep messing with you?" she asked, her face twisted up. "What's really going on down there at that lil school, Gialla? Because if I need to go down there myself I will. I'm not scared to catch a charge. I don't play."
"It ain't nothing. We just both got strong personalities," I shrugged.
"The two of y'all always going at it. In that big ass school?" she prodded. "No way, man," she shook her head.
"It's cool. It's not like we fight everyday," I shrugged, trying to walk to my room.
"Gialla." Her tone stopped me in my tracks and I sighed, leaning my back against the rough white wall. "You shouldn't wanna spend the rest of your life defending yourself against imaginary attacks. You've always been like this. Hotheaded and unsure."
"Unsure?" I repeated, "Who unsure?"
"You," my mom pointed at me. "You can't get mad at everything."
"People always doing dumb shit," I threw up my hands.
"Lil girl," my mother rose her hand up in warning.
"Me and the girl finna graduate. It don't even matter," I shrugged, cooling down.
"It does. I'll pull you from Alyssum if I need to."
"Nahh...my friends," I stopped talking, thinking about my day. "Everything I've known is there. And what high school I'mma go to? I'm zoned here."
"I'd figure it out," my mother assured me.
"You'd move behind me?" I gestured around the apartment. "This place is better than the last. Good maintenance that actually does sh- stuff. Chill neighbors. Good prices," I listed off everything on my fingers.
"My child is worth it," my mother nodded to herself.
"I'm not leaving AGHS," I shook my head.
"Then act like it," my mother told me firmly, "If this lil girl ain't bullying you then you must be messing with her. Or...she like ya," my mom shrugged simply.
