The Quiet Sister✔️

11. Welcome to the TEAM

Nola POV

School was already boring as hell to Nola. After turning in early projects and extra work, most of her teachers excused her from attending class in person.

That was a bad idea. Without getting up and having somewhere to go every day, she was bored.

She did like playing dress up with her new clothes. Everything fit her, no sagging, oversized clothes. She still was not down with frilly-girl dresses, but she had lots of feminine clothes and did not dress like a boy.

And her make-up skills were coming along, thanks to Youtube.

Her hair though...she missed her sister. Ashley was the best hairstylist and she feared someone else touching her hair. Yet, she decided to stop into Styles by Ley, Ashley's salon that was left to her two best friends, Freya and Demetrius.

"Girl, y'all sisters get your hair done for free, for life," Freya said leading her to her station. "I can't believe my girl left me and ole boy the place."

"Did you know she would?"

She nodded. "I was the first one she told about cancer. I was the one going with her to chemo before Sarena took over. Of course, we put some money away for Atiya, although that was not a stipulation, we're going to take care of our Godchild. I miss Ley like crazy."

She was about Atiya's age when Atiya was born, and she remembered it clearly. Although her mother and Victor were upset, once that baby came everyone was in love with her. Ashley did not miss a beat getting started owning her shop. It was her dream and she made it happen. Nola never had anyone else ever do her hair beside her sister. It felt weird to be in her place and she was not there.

"Don't worry little No, I ain't as good as LeyLey, but I can throw down."

It relaxed her a bit. They continued to talk about anything but her sister. Freya was married with two kids. Demetrius, who was gay, was also married. They both were Ashley's age, thirty, and to Nola, that felt too young to be married with kids...even though both Sarena and Ashley had babies young.

Not her. No kids for her.

Freya washed and deep-conditioned her hair, cut it then blew it out and flat-ironed it. It was so silky and bouncy, she kept tossing her hair around and laughing.

"Stop feeling yo'self girl," Freya said. "All y'all Kelly girls look like models and shit. Yo momma was a hottie, that's where y'all got it from."

"You remember my mother?"

"Sure. I had just moved to Springfield from St. Louis to help Ley with opening the shop when your mother got sick. Yo ass was so little, now look at you."

She insisted on paying Freya something before she left the shop. She felt like a new woman.

Still bored out of her mind, she drove over to Icee's office building that housed all of his businesses plus Kitty ran the mall there whenever she decided to go to her office. It was an eight-floor building in downtown Springfield. The top two floors were the penthouse apartment that Kitty and Icee used to live in before their house was built. Far as she knew it was still empty now.

There was also DadCo, the construction company led by Icee's father. Boyd N Da Field, the boys' non-profit organization that Tone was a part of and met Icee. Then there were KStyle Fashions, of course, and Da Factory Hitz studio. The newest business was her brother-in-law Victor's safety and security company, TEAM.

TEAM stood for Tactical Emergency Alarm Management. Weird name for a security company. Before he decided to get into the security business, Victor was a detective with the Springfield Police Department. He started as a police officer right after college.