The Story Behind A Pretty Face

Chapter 4

Nelly's eyes were huge, "That fine thing over there is your brother?"

I laughed,"Yes that THING over there is my brother."

Nelly raised an eyebrow and continued to focus on the pair. "Anymore fine family members that I need to know about?"

"I have a six year old little sister, I consider her adorable."

Nelly rolled her eyes. I turned around. I wanted to stare too, but now, Chase and Alayna were both seated at their own booth. Apparently while I was facing Nelly, Mike and the rest of the crew had also walked in. They were trying to crowd around Chase and Alayna, but she basically shoo'ed them away.

Nelly glared, "Who does that bitch think she is? That's my little cousin. I fight about mine. Believe that. If he wants to sit at the stupid booth, he can. Ion see her name anywhere, but I'll damn sho leave some of her blood on the floor under it."

I was shocked. Nelly was halfway out of the booth before I pulled her back in.

I was about to give her a speech, but then something she said peeked my interest. "Little cousin?"

She immediately snapped back into normal Nelly mode,"Yes, Tone, that's my cousin."

"He's in our grade right?"

"Yes, but he's actually not really. He's only 15. Lil nigga so smart, he actually skipped a grade. He doesn't broadcast it you know, might ruin his "street" cred."

As we spoke, the crew was slowly making its way across the lunchroom. Mike suddenly turned in my direction and put some pep in his step. The rest followed.

Tone immediately scooted in beside his cousin while Mike hesitated. He eyed me. Oh, he wants to sit here. I blushed and slid to the opposite side. JJ and Marco grabbed chairs and placed them in a free spot beside us.

"Okay everybody placed? Good. Now, do I need to go whoop that bitch's ass now or after school? Yall could have sat there. She doesn't run anything."

"Chill. It's not that serious", Tone said seriously at first, but then bust out in laughter, "Besides, Chase wanted to be alone with " that bitch" just as much as she wanted us gone."

"How did that happen anyway?", I found myself asking out loud.

Mike shrugged, "We were in gym together, she walked by in booty shorts, your brother was a goner immediately."

I shook my head. I wasn't worried though. Chase was never that guy to have girlfriends. Chase had friends that came with benefits. No doubt, this was the case.

"She's pretty", I added to lighten the mood.

"She's ran through", Jj finally spoke up.

The bell rang. Nelly snatched my schedule from off the table. "Anyone of you nerds have that business class with Mr. Grayson?" Tone slowly raised his hand. "Good, you can show my new pal to it then. And please don't creep her out too much, I think I wanna keep her, so don't scare her off."

Tone pursed his lips and we all got up to leave. On our way out, Chase followed us. He came up and put his arm around my shoulder and smiled. I glanced at Alayna. Her light skin was now red. I guess she didn't expect him to leave her so soon. I returned my brother's smile.

*****
This business class is literally putting me to sleep. All Mr. Grayson is doing is going over this syllabus like we can't read. I sat by Tone, but he wasn't making things anymore interesting. He was hanging on to the teacher's every word and even making small notes. Hmm he is a nerd.

Finally Mr. G stopped talking, with only 10 minutes left to spare. I turned to Tone, "I'm sorry, don't take this offensive, but how did you even get involved with the group of people you hang around?"

I guess my question took him off guard or maybe the fact that I was even actually speaking to him... probably both.

"Um, well I skipped my last year of junior high and came straight here. It was kind of a shock you know. I was fine being where I was, but my teachers felt that I was getting too bored. I could actually be a senior this year, but I put my foot down. I wanna enjoy my years, you know? Oh. Anyway, I got bullied a lot that first year, and those guys were the first ones that stuck up for me, when they didn't have to.", he explained.

I just nodded. That was nice of them to do, just to do it. Not many would take someone like Tone up under their wing and stick up for him.

Tone saw my face. He knew I wasn't convinced. "Okay and Marco use to have a thing for Nelly back on the day too. That might have also influenced the situation."

Bingo! I knew it was too good to be true. Hearts of gold my ass.

I laughed," Did she have a thing for him?"

"No, but he still had my back. That how I knew they were really my boys", he smiled.

That awful bell rang again. Finally, I'm almost out of this depressing place! I walked out into the hall, only to remember I had no clue where I was going. I searched the hall for a familiar face and saw none. Okay now I'm about to panic. I wandered through the halls, but honestly I still couldn't comprehend where I was going. I was trying to find my way to the office when I snatched into one of the girls restrooms.

"What the hell?", I shouted as I straightened my clothes.

I narrowed my eyes at the first face I saw. And I'll be dammed if it wasn't the same pretty face that I saw turn red not even 2 hours ago.

****Nelly on the side