All Pink Everything

5 - Escape

"HOW YOU DOING, GIRL?" Imani planted a goofy grin on her face and motioned to the empty chair next to her. She never did learn how to act casually, and therefore, Jada could immediately detect her bullshit.

Jada threw down her backpack on the study table, crossed her arms and sighed deeply. "Imani, the last thing I need is for those girls to come in here and find me with you. Remember what happened last time? Latrice was on her Jeffrey Dahmer. She tried to bite my head off."

Imani laughed so hard that the nerds turned their heads away from their computers to see what was all the commotion. She was just lucky that Jada had agreed to meet with her. "Girl, you know we are in the library," Imani tried to assure her. "The other Barbies don't even know about this place. Come on and sit down already."

Reluctantly, Jada took the empty seat next to her and unpinned the clip holding her natural curls up and shook them out, which only meant one thing--school was out and she was so done with trying to be cute. Imani had once tried to recruit her, but the Ghetto Barbie life extended well into after school hours. She couldn't keep up. "So, what's up?"

Imani frowned and was on the verge of tearing up. They both knew that her need to talk had nothing to do with the books in front of her that hadn't been opened. "I miss you."

Jada massaged her temples, not wanting to be a part of the emotional mess. "I miss you too, Imani, but we both agreed that this was for the best. This school is all about cliques, and once you choose to associate with one, that's who you belong to. You chose the Ghetto Barbies and that means we can't be friends."

"But that's not fair," Imani leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Your friends let you hang out with other people."

"That may be true, Imani, but that doesn't mean that it didn't cause a rift between us. You remember when you annihilated Crystal's self-esteem, and Mo checked me for not standing up for her? I almost lost her friendship for good."

Just hearing that name turned her mood sour. Why did Jada and Crystal have to be best friends? They were nothing like each other, one speck of glitter and one pea in a pod. "But we'll always have the library, right? Here at this table is where we did our best studying."

Jada smirked. "Now, you know good and well that this is where you and I did our only studying."

They both laughed as Sydney came from around the corner. She had enough books stuffed in her arms to start her own library. Looking down at them with a tired expression, she said, "What are you two doing here?"

"Damn, Sydney, aren't you even glad to see us? We went out of our way to pay you a visit. The least you could do is show us your gratitude."

Sydney rolled her eyes and joined them at the study table. Her study table. The one table in the library that everybody knew not to touch because it had her name written all over it. Her shoulder length hair was perfectly pressed, not one hair out of place as she made herself comfortable in her second home. "Imani, cut the act. I know you are up to something."

"I'm not up to anything," Imani pouted. "I just need someone to vent my feelings to."

"You mean to tell me that you're just now realizing that you can't confide in girls made of plastic?" Imani hated hearing it, but Sydney was right. Before she had become a blonde, before Kendra had come into her life and turned everything pink, before there was ever a Candy, a Latrice, or a Bunny...there was Jada and Sydney. The three of them had stepped onto the campus of Melrose High as irrelevant freshmen looking for a purpose. Despite the fact that Imani was untamed, Sydney was more conservative, and Jada was right in between, she had been so sure that these were going to be the girls that she made permanent memories with that she would treasure forever. But her naive instincts kicked in and Imani wound up with girls even wilder than her. Now she was in a situation where she was now leading that pack of girls that she couldn't even tell her deepest, most heartfelt secrets to.