Poisoned Ivy

•Chapter 4•

I slam on my breaks.  Anna's body jerks wildly into the dashboard. She smacks my arm before touching her bun to make sure it's still perfectly in place.
"Get  out- GET O-U-T!" I reach over Anna and open her door. She grabs her dance beg from the back seat.
"Remember, you can't leave. Last time you left, I got stuck and mama"-
I threw her hoodie in her face, to shut her up of course. It's  as if she's my mother rolled up into a little body.
"I already know what I'm supposed to do. You just worry about getting in there and getting out ON TIME!" She has a really bad habit of getting out of practice late. Sometimes extremely late. Today, however happens to be the hottest of the year so far and I  not  cool with waiting any longer in this hot ass car than I have to.
"You know you can always come sit in the lobby if you want to." Anna replied. I look over at her with complete disregard.
"You can't be serious?" She gives me a smirk. I pull my white tank and fold it under making it a crop. The cool leather seat felts so good against my hot skin. I lean back closing my eyes with a satisfying sigh.

"You know I don't mess with them in there like that.  Besides, I don't want to catch their bougie."

"Well it's too late for that." I open my eyes to look at her.
Did she just call me bougie?

She gave me one last eye roll before slamming the door and running inside the dance studio.
I put my head back and close my eyes.
I'm not bougie. I don't act like any of them, and by them I mean the Crestview Hills elite. From the dancers to the parents, that building reeks of pettiness, entitlement, and trust funds. Dance Elite is a very well known dance company. While it caters to the wealthy, a select few kids from my side of town and other low income neighborhoods could find ways to attend through donations and scholarships. Anna's s science teacher sponsored her after seeing her on the playground at school. Anna is one of 15 students that made it into the program out of a dance company with 250 dancers. That wasn't the only reason she stood out though. She was one of the top dancers in her division and the coaches love her. Notice I said said coaches.
While she was an asset to the team according to the coaches, she was a threat to the dancers. She is in a world where money and status, not talent, is supposed to put you on top, whether you've earned it or not. Yet Anna was taking spots and calling shots at Elite and the haters were everywhere.

Hopefully I will just fall asleep for the next 35 minutes. Just as I begin to drift off the sudden vibration of my phone jolts me back into my hot reality. I look to see it's my girl Monique, Mo for short. Usually when she calls, there's either something jumping off, which I hope isn't the case because I'm an hour away from home so  I'm gonna miss all of the action. Or it's because there's a party , which I am so down for. A party in the courts is rare these days. We use to throw them all of the time but too many of them were ending in fights making our "friendly neighborhood police" shut them down. The last party was about a year ago and ended with 3 people in the hospital. Two of which the cops put there. I honestly think they loved the parties more than us. Any excuse to beat a black kid for no reason and not get in trouble for it. But it was definitely jumping before the drama. I need that in my life right now. Some fun with my squad.
I answer but She's eating something so it took her a minute to respond.

"Why would you call smacking in my ear like that?" I complained. I hate when she does stuff like that. Rude as hell.

"Sorry girl, my bad. Where you at?"

"At Anna's dance practice. Why?"

"Damn, all the way in CrestView?" I roll my eyes. She's not about to tell me anything now. 

"Right outside of Crestview, near the Point." I try to explain in a way that makes me seem a bit closer. She didn't buy it.

"Girl, bye! That's Crestview as hell. Anyway, heard you got into it with Rell today. Were you really about to stab him?"

See what I mean? Nothing stays private in the courts. Nothing.

"Now who told you that?" I am officially irritated. It was bad enough I got into it with him, now I tried to kill him too?

"Everybody was talking about it at the Rec center today."

"Well everybody was lying about it at the rec center  today. I did not try to stab that boy. That's not me at all." Mo groans in agreement.

"I know girl, and that's exactly what I told them. Don't worry about it. I had ya back -all day."

And I know she was telling the truth. That's what I love about Mo. I could be dead wrong, but Mo would always back me up. It was always cool when she as there during a Marcus vs Ivy battle. He didn't stand a chance against the two of us, even when he's right. She tells me later how stupid I was being and how wrong I was but she'd never go against the friend code and play me in front of other people.

"Anyway, guess what?"

"Wha"-

"Okay I'll just tell you... PARTY.THIS.WEEKEND."

I sat straight up. I could feel the sweat tickle my back as it went with gravity and rolls down my back.

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP! When? WHERE?! How did you find out?!" I want to SCREAM! A year is long time not to be able to get my twerk on and let loose the stress of school and everything my complicated life puts me through.  Just then my phone beeps. I look to see my battery is on 5%.
"Mo, my phone is about to die- just call me later with the details." 

She quickly agrees and hangs up without a goodbye. Typical Mo.
I knew I wouldn't be able to go to sleep now so I decide to get some much needed air. I was beginning to suffocate in my little car.
The car door groans as I open it to get out. The setting sun looks  like something in a painting at the art museum. I pull my ponytail out and shake my curls loose letting them ease down my back. The warm wind kisses my hot skin as I lean against the hood of my car. I watch all of the nice cars pull into the studio parking lot. Most are there to pick up dancers, and some are the Crestview kids coming to hangout at Abby's end. It's a lake down behind the studio. They park in the studio parking lot and take a trail behind the building. I only know about it because Anna over heard some of the older girls talking about it.

"What's hooking up?" I almost spit out my sprite when Anna asked me that.
"Why do you want to know- Where did you hear that?!"
"I heard some girls at practice saying they were going to Abby's end to hook up with Ethan and Roman." I laughed so loud Anna jumped. She was really confused now.
"Don't worry about what it means- You have a long time before you need to worry about it. Why are you so nosey anyway?" She stuck her tongue out and ran into her room.

Suddenly I'm pulled in by one car in particular. I've never seen it before, and I know all of the cars that come through here. Well at least I thought I did.
It was an old school mustang. Blue candy paint exterior, mint condition. My uncle Mike is really into classic car restoration. I would spend hours with him while he worked on some of the old school cars in the neighborhood. Let's just say I know a thing or two about the classics. I couldn't wait to see who stepped out of that. I guarantee they have no idea how special of a car that is. Probably a birthday gift from daddy.

The door of the mustang swings open. As he steps out of the car, my heart stops...

 
** Thanks for reading Poisoned Ivy!! The story gets juicer as we journey through Ivy's life! Please keep reading- You don't want to miss a THING- Period!