"Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Eleven! Twelve!" Alyssa and Brianna counted aloud as I did my push-ups. "Wow, you only got to twelve today, Amiel. You did twenty-nine straight yesterday, and thirty-seven on Friday." They both clicked their tongues condescendingly and gazed disappointingly at me.
"Yeah, Am, you're a fail today," my best friend Kylie, better know as Flo, mock-insulted me from the bench.
"Why don't you get your lazy ass out of that bench, do a lap around the block, then twenty pull-ups, and then try to do more than twelve push-ups, huh?" I snapped, sticking my tongue out.
"Ooh! You swore!" The two seven year-olds, one of which was Flo's niece, pointed at me. "Am said the A Word! Am said the A word!" They chanted in their scolding little singsong voices.
Flo came over and put a hand on both their heads. "That's right, kids. That's a bad word that we never say. Especially to our parents." Glancing up at me, Flo winked. "Right?"
"Yes!" Brianna answered, nodding her head so her blond curls bounced up and down.
"Yes!" Alyssa also answered enthusiastically, nodding her head so her dark brown box braids bounced, causing the colorful beads on the end of each one to clack to create what she called 'hair tunes.'
"Alright, kiddies, now go play on the swing set with Josh and Lily. Me and Auntie Flo will watch you from here," I instructed. It was time for a bit of 'grown up talk time.'
"But boys are icky," they mumbled.
"Go on, now!" Flo shooed them off, ignoring their huffing and puffing.
Reluctantly, they made their way to the swing set, leaving Flo and me by ourselves. Finally.
"Remind me why you agreed to babysit them everyday, Kyles." I turned and glared at her. I mean, I loved kids; I was all for 'em. (Mostly.) Sometimes it would be nice to have a life outside two seven year olds counting your pushups, though.
"Lighten up, Amiel. You know they love you. Plus, I love helping her mom out. You know how nice she is to my parents, bringing us homeade pies and all that," she answered, grinning at the memories. I had to admit, those pies had been great.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now for the important things." I stood up from the comfortable place on the ground and joined her on the bench, turning my body fully towards her so she could see my excitement.
"I missed last period today because I got stuck planning the soup kitchen trip with Mr. Green," I began, biting my lip in anticipation, "Tell me, how good did Tyson Jackson look today?"
Flo smiled slyly and put on her 'girl-don't-get-me-started' face, got comfortable and began her speech of the finest looking guys in our class.
"Tyson was wearing a black and grey plaid shirt with some tight skinny jeans, and he looked like the finest thing on the planet. Then we've got Darren Quincy, who, in a white wife-beater and red skinny jeans, looked fine enough to eat. And guess who was sitting right behind them?" She didn't give me time to answer. "Corey Warner, lookin' as hot as the sun! To top it all off, we've got Jared Grayson wearing grey sweatpants and a tight t-shirt!" She squealed, clutching her phone in her hand as she rocked back and forth from her excitement. I scowled at her corny metaphors, but she didn't notice.
She made a few appreciative noises and left me fantasizing about Tyson and how amazing he must have looked today.
Last period chemistry was the only class I had with the Four Wonders, the four most amazing looking boys in our school, because I took all AP classes and the Wonders were only able to get into one.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm." I shook my head. They were just too hot to handle, weren't they? Usually I didn't go for the golden boys who got all the attention, but I was able to make a couple of exceptions. Four to be exact.
As we both sat in silence, dreaming of marrying four guys at once, suddenly we heard screeching from the swings. Brianna was bawling on the ground, her knee bleeding. She must have been playing too roughly and fallen. Alyssa sat beside her, patting her back and comforting her. Once again, I would miss out on talking to Flo, and all the juicy things that happened in last period would stay a mystery to me.
I take back what I said about being all for kids.
Damn the little rascals.
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Street Wise
Roman pour AdolescentsIn school, she was known as the good girl, or as good as you can get in her neighborhood. In the streets, she was known simply as 'Pirate,' a masked fighter in the illegal underground arenas to get extra money for her single mother. Obviously, Amiel...
