Taneesha Never Disparaging Read Online Free PDF Page A

what came after “before.”
    Mrs. Andrews sighed real deep. “Okay, honey. I’ll call the police.”
    Now you’re talking some sense. Dang!
    â€œNow you two got to move out the way. I got to make phone calls here.”
    I didn’t move. I wanted to see her actually call
the police. Carli waited next to me.
    â€œGo on now! I told you I’ll call. You know you’re not supposed to come back in the building when school’s out. Not unless you’re in an after-school program.”
    â€œWe had to tell you about the boy—” I said.
    â€œAnd you did . Now you both go on home like you’re supposed to.”
    While Carli and I were leaving the office, I heard Mrs. Andrews on the phone. “They said they’re on Bernard. Boys. Probably from the middle school, from Legacy.”
    Good.
    Carli and I walked back through a building that normally seemed bright. I usually thought Hunter’s shiny, clear picture windows looked like open mouths bragging about the Honor Roll lists and art projects that showed off on brand new walls. Hunter had gotten rebuilt two years ago. It usually looked fresh. Clean and neat. But today the building seemed just as gloomy as the sunless day, just as gloomy as I felt.
    Back on Bernard, Carli and I saw a fire department ambulance parked in front of the spot where the fight had been. We watched two men
in dark blue uniforms lift the stretcher that carried a slender, bloodied body into the truck.
    â€œI hope he’ll be all right,” I said, when I really meant, “I hope he isn’t dead.”
    â€œYeah, me too.”

CHAPTER 5
    SHOWTIME AT THE BEY-ROSS’
    L ater, my parents and I sat at the dinner table—me in jeans and a red sweatshirt, Mama in an orange sweatsuit, daddy in charcoal grey business pants and a light grey shirt, no tie.
    â€œThis boy got beat up on Bernard today.”
    Daddy sat his fork on his plate with a loud tink . He looked at me like I was from Pluto, not even a real planet.
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œThese guys chased him and beat him up.”
    â€œWere they from Hunter?” asked Mama. Like Daddy, she had stopped eating.

    â€œNaw. I don’t think so. They looked older.”
    â€œWhere were you while this was going on?”
    â€œI was right there, Daddy. Me and Carli. We were on Bernard.”
    â€œI don’t like that,” Mama said. “Kids fighting in the street. It’s dangerous. We need more police.”
    â€œWe need better parents,” said Daddy.
    I told my parents how I’d asked Mrs. Andrews to call the police. I told them about the ambulance, too. My news carved worried lines across Daddy’s forehead. When he went back to eating, he cut a baked chicken breast into angry little pieces.
    Later, I rinsed dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I overheard Mama talking on the cordless telephone in the hallway.
    â€œMarsha, with a Saturday shift I’d be able to pick Taneesha up after school. I just don’t like her coming home alone.”
    Mama’s going to pick me up from school?
    I knew that tone in my mother’s voice. Once she made her mind up, that was it. From now on, I had an after-school ride.
    â€œYeah. They have an after-school program. Usually she participates. I tried to get her in dance like last year, but the class filled up fast.”

    No more walking up Bernard.
    â€œI can’t sign her up for anything else. All the activities are full.”
    No more watching somebody get beat up.
    â€œMiles would do it if he could. But most afternoons he’s got appointments when she’s getting out of school. So it’s on me.”
    No more feeling scared on the way home.
    I was done with the dishes. Standing at the kitchen counter, I dried my hands with a paper towel and thought about how the fight that happened today wasn’t the first one I’d seen. But I’d never been so close to a major