Darkness Before Dawn by Sharon M. Draper Page A

it,” I told her. “What did Tyrone say?”
    â€œHe told me he loved me, Keisha! He says, ‘I love you, Rhonda. I’m not just saying that because that’s what a dude says to a girl. I really do care about every fuzzy little hair on your head.’”
    â€œHe’s got you there!” I laughed. Rhonda’s hair had been hard to handle since first grade.
    Rhonda continued, “So he says, ‘I don’t want to do anything we’re not ready for. What the dudes say about their women in the locker room is not where I want to be with you.’ He told me he liked me long before he loved me, and because I was his friend as well as his girlfriend, he didn’t want to do anything that would mess up our friendship. Is that amazing or what?”
    â€œYou got quite a dude there, Rhonda. Hang tight to that one!” I said with envy.
    â€œDon’t you worry!” Rhonda laughed with delight. “How was practice?” she asked.
    â€œInteresting. Rob’s little sister Joyelle is running with the team this year. She’s not very fast, but she’s got a lot of spunk, that kid. Rob would be proud of her.”
    â€œYou’re right. She’s doing her best to make it this year,” Rhonda said with admiration. “How’s that fine young Hathaway doing as coach?”
    â€œHe’s a good coach, I guess,” I said. “He takes a lot of time with the girls.”
    â€œYeah, I bet.” I knew Rhonda was making a face on the other end of the line. “The girls follow him like flies around dead meat.”
    â€œExcept for Rita Bronson,” I added, remembering.
    â€œStrange you should mention her,” Rhonda said. “Me and Tyrone took her home tonight.”
    â€œReally? She was really upset at practice, and never did get on the bus. What did she say to you and Tyrone?”
    â€œWell, we were heading back to Tyrone’s car, and we saw something move in the distance. It was Rita—huddled in the dirt and crying. Her right arm was bleeding a little. So I asked her how she hurt herself. She seemed to be glad to see me, but all she would tell me is that she fell in some bushes and cut herself.”
    â€œI wonder what happened?”
    â€œMaybe she’s got home problems.”
    â€œI can feel that,” I replied. “But she wouldn’t say. I know she got yelled at by Coach Hathaway for being late to practice, and she was so angry that she tossed a couple of choice cuss words back in his face, telling him to stick his head where the sun don’t shine!”
    Rhonda hooted with delight. “Sweet! I bet that was worth hearing!”
    â€œThen she just stormed off into the woods by herself. We couldn’t find her after that. Jonathan and Leon looked for her for over an hour.”
    â€œSo now he’s
Jonathan?”
Rhonda interrupted me, laughing with delight. It was too good to slip by her unnoticed.
    â€œThat’s what he told me to call him—all of us,” I addedquickly. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. Rhonda said nothing, but I knew she was smiling on the other end of the phone. “So what else happened when you and Tyrone found her?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
    â€œWell, Tyrone asked her if she wanted us to find Coach Hathaway and she screamed
no!
like he had mentioned some serial killer,” Rhonda said. “Then she told us that she had quit the team and refused to go back on the bus with them.”
    â€œI wonder what’s going on,” I mused. “I know she hangs with some pretty rough dudes sometimes.”
    â€œI don’t know. She wouldn’t talk about it,” Rhonda said quietly. “She had a cut on her neck and her arm—looked like more than scratches from bushes to me. Then she asked us to take her home. She didn’t say nothing in the car, but she thanked us and told us she’d see us on