Indigo Summer by Monica McKayhan Page A

dishwasher with dishes, and swept the kitchen floor, I rushed upstairs to my room. Hopped in the shower, tuned my radio to The Quiet Storm on V-103 and hit the sack.

Chapter 8
    Indigo
    I actually fell asleep on the bus, and didn’t wake up until the huge tires had brushed against the curb. I’d spent half the night talking to Quincy on the phone, and the other half sweating the dance team tryouts. When the bus driver opened the door, kids started knocking each other over to get off. As I stepped off, I spotted Quincy across the courtyard, and just as I was about to tell him to “wait up,” Patrice Robinson grabbed him by the arm and rested her head on his shoulder. What did she think she was doing? What’s worse is he didn’t seem to mind. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they walked into the building. I lagged behind, my backpack thrown across my shoulder, and my lip poked out.
    â€œYou wait until I see him,” I mumbled, as I made my way to my locker.
    â€œHey, Indi!” Tameka shouted, “Wait up.”
    I waited for her to catch up.
    â€œWe have to go see if we made the team,” she said, and pulled me along.
    She led me toward the cafeteria. A crowd of people gathered around the list that was posted on the wall. We pushed our way up to the front of the crowd, past the chatter and chaos. Tameka stood in front of the list, her finger scrolling along. I covered my eyes, too afraid to look.
    â€œTameka Brown.” She spotted her name and sang. “Hey…”
    â€œI can’t look,” I said, my eyes still shut.
    â€œI don’t see your name, Indi,” she said. “Hmmm…I don’t know…if you made it…let me look again.”
    I took my hand from my face, walked up toward the list. I had to know. Took my finger and slowly scrolled through the list of names, my heart pounding so loud I could hear it. INDIGO SUMMER. There it was again, my name in bold letters on the page. When I heard a scream, I thought it had come from my mouth, but realized it was Tameka.
    â€œWe made it!” she said, and we both started jumping up and down.
    She started doing a dance in the hallway, and I followed along. Before long, the crowd started dancing, too, humming an imaginary tune until one of the teachers broke it up and told us all to go to class. Reluctantly, we did so.
    â€œI’ll see you at dance practice after school, Indi,” Tameka said, heading toward her locker, which was in the opposite direction of mine. “Congratulations, girl, we did it!”
    â€œYes, we did,” I said, smiling from ear to ear.
    I couldn’t wait to tell Jade. I had accomplished it for both of us.
    Quincy was standing at my locker when I got there.
    â€œCongratulations, boo,” he said, and kissed my cheek. When there was no spark in my eyes, he leaned back and asked, “What’s wrong?”
    â€œNothing,” I said. Didn’t want to ruin my good news, by bringing up stupid stuff. Besides, there was probably nothing to Patrice’s hanging all over him. Girls were always sweating the football players. And he was on the starting lineup, for crying out loud. Why wouldn’t girls be hanging all over him? As long as they knew who his girlfriend was, what difference did it make? And once people saw us together at the Homecoming Dance, they would all know. “Just walk me to my class.”
    â€œHeard you made the dance team, girl.” He smiled, and my heart melted. “I don’t know if I can walk next to you, since you a star and everything.”
    â€œPlease.” I punched him in the shoulder. “You’re the star. Got girls hanging all over you and stuff.”
    â€œWhat girls?”
    â€œI saw you with Patrice Robinson this morning.”
    â€œPatrice?” He frowned. “She’s just my play cousin. Her mama knows my mama.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œThat’s why you were acting all