With Friends Like These by Reshonda Tate Billingsley

since she and Donovan broke up last week. But I tried to tell her. I don’t know how she thought she was gon’ hang on to that boy when he went off to college, especially since she still hadn’t had sex with him. I mean, he was playing basketball at the University of Texas at Austin, and he was fine as all get-out. I just knew those college girls would be all over him. Jasmine didn’t stand a chance.
    “Are you okay?” I asked, just as the bell rang.
    Jasmine gathered her books. “I’m straight.”
    We both stood up and started heading toward the door. I knew I probably shouldn’t go there, but I was curious, so I asked, “You heard from Donovan?”
    She stopped right outside the classroom door. Her eyes got sad at the mention of his name. “Nah, I tried to call him yesterday but his roommate was talking about he wasn’t there. I know he was lying. I heard some girls giggling in the background.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Jasmine shrugged. “Don’t be. I’ll be fine. Forget Donovan.”
    I was just about to say something else when Tameka came bouncing toward us. “What’s up?”
    “What’s up with you?” I said. Tameka actually had opened up a little at our last meeting. We’d even laughed a few times. Now she was bouncing around, all happy. Maybe she’d gotten out of the funk she’d been in the first few weeks she joined the Good Girlz.
    “Hey,” Jasmine echoed.
    “Y’all ready for the audition?” Tameka asked.
    “You know I am,” Camille said.
    “Shoot, I forgot all about the audition,” Jasmine responded.
    “How you gon’ forget?” Tameka asked.
    “I had a lot on my mind.”
    “Well, I have the tape from our practice run right here,” Tameka said as she waved a VHS tape back and forth. She’d made the tape of us practicing at our meeting Tuesday night, saying it would help us all to be able to critique ourselves. She’d called her cousin for tips on how we could interview each other and then videotaped us as we practiced.
    “I would’ve waited and brought it to the meeting Thursday, but you know we gotta meet the girls we’re supposed to be mentoring,” Tameka continued. “Besides, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait. I already talked with Mr. White in the TV department. He said we can use the studio to review the tape.”
    “Cool,” I said. Since our school was a magnet school for communications, we had a state-of-the-art television studio where students could get hands-on experience in the television and radio business. “When can we watch it?” I asked. I was really geeked about the auditions. Not just for the money, but because hosting the show would have been so much fun. So I wanted to make sure I gave it my all, and I was anxious to see how the practice run went.
    “After school. Just meet me in the TV studios,” Tameka said as she raced down the hall to class. “I have Mrs. Reed now, so I can’t be late. I’ll see you all after school.”
    We waved to Tameka. “Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all,” I mumbled to Jasmine as we headed to our next classes.
    Jasmine shot me a “yeah, right” look before heading to her class.
    I met Alexis after school outside the gate, then walked her back to the studios. I had sent her a text message to meet us after school. She had a free sixth period, so she was waiting by the time our dismissal bell rang.
    When we walked into the studio, Jasmine, Angel, and Tameka were already there.
    “Hey, everybody,” Alexis said as she walked in.
    Everybody waved as Tameka popped the tape in. “I watched the tape last night, so I have a few critiques myself,” she said.
    We all looked at Tameka like, Who died and appointed her audition queen?
    First up on the tape was me interviewing Angel. I smiled as I watched myself give a brief introduction, then welcome Angel to the show. Part of our audition included interviewing another person about a hot teen topic. So that’s what we were practicing when we taped the fake