“Hey guys! I think I found the tooth!” Starr exclaims. She is pointing at a white thing buried in the mulch next to the swings. Harmony, Melody, and I come huddle around it.
“Yep. That’s a tooth” I say. Melody reaches down to grab it, and I slap her hand away.
“That ain’t yours no more. You lost it fightin’ against Brittnay, so it’s hers now.” I say.
“Man, it only came out cause it was loose already. I wanna put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy,” Melody says.
“You know the tooth fairy ain’t real, Sis.” Harmony says.
“I know. But a dollar is a dollar, no matter if it comes from a fairy or Momma,” Melody replies.
“What are we gonna do with it, then?” asks Starr.
“Leave it there for Brittnay.” I say, and then sit on the swings. Melody sulks, but fair is fair.
I’d been hanging with my friends on the playground for the past two hours since school let out. We started lookin’ for the tooth prolly like 30 minutes ago. After finding the tooth, we move on to talkin’ about getting out a sprinkler ‘cause of how hot it is, but we can’t decide who’s house we should do it at. I can handle the heat. I just want to play in the sprinkler ‘cause I got a cute new swimsuit I want to show them. My mind starts wandering, and I remember the tooth.
“Man, I want someone’s tooth” I say suddenly.
“You just gotta knock one outta someone,” Harmony replies casually.
“But I ain’t beefin’ with anyone right now,” I complain.
“ Just fight somebody random,” Starr tells me, looking around. “What about that kid? He looks like a loser.”
I look up, and see a random boy I ain’t never seen before walkin’ towards us. He looks a couple years older than us, maybe in eighth grade. He’s skinny as hell and still in school uniform with his khaki shorts and his red collared shirt, though his collar ain’t buttoned no more, showing the top of his scrawny chest.
“He’ll do,” I say, getting up.
When he got to the pavement in front of the playground, me and my squad moved to intercept him, makin’ a 4-girl wall in front of the playground gate’s entrance. Naturally, as the leader of the group, I stand in the middle, with the sisters Melody and Harmony on my left and my girl Starr on my right. I don’t really like Melody, but she’s never gotten the memo. I have to hang out with her, though, since she’s always followin’ her sister.
“Who are you?” I ask the boy when he gets close.
“None of your business,” he scoffs, dismissively. “I’m just trying to get to the playground. Can ya’ll move?”
Forget the tooth, who does this boy think he is? Ain’t nobody disrespects me like that. Before I can respond, Starr pipes up, “Who do you think you is? You ain’t got no right to be talkin’ to us like that.” At least Starr always gots my back. Unlike somebody. Lookin’ left, I see Melody lean on the gate, then quickly get off, wincing. Dumbass. That’s what you get for touchin’ hot metal. Rolling his eyes, the boy turns around and walks away.
Aw hell naw. He ain’t gonna disrespect me and then just walk away. “Where are you going?” I holler at the boy. “We ain’t done talkin’. Get back here!” He kept on walking, not lookin’ at me at all. I was planning to pick a fight before, but now I really want to beat his ass. He ain’t even cute enough to get away with that shit. Maybe if he looked as fine as Josiah in my class I’d let him get away with it, but he looks like his father is Oscar the Grouch.
“Get yo trifflin’ ass back here!” Harmony hollers. She then looks at me, “Are ya gonna just watch him walk away?”
“Hell naw.” I say, and run after him.
He was already on the grass in front of the school by the time I caught up, back still turned to me. You’re still ignoring me? Ignore this! I think before barreling into him, shoulder first. I bounce off of him.
Ow. That kinda hurt. I think, falling to the ground. I look up to see the boy stumble a little and glance back at me, lookin’ uninterested. He then continued to walk away. I’m just left sitting there, dazed. Prolly shouldn’t have done that when he’s so much bigger than me. But he looked so fragile though. My crew walks up as the pain fades.
“I’m gonna beat his ass,” I say, while Melody and Harmony help me up.
“Need help?” Harmony asks.
“Nah, I got it.”
I look down at my shorts while dusting myself off and see a grass stain. Ooooh, he’s dyin’ today. I start following his ass again, with my friends just standing in the field, watching. My shoulder is still throbbing a little from running into him, and sweat is startin’ to drip on my back from the heat. With every step, my anger grows.
The boy is already across the street and walking down a different road by the time I catch up to him. Man, his legs are long.
“Hey, you!” I holler at him. And still, he doesn’t turn around. So I knock him upside the head. Maybe I can knock one of his teeth out. Eighth graders still have baby teeth, right? Ah, it don’t matter. He starts walkin’ faster, but he still don’t look back.
“What. You scared to fight me?” I start beating on his back. Looking at that hard, un-reacting back, shirt as red as the anger I was feeling, only fueled my attacks more. “Fight back!” This goes on for like a minute, until a booming voice interrupts me.
“Girl, stop beating on that poor boy,” hollered a man coming out of his house. He looks older than my dad and a lot more heavyset, compared to the string bean that my father is. I know when to respect authority, so I stop. “Now get on home, both of you,” he says. And so, I turn to go back to the playground. Not feeling satisfied, I look back at the boy one last time. He is looking at the man with a tear-stained face, smiling. What a pussy.