“It’s Madalee Stevenson.”
“Aww, hell naw!”
I threw my hands up in frustration.
“She hates me. I know she won’t do it. Even if she did, I don’t feel like going insult for insult with her.”
“What did Mrs. Obama say? When they go low…” Jas asked.
“Alright. Let’s invite old girl… what was her name? Ummm… Sasha to do the choreography for your play.”
“You out yo’ muthafuckin mind. Ain’t no way! I used to smash Sasha. You and Mads have history because you stole her position!”
“Whatever, negro!”
We laughed.
Apparently, the school’s administration tapped Madalee Stevenson to be the music teacher when she was hired at RAW. The administration switched her to kindergarten when I was hired. She held that against me since the principal introduced me to the staff. From what I’ve been told, she is a dynamic musician, but they can’t get her to do anything with the arts department because of me.
She finds every opportunity to be mean to me. Initially, I thought I could kill her with kindness, but Madalee Stevenson wasn’t built that way. I told her she had a nice car. Madalee responded, “Why do I care if you think my car is nice?” I complimented her on the way her class behaved in music class. She said, “Does that surprise you? Are they supposed to act rowdy?” During school-wide staff meetings, she openly criticized my opinion on topics. We’ve had heated debates because she had to have the last word. We’ve mastered the skill of staying out of each other’s way.
“She’s not going to do it,” I said while digging into my bowl.
“I think she and Camilla are tight. She will do it for her.”
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
MADALEE
“Now your phone wants to work? I don’t have anything to give you, and you better not ask Momma, especially after you left her starving all day!”
“Crissy turned my phone off after I didn’t call her back, and she wouldn’t let me borrow her car,” Terry explained.
“So, you couldn’t just use her phone to call me? Momma was hungry! You know she needs food to take her pain medicine!”
“I apologized to Momma. So do you have the money or not?”
“Terry, you must be smoking some strong shit. There is no way on this side of heaven that I will ever give you anything! You already owe me from the last fourteen times you borrowed money talking about you were going to give it back. No! And if I find out you went to Momma. I’m going to come and kick your ass! That’s on our dead father!”
“Don’t be swearing on my daddy!”
“If you take some money from Momma, you gone be at Whisper Grove cemetery right next to your daddy.”
I disconnected the call and threw my phone in my top desk drawer. Terry’s bull crap call ruined my resource time.
“Damn!”
I mumbled to myself, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with the stack of papers on my desk. I’d totally lost my train of thought.
“Knock, knock.”
I looked up, attempting to hide my annoyance, but it must have shown on my face.
“Oh wow! I didn’t do it!” Camilla threw her hands up in surrender.
“Hey, girl. It’s not you.”
“Was it Terry again?”