Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend

Operation Get Rid of Mom’s
New Boyfriend

By N. Joy

The author of the American
Library Association Coretta Scott King Honor,

The Secret Olivia Told
Me

Smashwords
edition

Operation Get Rid of Mom’s New
Boyfriend©Copyright 2011 by

End of the Rainbow Projects

P.O. Box 128

Reynoldsburg, OH 43068

All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system without prior consent of the publisher, except for
brief quotes used in reviews.

ISBN: 09781301326648

First Published December 2011

This is a work of fiction. Any references or
similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to
real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any
similarity in other names, characters, places and incidents is
entirely coincidental.

Submit Orders to:

End of the Rainbow Projects

P.O. Box 128

Reynoldsburg, OH 43068

614-806-6204

Dedication

For Daryn, Joy, Hennessey
and Kennedy, better known as the DJHK Gurls. Thank you for letting
me be a part of your young lives, which was just the tool I needed
to complete this project that was almost five years in the
making.

Acknowledgement

Regina Brooks, thanks for
not letting me walk into the world of Tweens with my slip showing.
Your time, insightful thoughts and ideas concerning my first draft
helped me to make the story what it is today.

Chapter One

Meet the Soul
Sisters

It was Monday morning and
the three sisters, Kennedy, Daryn and Joy Soul, were all doing
their own thing before heading out for school. So far, the girls’
mother, Sammi, which was short for Samantha, hadn’t heard a peep
out of any of them. That only meant one thing; that they weren’t in
the same room together. Because my oh my, when the Soul Sisters
were in the same room together, everyone would know it. Matter of
fact, they would hear it!

“
Stop looking at me!” would
probably be something Daryn, the youngest of the sisters, would be
yelling out. Being the fashionista that she was, she always felt
that all eyes were on her. She loved it; but hated it if the eyes
belonged to her menacing big sisters.

“
If you don’t turn back to
the sports highlights, I’m going to take this basketball and bounce
it off your big head, you loser.” Now that’s definitely something
Kennedy, the oldest, would be saying. She’d have her basketball in
hand to back up her threat.

“
How in the world did
someone as smart as me end up having two big mouth dummies for
sisters?” A tsk and the shaking of her head would follow Daryn’s,
the middle child’s, comment. This straight ‘A’ genius had no
problem rubbing her intellect in her sisters’ faces.

These three girls couldn’t
be in the same room without finding at least one thing to argue,
bicker or complain about amongst each other. And these little
ladies took no prisoners, nor did they take sides with one another.
It was every Soul sister for herself. Each was well equipped with
her very own opinion that was sure to differ from that of the
others’. Getting these three sisters to see eye to eye or agree on
anything was like getting a fat kid to give up his last slice of
pizza.

Kennedy felt that she was
the boss of her sisters, and rightfully so, being that she was the
oldest of the three. However, Daryn and Joy saw her as nothing more
than an overgrown bully. The thing was, Kennedy was a totally
different person at school, hardly ever saying two words to her
sisters, let alone trying to bully them.

“
And it’s a good thing
too,” Daryn would always say, ready to report even her own sister
to the school principal, which is what the anti-bullying program
their school had in place suggested.

Daryn was convinced,
though, that her older sister’s age had nothing on her own degree
of wisdom, intelligence and wit. Daryn was undisputedly the most
studious of the three. In addition to earning good grades, she was
the first seventh grader to be voted in as captain of the debating
team. This was a first in the entire history of St. Amos Private
School. This was the school each of the Soul Sisters
attended.

Their mother was pleased
that the girls were all able to go to school together, being that
it ranged from kindergarten to twelfth grade. It was her prayer
that the girls would look out for one another. They looked out for
one another all right, but not in the way Sammi had hoped. If one
girl didn’t want to get blind-sided by the other, she had better
keep a look out, that was for sure. In order to do so, the girls
had to keep both eyes open at all times.

Joy, even though she was
the youngest, was much wiser than her years and too sassy for her
own good. Sometimes the words that came out of her mouth even
surprised her mother, who would often have to warn Joy that she was
getting too big for her britches.

“
Just because your father
isn’t here,” Sammi would point at Joy, “doesn’t mean I won’t put
you in your place.”

Those words always
straightened Joy out. Not because she took heed to her mother’s
threat, but because her thoughts would always go to that of her
father. She missed him so much that she never thought the day would
come where she would even miss the disciplinarian side of him. But
she did. Unfortunately for her, Joy thought, the only side of her
father she had around to remind her of him were her two
sisters.

Although the girls tried to
forget that they were related on a daily basis, there was no
denying that these girls were, in deed, sisters. They looked so
much alike it was scary. Each of them looked like spittin’ images
of their father. They each had the smooth, caramel skin with dark
brown eyes of his African American heritage. Although some of their
mother’s Italian American genes peeked through here and there, the
girls had definitely taken on more of their father’s
traits.

Each of the girls had
always had shoulder length brown hair, but just recently, Kennedy
had gotten hers cut into a short bob style. Daryn wore her hair
pulled back into a single ponytail while Joy always wore hers in a
different style every day. No matter how much they looked like
sisters, getting them to act like sisters was next to
impossible.

“
I’m really an only child
you know?” Kennedy would tease her sisters. “You two are
adopted.”

Of course that wasn’t true,
but Kennedy knew it always got under her sisters’ skin. She knew
this because of how angry they would get when she said it and
because she’d caught them secretly asking their mother to confirm
there was no truth to Kennedy’s taunting.

With each of the Soul
Sisters being so different in personality, it was no wonder they
couldn’t get along. So whoever made up that saying that blood is
thicker than water, surely had never met Kennedy, Daryn and Joy
Soul. The only thing these girls knew how to do was draw blood; and
each others at that!

The Soul Sisters took
sibling rivalry to a completely new level. This morning would be no
different. In a matter of minutes, Sammi would know for certain
that her daughters were most definitely in the same
room…

Chapter Two

Mine, Mine, Mine

“
Hey, that’s my red vest,”
Kennedy said to her little sister, Daryn. Kennedy was coming down
the steps and into the kitchen. “Take it off. Give it to me now or
you’ll be eating a knuckle sandwich for breakfast!” Kennedy
approached Daryn with a balled fist. When Daryn just sat at the
table totally ignoring Kennedy, her big sister started trying to
take the vest off of her.

“
Stop being such a drag,”
Daryn told her as she struggled with Kennedy, who was still trying
to get the vest off of Daryn. Her older sister’s age might not have
been able to stand against Daryn’s intellect, but her size sure
could. Standing almost six inches taller than Daryn, the four feet
and six inches middle child knew better than to put up a physical
fight with Kennedy. That didn’t stop her from running her mouth
though. “Besides, you weren’t even thinking about the vest until
you saw me wearing it,” Daryn continued. Daryn popped her collar
and brushed her shoulders off. “You’re just mad I look better than
you in it.”

Daryn had been sitting down
at the breakfast table, minding her own business and reading the
morning paper while downing a bowl of Cookie Crisp cereal. She
sucked her teeth and added, “And on top of that, this vest doesn’t
even go with what you’re wearing.” She pushed her dark purple
framed glasses up on her nose and continued reading the
paper.

Kennedy looked down at her
one-piece, denim, pants jumpsuit with the belt looped around it and
her silver platforms that matched the belt. She had chosen pink
accessories to highlight her outfit. The accessories consisted of
pink heart-shaped earrings with a pink pearl necklace as well as a
pink headband. She did look out of sight if she had to say so
herself. But no way was she going to allow her little sister to
out-do her by trying to look foxy in something that came from
Kennedy’s closet.

“
Well, I’m thinking about
it now,” Kennedy said sharply, managing to retrieve the red, faux
fur vest from off of Daryn.

Fortunately, Daryn still
looked far out with her red and white plaid skirt, white tights,
black loafers and long sleeve white shirt with a red and white
plaid heart patch in the middle of it. She had only added Kennedy’s
vest to the ensemble when she saw it hanging up in the laundry
room, calling her name.

Just as Kennedy had removed
the vest from Daryn, Joy entered the kitchen from the direction of
the living room. Initially, she couldn’t wait to see what all of
the commotion was about so that she could put in her two cents, but
as she entered the kitchen, something about Kennedy immediately
caught her eye and gave her grounds for a fight of her
own.

“
Is that my chain link belt
you’re wearing?” Joy said to Kennedy, her words coming out quickly
as always. “I know that ain’t my belt you wearing. There is no way
you’d be wearing my belt. I just made that belt last week to go
with the black and rose two-tone, twist front crop top I made.” Joy
sucked her teeth, folded her arms and waited patiently for Kennedy
to respond.

A self-proclaimed
fashionista, Joy loved designing clothing and accessories. It was a
natural talent she had. She’d been doing it ever since she was five
years old and used the train of her mother’s wedding gown as
material to make dresses for her doll babies. She hadn’t realized
that she was altering a family heirloom so to speak. To a five year
old, it just looked like a strip of extra material hanging from a
dress.

“
Kennedy, girl, if you
don’t get yo’ hips up out of my belt, it’s gon’ be on and poppin’
up in here. You can trust and believe that!” Joy uncrossed her arms
and placed them on her hips. She tapped her foot, waiting
impatiently for Kennedy to hand over the belt. “Besides, do you
really think my belt is going to go with that basketball you carry
around? Maybe if you carried around a purse like a normal girl your
age instead of an oversized orange of a basketball, that belt might
look half way decent on you.” Joy thought about her last statement
for a minute while looking Kennedy up and down. “Nahhhh. It would
take a total makeover plus plastic surgery to get you looking half
way decent. The other half would be a lost cause.”

Daryn couldn’t help but
laugh at the shot her baby sister had just taken at her older
sister. But when Kennedy cut evil eyes at Daryn, that immediately
ceased her laughter.

Realizing she must have
been on a roll in order to get a chuckle out of her other opposing
sister, Joy continued. “Look at you.” She pointed at Kennedy. “You
dressing all flashy but carrying around a basketball like some boy.
Humpf! Ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes up in her head and then
looked up. “God, why did you give me all the fashion sense? I know
I‘m full of it, but was there not enough to go around for my tacky
sister?”

“
Oh, you’re full of it all
right,” Kennedy hissed. Kennedy hated the thought that maybe her
sister, Joy, was right about her wardrobe. She looked down at her
girly outfit and then thought about her beloved basketball that was
sitting at the front door waiting on her. Yeah, maybe a purse would
jazz up her outfit a little, but how on earth could she dribble
while carrying a purse? Besides, nothing could replace her
basketball. Her father had gone out and bought it the day he found
out Sammi was pregnant with Kennedy. And nine months later, when
the doctor said, “It’s a girl,” instead of “It’s a boy,” that still
didn’t deter him from thinking that he had a little basketball star
on his hands. So, from the time Kennedy could walk, he’d play
driveway basketball with her. It paid off too. She was now one of
the star players on the girls’ basketball team at her
school.