You Don't Know Me Like That (6 page)

M
y eyes had to be playing tricks on me. I stood in the middle of the hallway, mouth open. I wasn't the only one shocked. Sheridan, Chastity and Ava, had all stopped midsentence when they saw what I was looking at.

“Hey, Maya,” Jayla said, bouncing over to us.

“Jayla, what are you doing here?” I asked. “It's the middle of the day. Why aren't you at school?”

“I'm at school.” She grinned widely. “I'm a student here.”

“Since when?” I balked.

“Since yesterday. I transferred here.” She said that like it was no big deal.

“Excuse me? What do you mean you transferred?” I looked at her in disbelief. What kind of person just up and transferred in the middle of the semester?

“Who is this?” my friend Ava said.

Sheridan was the one who answered. “She works for Maya.”

“So now your staff has to go to school with you?” Chastity asked.

I was too dumbfounded to even respond. I couldn't believe this.

Sheridan stepped closer to her. “Are you following my girl?”

“Oh, no, it's not even like that,” Jayla protested, trying to keep a smile on her face. “I don't know if you'd heard, but they found asbestos at my school, and they had to move all the students. They allowed some of us to choose any school in the area. I was already in the midst of transferring when I met you,” she said to me.

“I didn't even know they let people transfer in to Miami High,” Chastity said.

“They only do that with scholarship students and people who are stupid rich,” Ava said. Her eyes made their way up and down Jayla's body. “And I doubt that she would be in the stupid-rich category,” Ava added with her nose turned up.

Jayla didn't seem fazed. I had to shake myself out of my stunned trance.

“That's just really convenient, isn't it?” Sheridan said, her arms folded across her chest.

“Okay, I'm sorry, I'm a little confused here,” I said. “Why didn't you mention that you were transferring?”

“I didn't see why it mattered,” Jayla said.

Was she serious? “You didn't see how it mattered?” I repeated. My girls were standing on both of my sides. I know we looked like we were ganging up on Jayla, but she needed to give me some answers.

“What's the big deal?” Jayla asked.

“The big deal is she doesn't like obsessive freaks following her around,” Sheridan snapped.

Jayla put both hands on her hips. If Sheridan was scaring her, she didn't show it.

“I'm not a freak, and I'm not obsessive. I'm just good at my job. And my transferring here didn't have anything to do with Maya. But if anything, I'd think she'd be happy.”

I couldn't understand why Jayla hadn't mentioned that she was transferring before. But her being here wasn't the only thing that had my mouth on the floor. It was what Jayla was wearing.

“Like, ewww,” Chastity said, just now noticing her outfit. “Are you seriously wearing a T-shirt with Maya's face on it?”

“Yeah.” Jayla looked down at her shirt, pulling it out for everyone to see. “I had them made. We give them away to Maya's fans. Would you guys like one?”

“As if.” They burst out laughing.

“Yeah, I'm good,” Ava said.

“Ummm, I'll pass, too,” Chastity added.

I wanted to laugh because they were like me. They wouldn't be caught dead wearing a celebrity's T-shirt, especially if that celebrity was someone you knew. That was lame with a capital
L
.

“Okay, okay, just chill,” I said, jumping in before they started drawing attention. “So you transferred here,” I said turning back to Jayla. “That's cool, but ummm, the shirt? So not feeling it.”

She actually looked hurt. “You don't like the shirt?”

“What do you think, genius?” Ava snapped. I held out my hand to quiet her.

“No, I love the shirt,” I told her. “I really do. It's just something about having you wear it around school. Let's just not.”

She hesitated. It was obvious she was disappointed. “Okay, I won't wear it again,” she finally said. She pulled a jacket out of her bag. “I'll just put my jacket on over it.”

All of us stood and watched as Jayla put the jacket on and zipped it up.

“Much better,” I said.

She stood there awkwardly for a minute, then finally said, “Well, I'm not trying to get in your way or anything. In fact, my best friend goes here; that's the real reason I chose this school. So that's where I was headed, to meet her.”

“Who is your best friend?” Sheridan said, like she didn't believe her.

“Maggie Long.”

“Who is that?” Ava asked.

“Is that that scholarship girl, the freshman?” Chastity said.

“Yeah,” Jayla replied. “That's her.”

“Your best friend is a freshman?” Ava asked, not bothering to hide her disgust.

Jayla nodded. “Yeah, and?”

Chastity coughed and muttered, “Loser,” under her breath.

“I'm gonna leave you guys alone,” Jayla said, sounding all sad. “Sorry, Maya, if I freaked you out. I thought you'd be cool with it.”

I gave her a tight smile as she walked off.

“And the freak of the week award goes to Maya's new publicist,” Chastity said after Jayla rounded the corner.

“She's not my publicist,” I protested. “She just does my social media stuff.”

“She's your number one fan,” Ava sang.

They laughed some more before Sheridan finally said, “Seriously, Maya, you don't see anything creepy about this?”

I shrugged. “She may be a little strange, but I can't help it that she thinks I'm fabulous and you guys don't recognize all this fabulosity.” I did a little twirl. I was trying to lighten the mood, but I was serious, too.

“Oh, my, God. What were we thinking,” Sheridan said in a high-pitched fake voice.

Chastity pretended to clutch her pearls. “We are so sorry, Your Highness. I mean, can we pretty please get some T-shirts of you so that we can walk around with your face on our boobs? Pretty please?”

Ava clasped her hands together excitedly. “And while we're at it, we should get some sweatbands, headbands, and glasses that say Maya Morgan.”

“Ooooh, great idea,” Sheridan said. She pointed to her behind. “And I'm going to get ‘Maya' on this butt cheek, then ‘Morgan' on this butt cheek.”

They cracked up laughing again. I couldn't help but laugh, too. “You guys are so stupid.”

We laughed for a minute as we made our way down the hall to our classes. Ava and Chastity went on their way. Sheridan stopped me just as I was about to go into my class.

“Seriously, Maya. I'm not feeling Jayla. You don't think it's weird that she just so happened to be transferring to your school?”

“She's harmless.” As soon as I said it, I realized I had said that exact same thing about Valerie, and look at how that ended, with her trying to kill me at my father's cabin. “Nah,” I said, “Jayla is harmless. A little freaky, but harmless, nonetheless.”

I
made my way into my office and had just taken the top off my Fiji water when I looked up to see Ariel standing in my doorway. She didn't have her usual smile on and was instead staring at me like she wanted to wring my neck or something.

“May I help you?” I asked.

She still didn't say anything and just kept glaring.

“What in the world is your problem?” I said.

She walked into my office like she'd received a personal Evite. “People like you,” she snarled.

My mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“You know, it's so unfair how people like you come up. Everything is just laid out for you on a silver platter, so you don't know what it's like to work hard.”

This trick had lost her mind. As hard as I worked trying to balance school and stay on top of my job here at
Rumor Central
, she had me messed up.

She continued. “You were lucky enough to be born into money, so you think you're better than everyone else.”

“Ariel, what in the world are you talking about? Have you completely lost your mind? Did you forget who you work for?”

She folded her arms defiantly. I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd think she had a split personality and this was the crazy one. I'd never seen her act like this. “Oh, trust. I didn't forget who I work for. You won't let me forget that I work for you.”

“It is what it is. That's the whole reason you're here—to be my assistant. If you have a problem with that, there's the door.” I pointed to the door she'd just walked through.

She just glared at me. “You know, if you didn't want to help me, all you had to do was say you didn't.”

“You know what, get out of my office,” I said, turning around in my seat and dismissing her. “I'm tired. I don't have time for your drama.”

She walked over and had the nerve to slam her demo tape down on my desk. “Juan from maintenance gave me my tape. He found it in the trash.”

Oops. I almost said, “And?” But I just shrugged and said, “I was looking for it. I didn't know what had happened to it. It must've fallen off my desk and into the trash can.”

“You are such a liar.”

“And you are so out of line,” I said slowly. “I know you're older than me, but remember who's still the boss.”

“All I wanted was your help.”

“Why don't you do the job that we pay you to do,” I said. “Then we can worry about all that other stuff later. Besides, you really should be somewhere at least a month before you start trying to take someone else's job.”

“So, is that what you're worried about, my taking your job?”

I had to laugh at that. “Honey Boo Boo, please. In your wildest fantasy, you couldn't take anything from me. In fact the only thing you need to be taking is notes.”

“I'm majoring in radio, TV, film,” she said, like that was supposed to mean something.

“And while they're teaching you in the classroom, I'm working it in the studio as one of the hottest hosts in the country. So if you had any common sense, you'd be trying to soak up all the knowledge you could from me.”

She just kept glaring, looking like she'd give anything to punch me in my throat. I didn't know what in the world was her problem, but she was definitely pushing me.

“Now, I'm going to understand that you're emotional and give you a pass on this little outburst,” I continued, pointing my finger at her. “But don't ever come at me like that again.”

“So, I guess this means you won't help me get on air?”

“You guessed right.”

She nodded as she bit her bottom lip, like she was trying to calm herself down. “As long as I know where I stand.”

“Yeah, so now you know. Now, beat it.” Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have been as mad, but she had lost her dang mind coming in my office calling me a liar. This was exactly what I was talking about. Hate was coming at me from every direction.

My sour mood was immediately erased when my phone rang and I looked at the caller ID. Seeing J. Love's number immediately put a smile back on my face and wiped away any anger.

“Hello,” I sang.

“Hey, beautiful, whatcha doing?”

“Just wrapped up on set. You?”

“Same thing. Just finished sound check and now chillin' before the show. You having a good day?”

“Yeah, just had a little tiff with my assistant. You know I'm always catching it because of my age. Folks think they can step to me any kind of way.”

“Hope you handled her.”

“You know I did.”

We held the phone for a minute, then he said, “You miss me?”

“I sure do. When will you be back?”

“In three days, just in time for my party. Sorry I haven't been calling like I wanted. It's just been really grueling out here. Doing a different city every night, then promotions all day long.”

“Nah, it's cool. You know I know how it goes.”

“See, that's what I'm talking about. And you don't trip about my schedule.”

“A confident girl never trips over something like that.”

“You know what, Maya Morgan? I don't know about your kinda sorta man, but I'm not gonna rest until I make you my girl.”

“We'll see, J. Love. We will see.” I had to play that role, but J. Love just didn't know that was music to my ears.

S
chool should really be optional. That's all I could think as I glanced out the window, wishing I could be anywhere but in this boring English class. Mrs. Williams, my English teacher, was talking some “Where forth art thou” mess. Again, useless information.

I wasn't the only one who was ready for this class to end, because when the bell rang, everybody jumped up so fast you would've thought the place was on fire.

“Don't forget to start on those research papers,” Mrs. Williams called out as we raced toward the door. “You will have to orally present them in front of all the classes. Those are thirty percent of your grades, and I don't want to hear any excuses.”

I didn't want to hear anything about a research paper. I hadn't thought twice about that thing, even though I knew I needed to get started. It was supposed to be an informative paper, from which our classmates could learn some valuable information. We were making our presentations in a few weeks, and I still had no idea what I was doing.

I saw Jayla heading into the class, which she had after me. I was just going to see if she could find me a topic to write about, then I'd make Ariel do all the research. Ariel might be mad now, but if she valued her job, she'd quickly get over it.

“Jayla,” I called out. She actually kept walking.

What the . . . ?
I spun around and went in the classroom after her. “Jayla, did you hear me call you?” I asked as she took a seat in the back of the room.

She looked up from her seat, and I couldn't make out the look in her eyes, but it was almost like she had an attitude with me.

“Did you hear me?” I said.

She paused, then said, “Sorry, my mind was somewhere else.”

The whole way she said it was cold. “What's wrong with you?” I asked.

She just glared at me before saying, “Nothing.”

“Obviously something is, since you're acting like I peed in your punch or something.”

She shrugged. “Nah, I'm good.”

I looked over my shoulder to make sure Mrs. Williams wasn't listening. “Have you come up with the topic for your research paper yet?”

“No. Why?”

“Because when you do, I was hoping you could find me a topic too.”

Again, she didn't say anything, just sat there staring at me.

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked.

She shrugged again. “Nah, it's cool. Anything for the great Maya Morgan.”

My hands went to my hips. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Before she could answer Bryce walked in, laughing, his arm around this girl named Callie. As soon as he saw me, he lost his smile. So did Callie. She quickly pulled away from him.

“M-Maya, I'm sorry, I . . .”

Bryce cut her off. “Nothing to be sorry about. Maya and I aren't together anymore.”

I couldn't help but let out a little snortle. Glad to know it was official now.

“Yeah, I've moved on,” I said.

“Oh, yeah,” some Valley Girl sitting in the row next to Jayla said. “You're dating the singer, J. Love, right?”

I grinned. “Yeah, we're together now.” Okay, I was exaggerating, but the way Bryce was gritting his teeth, the lie was well worth it.

“Oh, my, God. He is sooo fine,” the girl said.

“And isn't he like stupid rich?” the girl sitting next to her asked.

“That he is.” I looked at Callie. “So, don't let me stop you.” I looked Bryce up and down. “I've moved on to bigger, better, finer, and
richer
things.”

With that, I spun and walked out of the room.