The first thing I do is slowly take the rods out so I can see how my hair turned out. I expect to have thick black twists even more stunning than Toya’s because my hair is longer and thicker.
But no.
As I undo my twists, gently taking out the curling rods, I see that my hair looks much shorter and doesn’t look like a kinky fro at all. My hair shrank like clothes do if they’ve been left in the dryer too long, and I look like I have an old-school jheri curl. I tug on one of the curls, pulling it down. It reaches my shoulder, but as soon as I let go, it boings back up. I look like I am in kindergarten getting ready for Sunday church service with Grandma. Or like I am getting ready to be a bride’s flower girl.
Toya looks older and sexy with her hair out.
This is an epic fail.
I run downstairs to see if Aunt Ebony has any advice on what to do, and as soon as I get to the middle of the stairway, I hear voices. And it’s not Aunt Ebony or Uncle Randy. I hear Imani and Sadie and Jackson and Toya. And Tye. What are they doing here?
It is too late to turn around. Tye sees me first. He is sitting next to Toya, whose hair is still big and luscious, and everything opposite of my shriveled curls. I cannot believe that Tye Brown is actually in my house and here I am looking like a Shirley Temple wannabe.
Sadie is the first to say something. “Are you okay?” she asks. And I can see it in her eyes. What she is really asking is, what did you do to your hair?
I can’t move or say anything. I just stand there on the steps looking at all of them and they are all looking at me. They are polite enough not to burst out into laughter, but the looks of shock on their faces is enough to make me run back to my room, except I can’t get my legs to move.
Imani walks over to me. “Hey, Nala. Uh, we’re having an Inspire Harlem meeting today. Planning the community block party.”
“Oh, um, hi, everyone. Sorry . . . ​sorry to interrupt. Imani, is Aunt Ebony here?”
“No, she went to lunch with Aunt Liz.”
“Oh, I—I wanted her to help me . . . with my hair.”
When I say this, Sadie rushes over to the stairs like a superhero. “I’ll be back,” she says to the group. And she grabs my hands and walks upstairs with me.
When we get to my room, I close the door and really I just want to break down and cry. Tye Brown is in my house, and I look a mess. And it’s not just my hair. I have on sweatpants and a raggedy tank top. Finally, I find my words. “I want to go natural,” I tell Sadie. “And clearly it’s not a good look on me.”
Sadie is trying not to laugh, but I know she wants to. “It’s—it’s not that bad.”
I just look at her.
“Okay, it’s pretty bad. Um, why don’t you let me braid it.”
“I haven’t had braids since I was in elementary school. I like my hair to be straight—maybe I’ll just get a weave.”
“Just trust me. I can do them a little bigger than medium and you can still style them. They won’t be too stiff or heavy, I promise. You like the way I did Imani’s hair, right?”
“Yeah, okay. Will you come to the store with me so I know what to get?”
“Of course. I can do it right after this meeting is over. Until then, just wear a wrap.”
“I don’t know how to tie a wrap.”
“What do you mean, you don’t—”
“Sadie, can you just do it for me, please?”
“I’ll show you how,” she says. And she picks up the fabric that I wore last night. “Okay, so first—you need to fold it like this . . . ,” and Sadie teaches me how to do a head wrap in three different ways, and I think she should do a tutorial for YouTube because she’s taught me how to do it and that is no small feat.
“You’re missing your planning meeting,” I say.
Sadie shrugs. “They’ll be fine,” she says. She sits on my bed. “So, since when does Nala Robertson want to go natural? Imani finally convinced you, huh?”
“Just wanted to try something new.”
“For who?” Sadie asks.
All I can do is smile.
“Oh my goodness! For who?”
“No one,” I say. “You know I’m always switching it up.”
“Nala—”
“Just—what type of hair do I need to buy for you to braid my hair?”
Before Sadie can answer, Imani is at the foot of the steps calling her. “We’re voting on something, and we need you to break this tie.”
Sadie sighs. “To be continued,” she says to me. And then she mouths, “Is it Tye?” and smiles.
I take a shower and put on some real clothes and go back downstairs ready to see Tye and redeem myself from the fashion fail that happened earlier, but when I go into the living room, he is not there. Everyone is gone except for Sadie and Imani. I go into the kitchen to grab a granola bar. “Your meeting is over?”
“Yep,” Imani says. She is putting away the leftover snacks. Sadie is loading the used dishes in the dishwasher.
“Sadie is going to braid my hair tonight. You want to come? Maybe we can start our Netflix binge-a-thon.”
“I can’t. I have plans with Toya.”
“More Inspire Harlem planning?”
“I hope not,” Sadie says. “Two meetings in one day?”
“No, it’s not for Inspire Harlem. We’re just going to hang at her place. Probably watch a movie or something,” Imani says.
“Well, it’s not going to be one of the movies we planned on watching, is it?”
“Of course not, Nala. Why would I do that?”
“Why would you rather hang out with Toya than me and Sadie?”
“So now I can only spend time with you two?”
Sadie goes to the fridge and takes out a can of seltzer water. This house is her house. She opens the can. “Please don’t put me in the middle of this.”
I go in the fridge and grab a can of seltzer too. “I mean, the plan for this summer was for us to spend time together.”
“Whose plan?” Imani asks. And the way she says it is like she’s saying that being around me is the last thing she wants to do. Before I can even respond she takes it back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that—I just, sometimes I want—”
“What? You want what?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” Imani puts away the last of the snacks and starts walking back to the living room. “Why don’t we do movie night tomorrow night.” She takes out her phone, then says, “Oh, wait. Tomorrow won’t work. I forgot. Asher and I have plans.”
“Okay,” I say, trying not to sound too disappointed.
“We’ll find time,” Imani promises. “We’ve got all summer.”
I know summer vacation just started, but still. Me accomplishing everything on my Summer To Do List is getting off to a shaky start. So far the only thing I’ve accomplished is finding a new hairstyle. And that wasn’t even on purpose. Who knew finding time and finding love would be so hard?
7
4 THINGS I MISS ABOUT IMANI
1.The times we’d text each other full conversations even though we were just a room away.