I grasped his hand, glad we were leaving. But he was heading for the lady. “Thank you for organizing this lottery,” he said to her, dipping his head. “I know you have lots of kids on the waiting list. My daughter Liliana would love to attend this school. Is there something I could do? Work as a janitor at night or on the weekends? Or maybe—”
“Sir, please,” she interrupted. “There is a waiting list, as I explained. Fair is fair.”
“But I want her to have a chance. I couldn’t finish school. Please at least hear me out.”
The woman looked at my Coolatta-blue lips.
“I’m sorry, sir. You have to go.” She pointed to the door where families were inching their way out of the hot basement.
I thought maybe Dad was going to jump over the table and tell this lady off. But he didn’t. He nodded. “Thank you anyway,” he said, so, so politely. And we walked away.
“Dad? Can’t you talk to her boss or something?”
He shook his head.
“Dad? Why can’t I go to this school? That’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t always fair, mija,” he said.
“But, Dad—”
“Listen to me. This is not a problem. Oye, there are worse things in life. At least you have a public school you can go to. I didn’t even have that.” He looked up. Outside, the snow had almost covered the basement windows.
“Dad?”
“You want something, Liliana, you go after it. No matter what. You’ll get an education, whether it’s at a charter school or not. Okay?”
“Dad?”
“You have a goal? Stick with it. ¿Entiendes?”
I nodded. “But, Dad?”
“What is it?”
“I really have to pee.”
* * *
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I heard was my morning alarm.
At lunch, Jade and I sat together like we always did, except she spent most of the time texting with Ernesto. Jade was the only friend I spoke Spanish with—okay, Spanglish. Unlike me, Jade wasn’t born here. She was three when her parents moved to Boston from Honduras. I knew she didn’t have her papers. It was something that just was, something we never really talked about. When it came time for city-subsidized summer programs or the opportunity to get stipends from the YMCA, Jade never bothered applying because she knew she wouldn’t qualify. That, and she didn’t want to get sent back to Honduras. Jade’s phone buzzed for, like, the sixth time in three minutes. Her boy, Ernesto, was cool. I mean, I liked that he made Jade happy (even though he was mad old, like seventeen, I think). I reached for the bag in front of her. “You gonna eat the rest of those chips?”
“Um, YES.” She snatched the bag back. “But you can have one.” She smiled.
As I licked the salt off the chip then nibbled the edges, Jade stared.
“What?” I asked.
“Liliana, please. Don’t what me. What’s good with you lately?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I just got in a fight with my mom last night.”
“ ’Bout what?” Jade asked, looking down at her phone.
She was obviously more interested in Ernesto than in me. So why bother? “I don’t want to talk about it. Can I have another chip?”
She handed me the bag, laughed at one of Ernesto’s texts, and began typing away while I sat there crunching. I might as well have been sitting alone. METCO wasn’t looking so bad all of a sudden.
“Oh look! Mrs. Marano is on Insta. Oh shoot!”
“What? Let me see.” I grabbed the phone. There was Mrs. Marano, holding a baby in a pink blanket, waving into the camera. Aw, she’d had a girl. Jade snatched back her phone. God forbid she missed a single text from Ernesto. Sure enough, she immediately began typing away.
“Hey, girl,” I finally said.
Jade raised a finger. Wait.
“Wow,” I said, crossing my arms when she finally put down the phone.
She smiled wide. “What?” Even her eyes seemed to smile. It was cool, on the one hand, seeing her all cheesed out and whatnot, but I couldn’t help but be worried that she was going to turn into one of those girls who only had time for their guy.
I handed her the METCO pamphlet.
Jade turned it over. “What’s this?”
“Read it.”
The pamphlet included information about the history of the program, contacts, and biographies of alumni, along with stuff about the W towns—Wellesley, Wayland, Weston, Westburg. White towns. Towns where the schools were real good, where there were enough computers for everyone in a grade to be using one at the same time. Truth, the laptops in the computer carts at my school were always breaking. Kids were always stealing letters off the keys—especially F, U, C, and K.
The pamphlet also bragged about all the extracurricular clubs, from fencing to fashion. But Jade just scanned the cover, then flapped it at me. Her phone buzzed. “Okay, so what exactly is this I’m reading?” she asked, glancing at a new text.
“I got into that program, METCO. I guess my folks signed me up forever ago, but before you say anything—”
Instead of looking upset though, Jade looked… impressed? “Sounds fly.”
“Fly? Who says ‘fly’ anymore?” I laughed.
She smirked, checked out her phone again, which had pinged a second time, and then looked back up. “Girl—so you’re really changing schools?”
“I kinda don’t have a choice. My mom is being super aggy about it all.” I didn’t want Jade to think I’d been seeking out this opportunity, or was like, dying to leave Boston. “I wanted to tell you about it last night—”
Bzzzz. Her phone. Again.
How could she not be upset? And I realized that I wanted Jade to be upset. I wanted her to want me to stay.
“So, that’s it?” I asked.
“Whatchu want? A bunch of balloons to fall from the ceiling?” Jade’s smile disappeared.
“No… It’s just— Forget it.”
“Well, I think it’s cool, that program. Damn. And,” she added, “I got some news of my own.”
“What’s that?” My head was stuck on Jade thinking METCO was cool. Even though, well, wasn’t she going to ask me about the school? Wouldn’t a best friend want to know basic things like, when I’d leave? Hello?
She shut her eyes for three long-ass seconds. “Ernesto said he loved me.”
“In a text?” Whoa! “For real?”
“No! Yes. He said it. Last night!”
My stomach did this fluttering thing. “That’s fire.”
“Yeah.” And I swear she looked all… dreamy. Gah!
“So happy. For you.” I didn’t know what else to say. It was true. I wasn’t jealous—not of what he said. It was more like, my best friend was sitting right in front of me, but she couldn’t have felt further away. Like… it didn’t matter to her at all if I went to school twenty-two miles away. Yeah, I’d looked it up.
The bell rang. Jade stood up and gave me a side hug. “Anyway, congratulations. ’Bout the new program. That’s whatsup. Look, I gotta get to art.”