I don't feel good.
When we get to Thrallmaster, the parking lot is so fucking full I park on the curb towards the back of the school. Now I have to walk.
"Can we get in through the back?"
"We gotta go to the main office…" I grumble.
We are an hour late. I'm about to put in my campus papers, I can't keep doing this.
"You got papers for a room?" asks Keku.
"Yeah, I got them last year."
"I tired this year. They said they was full for the apartment. But they have the bunkers open."
"Bunkers!" I sneer. "I'm not staying in the bunkers!"
I want Union Class. "Well shit, daddy said--"
"Again," I smirk. He hits me In the arm. "Pop said, we might have to. Especially you."
"What--He kicking me out?"
"You better stop, you know he don't want nothing to do with yo daddy."
"That's his brother tho."
"I'm just telling you!"
"I'm his neice and your telling me he's kicking me out!"
"Auntie been fightin for you but he don't want drama. Just quit being a bouncer." We head up the ramp to the back double doors. "We need money!" I follow behind him. He sighs, "What class you got next?"
"What time is it?" I take my phone out, I can make third period. "Im finna skip my ass off."
"Why?"
"Its too damn late to go to second period."
"Well, I'm finna make it!"
"You got like the last thirty to twenty mintues left!"
"I'm finna turn in my papers."
"Keku wait after school so we both can do them!" We get into the hallway. "Fine," he grimaces. As he turns he meets a body. "Caught you!"
"Fuck…"
"Ms. Gains and Mr. Gains."
My tail is visible. I set it on my left shoulder. "We ain't married."
"Come see me in my office." Prefect Bailey is the worst. Just a skinny white man in a school for delinquent ass ghost. But I'm a real person.
"I'm not with her!" yells Keku. "I don't know her, I got kidnapped--"
"Keku do you have your badge?" Prefect Bailey questions. "Uh, yeah, I got my badge." he smiles. I should snitch. Keku pulls out his 'badge' and Bailey snatches it. A black smoke circles his hand and the badge disingrates, "Nice trik Mr. Gains. Bring your cousin."
Fuck me like syrup.
We get into the office and look like a couple of kindergartners. "Keku Gains and Wyleisha P. Gains aka Mokiri."
"You ain't gotta say all that…"
"I don't have a middle--"
"Gennifer." Bailey stares at my cousin. Bitch nigga don't size up my blood, I bite. "So Keku, you have lost so many badges." he crosses his arms over the desk between us. "Are you selling the badges?"
"No. I'm just clumsy."
"Clumsy enough to lose seven school badges?"
I count how much money he raked up. A single badge is five dollars for the first offense. And Keku owes 20 because he lost four badges. Five times four is twenty, once you hit that twenty mark you get put on probation. If you lose badges while on probation, you have to lose it three times or risk eviction.
If you find the badge while on probation that's 1/3 of the offense.
"You owe 315 dollars."
"My daddy isn't paying." he says. Boy hush.
"Are you paying?"
"No." Why did he answer so fast? "Well, do you want to stay at school?" Stop playing with his emotions! My cousin looks so defeated. He puts his head down, "Can your parents pick you up?"
"No. Dad has a bad leg."
"Ok," Bailey nods. "This will be your last day at school then. But…"
Do not make that deal. I look at Keku as if he can read my mind. "I could let you stay. 315 dollars is a lot of money."
"You tryin' to make him to do something?" I intervene.
"No." he turns to his computer. "I'm not that kind of man. This school is full of voodoo, and you know what that means."
"No." we say.
"Doodoo. It's full of doodoo."
We sit there award. "I know that both are you. Most of Thrallmaster has poor students."
Keku sits back in the chair,"Ain't you human?"
"Yes." My ears show, I lay them flat against my head. "I could make you unpoor."
"What's the cut?" says Keku. "The cut?" Bailey's eyes just seem to sparkle. "The cut is, you get money. Chai had a stroke? Werewolves go through a different type of custody battle."
"What that mean?" my lips contort, I'm just sitting here getting insulted. Call me a bitch nigger, and let me leave. "All I want is… skin." he says.
"Skin?"
"We ain't from the Ghytto"
"But you are Wyleisha." He flutters his eyes at me. "You must be suffering. That's bad for the heart and soul."
My body is a temple and my body stays at home. "What you getting' at?"
"I'm just saying, your aunt Okra. She's a very independent woman."
"What you want with her?" sneers Keku with his tail out. "Skin."
"That's nasty…" I gasp. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Okra is wanted by a coven, I didn't know your aunt was a murderer." I didn't know that either. "The bounty for her is 300,000. I can split that between 3 people and the two of you combined can share with your uncle."
"She has a bounty?" I am shivering. I don't know my aunt Okra like that. I know Aunt Leyan, she's back in Rappahannock. "What's she done?" I look at Keku.
"Okra is wanted for selling bodies. She kidnapped a bunch of kids too. Have you heard of Crocodile?"
"No…" I don't know that woman. I feel that it's sensible to take the bride. I don't know her. Plus, woith me understanding that Leyan is an aunt that I do know. I would put blood over strangers. We are wolves, this is an outsider. What if she hurts uncle in some strange shit. "How much do you want?" I ask.
"I told you 300,000 between 3 people is…" he pulls out a calculator from his dresser. "That's a 100,000 dollars for each."
"Me and my cousin get 100,000; that's 200,000. Pop would get a fat five thousand." Keku aims at me. "Wallie what you think."
I look at Keku and Bailey. "You said you want skin. You mean wolf pelt?" That is a thing. Some vamps have a house wolf and when the house wolf dies they take pelt or not depending on the wish.
It's like saying I did my job, let me go. Giving up the body. To stake a wolf's pelt by force with no honor is disrespectful. Nothing is done with it. Bows wear a pelt if the main bitch died.
I said IF.
"Okra has a bunch of pelts. And she's wanted, I thought I'd ask a wolf from a big house."
"But the Gains's cave is gone…" says Keku. "So I'll make a bigger deal."
"Ok." Bailey shrugs.
"Find the family cave, if I talk big enough, you can be the Kaatcher."
This white man is too happy. Standing up with his mouth wide ready shake on it. "One of my relatives works for the department. I can get a team together. I'll even lower your school account."
"Can you erase it?" I hate my cousin.
"I'll give it to another student." Oh my god.
"You know Bellaires?"
"He's the head of the football team."
"Put it on him."
"Kiwi, why are--"
Keku glares at me, his eyes a bright green. "I hate him…"