The Weight of Blood (34)

“Hey, Kenny!” a group of freshman girls sang by the stairs, waving. Kenny bucked up.

“What’s up, what’s up, what’s up,” he sang back. Once out of sight, he dropped the smile, took a deep breath, and headed to study hall. The rock-solid wall he’d built around his emotions was starting to chip and crumble, a leak threatening the status he’d worked so hard to achieve.

Study hall felt like the one place in Springville High that Kenny could have some privacy to breathe. Sitting in the corner nook of the library near the stacks, he could read books in peace without worrying about his dad forcing him to watch game footage, Jason’s childish digs, or Wendy guilting him into taking pity on Maddy Washington.

He could read through the lines: it wasn’t about his image. It was about Wendy’s, to clean up her look. Why couldn’t she ask someone else? Besides their backgrounds, debatable at best, he had nothing in common with Maddy. Just because they were both Black, they should go together? He doubted Maddy would even want to go. Probably wanted nothing to do with prom.

Just like him.

Kenny’s temples throbbed. Deep down, even when he didn’t know she was Black, he had always felt sorry for Maddy. Now knowing that even he wasn’t absolved from his friends’ ignorance, he could only imagine what Maddy had been through the last six years. How would taking her to prom make up for it all?

At that moment, Maddy flew past him, disappearing into the stacks. She always walked around at warp speed, head down, arms stuffed with books, sweating in that itchy brown wool sweater covering some dress straight out of his grandma’s closet. He sighed.

She’s not your problem. Just let it go.

“What a freak,” a voice chuckled.

“Yeah, and not the good kind.”

Behind the tall magazine stand that provided Kenny privacy, two boys stifled their snickers.

“I heard Mad Mad Maddy got excused from gym and US history,” the other said, not even bothering to whisper. “She just lives in the library now like some squatter.”

They sounded young, probably freshmen. Kenny tried to refocus on his book and ignore their heckling. But if he could hear them, couldn’t Maddy?

Let it go. It’s none of your business, he told himself, straightening in his chair.

“Yo, what do you think her mom looks like?” the first boy asked. “Do you think she’s real dark?”

“Then how did Maddy end up looking like that?”

“I don’t know, but you saw that video of her hair? Bro, it didn’t even seem real.”

The boys’ laughter grew louder. Kenny gripped his book tighter, grinding his teeth. Who were these little assholes, talking about a girl they’d never even met?

“They said on all her school forms that she put she was white,” the little asshole continued.

“Well, she kinda is, right?”

“No way. She’s definitely way more Black than white.”

Kenny slapped his book closed and pushed himself up. The two kids’ eyes widened as he rounded the corner, standing in front of them.

“How?” Kenny barked, crossing his arms, his muscles flexing.

The boys leaned back in their chairs, faces blanched.

“Wh-what?” one mumbled.

“How is she more Black than white? Explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old. If she has one parent that’s Black and another that’s white, what makes her more one than the other?”

The boys threw each other panicked looks, realizing there was no right answer or easy way out.

The first one gulped. “Well, we didn’t mean . . . or what I meant was . . .”

“You don’t mean shit. That’s what you mean, right?” Kenny snapped.

“No! It’s just that . . .”

Kenny shoved their table, and the boys jumped back. “Man, get the fuck gone!”

The boys didn’t hesitate. They packed up their belongings and raced for the back exit as Kenny headed for the stacks. He didn’t exactly have a plan, more or less operating off emotions, which wasn’t like him. But people had always underestimated him, their preconceived notions based on appearance. Now Maddy was experiencing the same thing, only worse. And his friends had everything to do with it.

“It ain’t never too late to do the right thing.”

It’d just be one night, he thought. What’s the worst that could happen?

He turned down the third row and found Maddy on her tiptoes, reaching for a book on the top shelf.

“Hey, Maddy!”

Maddy jumped with a scream. All at once, books on either side of her hurled themselves off the shelves. She ducked, wrapping her arms around her head.

Shit, how the hell did that happen?

“Damn! My bad,” Kenny said, rushing over to her. “Didn’t mean to . . . here, let me help.”

Maddy dropped to her knees, scrambling to collect her stack. “Uh . . . uh no, um, no.”

Kenny caught the name of one book—Psycho-Kinesis: Moving Matter with the Mind.

Must be for some science project, he thought as he continued to scoop books off the floor, placing them back on the shelves. They worked quickly in silence, stealing glances over their shoulders at one another. When they were done, a disheveled Maddy faced him.

“Uh, hey,” he said, offering a smile.