“Well, back home my buddies and I used to hang out with Dizzy Gillespie, and we ate everywhere you please,” I snapped. “Folks do that in big cities, Janine. And just so you know, Ray Charles is my friend Kenton’s cousin, so we’ve even sung a few tunes with Ray right at Kenton’s kitchen table! And you know Ella Fitzgerald, well—” If Janine hadn’t cut me off, I’d have been playing strip poker with Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James.
“Well don’t have a cow,” Janine grunted as she looked over at Denise. “I’ll see you in school tomorrow, okay?” she winked. That sort of threw me. Just as I was working up a good hate toward her, she had to do something cute. Girls are that way.
“Okay,” I mumbled, although I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. On my way back to the car, I suppose I was holding m
