Althena Book 2

23. Not Sunday

School is boring the next day. Our group got all the drama worked out. Lila's not glaring at Amber anymore. Josh still doesn't sit with us at lunch.

I lay my head on Conner's shoulder and close my eyes.

Akmae eats his lunch. "Today is boring. She's about to sleep. You know what happened with that reporter?"

"Channel 11 is settling. They are paying the school $500,000 to make it go away."

"Damn. I bet her ass gets fired."

"Probably not. That's not much for them. I guess it depends on how much money she makes them though."

"True."

"I want to do the interview."

"Why? The news lies, and they only show stuff that causes drama."

"My whole life was drama, Conner. I should get an hour special."

He kisses my head. "You're not wrong."

"And she's not wrong either. Nobody knows who I am. A few months ago, I became a princess. Now I'm the queen. It's fast. Maybe some people want to know about me."

Akmae swallows whatever is in his mouth. "The whole city. It was fast and everyone accepted it, but we know nothing about you. You've never made any public comments for anything. No social media until now. I've seen news reporters complaining they can't find any public record of you. It's like you appeared from nothing."

Conner chuckles. "I bet the conspiracy theories are crazy."

"I don't know about those."

"How come nobody asked me for an interview before?"

Conner kisses my head. "The requests have to go through the king, and he's an asshole, baby."

I laugh and shake my head.

"Your dad kept them away too. For you and Clayton both. We'll find someone to do your interview that won't make you look like a crazy person."

"You don't have to. I already know someone."

"You are not using her. She approached you in school. She is already breaking the law to get to you."

"No. Haddy. From the girls' club. She does the morning news here at school. She knows how to do interviews."

"Not a bad idea, baby. We could do the recording and submit it where we want."

"She'd probably want to at least play part of it in the morning news."

"You know Haddy? She's my cousin." Akmae is looking at me weirdly.

"Girls club."

"We'll sort it out, babygirl. We can talk to her on Wednesday."

"Thank you. I would like that."

"You're welcome. I have to go to work. I'll see you after school."

"I can't wait."

He moves my hand off his d**k and kisses it. "I can tell."

"Sorry. I get handsy too."

"Oh, I know, babygirl. I love it."

Lila points at the exit. "Conner, go, before Penn has to get rid of another detention."

He chuckles as he walks away.

After cheer practice, Lila and I go to the gym. We sit in our normal spot and watch the boys practice. Akmae joins us after he cleans up. Then Conner comes in. "What are we doing here?"

"I don't know. This is where we go now." Lila shows me her phone. "5 million likes on the scuba picture. Top comment is Clayton telling us our hair looks nice."

I grab the phone. Our hair is everywhere. "I wish I had a video of you tackling him."

We laugh and walk around the corner. Josh is kissing some girl. "WHAT THE HELL, ASSHOLE?" Lila jumps on his back and pulls his hair. The girl runs away.

I kick him in the shin and put my hands on my hips. "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?"

"Help. Lila, get out of my hair."

"NO."

"WE BROKE UP."

I kick him in the back of his knee and he drops. "I'm going to make sure of that. Don't move."

Lila calls her because I don't have my phone. She talks for 2 seconds. "They broke up. It's fine."

"Ok." I help her off him.

Conner and Akmae can barely stand up. They're leaning against the wall laughing.

Josh gets himself up. "Thanks for the help, assholes."

Conner nods. "They kicked your ass."

Akmae rubs his eyes. "Now, everything is fine. We'll keep going."

I rub my belly. "The breakup was very sudden. I don't think I was ready. Now I understand how Mike and Drogon get indigestion."

"It was fast. I was wondering why Amber wasn't in the gym. Let's check on her."

We leave the boys and find her in the cafeteria.

"Are you ok?"

"Yea. It's better this way. I knew he would replace me in 10 seconds. I didn't want to see it. He only wants a girlfriend. He doesn't care who it is."

"That's stupid."

"If I get another boyfriend, it's going to be someone who isn't pretending to care about me. I'd like them to actually care."

"That's fair." I sit beside her.

"You know, he never even bought any cookies. He could have supported me with that. Even 1 box. Something." She shakes her head. "He didn't care at all. Oh well. Live and learn. I'm going to ask my teachers tomorrow. I still have 650 boxes left. Can you ask your teachers? I'm running out of time."

"Of course. Send us that bar thing you show everybody."

I try so hard to sell them the next day. I only sell 38. I guess it's better than nothing, but I didn't realize how hard they are to sell. I'm not sure if I would have sold 5,000 without the boys buying them.

I get ready for the girls' club meeting and my boys, Dacious, and Cyrus join me in the basement.

"Are you trying to intimidate her?"

"Not at all, baby. We want to make sure she understands what we're asking for."

Kayode is surprised to see them. "Are we good here tonight?"

"Yes, we want to talk to Haddy. It would be good if you're present anyway."

"Did something happen?"

"No. Thena wants to have an interview. She suggested Haddy do it."

Her eyes fill with tears. "Oh, that will make her day. I just love it when the girls work together on something."

The girls come in and Kayode brings Haddy over. She's still about to cry.

"What's going on?"

"I would like you to do an interview."

"Interview of who?"

"Me." She freezes. "It's come to my attention that people want to know who I am. The boys don't seem to trust any of the news stations. I thought maybe you would be interested?"

"YES. I'M READY. NO. I'M NOT. I NEED..."

"Calm down." Kayode rubs her shoulders. "It won't happen today. You have to listen to what they're asking for."

Mike smiles at her. "We deal with the footage. We do the editing. You will not be allowed to ask about soulmates, boyfriends, marriage contracts, anything even leading in that direction. You are not permitted to record any of it. You can choose the location and questions to ask. We will edit the footage and give you a copy of the official release 1 day before we submit it to the news stations. You are not allowed to release it to the public before we do. Would you agree to our terms?"

She jumps up and down. "THE KINGS OFFICE. OVERLOOKING THE CITY. I NEED TO GET MY QUESTIONS READY."

"Nope." Kayode spins her back around.

Drogon chuckles. "My office is fine. We'll need to come up with a time that works for both of you. How long will it take you to get your questions ready?"

She starts sobbing. "I don't know. I want to do it now."

"Relax." Kayode rubs her arms again. "You'll get the interview. But you need to relax. How long do you need to think of your questions? Would 2 weeks be ok?"

"2 days. We can do it this weekend. But I want to put some part of it in the morning school news. I want everyone to know I did it."

"That's fine." Mike gets paper. "We can give you the edited footage the night before. You can play it for school in the morning. We'll release it to the news stations at the same time the school plays it. Would that work?"

"Can I edit it? They only give me 3 minutes to share my stories."

"You cannot edit it. But we'll make you a 3-minute clip to show."

"That's perfect."

Dacious crosses his arms. "You do understand that this will be aired on most of the news channels? Most of the city will see this interview."

"Yes. I can do it."

"Ok. As long as you're comfortable doing it."

Drogon nods. "How's Sunday at 3? We'll aim to have the editing done by Wednesday."

"That's perfect. Can I get a ride to your office?"

"Yea. We'll send a helicopter for you."

She runs over to the table with the other girls. "I NEED QUESTIONS, PEOPLE."

Kayode rubs her eyes. "This is going to be an interesting meeting."

Someone yells, "WHERE WAS SHE BORN?"

Lila looks at me over her phone. "Where were you born?"

"Woodland. Mike was there."

She nods and goes back to her phone.

"Girls, I was able to get the aquarium overnight at the zoo and the theme park tickets. I need to know what days work for each of you."

"NOT SUNDAY."

"I figured that."

It takes us 2 hours to figure out dates we all have off. We end the meeting starving and ready for dinner.