Twisted Fate: Amnesia

Second Base

Shay 1998

So, my mom has been training myself and the girls Chrissy, Tiffany, Sam, and Tiana; for the talent show. Dee and Tina choreographed the dance, and my mom rewrote an old song to fit us as a group. Singing wasn’t a problem for most of us, but Sam and Tiff were having problems multitasking. Now that we’ve established who’s singing what my mom took us to Tina to teach us the dance. Tina, Dee, and my mother sat at the picnic table watching us go over it while singing our parts over and over again.

“Okay, stop.” Mama yelled.

“Thank you, end the torture.” Tina covered her eyes.

“Hey! Don’t be rude.” I scrunch up my face.

“I thought you said she could dance.” Tina loudly whispered.

“She could, maybe I didn’t consider her lacking s*x appeal.” Tisha, my mother answers.

“I can hear you!” I huff at them.

“I know. Tiana, come here for a minute.” My mom pulled Tiana to the side to talk to her while Tina walked up to Sam and Tiffany. I heard her asks Tiff to sing her verse before telling her that Sam will sing her verse and she will focus on dancing. Tiff looked a little relieved not having to sing anymore. She went and sat on the house steps to teach Sam her part. Tiana walked up to me with red cheeks and a giant smile on her face.

“What’s wrong with you?” I ask looking at her weird.

“Your mom said to work with you on your solo.”

“The dance?”

“Yes, I’m gonna show you how to move sensually.”

“I can move my hips.” I say bluntly, catching Mamas’ attention.

“Baby you’re very stiff today. I know you can move your hips, but something is distracting you and you need to shake it off like Tiana.” Mama explained.

“Okay, I can take constructive criticism.” I oblige.

“Shake it like Shakira and Beyonce in that video.” Sin yells at me while he shakes his hips.

“Shut up.” I wave him off.

“Well! Excuse me while I go check on my woman.” My mother was back at the picnic table when Sin walked over there to harass her. The women laughed at whatever he said before ‘shooing’ him off. I watched Sin walk to the other side of the yard where Silas, his girlfriend Aubrey, McGee, JJ, and another girl sat in some chairs playing uno. I looked Aubrey and her friend over, assuming stuff about them. I can’t help but wonder if Silas touches her the way he touched me. Tiffany calling me his ‘plaything’ last year has stuck in my head regardless of how much I deny it. Just last week he turned what was supposed to be a fake striptease into intense foreplay. It was a game but, now he’s in a relationship with Aubrey. So soon?

Narrators P.O.V

“I think I know why she’s nervous.” Tisha leaned back on the table talking to Tina and Dee.

“That girl has never been nervous around those knuckleheads.” Tina followed Tisha’s eyes to her sons and their friends sitting at the table on the other end of the yard.

“She changed since she hit puberty, and I’m talking about the new faces.” Tina nodded in agreement that Shay did change.

“You think she might be intimidated?” Dee looked at the new girls sitting at the table.

“You know how she feels about Sincere and Silas. Those boys have been conflicting my baby since they hit puberty.” Tisha scanned the yard to see what Shay was doing.

“Hey! I do catch them looking at her and making little comments, but you know how they are. Boys being boys, I don’t think Shay thinks too much about it.” Tina stated, thinking back to how they interact with each other.

“I know that they are more experienced than she is and even if they don’t like her, she’s bound to crush on one of them soon.” Dee adds as Tisha looks at her daughter again before turning her attention to Tina.

“So, say she is crushing on Sin, the girl over there laughing too hard probably bothers her. Because she knows that girl has Sin’s attention.” Tina point’s out.

“Exactly.” Dee says while Tisha nods in agreement.

“So, we both know that you’re not a liar so if the girl can sway her hips correctly let’s fix this problem.” Tina shrugs.

“What if we’re looking at the wrong son?” Before Tisha agrees, she has to make sure it’s the right boy distracting her.

“Let’s find out right now. Silas! Sin!” Tina stood up and called the boys to her and watched for a reaction when they walked past Shay. Sin pinching her side to get her attention, then rubbed his own body pretending to move like a snake mocking her. Silas made eye contact with her and simply smirked before focusing his attention on his mother.

“Did she miss me already?” Sincere walked up, ready to start with Tisha.

“Boy hush, Tisha don’t want your little self.” Tina laughed.

“I’m in high school, I’m a man now.” Sin hit his chest.

“Girl who is telling him these things?” Tisha laughed.

“Probably his sick father.” Tina rolled her eyes.

“What are y’all doing with the creatures?” Silas asks, looking at the girls.

“They are rehearsing for the fair’s talent show.” Tisha informs.

“But that’s not why I called you over here.” Tina started.

“Good, I don’t need the dramatics.” Silas sighs getting a nod of agreement from Sincere. Tina looked back at Dee and Tisha exchanging a ‘knowing’ look before she focused her attention on Shay then back at the boys.

“Anyway, Who’s your friends?” Tina says catching on to them.

“That’s the infamous Aubrey.” Silas reminds her.

“Kelly, but Mom, I know what you’re thinking. I’m not cheating on Tisha.”

“Boy. Shut. Up. Go get your little friends and introduce me to them. They are hanging out in my yard.” Tina says remembering hearing stuff about those girls.

“Yes Ma’am” The boys say in unison. Shay and Tiana stopped practicing and started stretching as they watched Silas and Sin bring their female friends over to Tina and Tisha. The girl that was walking next to Sin looked to be a little nervous while the other girl was calm with a small smile on her face.

“You’re pretty flexible, how’d you get like that?” Tiana asks Shay, taking her attention off the girls walking by them.

“I’m not sure, I guess I was just born this way. I was always able to do splits, bend backwards and my mom says I’m double jointed.”

“Then use that!” Tiana shouts with a little too much excitement.

“What do you mean?” Shay looks at her like she has two heads.

“Use your flexibility in your dance and I promise it’ll look good.”

“You just said I was doing fine.” Shay stood with her hands on her hips.

“You were, but I know you Shay so why aren’t you dancing like a stripper?” She looked Shay in her eyes knowing something is off.

“Because I’m not a stripper, duh.” Shay says obviously.

“Or it’s because you’re nervous.” Tiana smacks her lips.

“Why would I be nervous?”

“You don’t want to look like a fool in front of Silas new girlfriend.”

“As if.” Shay twisted her face and shuddered dramatically.

“Then dance like the Shay I know.” Tiana said sounding like her mother. Shay turned around and walked over to the card table to take a chair. When she dragged the chair back to Tiana, she sat in the chair with her leg crossed over the other, then she told Tiana to start the music. Shay begin singing and dancing in the chair before getting up to circle the chair. Tina, Dee, and Tisha watched Shay while she danced in front of the chair.

“Silas, do me a favor and go get my glasses out of the house. Sin, you can take your friends back to the game you were playing.” Tisha said without taking her eyes off Shay.

“I’ll wait here for Silas.” Aubrey insisted.

“Suit yourself.” While the boys walked away Tisha stared at Shay to see who her eyes followed. They noticed what their friend did and laughed. Tina watched the smug look on Aubrey’s face and laughed at that as well. Aubrey felt like she didn’t have to introduce herself to Tina because she wasn’t her guest she was there with Silas. Tina picked up on her attitude before they were standing directly in front of her. When she asked the girl her name, she turned her head in confusion before saying “Aubrey, you didn’t know?” That confirmed Tina’s thoughts about the girl. Now she wanted to knock the girl down a few pegs because she knows how her son is. And more importantly, she knows how Shay is and after Shay watched Silas go into the house, she cut her eyes at Aubrey before spinning around to face Tiana.

“Girls! Bring that chair over here. Little ladies, do as I say without asking questions, we’re about to perfect this performance.” Tina shouted so the whole yard could hear her.

“Show us what you’ve improved, from the top.” Tisha directed as she started the music, and the girls begin dancing and singing. Tina, Dee, and Tisha whispered to each other while Aubrey looked bored watching them. Tisha stopped them and told them to all grab chairs and follow Tiana. Dee made Tiffany and Shay stand to the side and watch because they weren’t in sync. Silas and Sion came out of the house with Tisha’s glasses when Shay and Tiffany were dancing in front of chairs by themselves.

“Tiff, you have to sing baby; I want you and Shay in the front with Tiana.” Tina says while rubbing her chin.

“Me and Chrissy in the back?” Sam questions.

“Didn’t I say no questions.” Tina cut Sam with her sharp eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Samantha looked at the ground.

“Tiffany, you got the dance you need to work on singing, Sam can’t sing your verse it doesn’t look or sound right. Go practice to the side with the girls.” Tisha instructs.

“Shay, you have the moves, what you need is to feel them. Show some emotion, some sexy like when you pretend to be Tina Turner singing ‘Rock Me Baby’.” Tina twisted her hips dancing.

“That’s it, be Tina!” Tisha clapped.

“You women are crazy; I’m dancing like I always dance.” Shay said exhausted.

“Okay, do the dance.” Tisha started playing the music and Shay begin dancing in front of the chair. She dropped down into the chair and caught Silas looking at her with Aubrey and Sion. She rolled her eyes and finished the routine.

“Almost.” Dee commented.

“Try this.” Tisha said as she switched the song. Shay shook her head and sat in the chair waiting for the music to start. Her head shot up and she laughed when she heard Tina’s Wish beat come on. She jumped to her feet and started singing and got into character as the song started.

“Paint me red… Paint me green.” Shay snapped and swayed, transforming into Tina, not caring about how she looked.

“Use the chair, do the routine” Tisha shouted over the music. Tina grabbed Silas arm and sat him in the chair behind Shay. Shay stopped dancing and Tisha stopped the music when Shay stopped.

“Why’d you stop?” Tisha asked.

“Why is he in my chair.” Shay pointed her thumb at Silas.

“What is this?” Aubrey steps up with attitude.

“No questions. Do the dance and sing to your biggest critic.” Dee said calmly while Silas arched his brow silently judging them.

“Trust me Shay, Silas will behave, and you will shake off whatever is holding you back. Just have fun girl!” Tina adds then started the music back while Tisha laughed at Shay’s reaction. Silas sat back in the chair looking bored and that amused Tisha just as much as the anger on Aubrey’s face. Shay closed her eyes and when ‘rock me baby’ started, she sang and danced. She opened her eyes to look at Silas who was looking at her like she was crazy. Shay laughed and continued singing the song. By the middle of the song Shay and Silas were laughing so hard Tina stopped the music.

“You’re a maniac.” Silas pushed her off him only for her to fall back on his lap.

“Said I want you to, roll me daddy, like you roll your flour dough.”

“Shut up, you psycho.” They cracked up.

“Now that is the energy!” Tisha clapped her hands.

“Do the routine Ms. Turner!” Tina shouted. Shay got off of Silas lap and closed her eyes getting ready to do their song and dance. Silas stood up and Tina pointed to the chair signaling for him to sit back down. Tisha started the music and Shay started circling the chair. When she opened her eyes and danced, she looks to be in her own world, not making eye contact with anybody but Silas occasionally.

“Come and talk to me…” She started singing the worlds to the song and remembered what Tiana told her. Shay pulled Silas up from the chair and when the beat dropped, she kicked the chair over while pushing him on the ground simultaneously. Shay stood over him and danced some more before she got down to eye level and stretched her leg on his shoulder. Tisha stepped forward preparing to stop her when Dee grabbed her arm. “Shh, hold on. It’s just a dance.” Tina whispered. Shay danced and waited for the beat to drop again before she did a split on top of him. She sung the entire song from start to finish by herself and danced taking advantage of her flexibility, adding it to the dance.

“Well da*n.” Tina leaned back stunned.

“That’s our girl.” Tiana clapped her hands like a proud parent.

“Am I your muse?” Silas arches his brow teasing her.

“I hope that’s not gonna be added to the routine. I can’t do a split.” Sam blurted out from the side. After getting up, Silas walked over towards the side of the house where Aubrey stood. Shay was standing still waiting for her mother, Dee, and Tina to judge her when she saw Aubrey slap Silas across the face. Without thinking twice about it, Shay ran to the side of the house. When she got close, she heard Aubrey call her a “trifling b*tch” and swung to hit Silas again. She grabbed Aubrey’s hand and punched Aubrey in the face. Kelly, the girl that was with Sin ran up to them and tried to attack Shay. The two girls tried to jump Shay while they thought no one was paying attention. when Silas and Sin broke it up Shay had the upper hand. Silas grabbed Aubrey and carried her around to the front of the house. Sincere carrying Kelly while laughing and yelling.

“Don’t leave now, take the beating!” Tiana yelled annoyed.

“How y’all both get knocked upside the head?” Sion asked.

“Shay, get over here.” Tisha called sternly. Tina stayed out front with the girls while Tisha tended to her daughter. Shay looked a little roughed up, but she didn’t have a scratch on her. Tina called their parents and explained their black eyes and busted lips. None of it mattered when she made the girls tell why they were fighting in the first place. Aubrey’s father screamed on her and told her she’s lucky it was Shay and not Silas who hit her, because I lot of boys aren’t raised to respect women enough not to hit them when being provoked. Shay didn’t get in trouble for defending Silas but was told not to go around punching girls for him anymore. Silas picked with her about it for the rest of the day until she went home later that night. Tiffany and Samantha didn’t push Shay about anything for the rest of the day. Tiana and Chrissy praised her and planned on telling everybody at school how she beat up both of those girls.