“Boy, close my damn fridge. I hate when you stand there and leave it open,” Ada fussed, sitting a bouquet of roses on the island.
“Who sent you that?” he asked her.
“Who you think?” she sassed. “My man.”
“Aye, Ma, can I use the car tonight? I wanna go to the skating rink,” Devyn asked.
Ada spun toward him. “Did you do your chores?”
Devyn gave her a knowing look, causing Lo to crack up.
“We got a maid. I don't need to clean up,” he explained.
“Bullshit,” she griped. “Y’all lazy asses ain’t about to be putting y’all dirty-ass rooms on that lady. Go clean your room, then we can talk about you getting the car.”
Devyn grumbled under his breath before walking out the kitchen. Meco sat at the island, opening a container of turkey meat. He stuffed it inside his mouth and turned to Ada.
“Ma, Lo got invited to this smart people camp.”
Lo cut his eyes at his twin, loathing how he had opened his big-ass mouth about the invitation he had gotten earlier.
“What smart people camp?” she inquired.
“Nothing,” Lo quickly shut down.
“Don’t tell me ‘Nothing’. Meco ain’t said that for no reason, so what is he talking about?”
Lo mean-mugged Meco once again then looked at Ada. “It’s something my teacher nominated me for, but I don’t wanna go.”
“Did she give you some information?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she gave me an envelope.”
“Go get it.”
Lo groaned and made a begrudging trek toward his backpack. Lo had plans to throw the envelope away so Ada would never find out. However, leave it up to Meco’s chatty ass to spill the beans. When he walked back into the kitchen, he opened his book bag and grabbed the envelope. Ada took it from him and pulled the letter out. While she read it, Lo made him a sandwich.
“Kylo!” she gushed. “Baby, this is a big deal. It’s a program for gifted children. If you go to this camp, you’ll graduate early, and they’ll pay some of your tuition.”
“I don’t wanna go.”
Ada gawked at his declaration. “Why not?”
“Because I’m tired of school. It’s the summer, and I wanna be with Meek and Dev.”
“Lo, they’ll still be here when you get back. It’s not for the entire summer.”
He shook his head. There was no amount of reasoning with Lo that would persuade him to leave home for six weeks.
“I don’t want to.”
“I think you should do this. You know how much of a big deal this is. They said in the letter that only fifty kids are invited a year.”
“Well, it’s gon’ be forty-nine ‘cause I’m straight.”
Meco tipped his head back and cackled. Lo smirked before biting into his sandwich.
“You think you’re so damn funny but you’re going.”
