until my cousins return.
My belly’s growling
and my head is aching.
Granny’s been yelling for half an hour already,
about how I swore at Mr. Ndour,
and threw a chair across his classroom.
Neither of which is true.
I didn’t swear directly at him.
I didn’t throw my chair: it fell over.
But Granny’s not giving me
the benefit of the doubt.
Granny’s never been angry at me, not like this.
It feels shitty and now I understand
why T has always been so envious of me.
I think of Sam whispering
something to Abdi about T.
His reputation has traveled
all the way to my school.
I’m sick of being the good one.
I never asked to be the good one.
Maybe I’m not all that good.
Maybe I just have a cousin
who people think of as bad.
I should be allowed to make mistakes, too.
I never claimed to be good,
but I’ve benefited from being
seen as better behaved than T.
Granny shouts at T like this all the time,
without listening to his side of the story.
Ms. Sarpong phoned Granny
