David, I want to yes, I am saying yes, but one thing. My mom thinks I’m too young to have a boyfriend, so I’m not going to tell her yet until I get her to meet you, okay? I’m really glad you asked me, though. Yolanda

Yolanda sat on the long low brick wall that divided Seb’s front staircase from the wheelchair ramp. She had managed to slip the note Rita and finally Jess helped her write to David before they were dismissed. She didn’t want to stand around and watch him read it, so she went to the spot Brian told her and Troy to meet them at. She figured her brother got held up by Kathey or he would have been outside questioning her--he had seen the exchange. She sort of hoped he would come out before David did, she didn’t know what to say to David yet.

But David came out of the door first. He looked behind him at the front door and walked over to Yolanda. "Hi," he said.

"Hi."

"I read your note."

Yolanda nodded, suddenly unable to think of something to say.

David leaned over and kissed her quickly on the cheek. "I’ll call you tonight," he whispered.

Yolanda mustered all her powers of speech. "Okay."

David went to catch his bus as the other drama students came out of the theater and filed out into the front area of the school. Yolanda smiled broadly at them, swinging her feet. She was feeling so good she called out to Suzanne, who was walking by.

To her surprise, Suzanne came over to her and said hello.

"Hi." Yolanda stopped swinging her feet. She had expected another nod or a hello. Now that the girl had come over Yolanda had no idea what to say. "Umm, I saw you with Jess."

"Yeah, can you believe that? There’s two of you, and she couldn’t even pair me with one of you guys. Are they okay, do you like them? Because if you don’t..." Suzanne said.

"Oh I do, they’re okay, I would tell you if they weren’t, you know." Yolanda responded with what she hoped was a meaningful look. "Do you like Linda?" she asked.

"Actually, yes, she’s pretty nice. But if you have any questions Yolanda, it’s okay to come to me." Suzanne said.

Yolanda considered this. "Even if they’re not always about the play?" she a sked. She looked away from Suzanne and ran her finger down the groove between two bricks in the wall.

"Sure, anything." Suzanne came closer. She leaned against the wall and looked up at Yolanda again.

"You know my brother Brian, right?"

"Yeah."

"And the whole basketball team thing."

"What about it?"

"Do a lot of people think it’s good that him and Richard made the team?" Yolanda waited as Suzanne paused to think about the question that had been in Yolanda’s mind since the day she took the roster off of the wall. She still had it--everytime she was going to take the opportunity to give it back, Brian did or said something jerky and she got mad at him and forgot about it.

"People think it’s good that he and Richard made the team for two reasons," Suzanne answered, with a little emphasis on the word he. "One because they’re only in the tenth grade..."

"Sophomores," Yolanda offered up a word from her new high school vocabulary.

Suzanne smiled. "Right. And second because they’re black and hispanic."

Right to heart of what Yolanda wanted to know. "And that’s good."

"Oh yes. Did you know your brother’s squad is only the third squad in all of school history that wasn’t all white?" Suzanne said.

"No."

"I’m surprised your brother didn’t tell you."

"Yeah well, he talks to me when he feels like it." Yolanda shrugged.

Suzanne patted her arm. "Yeah, I have brothers too. But really this is a good thing, you wait until the games start and see how many people cheer when they come out, okay?"

"Okay," said Yolanda. "Well, I just wanted to ask that."

"Sure," said Suzanne. She scooped her books up off the wall and patted Yolanda’s knee. "Tell your brother he can talk to me too, okay? We can be friends even if we aren’t paired up."

"Right," Yolanda said brightly. She felt very proud of herself. She had managed to make Suzanne feel better, get an answer to her question and still keep Rita and Jess as her theater buddies. As she waved gaily to Suzanne, who was making her way to the Senior parking lot she wondered why Pat and Diana, especially Pat, were always mopey about being freshman. High school seemed pretty easy to her.

She turned around and spotted Diana and Maria out in the schoolyard. She slid off of the wall and went over to wait for the late bus with them. Both Brian and Pat had late meetings, so Diana told Yolanda to look for her to ride the late bus.

"Hi," she said, coming up to them.

"Hey," Diana said.

"Hi Yolanda. Was that Suzanne Corley?" Maria asked.

"Yeah."

"How do you know her?"

"Oh, Suzanne? We’re friends from the play," Yolanda said.

"Hanging out with Seniors now, huh? Excuse me," Maria said. She winked at Diana and they smiled at each other like the grownups did when they told her five-year cousin Matty she was all grown up.

"I guess we’re too young for you to hang out with now," Diana said.

"Yeah, right." Yolanda rolled her eyes.

"Rolling those eyes, just like her sister," Maria said.

"Na-uh," Yolanda said. But she turned from them and pretended to be people watching. Maria was nice and she had pretty clothes, but sometimes she could be snotty.

"Tell me about it," Diana said.

"What’s her problem now?" Maria asked.

"She wont say it, but she’s like totally pissed because I wont tell her about the Alex stuff, like it’s some big secret we have and I’m trying to keep her out. I keep telling her it’s not like that, I just don’t think I should go into with her because it’s none of her business. And she’s like, ‘I don’t care’ but even I say your name or even talk about math she changes the subject."

Yolanda was very good at listening to a conversation and looking like she didn’t care. She figured Maria and Diana weren’t actually going to talk to her, so she tried to figure out who they were talking about. She figured the way things were going, she would know a lot of people after another week or so of high school.