Chapter 35
MARGUERITE ESPERANZA TOLD her grandmama she’d be back in a few minutes, all right? She let the screen door slam behind her as she left the small brown stucco house with the red tile roof on St. George Street, a five-minute walk to the video store, where she’d gone a hundred thousand times before.
She was listening to her iPod as she turned onto Rowena. The four-laner was bright with storefronts: Pizza Hut, Blockbuster, Sushi-to-Go. Busy and totally safe.
No problems on the horizon. Besides—Marguerite could handle problems. For sure.
Marguerite waved to a couple of kids she knew and kept going toward the Best Buy sign blinking at the end of the next block. Her phone buzzed, signaling that she had a text message.
She didn’t recognize the number, but only one person called her Tigerpuss. That would be Lamar Rindell. Lamar was a supercute senior, a basketball player who’d been flirting with Marg both in person and on the phone. She’d hung out with him and a bunch of other kids after school, but Marg was hoping for more.
Lam: Wassup Tigerpuss.
Marg: getting a video. New Moon. I vampires.
Lam: Video World?
Marg: yeh. it’s close, right?
Lam: want to get pizza after?
Marg: I can’t.
Lam: ok. Never mind.
Marguerite leaned against a mailbox while she weighed her options. It was Grandmama versus Lamar, and she shouldn’t have to choose. Pizza Hut was only one block down. It wasn’t even dark out yet.
She typed to Lamar: “OK. C U soon.”
Then she called home, said, “I’m stopping for a slice and a Coke. You can practically see the place from the kitchen window. I’ll have Lamar walk me home, okay?”
Marg rehearsed her attitude, her mind focused on how she’d remember everything she and Lamar said to each other so she could tell her BFF Tonya all about it when she got home. She grinned to herself just thinking about that.
She headed to get her vampire movie. She started off walking, but then she began to skip.