CHAPTER TWO

Craziest (Willow’s Beginning)

“I can’t believe we let them get away,” Willow said. She looked dead in Sanaa’s face when all five of the girls got back inside Willow’s house after chasing away the culprits who were messing with Sanaa’s car.

“I guess my car is too ugly to egg,” Octavia tried joking to lighten the mood.

“It’s not funny. Nothing’s funny about this, Octavia,” Willow said. “I knew we should’ve pounced on them heffas when we had the chance.”

“And what would that have solved?” Sanaa uttered in a somber voice.

Willow blasted, “It would’ve let them know that they can’t just show up anytime they want in the wee hours of the night!”

Sanaa screamed, “What? You did almost the same thing to Toni a few weeks back, cutting the fool at two in the morning in her freaking yard!”

Willow was so tired of Sanaa taking up for her friend who betrayed her. Or had Sanaa betrayed Toni? Willow was still confused about how it all went down. The point was that their relationship was irreconcilable, and Sanaa needed to come to terms with that fact.

“You can’t be friends with everybody,” Willow huffed and said. “And begging criminals is stupid as—”

“Okay, okay, guys. Settle down,” Pia said. “The two of y’all gonna fuss at each other again? I won’t come over here and spend the night if every time we do, the two of y’all are gonna argue!”

Sanaa said, “I’m not arguing with Willow.”

Willow pointed out, “That’s right, because you don’t argue. Make me the bad one.”

“Like I’m the one who made you go over to Toni’s house last month and cause a scene?” Sanaa shouted.

Willow stepped up to her and yelled, “To defend your honor, with your ungrateful behind! Plus, I didn’t destroy any property. She did!”

“Okay! I just asked y’all to calm down,” Pia said, rushing between them with her phone. “Look, this is crazy. You’re not gonna believe this. Remember how all y’all got letters from the dead Leah girl? Now I got one. It’s another eerie text message. We gotta get to the bottom of this.”

Pia showed the message to the other girls.

Dear Swoop List Girls,

Congrats to you girls for holding it together. I see you’re making a difference in the lives of young people by passing on your story. That’s admirable. But now you’re gonna have to dig even deeper and go to a much tougher place. Get ready to execute the final step in making sure that you conquer the swoop list, instead of the swoop list conquering you.

To truly sit on top, you need to find out who put you on the swoop list and fix them. Some of your friends may not be up to the challenge, but it’s the only way to end this cycle. Trust me.

Your Angel, Leah

“Okay, this is weird,” Sanaa said.

“If she’s really telling us to help the people who hurt us, she is not an angel,” Willow huffed.

“Yeah, I’m really tired of this too,” Olive said.

Pia uttered, “Come on, we promised each other we were gonna try to figure out who this Leah girl is. What the heck are we waiting for?”

Sanaa said, “Well, with prom and everything, I guess we just got sidetracked. We’re about to graduate in a little while.”

“Don’t you guys wanna know who wrote this?” Pia said.

Everyone nodded except for Willow. Willow was so done with complying. She wanted the other girls to get backbones.

Pia went over to Willow, put her arm around her, and said, “Come on. Live a little. Have a little adventure. Whoever is writing these notes knows all five of us.”

“Remember that we found Leah’s obituary? She lived in the city of Warner Robbins. This girl is not alive,” Willow said. “I’m not tryna get caught up in who’s trifling enough to use her identity. You know what? I’m about to go call my boo.”

“Ooh, so you and Dawson cool again?” Olive teased.

“You better see if Charles made it back from prom and is on house arrest again, while you messin’ with me,” Willow said.

Olive didn’t take too kindly to the joke, but Willow was telling the truth. By a judge’s order, Charles had to wear an ankle bracelet. He’d gotten it removed to go to prom, but at the end of the night, he’d had to be back at the group home with his ankle bracelet back in place.

Before Willow could exit the room, Sanaa grabbed her arm and said, “Did you have to be rude like that?”

Willow said, “Olive knows I was just playing with her. Quit making a big deal out of nothing. Besides, you act like you’re above everybody, but you sneaky too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? Remember when my car got painted? I think it was Toni and Hillary that did it. And now I saw Toni out there, messing up your car. Hillary was probably driving getaway. You let them go, but I’m not gonna let them get away with this crap. What is wrong with the truth? You’re on me because I told Olive she needs to make sure Charles got home in time? If he is late, there are consequences. I just told her to check on him. I wasn’t making fun about it. I wasn’t saying it’s horrible that she’s dating a guy with metal around his ankle. I just stated a fact to my friend, being me. But you can’t be honest ever. You see a girl you want so badly to be okay with destroying your property, but you let her tail go!”

Sanaa dropped her head and turned around. She started to tear up, but Willow wasn’t backing down. Sanaa had pushed her to a place where the real Willow was now loose.

Willow offered, “You need to woman up, Sanaa, because trying to kiss up to somebody’s butt who basically just told you to kiss hers is the craziest.”