We only got two weeks of school left, and Mai wants to cut class today. She wants to go hang out at Daddy Joe’s restaurant. “And get something good to eat.”

“You coming?” she asks me.

We standing out front of the school, watching everybody else go in. Talking to Ming while Ja’nae is braiding his hair.

“Y’all going or not?” Mai asks.

Ja’nae ain’t going. She’s scared her grandfather will find out and she’ll really get into trouble.

Ming tells Mai she better take her butt to class. “’Fore you get shipped off to California sooner than you want.”

We ask him what that’s supposed to mean. He says Mai’s gotta go live with their father’s people for the summer.

I make this face, like I smell something rank. “You gonna be living with Koreans?” I ask Mai. “Just you and all of them?”

Mai bends down and plucks Ming upside the head. That hurts. I can tell by how red his face is now.

“If you wasn’t my sister . . .” he says, balling up his fist.

“Man, you can hit sisters,” Sato says, walking over to us and bobbing around like he’s in a boxing ring. “You just can’t hit girls outside your family. But sisters, they always got it coming to ’em.”

Ming slaps him five. Says Mai’s getting on their parents’ nerves. “So she’s gotta go,” he says, ducking. Mai pops him again. “Anyhow,” he says, looking over his shoulder at us. “My father says it’ll help her figure out who she is.”

Mai gives Sato and Ming the finger. Then points to her tattoo. “This is who I am.”

Ming shakes his head. “She hates Koreans. Hates ’em, and she’s one too. Now do that make any sense?” He stands up. Grabs Mai’s arm and presses it to his. “You know what, Mai?” he says, pushing her away. “You ain’t a hundred percent nothing. So get over it.”

Ja’nae tells Ming to chill. I tell him to get off Mai’s case. “And just let her be who she wanna be.”

Ming says I should mind my own business. Then he turns to Mai and says something to her in Korean. “Ni-gah noo-go in jial myun, pal-eh-gah ahn ssuh do dweh jah nah.” I don’t know what it is, but it makes Mai cry. Next thing we know she’s across the street, all up in this boy’s face. He’s new to our school. So quiet, we call him Q.

“We better go talk to Mai,” Ja’nae says, putting Ming’s hair in one big braid and telling him she’ll finish it later.

Ming ain’t happy with Ja’nae. He says he ain’t thinking ’bout Mai ’cause she’s always mad ’bout something. Ja’nae keeps walking. “We all like sisters,” she says. “So I gotta go.”

I don’t want to go over there ’cause Zora just got off the bus. She’s headed Mai’s way.

I stay behind a minute and ask Ming what he said to Mai. He rubs his forehead. “I said, ‘If you really knew who you were, you wouldn’t have to write it on your arm.’”

Ming walks off, not even saying goodbye. I head for Ja’nae and Zora.

“Hey,” I say to Zora in a tiny little voice.

She don’t speak to me, but she got a whole lot to say to Ja’nae. She asking her what’s up with Mai. Then says Ja’nae needs to talk to Ming and get him to stop being so mean to Mai.

“It ain’t all Ming’s fault,” Ja’nae says. “He likes being mixed. He don’t know why she don’t.”

Mai puts her hand out for another tissue and asks if we gonna go to Daddy Joe’s with her. Zora says we can count her out.

Ja’nae puts her arms around me and Zora. “Go. So you and Raspberry can make up.”

I tell Ja’nae I ain’t mad at Zora. Zora puts her purse over her shoulder. Folds her arms and says that I should just go ahead and tell ’em what I did. “Then they’ll know why we’re not friends anymore.”

Mai and Ja’nae look at me like I’m gonna tell ’em the truth. I don’t. I tell Zora to tell ’em. I’m scared, though. ’Cause she just might. Only she ain’t done it so far, and I don’t even know why.

Zora shakes her head no.

“Is it about your dad and her mom?” Ja’nae asks.

“Or your real father?” Mai says.

Zora says she ain’t telling. “Because my telling won’t make it any better.”

I roll some of Miz Evelyn’s quarters around in my pocket. I ask Mai if she’s still going to Daddy Joe’s.

“Yeah,” she says, throwing her tissue in the grass. “Maybe we can do something tomorrow, Zora. You, me, and Ja’nae.”

Zora says she’ll ask her dad to take them to the movies. I’m glad, ’cause maybe when he don’t see me there, he will drive by our place to ask why. Then Momma and me will get to spend time with him—to do something special, like drive around for ice cream or go see a movie.

The three of them make plans for the weekend. I sit by the curb waiting for Mai. I’m never giving Zora her money back, I say to myself.