“Could I have more potatoes?” Tina Franklin asked Mercedes’s mom, who gladly passed the special scalloped potato, cheese, and chive dish. “These are delicious. I’d ask for the recipe, Mrs. Morgan, but being a college recruiter means I’m always on the road. I’m a Burger King queen!”
Everybody except Lincoln laughed. Mercedes sensed that Franklin already liked her game but also wanted to like her as a person. This dinner was a test.
“Very strong team this year, Coach Johnson,” Franklin said, no stranger to polite behavior. “Will you win state?”
Coach nodded but said nothing. Maybe Coach was more used to fancy meals from recruiters rather than a homemade meal in a small house.
“We will,” Mercedes said with pride.
“That’s the kind of confidence you’ll need to achieve good grades and then graduate,” Franklin said. Then she launched into a short speech, probably canned but Mercedes didn’t care, about the values Auburn looked for in a student athlete—that’s the term she always used. “There are plenty of girls who can hit a three-pointer. We want girls who can study, who can—”
“Why don’t you quit all this jiving and get to the bottom line,” Lincoln said and pushed his full plate of food to the side. He’d been pushing his family aside too: meals unattended, homework neglected, and curfews broken. “Let’s talk money and a ride.”
Jade squeezed Mercedes’s hand under the table, then whispered, “What’s he doing?”
Mercedes said nothing.
“Everybody knows that’s how the game is played,” Lincoln said as he sat up in his chair. Mercedes noticed the swagger in his voice. “Anybody who doesn’t play it is a loser.”
“Lincoln, that’s enough!” Mercedes’s dad snapped.
Lincoln rose from the table, picked up his plate, and hurled it against the wall over the sink. “That’s garbage, just like all of you.”