LUX’S JOURNAL

—February 20—

I’m at Dad’s. It sucks.

Lillia is loud, and Dad is being a jerk, and I hope Penny knows she’ll never be my mom.

I need to get out of here.

I also can’t believe that someone would tag me in that video. I mean, who does that? And since Dad’s always talking about how I gotta work extra hard as a black woman to make sure I’m representing myself well, he CANNOT find out about it. Something like this—physical proof that I’m not the perfect, disciplined kid he wants everyone to think I am—is his worst nightmare. I heard Mom talking to him about military school, and I could SO see him sending me away if he sees that video.

I just need to keep my head down, stay outta trouble, and try to make this work till June so I can move back in with Mom. But it’s not gonna be easy.

I need a plan.

HOW I’M GOING TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE

1. Do whatever Dad says.

2. Get into that new school.

3. Make GOOD friends. The kind of girls who don’t get into trouble. The kind of girls who get good grades and have hobbies and that people like.

4. Join some kinda club or something. Joiners keep busy and don’t have time for drama.

5. Stay AWAY from boys.

6. Make sure no one knows about that video.