Free Love Edy by Shewanda Pugh Page A

hell?”
    From the driver’s side seat, he glared first
at Hassan, then Edy, the second she slammed the car door closed
behind her.
    “Just drive,” Hassan said and settled
in.
    As Mason took him up on his advice, Edy gave
Hassan’s appearance a once over. A black South End tee with
noticeable wrinkles. Yesterday’s jeans. No time for a shower, she
knew. Judging by the way he kept running a hand through his hair,
no time for a comb either.
    Edy looked up to see Chloe’s thinly veiled
look of distress directed at her. So, skinny jeans and a thermal
weren’t all the rage. Her appearance was still neat, clean and
wrinkle free. What more could be asked of her?
    “Are you done staring?” Edy demanded.
    Chloe jumped, then blinked a few times for
good measure. “Your hair,” she said from her seat in Lawrence’s
lap.
    What a snob. Edy’s hair was no different
than any other day. A simple ponytail had always been good enough
for her.
    Chloe fished out a brush from an oversized
Marc Jacobs bag. She reached over and yanked out the office rubber
band that held Edy’s hair together and let it fall to the floor
with a look of disgust.
    She gave Edy’s hair a thorough brushing, the
sort she only received when Rani took to it. With Chloe working
frantically, Edy’s head bobbed and jerked with every knot and
tangle. The brush just kept snagging.
    “You’re doing that on purpose,” Edy
said.
    “I’m not. I’m trying to hurry. It’s hard,
with you never doing much to comb your hair.”
    “Well, stop and put my rubber band
back.”
    “No. It’s grotesque. And anyway it’s
broken.”
    What the hell was she supposed to do without
a rubber band? She had a mountain’s worth of unruly coils cascading
to her shoulders. Should she ever straighten it, it would likely
fall to her back.
    “I’ll figure out something,” Chloe said and
rummaged in her bag again.
    Edy cautioned a look up to find Hassan
watching them with open amusement. Lawrence, as always, looked
disgruntled.
    “I’ve got a headband in here,” Chloe said.
She held up a lacey one affixed with a comb. “I could twist some of
your hair into it and leave the rest hanging in the back.”
    “Fine. Whatever. Just . . .get it over
with.” Already, she’d resigned herself to Chloe’s
ministrations.
    The girl grinned. “It’s like you spent two
minutes getting ready this morning. You and Has—”
    Chloe froze, brush in the air.
    “What?” Edy said.
    The other girl’s gaze traveled to Hassan,
where it skated over his appearance before turning back to Edy.
    “Nothing,” Chloe said. Done with Edy’s hair,
she tucked the brush away fast.
    The gang rode the rest of the way to school
in uncomfortable silence.
    “Dyson. Dyson. Dyson. Pradhan. Phelps.
Castillo.”
    Principal Rhinecorn fired off names like
bullets from a shotgun, his finger punctuating each hit. A roll
call, Edy realized, with a slim dark kid by his side jotting them
down greedily.
    They froze just past the front entrance of
the school; the doors hadn’t even managed to close behind them.
Rhinecorn, who had more middle than height, strode left, then
right, with an arm tucked at the small of his back. Deliberating
was what his to and fro told them. Posturing was what they knew. He
stopped before Matt.
    “Detention,” he said, head tilted as if he
meant to plant a kiss.
    Matt’s face screwed into a pucker.
    Rhinecorn moved to Mason.
    “Detention,” he repeated.
    Mason flinched at the word.
    He moved to Lawrence, then Hassan, Edy and
Chloe. Each one received the word in a puff of putrid air.
Detention for two days was what each of them received.
    ~~~
    Edy caught only the tail end of the
attendance call before being shuffled on to her first class. She
stopped at a slender set of long steel lockers and keyed in her
combination quick. Chloe came up beside her.
    “Yeah?” Edy said with looking. She slung her
Chemistry book on the top shelf, grabbed a gray notebook from
there, shoved it in her