We played a few rounds, then we heard the sound of fast feet on the stairs. We got excited because we thought it was Ricky and Derrick. Stacia swiped some thick, shiny lip gloss on her lips, and I had my hand in my hair before I realized what I was doing, but it wasn’t Ricky, Derrick, and Jon Jon. It was a group of dudes from downstairs. I didn’t know their names, but they were definitely not boys, and I knew that they were gangsters by all the jewelry draped around their necks and the white tees they were wearing. The one who seemed to be in charge did all the talking. He looked right at Tonya and said, “Come on.” Tonya dropped the rope, didn’t even say bye to us, and followed him.

“See you tomorrow, Tonya,” I said.

Stacia rolled her eyes at me.

Tonya stopped walking and turned back to say something to me, but the guy yanked her shirt by the neckline, literally dragging her away while telling us, “Shawty gotta go.”

They all went down the stairs. When he called her Shawty, on a day when I was so sensitive to name-calling, I knew right away that she wasn’t safe. Like she heard me thinking, Stacia said, “She a hoe.” The words came out sharp and quick, and stung like a paper cut. It even shocked Precious, whose eyes popped wide at the accusation.

“She ain’t no hoe!” I hollered, and it was loud because it wasn’t five seconds before Mama opened our screen door and called me.

“She is! Look at all these dudes in her face. You think they wanna play rope with her?”

Mama hung out the door, and I was pretty sure I was in trouble because I couldn’t even say lie in my house. A real curse word would mean instant punishment: days stuck in the house and no TV. “Felicia?” Mama called, and because I wasn’t even Fe Fe, I knew that she heard the cursing.

“Yes, Mama?” I said, walking down the porch in a hurry.

“Come here!”

I ran to the door, getting my story together in the short distance.

“You out here cursing?”

“No, Mama! That was Stacia,” I told her. She actually believed me, knowing how wild Stacia could be, but she still wanted me to come in the house.

She said, “Go get your rope.”

I went back to the square and snatched the strings off the ground, not even saying, “I gotta go,” or “See you tomorrow.” I just rolled my eyes at Stacia.