Скачать книгу

ction> If I Was Your Girl

      Also by Ni-Ni Simone

      Shortie Like Mine

      Published by Dafina Books

      If I Was Your Girl

      Ni-Ni Simone

      Dafina Books for Young Readers

       KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

       http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

      To my Taylor, who said,

       “I can’t believe Mommy would use the word

       hollah.

       She’s not cool!”

      To my Sydney,

       whom I asked to perform her ballet routine,

       and without warning,

       she turned into Beyoncé,

       dropped down,

       and started sweeping the floor with it.

       I’m just starting to recover.

      And to my baby boy Zion,

       whose favorite word is ‘no.’

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Drama Part I

      Play Your Position or Change Your Position

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Drama Part II

       Fly Like Me…

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Drama Part III

      The Game Done Changed

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Chapter 29

      Drama Part IV No More Drama

      Chapter 30

      A Reading Group Guide

      Discussion Questions

      Acknowledgments

      To my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, if I had a thousand tongues, I couldn’t thank you enough.

      To my mother for helping me out when my deadlines were kicking my you know what!

      To my father, who is simply honored that I named a character Melvin in my first book (LOL).

      To my husband, Kevin, and my mother-in-law, Beulah, for all of your support.

      To my editors and publishing families, thank you for believing in my talent, even when I have my days.

      To Nakea Murray and Tiffany Colvin—it’s official: 3 Chicks On Lit have entered the building.

      To all of my family and friends, the gratitude and love I have for you could never be expressed in words. I thank you for being my biggest supporters. And to my author friends, where would I be if I couldn’t call you and say, ‘listen to this!’ God Bless!

      To all of my fans, bookstores, book clubs, coworkers, my church family, message boards, and everyone else who has been with me during the course of my career, I want to thank you for everything. You mean the world!

      And to all of the little girls who dream, I want you to dream big and know that as sure as this book is written, the sky is the limit!

      Be sure to email me at [email protected] or send me a friend request at myspace.com/nini_simone.

      Hollah atcha gurl!

       Peace

Drama Part I

      1

      “This is my jam, right here!” I screamed as we drove down Bergen Street with the sounds of Playaz Circle’s “Duffle Bag Boy” blasting from the car into the street. We’d just left the Hot 97 King of Rap concert at the Prudential Center and were still high from the night’s festivities.

      “Girl, did you see how Lil Wayne was looking at me?” my sister, Seven, said as she danced in the back seat.

      “You lying, Seven,” Tay laughed, as she drove down the street, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “You know Weezie was lookin’ at me.”

      “I know y’all ain’t on my baby daddy!” I stopped singing long enough to chime in.

      “Girl, please,” Seven snapped. “You got enough baby daddies!”

      We all laughed as I turned up the volume and started singing again. “I ain’t nevah ran from a damn thing and I damn sure ain’t ’bout to pick today to start runnin’.”

      As I threw my arms in the air, Tay said, “Toi, ain’t that Quamir’s truck?” She pointed across Rector Street.

      I looked at the tags on the black Escalade. “Hell, yeah.” I turned the music down.

      “And ain’t that Shanice’s house?” Seven asked. “I thought he stopped messing with her.”

      “We don’t know if that’s her house,” I snapped defensively. “You always jumping to conclusions.”

      Tay looked at me out the corner of her eyes. “You need to stop frontin’,” she spat, “you know that’s where the skeezer lives.” Tay double parked in the street, next to Quamir’s truck. “Now the question is, what you gon’ do about it?”

      “Nothin’,” Seven jumped in. “You don’t bring it to nobody else’s spot.” She sucked her teeth. “If anything we can slice his tires and bounce.”

      “Slice his tires?” Tay snapped, “that is so whack.” She looked at me. “You know this is ridiculous right? And I’m not slicing no tires or breaking no windows, he gon’ put up or shut up. ’Cause frankly, I can’t take you crying over this dude anymore.”

      “Confront him and what?” Seven spat. “If we not gon’ key up his ride then we need to bounce.” She turned to me. “You’ve seen it with your own eyes, so now you know you need to leave ’im alone.” Seven wiggled her neck from side to side.

      “Bounce?” Tay sucked her teeth. “Girl, please, we ’bout to handle this.”

      Neither of them had noticed that I hadn’t said a word. I was in shock, but then again I wasn’t. I just wasn’t in the mood to react to something that obviously wasn’t going to change, but there was no way I could let my sister or my best friend think I was gon’ allow Quamir to keep playing me. I had to stand

Скачать книгу