Read Online Can't Stop the Shine by Joyce E. Davis - Free Book Online

her mother was saying that she and her sister should be given anything. She always thought that it was her father who was the giving one. She wondered at that moment how her parents paid for the piano and whose idea it was to get it in the first place. Probably her mother’s, she thought.
    â€œI’m not buying Mari a car ’cause she’s got one—the one Kalia has. They can share,” said Ron.
    â€œAnd that’s just it, huh? You’re the man, so you’re gonna put your foot down and I’m supposed to obey?”
    â€œThat’s about the size of it.”
    â€œAll right then, I’ll buy her a car. I ain’t getting any younger, and you’re probably going to work yourself to death and not even get a chance to enjoy any of what you’ve been working so hard for, anyway,” Kalia heard Elaine say, and she knew the conversation was over. She didn’t hear any more voices after that, just her mother walking up the front steps and her daddy starting his car.
    â€œThey are so predictable,” Kalia said out loud as she went up the back steps to her room. Sitting on her bed, Kalia realized she was initially relieved that this argument between her parents was a short one, but she was also concerned about the frequency of the disagreements and how they never seemed to stay on the subject of that particular argument. Every time Ronald and Elaine got into it, the same two problems came up. Ronald wanted to continue to expand his seafood restaurants, which took most of his time and most of the money that he was making off the three restaurants he already had open, so he wasn’t home much, and he appeared overly thrifty to his family.
    Ronald was also dead set against Elaine opening a yoga studio at all, and he expressed this to her as often as he could. Kalia had been hearing them arguing frequently in the past six months about the Fish Frys, the yoga studio, money and spending time at home and with her and her sister, and now her sister was noticing, too.
    Lying down on the bed, she tried to shake the thought of her parents separating and breaking up their family. Kalia ended up falling into a fitful afternoon nap. Her dreams were filled with terrifying images of her mother and father as old people, living separate lives, lonely, wishing they’d stayed together. When she woke, there were tears on her pillow.

Chapter
4
    Mari was fuming. She’d had another run-in with Randy. He was just on point, and she must have had on her invisible costume, because as much as she raised her hand, Mr. Wills only seemed to see Randy’s. It was more than she could take, so she began blurting out her answers without waiting to be called on. That behavior only got her a short speech on rudeness from Mr. Wills in front of the class. Smarting from a public lecture, Mari sunk into her seat and didn’t even attempt to participate for the rest of the class.
    Spotting Asha on the way to her locker, she was trying to decide if she was in the mood to be bothered.
    â€œWhat’s happening, Mari?” said Asha.
    â€œThere’s this guy in my Early World Lit class, and he’s a real know-it-all,” said Mari, opening her locker. “Do you have any of those types in any of your classes?”
    â€œUh, yeah…this is private school, silly. Everybody is a know-it-all. You should know that. You’ve been here just as long as me,” said Asha.
    â€œWell, I don’t care about everybody else. This dude is really getting on my last nerve. I mean, he’s answering like every question better than me.”
    â€œWell, maybe that means you need to study harder.”
    â€œOkay, so you’re not hearing me. He’s outshining me, all right? I’m sick of them having everything and knowing everything. Can a black person have something? Damn.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œThese people have money,” said Mari.
    â€œI know. My family