Read Online It's Raining Benjamins by Deborah Gregory - Free Book Online Page B

chicken, and baked beans on our plates. The church ladies serving us say chirpily, “Aren’t y’all the cutest girls!”
    â€œWe’re the Cheetah Girls,” Dorinda says proudly.
    â€œMabel, look at those necklaces they got around their necks.”
    â€œOh, these are our Cheetah Girl chokers,” Bubbles pipes up, taking over the conversation. I’m surprised she doesn’t tell them that we’re selling them, so I turn to her and whisper, “Are we still selling the chokers?”
    â€œTo anybody with a ducket in a bucket!”
    Right then, Derek Hambone comes over with his boy, Mackerel Johnson, and another tall, skinny guy we don’t know. Now that the fashion show is over, Derek is back in his “street uniform”—a navy blue and red windbreaker with matching sweatpants.
    He likes clothes from this designer, Johnny BeDown—a lot of the kids in our school wear his stuff, but
we
think it’s tick-tacky because it has too many letters on it. Like Bubbles says, “Why should we wear clothes with anybody else’s name on it but our own?”
    â€œHey, Cheetah Girls! Glad to see you in the house,” Derek says. Then he reaches over and kisses Bubbles on the cheek! I can’t believe she let him do that!
    â€œWe figured out how to make the chokers,” Bubbles blurts out, fingering the one around her neck. “We’ve already taken orders for five more.”
    â€œThat’s cool,” Derek says, kinda laughing. “It’s all good in the ’hood.”
    What does Bubbles mean, she’s taken orders for five more chokers? She didn’t tell
me
anything!
Nada. Vampira
-tooth. Mackerel winks at me. I guess I’d better be
super-simpática
too to make up for what happened. “What program are you in?” I ask Mackerel, even though it kills me. I feel my face turning
rosa
.
    â€œDesign,” he mumbles. His voice is so soft, I can hardly hear it.
    â€œDid you like the clothes in the show?” I ask, trying to seem like I’m interested in talking with him. I guess it’s okay—as long as he doesn’t start biting my neck!
    â€œThey
awwriight
, but I’m trying to flow with the street vibe,” he continues—like he’s flossing about his design skills.
    â€œWhose clothes do you like?”
    â€œI dig Trace Gear, you know what I’m saying?”
    â€œOh, I like that, too,” I say, telling a
poco
fiberoni. I hate their clothes, because they’re too baggy—but I’m not going to tell
him
that,
está bien
?
    â€œYou know what? I’ll buy another choker from you, if you’re still selling them,” Mackerel says. Then he
winks
at me.
Cuatro yuks
—he’s
flirting
with me!
    If he would just keep his “trap” shut, so I wouldn’t have to look at his teeth, maybe I wouldn’t mind. Those teeth of his give me “the spookies.” He ought to get them fixed, you know?
    â€œOkay,
está bien
,” I say to Mackerel. Then I pull on Bubbles’s sleeve and ask her what to do.
    â€œThat’s cool—we’ve got enough chokers. We can handle it,” Bubbles says confidently “That is, if it’s okay with you, Derek?”
    Bubbles is trying to be sooo charming to Derek—and he is eating it up like, well, a Red Snapper!
    â€œIt’s cool with Mr. DUH—you know what I’m saying?”
    Bubbles blushes deep purple. See, Derek has the initials of his first, middle, and last name shaved on the back of his head. That’s how they roll in Detroit, where he comes from—but we think that look is so played. Besides, with initials like his, he shouldn’t be broadcasting them,
está bien
? That’s why we always make fun of him. But
la gente
at school obviously told him about
that
nickname, too.
    â€œYou know … I’m sorry about what happened,” Bubbles says, and she seems like she