Lifegate Academy was a charter school. It was started by Tammy and her mom because Tammy didn't want her kids going to Terrence West Public. The way Tammy talked about T. West, it sounded like the worst place in the world, but it wasn't nearly as bad as she made it out to be. It was a lot bigger than our school and had all kinds of sports programs, a gymnasium and pool, and a bunch of different classes you could choose from. And most of the kids who went there were black. Now, to get into Lifegate, they had a lottery, but the way it ended up, most kids who went to Lifegate were white. People would always say we were racist for wanting to go to Lifegate, but I wasn't—my mom was making me go there. Thing is, all the black kids I ever talked to who went to T. West said they didn't want to go to Lifegate, anyway, and so the only black kids who came to our school were the ones who didn't fit in over there.
Lifegate wasn't like any school I'd ever been to, and Tammy wasn't anything like a school principal. She wasn't business-like the way principals are supposed to be; she didn't even dress like a principal. She'd show up to school all decked out like she was going to the club with a shiny shirt, tight pants and high heels, or she'd be wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The administrators I knew at other schools were always busy and always working on something real important. Tammy was never busy and spent most the day talking to the kids who would hang out in her office. Sometimes there'd be a whole group of us in there joking around or listening to Tammy and Mrs. Bouchard tell stories. She'd never tell us to leave, even when we were supposed to be in class, which would really piss off the teachers.
A guy like Kearns would come looking for you. He'd find you hanging out with Tammy, looking at cheerleading pictures on her computer, and he'd be like, "Um, Macy, aren't you supposed to be in my class right now?"
Tammy would say, "Oh, she's just helping me out," or, "I needed to talk to her about something…Do you need her in class right now?"
Then you'd be following Kearns back to class and boy, you could tell just by the way he was walking he was pissed—real pissed—and there was nothing he could do. But it wasn't like anybody could skip class and hang out in Tammy's office. You had to be in with her. And you had to be friends with Corena.
Corena was a year ahead of me, but I got to know her through cheerleading, and when I did, I could see right away what being friends with her was about. Everybody wanted to be friends with Corena, so she could sort of pick her friends however she wanted, and she would use people and throw'em away. One day she'd be real nice and fun to be around. Next day, she wouldn't want to have anything to do with you. But if you were friends with her, you got special treatment, so you put up with the way she behaved and tried to be cool even when she was treating you badly. One thing was for sure—you didn't want to be her enemy.
There was nothing special about Corena. She had an oval face with plain features and straight, wispy hair that she wore down just past her shoulders. Her eyes were really round and not pretty and made her look kind of dumb, which she wasn't. When I picture her face, I always think of the expression you see on a baby doll's—slightly startled. She wore the plainest clothes, all solid colors and large, heavy sweaters. She was one of those people who never wore anything too stylish or sexy because she was afraid of embarrassing herself. And her personality was straight up boring, which is what made hanging out with her kind of strange. Because she never said anything funny or original, and a lot of times the stuff she said was just stupid, but kids would still listen and pay attention.
Her only two real friends were Sidney Bouchard and Latisha. Sidney was the daughter of Mrs. Bouchard, the school secretary, and she was the meanest girl in the school. To myself, I called her Sidney the Butcher. Latisha was the opposite of Sidney—she was friends with everyone. She had this wide, warm smile and a way of talking to you where she'd focus on you and really listen to what you were saying which would make you want to open up to her. But you couldn't tell her anything, or just like Sidney, she'd run straight to Corena and Tammy and tell them—and anybody else she met along the way.