Laila POV

Illinois State University had one of the biggest Homecoming Weekends. Friday night was Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's Delta After Dark talent show. She was so glad that Manny was not performing this year. Girls seemed to lose their minds over him last year. Damn near threw their panties on stage for him.

Marketta told her that Manny had a dance crew now, so that would be interesting. Of course, Anika and her dance team, Essence of Soul were the favorites to win. Because of their popularity, they had fans and family traveling in to see them.

"Hey Laila!" it was J'Nae, whom she seemed to have avoided since she made the line. How was she going to talk to this girl when she knew she wasn't even eligible to apply? Maybe next year,

"Hey, J'Nae."

"This is so cool I get to experience my first homecoming here. Last year I was home and going to Maryville, and I don't think there even was a homecoming weekend."

"That sucks."

She really was not trying to hang with her. She was supposed to be with her sister and Amber. The three amigos as people were calling them because they were always together. Or maybe they just knew.

"Where's Bryan?"

"With his frat brothers. I do not want to hang out with a bunch of loud hooligans. Anyway, let's go."

Marketta and Laila were late getting ready so she told them she would wait for them in the lobby to go to the talent show together. What was she going to tell them about J'Nae tagging along?

"Actually, I'm waiting for my sister and another friend to come on down."

"Oh cool, the more the merrier."

Who did J'Nae hang out with? Didn't she have her own friends? She knew she transferred in the middle of last year, but there had to be other people she knew besides her.

When Marketta and Amber walked into the room and saw J'Nae there, they gave her a look, and she read their faces.

"What is she doing here?"

"Hey guys, J'Nae is coming over to the show with us."

They could not say no, it was just the three of them because they were on line and needed to hang together so we could talk about MAX things, so what would they say?

Nothing.

Her phone went off as they headed off to the auditorium for Delta After Dark. When she looked down at it she saw that it was Alonzo. She smiled big seeing his name. That man was so gorgeous and so sweet. Even though she was not looking to date or have a boyfriend, with him, it seemed to come easily.

"Hey, Alonzo."

"Sorry if I'm bothering you," he said. "I'm here at the Show, am I going to see you here tonight?"

"Yes, we're headed there now."

"I'm with my frat, you and your sis should come over and hang with us since Rick is going out with your sister."

That would be interesting hanging the Ques. Would that be their coming out to the public? Everyone would see them together and know they were dating. What would Manny think?

Forget what he thought.

"Sure Alonzo, that would be cool." She clicked off the phone and turned to her sister. "We're going to sit with the Ques."

"And you think the Big..." Marketta stopped herself from saying "Big Sisters" around J'Nae. "You think uh... that won't be an issue?"

"We can sit wherever we want."

"Okay," her sister said to her. She leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Why is that girl here with us?"

"You know how she is," Laila hissed at her sister. "We can't discuss you know what, that's all."

When they made it to the auditorium and paid their fee, the place was already nearly packed. It was Homecoming Weekend, so Alumnae came down and students from other schools came down as well. That meant there were an extra high number of Mu Alpha Chi ladies in the place. Still, this was Delta Sigma Theta weekend so they outnumbered every other Black Greek-lettered organization by a few dozen.

Illinois State University was a large school with a nice-sized Black population. Many of those Black students were in Greek organizations. Although Bloomington Normal was a small college town, there were other small colleges around the area. ISU was the party school, so even local students made their way to the school's activities.

Stepping into the auditorium the ladies in red and white stood out the most. They were all in the first few rows with their jackets and other paraphernalia on. It was always nice to see the Greeks doing their thing.

She looked around and saw the ladies in orange and tan. MAX was sitting in a section in the middle. There were at least a dozen of them there. She was sure the Alumnae would want to meet with them over the weekend. The Epsilon Upsilon men were mingled with them.

"There's Alonzo and Rick," Marketta said.

The Ques were right behind the Deltas to the right, taking up a few rows. This was going to be interesting.

"Oh, there's Brian," J'Nae said.

Of course, he was there, sitting with the rest of the EUs. She tried not to look too hard over there to see if she could spot Manny.  They strolled past the MAXs and EUs to the Omega section.

"Hey ladies, welcome to The Show," Alonzo took her hand. "Hey guys, you know Laila and her sister Marketta? From BSU?"

Of course, the guys would only know her from that. She was glad she was a nobody otherwise.

"Hey girl," Rick grabbed Marketta in a hug. "We cheering for everybody Black."

Marketta laughed and pushed him. "I believe everyone is Black in the talent show."

Alonzo, as the Advisor of the undergraduate chapter there, had to oversee the guys, but he also partied with them as if he were still an undergrad.

"I didn't know there were four of you on line," Alonzo whispered in her ear when she sat beside him.

Laila glanced at J'Nae who sat on her other side. She did not know why this girl annoyed her but she did. Hanging on to her as if they were friends when they simply only met last semester, she came to a few Black Student Union meetings, and she lived in her residence hall. She did not know her that well, nor did she want to be her friend.

"Wouldn't you be more comfortable hanging with Brian and his frat brothers?" she said to her.

"Oh, it's no big deal to me," J'Nae said.

Marketta sat next to Rick, and Amber shooed off a guy so she could sit next to her. She hoped this was okay, then again, she could care less what the Big Sisters thought. This was their downtime.

The crowd was about to be standing room only. This was hands down the biggest event of the year, followed by the BSU stepshow in the Spring. That made her think...next semester she would be in the stepshow. Her and her two left feet.

"Gosh, these guys are so hot," J'Nae said to her with a giggle.

J'Nae had a whole, cheating boyfriend, she needed to focus on that one guy.

Right before the show was about to start, her ex cheating boyfriend walked over and stood near J'Nae at the end of the row. He looked her way.

"J'Nae, Laila, we have seats for you over with the bros."

This boy had some nerve. Why would she want to go anywhere near him? She ignored him and hoped that Alonzo was going to deal with this confrontation in a nice, calm way. She was not in a relationship with Alonzo, but surely he would feel some kind of way.

"I like it over here, it's much closer," J'Nae seemed oblivious to what Manny was trying to do.

"I don't think it's a good look...for you know MAX," Manny added "Max" with a lower voice.

"Oh!" J'Nae jumped up. "Sure, I'll sit with my boyfriend then. Come on Laila, we wouldn't want the MAX ladies we care more about another fraternity."

Laila wanted to crawl into her skin. She could not believe J'Nae would say something like that out loud near other Greek people. The girl made her skin crawl. She realized she did not like her and she would try avoiding her as much as possible.

"J'Nae, go ahead. I'm staying here." She grabbed Alonzo's arm and wrapped her arm around it, gave Manny a good side eye, dismissing him.

"You good?" Alonzo asked her as J'Nae and Manny walked off.

"Great."

"Thanks for hanging out with me in public when you know your big sisters made give you hell."

She smiled at him. "You're worth it."

A/N: I don't know why I decided to make J'Nae this clueless. Perhaps because her staying with Brian makes her a target for me.