JACQUARIOUS

Pearlene moonlight streamed in waves through the hallway windows as I tiptoed across the smooth carpet, pattering through the broken darkness. They're asleep, I tried to reassure myself. There's no way they'll hear me.

I pressed past the woodframe door at the end of the hall as quietly as I could, stepping softly onto the staircase behind it as I began my descent.

A mist of artificial darkness hung around me thickly, stilly.

Sidling to the foot of the stairs, I gazed ahead, eyed the golden knob fastened inside my home's front entrance.

Glancing once over my shoulder as I steeled myself, I crept forward on the balls of my feet, eased open the towering rectangle of russet oak, slid into the frigid and sparkling night.

ZZING! ZZING! ZZING!

I jumped at the buzzing of my phone against my thigh, exhaling a sigh of relief as I retrieved it from my pocket and read the name flashing against the illuminated screen.

"TaKylar," I breathed as I clicked Answer Call.

"I found it," her voice echoed against my ear. "The gazebo you were talking about-I'm parked there now."

I smiled. "Sounds great. I'll see you in a sec." I clicked off my phone and glanced up.

Rays of light filtered from both directions, cast by the littering of garish gilded lamp posts that decorated the streets. I turned to my left and right, wary of any passing vehicles that might appear from the darkness.

It's Sunday, I told myself. No way anyone's even still out this late.

I crossed the asphalt road separating my home from one of many neighborhood parks. This one was a grassy expanse whose huddle of evergreen trees scraped into the sky, flanking a gate of auric metal welded on each end into marble stones.

I pushed my way inside, then darted across the winding path that divided the manicured meadow. Sliding between a pair of statuesque fountains, I emerged on the other side of the park, eyes wide as I scanned the night.

Twisting my head left, I spotted the gazebo, its white wood gleaming with the wink of the moon. As I squinted under the ebony haze, a second sheening glow began peeking back at me-soft, understated, a muted but rusting silver.

There she is.

I dashed over to the gazebo, sprinted around its outer edge to where my best friend's car was parked, shrinking from the light as it sad in the depth of shadows surrounding.

Pulling open the door to climb inside, I nestled myself into the passenger's seat and buckled up, TaKylar shooting me a sprightly grin. "Ready?" she asked.

I grinned back. "Ready."

****

"Two Midnight Milky Ways, please," TaKylar said sweetly into the drive-thru speaker of the Screamin' Cream Milkshake Parlor.

Our order appeared on the screen in seconds, and the lady on the other end of the speaker rattled off the total before telling us to drive around to the first window.

TaKylar turned to me as we crept forward through the singly bricked lane, the crunch of the pavement prattling beneath the car's tires. "My parents would get so mad if they heard I was out this late, but these milkshakes are just too g-"

She stopped mid-sentence as she spotted me fishing out my wallet.

"Don't even think about it," she ordered.

"TaKylar, come on," I practically begged. "You paid last time, and this trip was my idea-"

She held up a golden card rimmed with royal blue. "Remember this?" She waved it in the air. "My dad's deal with Mr. Jerry still stands-as much free ice cream as I want for the rest of Christmas break."

I chuckled. "It's midnight-doesn't that technically mean Christmas break is over? And what if he's hired new people for the new year?"

TaKylar shook her head, a sly smile curving upward across her face. "Between you and me, Mr. Jerry said the card'll go all the way through February. He added in a little extra just for me."

As TaKylar was speaking, we pulled up to the first drive-thru window, where she passed her card through the glass for the woman draped in a golden ice-cream outfit to swipe at her cashier station. As she handed the card back to TaKylar, overhead light caught on the nametag pinned to her shirt-Jianna.

"Need a receipt?"

TaKylar shook her head. "No thanks-last thing I need's a paper trail for Mom and Dad to find." She winked at Jianna, who shook her head with a smile.

"Girl, your parents gonna pop yo' skinny behind you if you keep rollin' through here this late."

TaKylar giggled back. "It's the last night of the break." She sighed, turned to me. "The last night before Jacquarious starts that new school."

Jianna's eyes grew wide, and she turned to me as well. "So they really went through with it, huh? Yo' mama and daddy really pulled you outta Browning Heights?"

I nodded.

Jianna hesitated. "Real talk, I get why they did it." She exhaled a wistful breath. "But we gonna miss you around here."

"I'll still come around," I said, smiling lightly. "Just 'cause I'm going to Goldengate doesn't mean I can't keep getting the best milkshakes in town. And there's no way I'm just gonna-"

BURMP!!

A noisy car horn shrieked behind us.

Jianna gulped, twisting her head to face the growing line of cars trailing ours. She turned back and smiled at me and TaKylar. "Guess y'all better get going. Thanks fa comin' through."

We drove onward to the second window, where another woman clad in an ice-cream costume handed us full Styrofoam cups printed with the words Scream It Out! and overflowing with snowy whipped cream. Red and white straws striped like candy canes reached through the plastic domes that topped each milkshake-fitting, I thought, for the last night of the holidays.

"Don't y'all stay out too late, now," the woman said with a smile.

TaKylar nodded once, rolled up the driver's seat window.

We pulled on past the drive-thru's end, then circled back around toward the main entrance to Screamin' Cream. Once she'd checked to make sure the road was clear, TaKylar sped through the paved intersection and pulled into the complex across the street-an abandoned lot with a rugged building at its center.

Kingston Mills, I thought to myself, shaking my head as my eyes pored over the decaying wood that shuttered the dark windows devoid of glass.

TaKylar skidded the car between the crackly remnants of two chalky white lines, easing the gearshift forward to park at the grass's curbed edge.

Twisting the keys free of the ignition to shut off the car, she sighed and turned to me. "Jianna's right, you know. We're really gonna miss you."

I glanced away from her, lowering my head. "I'm gonna miss Browning Heights too."'

TaKylar chuckled lightly. "I guess this was bound to happen. After what went down at that game, I honestly thought your mom was gonna straight up murder those cops."

"Yeah," I muttered. "And all that crap they found in the band room didn't help anything either."

TaKylar took a sip of her milkshake and nudged my arm. "Well...don't tell me you're not at least a little excited. Goldengate's the bougiest school I've ever seen. Those kids' pockets are deeper than the Pacific Ocean."

I shrugged. "So what?"

"So maybe your mom can finally find some more rich friends to pal around with."

I shot TaKylar a sore look.

"I'm kidding!" she squeaked. "Gosh, Jacquarious, you know I'm kidding." She hesitated. "...I just...Browning won't be the same without you there."

I lowered my eyes again.

"...How're your grandparents taking all of this?" she tried.

"Not so good." I shook my head. "Mom got in a shouting match with Granddad a few hours ago."

"Let me guess," TaKylar said. "Something about how this move is just another step in whitewashing African American youths."

I nodded. "That's Grandpa." Eyes still fallen to the floor, a weary sigh descended from my lips. "Mom just kept screaming over and over that he wasn't there-that he didn't understand even half the stuff going down in Browning."

"Wow," TaKylar breathed. "That's rough."

I hesitated. "The worst part is...they're both right. I knew Mom was mad about all the crap going on at school-heck, we were all freaked out. And after what those officers did at the game..." I shivered in my seat, shutting my eyes.

TaKylar slid an arm around my shoulder. "Hey," she whispered. "Don't go there. It was beyond screwed up the way those cops treated you."

I shook my head. "But at the same time...Grandpa's not wrong either. Just because my parents're rich doesn't mean we're not still part of this community. I don't just wanna up and leave everyone behind."

"Well, it's like you said-you're still a part of Browning Heights. And maybe...maybe this'll be a good thing."

I quirked an eyebrow, stared incredulously back at her.

"My mom always says immersion in other cultures is what really helps you grow." She replaced her milkshake in the car's cupholder, then lifted her eyes to meet mine again. "I mean, just look at that CEO guy we learned about in history class last year."

"Wait-that biopic in Mr. Joel's class?

"Um, yes," she trilled. "Diversity's finally making its way to the top."

"TaKylar...I don't know."

"Don't know?" Her face turned quizzical. "Don't know about what?"

"Well, it's..." I trailed off, weighing my words. "Fenton Maverick is a billionaire CEO of one of the largest sporting goods chains in the United States. It's not exactly taking a big risk to hire all-black talent for a few commercials and photoshoots."

"A few? Jacquarious, he hired twenty new models and licensed seven gear lines. Plus, I heard he got up close and personal with some friends who showed him what it's really like to live outside a sixty-acre mansion for once. That's gotta count for something, right?"

"I guess." I shrugged my shoulders. "It still seems like a reach to me, though. Guy makes one publicity push, and suddenly he's the face of the modern-day Civil Rights movement?"

TaKylar paused. "Okay, you've got a point there. I definitely think there're people making way more sacrifices than him." She toyed with the ebony braids flanking behind her left ear. "I guess what I'm saying is maybe branching out and dipping your toes in a new culture'll be a good thing. You still wanna be a journalist someday, right?"

I nodded.

"Then maybe just think of this as your first assignment-snagging an insider's look at the bougiest school in the state." A pair of giggles bubbled from behind her slightly parted lips. "I'll expect a full report of your first day tomorrow at three p.m. sharp, and don't even think about being late-"

POW! The thunderous deathclap of a blazing bullet pounded through the air, the noise echoing across the night beyond TaKylar's window.

I jumped in my seat, head slamming against the padded roofing as TaKylar let out a terrified scream.

"What was-!?"

POW! Another gunshot.

POW! Another still.

"GET BACK HERE!" hollered a livid, raspy voice. "GIMME MY MONEY, YOU SKINNY MOTHA FU-!"

POW! The sound of gunfire seemed to shatter the world around us.

Through the windshield, beneath the moonlit streaks of lamplight raining onto the crooked asphalt of the main road, the dark and lumbering frame of a tall man staggered into view.

Extending his arm of pure charcoal to steady himself with the branch of a nearby tree, he toppled against its bark just as another gunshot rang out, splitting the wood above his head.

Ardent terror seemed for a moment to dispossess the bewildered haze drenching his face. Frantic and sluggish all at once, he turned to face our car, eyes sunken and unfocused, jaw agape and dripping blood.

...And with trudging steps, his figure began shuffling toward us.