Penny spent the rest of lunch by herself. Her friends ignored her in class and steered clear of her when it was time to go home. Penny walked home alone, comprehending on what had happened today. She had managed to stand up for herself and to her friends, but at what price? The loss of their friendship? So she could be her own person? She fingered the note Zoey had given her and wondered if she should call her now. She was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard a car honking. She was in the middle of a crosswalk. She quickly ran to the other side of the street and watched the car drive by. She sighed and turned to the music store that she had once worked at. There was a 'for hire' sign plastered on the display window. Penny stopped and looked inside. She remembered all to well what happened when she got fired and it caused Dijonay to get the boot too. However, she started to think…could she get the job back? If she promised to do a better performance than before? Feeling apprehensive, but also compelled she opened the door and walked inside. The bell alerted her presence and she saw her old boss come to the front counter. He frowned when he saw her,
"Hello Penny."
"Hello sir. I couldn't help but notice you still have the sign up and I was wondering…"
Penny trailed off.
"Yes Penny?" He asked her.
"I was wondering if I may be able to re-apply for a position here."
He looked at her skeptically and saw hopefulness on Penny's face.
"Why do you want to try working here again?"
"I've realized that I've made some bad choices that were mostly influenced by other people and I'm trying to do things right. I was wondering if I can get a second chance. I promise I will work to the best of my ability and not be distracted like I was in the past."
Th man looked at her in thought and weighed out his options. He could tell Penny was telling the truth as she stood, nervously. He sighed.
"I have a job application, fill it out and we will go from there."
Penny's eyes lit up as she was handed a paper application.
"I promise sir, I won't let you down this time."
The man smiled slightly as he watched Penny run out of the store with an excited smile on her face.
Penny skipped all the way home with the job application in hand. She was ready to fill it out and turn it back in. She had a chance to get a job! Well, her old job again, but this meant she could earn her own money again. She opened the door to her house and walked in and saw her mama reading a book on the couch.
"Hey Baby, how was school?"
"Interesting." Penny said.
"How so?"
"I ran into my friends and well…" Penny trailed off.
Trudy noticed the hesitation and put down her book. She got up from the couch and walked over to Penny.
"Penny, what happened?"
"I got cornered by Zoey and sat with the girls. They asked me why I was wearing different clothes and why I didn't go shopping with them and it spiraled downward from there."
Penny hung her head and Trudy pulled her into a hug. Penny hugged her mom tight, the array of emotions coming out like a broken dam and she started to cry. Trudy hugged her daughter tighter.
"Penny, it's okay. It's okay, baby."
Penny just cried harder. It felt good to let it out especially since she had wanted to do so all day after the girls abandoned her at lunch. Penny felt as if her heart was breaking and remodeling itself. It felt good, like the new her was coming into full fruition. Penny looked at her mom and Trudy looked at her.
"Are you going to be okay baby?"
"I don't know. Maybe not now, but maybe eventually. I'm just not sure right now."
Trudy ran her fingers through her daughter's hair, "Things like this will take time, but you can overcome them baby."
Penny nodded and slowly walked upstairs to her room. She stared into space for a moment till she remembered the note Zoey gave her. She pulled it out of her purse and debated whether she should make the call. Zoey hadn't abandoned her like Dijonay and Lacienega did. She went through the contacts on her phone and pressed Zoey's number. She put it to her ear and waited with baited breath.
"Hello?"
"Hey Zoe."
"Penny! Hey, what's up girl?"
"A lot as you can tell from earlier today."
"Yeah, about that. I didn't want to jump to conclusions like Dijonay and Lacienega till I heard it from you first."
"I appreciate the thought Zoey. Things have been kinda…hard to digest and I just wasn't ready to tell anyone yet with the things I've been find out."
"What were you finding out that you couldn't tell us about?" Zoey asked.
Penny hesitated. Could she trust Zoey? Would she tell Dijonay and Lacienega? She decided to take a chance. After all, Zoey didn't leave like the others did.
"It had to do with you guys." She said.
"What do you mean?" Zoey asked.
"After the karate tournament, I started thinking and…I just feel that maybe I need to do some soul-searching a bit. I've decided I like karate and wanna stick with it and I feel that maybe…I need to find out more about who I am as Penny. Does that make any sense?"
Silence. Penny thought Zoey would now berate and leave her like the girls had. Instead, she heard this,
"Of course I understand Penny! You need to do some soul-searching and find out who you are as a person. Everybody has that going on in their life. Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you because you need some personal space."
Penny let out a large breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Zoey wasn't going to leave her. Out of all of them, she was the one who understood her. It may have been hard to see that it was only Zoey, but…it was better then nothing.
"Thanks Zoey, that means a great deal to me." Penny said.
"You're welcome Penny. Let me know whenever you wanna talk and I'll listen."
Penny smiled, "Thanks girl. Sorry to break off like this, but I gotta get my homework done now."
"Talk to you later girl."
With that Zoey hung up. Penny stared at her cellphone for a moment before she placed it on the desk. She felt a large weight off her shoulders and she found herself better to breathe again. She looked to the ceiling and spied the posters she had on the ceiling. They were of rap singer fifteen cent. She heard her mama's words of not doing something just for a boy inside her mind. Like when she had been tricked to downloading all that music for free.
"Maybe…I also need to redecorate a bit here." She thought out loud.
She got out her desk chair and stepped on it and ripped the posters down. She glanced at the room a bit and saw it was due for a cleaning, but maybe…it too was due for a change to go along with her new look. Penny smiled as she started to plan out what she would like to do till she heard,
"Did you start your homework young lady?"
Her daddy.
Penny turned to her backpack and realized she still had 'that' to do. She glanced to her room again and then back to the backpack. What would the new Penny do this time? She felt herself wanting to give into temptation but remembered, that's not an option anymore. She was being a better individual now and she was not going to put it off like she had before.
"Starting now, Daddy." She called out and got off her desk chair.
Penny pulled her backpack to her side and opened it up. Now was the time to show she was a better person and was going to keep with it, not just with sticking to karate, but also to take her own advice as well.
Penny spent last night doing her homework. Dijonay had called her, but after the brushoff she got from lunch, Penny didn't answer. Penny was too angry how she treated her and knew that talking to her was not the best option right now. Penny went to school the next day and breezed through her day with no issues. She had gotten up, walked to school, steered clear of the Gross Sisters and the girls, went to classes and was on her way to the music store to drop off her application yet again. She also had karate this afternoon, so she hurried from the music store to the dojo as quick as she could.
"Right on time Penny."
"Yes Sensei." She said, bowing to him.
"Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes, I am." Penny said confidently.
The man nodded, "We will warm up and then we shall start with something new."
Penny nodded and followed her Sensei as they started doing jumping jacks.
After two hours of training, Penny walked outside the dojo. She was covered in sweat, but she had a big smile on her face. She was advancing into karate and she was loving every moment of it.
"Yo Penny."
Penny turned and saw it was Sticky who called her and behind him were the girls and Duke too.
"Whatcha doin' here?" Sticky asked.
"Doing lessons." Penny said, as if she was speaking to a retarded child.
"Why bother Proud? It's not cool anymore." Lacienega said.
"It doesn't matter whether it's cool or not, what matters is that I'm learning how to defend myself." Penny said calmly, while on the inside she felt herself getting angry.
"Whatever you say girl, we alls heading to the movies. You comin' or what?" Dijonay asked.
"Sorry guys, I gotta head home and get my homework done. Maybe next time."
"Aw c'mon Penny, what's up with ya?" Dijonay asked.
"What do you mean?" Penny asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow.
"You haven't been yourself. You been spending time by yourself, dressing differently-" Dijonay said, till Lacienega stepped in.
"And on top of that Proud, you haven't been acting like you normally do. Keeping secrets, not telling us what's what."
"Yeah, what she said." Dijonay said.
Penny felt herself wanting to scream. But she refrained herself. She took a deep breath and faced her friends,
"Look guys, I'm just going through some personal things right now. I'm just not ready to tell you about them. And I may not, there are just some things that I'd rather keep to myself. If you guys can't accept me who I am now, then…I'm sorry."
With that, Penny walked away and went for her dad's car, leaving her friends standing where they were all shocked, except for Zoey.
"Everything okay Penny?" Oscar asked.
"I guess. I kinda wish I hadn't done that but I know it was the right thing to do for the time being."
"There are going to be times like that baby girl, but remember what your mama and I told you, stand your ground-"
"And speak for yourself. Don't let anyone walk over you."
"Exactly." Oscar finished.
Penny smiled as she looked out the window of the car. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction. She just hoped that everything was gonna be alright from now on.
It was the weekend and Penny was doing her homework. She was doing a report on Nasa's Mary Jackson, first female astrophysicist. She was close to being done with the paper till she heard a voice.
"That don't exactly look like fun there huh Penny."
Penny jerked her head, looking around, but saw no one.
"Try the TV Penny."
She turned and saw Al Roker in her TV.
"'Kay, I either ate something bad or I'm really trippin' right now."
"You're not trippin' Penny. I'm here to let you know you're free, just like everyone else right now."
"Excuse me?" Penny asked.
"Your friend Dijonay got caught yesterday at my night club last night by her parents and the rest of your friends and wished that all the parents would go away."
"And I'm supposed to believe this. You can't just wish something away and poof, it's gone."
"Oh, you'd be surprised what you can do nowadays Penny. Besides, she signed a contract. And it happened. Look around your house and you'll see what I mean."
In a blink, he was gone. Penny, feeling curiosity get the better of her, got up and started looking around.
"Mama? Daddy? Sugar Mama?"
Nothing. The house was indeed void of her family. She just heard the cooing of Bebe and Cece as they tumbled with each other on the floor. Penny ran down the stairs and scooped up her little brother and sister and put them in their play pen next to the TV.
"What's going on here?!" Penny practically screamed, freaking out.
"There's no need to worry Penny. You're free now."
Al Roker's voice rang out and then disappeared. Penny was about to yell at the man till the doorbell rang. Penny walked over and opened it to see a whole bunch of kids cheering and Dijonay was right in the front of the doorway.
"Penny! Al Roker did it! There are no more adults! We're free!"
Penny could only stare open-mouthed at Dijonay as she jumped up and down ecstatic. Penny was horrified. Her parents and grandmother were really gone. But gone where? She felt her anger bubbling. Her friend did this?! Dijonay did this! Penny frowned and turned around and slammed the door in Dijonay's face. She turned to Bebe and Cece in their pen. Penny was scared. What was she gonna do without her parents around to take care of the twins?! Sure, she had babysat them, but she never took care of them overnight or for more then a day! She felt herself starting to hyperventilate till she heard another knock on the door. She went back to the door and saw it was Zoey.
"Zoey." She said.
"Hey, I take it Dijonay told you what happened."
"Yeah she did. I can't believe she did this." Penny muttered angrily.
"Can I come in?"
"Sure girl. Come on." Penny opened the door wider for her to slip through and then closed it.
"So, what's going on? There are literally no grownups at all?!"
"Yeah. All of a sudden, they are gone. Everyone taking advantage of the fact."
"Everyone but me, that's for sure." Penny said.
"Any particular reason why?" Zoey asked.
"Because I'm worried about taking care of Bebe and Cece. I've only watched them for afternoons at a time, not days or overnights. I don't know what I'm gonna do now."
"Well, since I see where you are coming from, I'll stay over and help you. Maybe we can find a way to talk to Dijonay out of the contract she signed." Zoey suggested.
"Maybe, I kinda don't wanna talk to her now, not after how they cornered me outside the dojo with the rest of y'all."
"I have to admit, I was surprised to see you stuck with karate unlike the rest of us."
"Well, I've been thinking and I find it fun and all and besides I've kinda realized that I needed to grow up in a way and now it's been a lot better between me and my parents and whatnot."
"Really?" Zoey asked.
Penny nodded, "Yeah, I understand now why Daddy doesn't want me to date yet and why my mama doesn't want to dress up and I found out some new things about myself that I kinda want to do now instead of just following what others are doing. I want to make my own way."
Zoey was shocked as she heard this from Penny. She had never heard her friend talk with such passion. Usually she was the one who was preaching and was ignored but now she saw Penny a bit differently and she admit, it was refreshing to see her in this way. Zoey also came to realize, maybe she needed a change too. She was also a teenager who had a case with breaking the rules and getting into trouble like Dijonay and Lacienega. Maybe…she should re-evaluate herself too. Bebe and Cece started making noises and Penny and Zoey both noticed a foul odor. It was time to change the twin's diapers again.
"You grab Cece and I'll grab Bebe?" Zoey suggested.
"That works girl." Penny said.