Hello.

My name is Elizabeth. I am seventeen years old.

I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. You probably have tons of better things to do than sit around listening to me.

What else do you want to know? I'm Elizabeth and I live in Virginia. And I'm seventeen. That's really all there is to tell

Thank you.

Goodbye.

THE END


Oh! You're still there?

Oh, well. Now I suppose I'll have to tell you about-

All right, I'm sorry. It wasn't really true, what I said. There is more to tell. If you're absolutely positive it won't bore you, I'll tell you the story of how the T.C. Williams Titans beat every other team in their division.

Like I said, my name's Elizabeth. Elizabeth Lynnette Walsh, daughter of the only white doctor that would treat blacks. It made for some interesting sleepovers let me tell you. To have a bunch of milk-pale seven-year-old girls gigglin' together, then suddenly screamin' in fear as the black man daddy was treating walked through our front door as natural as if he was my brother Michael. None of the girls would play with me after that. Called me a nigger-lover. Wadn't a very good nickname, but it stung all the same. When I got into middle school, my desk would strangely come apart, my locker would get trashed, and books, if left unattended, would be ripped to shreds. I never told my father, for fear he would make it worse, so for five years I put up with the torment of everyone in school hatin' me for my dad. One summer afternoon I came home from my job at Lind's five and dime to find my father sitting at the table, his head in his hands. I approached him cautiously.

"Daddy?"

"K6-2-2."

I cocked my head to the side. "What?"

"K6-2-2. You know that new school they're building? It's going to be integrated." he lifted his head to show me the ear-to-ear smile he had on his face.

I grinned back at him. Maybe I would have friends in this new segregated school. Daddy had helped almost every black family in Alexandria, I was sure someone would befriend me.


I wasn't too far off. The segregation was a good thing, though a mother with a sharp picket sign almost decapitated me on my way in. The funny thing was, it wasn't black girls that accepted me, but white boys. One white boy to be exact, Louie Lastick, a football player that had moved here during the summer. I was sure the reason he was a friend to me was that he didn't know my past. My father's past really, but it followed me more than it did him. Louie moved in next door and when I found out he liked football I told him about the sign ups, and he took off like a shot.

"What's you're first class?" I asked him, standing in front of the school, surrounded by protesters.

"Uh, English, with Mr. Jenkins. You?"

I turned pink under my freckles. "Algebra II."

"What'chu doin' in my school boy?" Louie spoke, not to me, but to a carmel-colored boy who had just walked up to him. "Man this is messed up."

"Yeah anything serious happens, they shut the school down and our season goes down the drain, this here's real messed up." He sighed "but there are a lot of pretty women here."

I peeked out from behind Louie. "Hi! Am I included in that statement?"

The boy looked slightly shocked that I wasn't glaring at him. "Oh uh, of course. Petey Jones." He said, thrusting his hand out to shake.

I met it firmly. "Elizabeth Walsh, pleasure to meet you." I said with a smile.

"Elizabeth's my next door neighbor, she's the one that told me about football tryouts."

A white boy with blond hair and what I knew would be a wonderful smile came up to us. "Hippie boy?" he murmured, shaking his head.

"Hey Sunshine! Not even a hello?"

I was right, his smile was fantastic. "Hey Petey, Louie. Who's your friend?"

"Elizabeth Walsh" I replied, offering my hand.

I marveled at how warm and dry his hand was, "Ronnie Bass, nice to meet you."

"Likewise," I breathed, momentarily stunned as his cornflower blue eyes met mine. "But, um, please call me Liz." Where did that come from?

"Liz." Ronnie said softly nodding.

Petey coughed. "If y'all are done? We should get inside"

Ronnie and I turned away from each other, blushing.

"Yeah," I said, "Halls are gonna be murder since no one knows where everything is."

"A whole school of freshman." Louie remarked, making me giggle.