Chapter 1

"Mom, I'm home," I yelled as I walked into the house, just like I always did and right on time. The bus was never late.

"In the kitchen, Dani," she yelled back, and that was pretty normal too.

"You're all dressed up," I smiled, but I was curious too. Usually the afternoons found Mom wearing an apron and baking cookies, or stirring a pot. She liked to cook and my mom was good at it, but today she wore a dress and high heels as she checked her purse.

"Hi, Dani. Don't change clothes, we're going to the mall." Mom barely looked at me.

"The mall?" I really did give her a look then. "It's Wednesday, Mom."

"So?" She glanced at me.

"We go to the mall on Sundays," I said slowly. "Don't we?"

"Well, there's no law that says we can't go on Wednesdays too, dear." Mom smiled back at me. "Did you take my comb?"

"Me?" I shook my head like she was going senile. "Why would I use your comb?"

I have straight hair, long and black. It's kinky, especially at the ends, but nothing like my mom's. She has shorter hair and a real Afro, thick and tightly curled. Mine would probably be like that too, except I get it permed every week or two. I just think it looks better that way and it goes well with my pretty face. Being a black boy, I have brown eyes of course, but my nose isn't so wide as a lot of my friends, it's narrow and a little upturned. Pert, I guess. My lips are full, rather than over-inflated like my dad's. He has big lips and I'm sort of glad I don't take after him too much. I have high cheeks and a heart shaped face like my mom and I look good, I know that.

My body is nice too; even for being just sixteen it was pretty special. I'd matured quickly enough anyway, but during summer vacation between ninth and tenth grades, I really grew up. My baby fat just melted away and my breasts went from nothing but puffy brown nipples to little A cups, which was a real relief because I didn't think I was ever gonna get boobs. I'm pretty tall, almost five foot nine, with a nice thin waist and narrow hips, boyish I suppose. I wish they were wider, but I can't do much about that. I do have a round and firm, and not overly large butt and some long legs of course. All my height came from my legs. I didn't mind nor did most of the guys who checked me out. They thought my body was perfect, not that I paid much attention to boys or anything. I mean, I did sometimes, but not really. I was still growing inside as well as out.

Anyway, besides not borrowing my mom's comb, I really didn't understand why she wanted to go to the mall on a Wednesday afternoon. She usually put me at the kitchen table and fed me a sandwich and a glass of milk, whether I was hungry or not, and then had me doing homework until dinner time. It had been like that since first grade and anything out of the ordinary made me a little suspicious.

"What's going on, Mom?" I wondered.

"We're having company tonight." She closed her purse and put it over her shoulder. "So I thought I'd take you shopping."

"Take me shopping?" I grinned. "Because we're having company? Who? The President or something?"

"What?" She smiled. "No. A man your father works for is coming over. A nice man and he wants to meet you."

"A nice man wants to meet me?" I was following my mom towards the front door. "What does that mean?"

"Just what it sounds like," Mom shrugged. "Hurry up now, we don't have all day."

"I'm right behind you." I said, stating the obvious and wondering if my real mom had been abducted by aliens or something. I grabbed my purse off the chair where I liked to drop it when I came home from school.

She really was in a hurry and Mom had been serious about not changing clothes too. So I was still wearing my school uniform, a navy blue skirt and blazer with a white blouse beneath it. Some knee high white socks and black Loli's on my feet. I didn't really like the idea of going to the mall like that, but it wasn't like I had much choice anyway. Besides, a lot of guys liked catholic schoolgirls, I knew. Especially the black schoolgirls, although there were only three of us at the whole school. Mostly the other kids were all white, like the Pope, except they were all girls.

"Make sure the door's locked."

"I know, Mom." I rolled my eyes, pulling the front door closed and checking it. "So why does this guy want to meet me?"

"He's not a guy, he's a man." She corrected me as we got into her Daimler mini-van. "He's one of the vice-presidents at your dad's office, so..."

She started the car and began backing out of the drive and when she didn't finish her thought I prompted her again.

"So?"

"What dear?" Mom looked at me.

"So, he's a vice-president, what does that have to do with me?" I gave her frustrated laugh. "I'm only sixteen; I don't work for the guy."

"The man, dear."

"The man," I said sarcastically, "Whatever."

"Well, your father does, so we're going to entertain this man and impress him," Mom told me. "It'll be good for your father's career."

"Okay." I shrugged, cause that almost sort of made sense, but I still didn't see what it had to do with me.

I let it go for a little bit, letting Mom drive to the mall in peace, even though I was dying to understand what was going on. We were a pretty normal family and this was kind of weird, or at least not usual for us. My dad worked for an insurance company and he was smart and hard working, trying to move up the corporate ladder, although there's only so far a black man can go in the Confederacy, of course. He made a good living and provided well for us anyway.

Mom was a homemaker, a housewife, and she kept us clean and neat and on time. She was good at that and my dad and I appreciated her a lot, you know? I think Mom was always a little unhappy at only having one child, but that's the way it is. The law is the law and neither of my parents were criminals, so after I'd been born healthy Mom and Dad had both been sterilized. Some black people didn't like that, I knew, but those people were troublemaking niggers and I was pretty happy when the police caught one and rehabilitated him or her. It was usually a him for some reason too, which I always wondered about. Very few black women were ever caught and the ones that were, well, they looked like criminals anyway.

"So, what are we shopping for, Mom?" I asked as we walked through the parking lot. We'd managed to park close, since it was a Wednesday and who wanted to go to the mall on a weekday?

"Clothes," Mom smiled at me. "Your father called me from work and gave me some ideas."

"Daddy is giving you fashion tips?" I laughed at that.

"No! Don't be silly." She laughed too. "I think someone told your father what sort of clothes the vice-president likes to see."

"He likes special clothes? That's weird," I decided, but Mom ignored me and we were in the mall proper then, heading towards the big Sears store.

"Hmmm ... Let's go over this way." My mom had her chin up, looking over clothing racks in the women's department. "You're growing up so fast, Dani..."

"You're buying clothes for me?" I blinked at her.

"What?" She glanced at me. "Yes, dear. That's what I said at the house, remember?"

"Oh, well, I thought..." I guess she had said that, but I just thought probably she was buying something for her and maybe I'd get a new t-shirt or something. I had a lot of clothes already.

"I don't know..." Mom was looking through skirts and I was looking through blouses a few feet away.

"What are we looking for?" I wondered, because I really didn't know. "Like really nice clothes? Or like hanging out clothes?"

"Your father said we should look for something sexy," my mom told me, and I blinked at her.

"What?" I laughed, thinking I must have heard her wrong.

"Sexy, dear." She nodded and she sounded so serious I almost believed her.

"Yeah, right." I shook my head. "You won't even let me go on a date and you're going to buy me sexy clothes?"

"This isn't a date, Dani," she said. "It's an introduction."

"What does that mean?" I was really confused and it was like we were speaking two different languages.

"I just don't know." My mom was ignoring me again. "All these clothes seem pretty normal."

"It's Sears, remember?" I rolled my eyes and the truth was that my mom probably wouldn't know sexy if it bit her on her big black butt.

"Well..." She pursed her lips and looked at her watch. "Where do sixteen year old girls go to buy sexy clothes?"

"You're asking me?" I gave her a look, as if I'd confess that I knew anything about sexy clothes. She was trying to trick me.

"Dani, you must know some girls at school." Mom cleared her throat. "Some, uh ... Sluts?"

"Sluts?" My jaw hit the floor.

"Yes." She nodded at me. "Where do sluts buy their clothes?"

"I think we need to get you home, Mom." I shook my head and I was a little worried about her. "Did you take like some cough syrup or something? A lot of it?"

"What?" She made a face. "Of course not. I'm perfectly fine."

"Yeah, right." I wondered if I'd taken something by accident, or maybe I was just in bed dreaming. This was totally surreal.

"Maybe that girl knows," she said. I followed her gaze to see a white girl, about my age and all blonde and pretty, and she was dressed sort of sexy.

She had a pair of short shorts and a small tube top, a pink one that showed off her budding breasts. It wasn't an outrageous outfit by any means, but she probably hadn't bought those clothes here. The shorts were tight and tiny and I could see a thong beneath them, since the shorts were like violently yellow and her thong desperately red.

"Excuse me, Miss?" Mom interrupted the girl's browsing.

"What?" She looked up at my mom, since the girl was rather petite, and from the look on her face it was obvious she was wondering why a middle aged black woman would possibly want to talk to her.

"I couldn't help but admire your outfit and I was just wondering where you bought it." My mom spoke gently, lowering her eyes politely. "You see, Miss, I have a daughter and..."

The girl looked me up and down without smiling and I quickly remembered my place and dropped my eyes.

" ... I'd like to buy her something ... Nice." My mom swallowed hard, because I knew she was thinking this white girl looked like a slut, but she'd never dare say that of course.

"Saucy's," the girl said. "It's by the food court."

"Saucy's. Thank you, Miss."

"Whatever." The girl turned away, leaving Mom to stand there, smiling at the girl's back.

"She was very nice, wasn't she?" Mom said as we walked away.

"Yeah, she was," I agreed. "Are we really going to Saucy's?"

"That's what the girl said." She shrugged and it confirmed my worst fears. My mom was having a breakdown.

"Maybe I should call Daddy and uh, ask him what I should wear, okay?" I was opening my purse so I could get my celphone out.

"Oh, don't bother your father at work, Dani." She frowned, but it was too late, I had Dad on speed dial.

"Richardson," his deep voice sounded through my phone and I had to walk fast to keep up with my mom.

"Hi, Daddy? It's me."

"Dani? What's wrong, Princess?" Dad always assumed it was something bad when I called.

"Hey, um, Mom's acting a little ... Funny," I said, just because there wasn't any other way to say it.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"She's taking me shopping, Daddy. For, uh ... Sexy clothes," I said.

"Good," he said, and I almost dropped my phone.

"What?"

"Good, yeah. That's what I told her. You need some new clothes for tonight." My dad sounded like that was obvious. "Didn't she tell you we're having company tonight?"

"Well, yeah," I snorted. "But she's acting so ... Weird. And sexy clothes ... Daddy, what does that mean?"

"Look, Dani, I'm a little busy," he sighed. "Just do what your mother says and I'll be home after work, okay?"

"But Daddy..."

"Bye bye, Princess. Love you." He disconnected.

"Bye," I breathed, staring at my phone and then hurrying to catch up with my mom again.

"Well?" Mom wasn't happy I'd bothered my dad. "What did your father say?"

"Uh ... He said ... Good."

"See?" She shook her head. "I told you ... Oh, here's that store. Oh my."

She was staring at a mannequin in the window, wearing a very short red leather skirt and a sheer white blouse, like a silk blouse, with a red lace bra underneath and white fishnet stockings up to mid-thigh. It was probably wearing red lace panties to go with the bra, I imagined, and on its feet the mannequin had little black leather boots with three inch heels.

I'd seen clothes like that before, but I didn't know any girls who would wear them. Just like I'd walked past this store a hundred times, but I'd never been in it. This wasn't the way a good girl dressed at all and I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack, or at least give me her patented lecture on what was wrong with the country's youth these days. Mom wasn't short on opinion when it came to dressing like that, trust me, she was just getting her steam up and I waited for the inevitable. We wouldn't be going into Saucy's afterall.

Well..." She exhaled sharply and licked her lips. "I think that would be perfect, don't you?"