Sit on Top

  Text copyright © 2015 by Stephanie Perry Moore

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

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  Cover: © Rauluminate/iStock/Thinkstock (teen girl); © Andrew Marginean/Dreamstime.com (brick wall); © Andrew Scherbackov/Shutterstock.com (notebook paper).

  Interior: © Andrew Marginean/Dreamstime.com (brick hall background); © Sam74100/Dreamstime.com, pp. 1, 36, 69; © Luba V Nel/Dreamstime.com, pp. 9, 43, 76; © iStockphoto.com/kate_sept2004, pp. 16, 49, 83; © Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Thinkstock, pp. 23, 55, 89; © Rauluminate/iStock/Thinkstock, pp. 30, 62, 96.

  Main body text set in Janson Text LT Std 12/17.5.

  Typeface provided by Adobe Systems.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Moore, Stephanie Perry.

  Sit on top / by Stephanie Perry Moore.

  pages cm. — (The Swoop List ; #5)

  Summary: Spurred by another message from Leah and aided by Ms. Davis, the Swoop girls try to make the world a better place by sharing their stories with a group of promiscuous middle schoolers.

  ISBN 978-1-4677-5808-6 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978-1-4677-6053-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978-1-4677-6195-6 (EB pdf)

  [1. Conduct of life—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Sex—Fiction. 4. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 5. High schools—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M788125Sit 2015

  [Fic]—dc2

  2014031436

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 – SB – 12/31/14

  eISBN: 978-1-46776-195-6 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-46777-896-1 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-46777-897-8 (mobi)

  For

  my violets

  Ravin Acree

  Bryce Bradley

  Emerald Dawson

  Gabrielle Fisher

  Kaityln Forest

  LonDon Levell-Wilkins

  Rickayla Mitchell

  Sheldyn Moore

  Jayla Powell

  Ashley Shaw

  Sydney Sims

  Jordyn Taylor-Utley

  You are precious young ladies sitting on top of life.

  I’m so thankful to help you twirl into brilliance!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Toughest (Sanaa’s Beginning)

  As Sanaa Mathis looked at her reflection in the mirror, she had to be honest with herself. Though a girl standing in a gorgeous prom gown was staring back at her, she knew if she did a self-evaluation, she would realize she was still a work in progress. She hated not being as put together as the person she saw in the mirror.

  Over the last five months, she’d gone through so much. She and her ex-best friend, Toni, secretly liked the same fine hunk, Miles. Toni had been too shy to talk to Miles for herself, but was bold enough to ask Sanaa to talk to the guy on her behalf. Reluctantly, Sanaa complied, even though she had her own feelings for Miles. When Sanaa finally talked to Miles, he told her he liked her—not her friend. Because she liked him too, they connected. Sanaa had kept it from Toni until it all blew up in her face.

  Next thing Sanaa knew, she was named as the first person on the swoop list, a horrible list of girls at her school who were deemed “easy” by whoever wrote the list. She was ridiculed by most people in the school. Four other girls had been named on the swoop list. But out of the madness, all five of the swoop list girls had bonded together. And a melting pot of hope sprung forth.

  Now Sanaa was at an after-prom slumber party with the rest of her new friends. She didn’t want to take off her gown because she didn’t want the fairy tale to end. She was about to graduate, and she had to face the one last thing that was in her way: her ruined relationship with the girl she betrayed. But it wasn’t so easy to reconcile with someone who hated your guts, and Sanaa knew it.

  Out of nowhere, the toughest swoop list girl, Willow Dean, appeared and said, “Why do you care about her so much?”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Sanaa tried denying.

  “I can look at you and see in your eyes that you care. You’re thinking about Toni. She isn’t your friend.”

  And as much as Sanaa knew Willow was right and even took the blame for ruining her friendship with Toni, she didn’t want it to be true. Sanaa couldn’t face Willow. She merely huffed, hoping Willow would let it go.

  “Listen to me. She’s not your friend,” Willow said, pushing her point. “You want a reminder? She’s gathered a whole bunch of other girls together to say they want to beat our tails. She showed up to the prom today and tried to convince you she was with your man. Any and everything she can do to get under your skin, she’s doing. Screw her.”

  “Why do you talk so foul?” Sanaa lifted up her head and asked.

  Sanaa remembered last month when they were standing in practically this very same spot in Willow’s crib, arguing. But this rational, intelligent, brown beauty didn’t want to go down that crazy path again. She wanted to get better in life and move forward, not get bitter and move backward.

  Being honest, Sanaa took a calmer approach. “You know what, Willow? Let me back up. I know you got my back. I know you care about me. And I know I shouldn’t care about Toni, but I can’t get her out of my mind.”

  “And, Willow, you shouldn’t ask her to,” Olive Bell said in a sleepy voice.

  Olive had a lot going on in her life too. Living in a group home and getting caught up with a gang leader was just the start of her issues. Even now she was involved with a guy who lived at the foster home with her. Their relationship was finally getting back on track after her ex, the gang leader Tiger, and Charles, her current beau, had started a feud that escalated to mad violence.

  Olive added, “You got to leave her alone, Willow. People want to be true to their hearts, and they want to try to fix things.”

  Willow looked at Olive and motioned for her to keep it real. “But some stuff you need to leave alone, Olive. Right? It ain’t like you trying to reconcile with Tiger and his crazy self.”

  In a heated tone, Olive lashed back, “No, but honestly, I don’t want things to be as volatile as they have been. I’ve been thinking about how to fix it, and coming up with the right solution is not easy. So I’m just saying, we’re Sanaa’s girls. Whatever is going on with her, we shouldn’t tell her to forget it.”

  “Thank you!” Sanaa said, walking over to Olive and kissing her on the cheek a few times.

  “What are y’all doing up?” said Octavia Streeter, the redheaded, newly crowned prom queen, with her hair all crazed and her crown still on top.

  “You’re going to break that thing,” Willow said, pointing to the mangled crown.

  “Yeah, let me get it out of your hair,” the lovely, Hispanic Pia Alvarez popped up and said.

  Sanaa joked, “Girl don’t touch it. I tried to get the bling out of her head earlier tonight, and she wasn’t having any of that.”

  They all laughed. The tension melted. Sanaa exhaled.

  “This is how it should be,” Sanaa said, feeling good about their connection. “Girls just having fun.”

  “Yeah, but we’re about to go off to college,” Pia said.

  “Speak
for yourself. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck I’m doing,” Willow uttered.

  “Where is Dawson going to school?” Sanaa teased.

  Olive joked, “Yep, because wherever that’s going to be, you’re probably going too.”

  “Ha ha, hee hee,” Willow fake-laughed. “Of all of us, I’m the last one who’s going to be following some boy somewhere. You know I got accepted to Spelman. For real, for real I’m probably headed there. For sure ain’t following no dude.”

  All the rest of them nodded in agreement. Sanaa loved Willow’s strength. She just wished her friend wasn’t so hard. But dealing with her own flaws, she didn’t condemn Willow.

  Olive said, “I’m just playing with you, Willow. Ease up.”

  Willow added, “I know it. I know it. I know it. Just ... I’m frustrated.”

  “About what?” Sanaa asked her.

  Sensing they wanted her to chill, Willow shared, “I don’t know. It’s like you guys always want things to be just perfect, and sometimes it’s not going to be that way. You can’t be all sweet. People will run over you.”

  Suddenly they heard a bang. All of them huddled together. Willow looked out of her window and saw people egging Sanaa’s car.

  “What in the world is going on?” Willow yelled.

  The girls rushed outside. All of them ran to the left, but Sanaa ran to the right, towards the back of her car, and came face-to-face with Miss Toni. When the getaway car pulled up, the car door opened, Toni dashed inside, and the car took off. Upset, Sanaa reflected that maybe Willow was right. Maybe if you’re too sweet and too soft, people will walk all over you. That truly pissed Sanaa off. Her former best friend hated her so much that she was going to damage her property. Why, after all of that, did Sanaa still have such a heart for Toni? She wanted to hold Toni in her heart, but she let her go. That decision was the toughest.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Craziest (Willow’s Beginning)

  “I can’t believe we let them get away,” Willow said. She looked dead in Sanaa’s face when all five of the girls got back inside Willow’s house after chasing away the culprits who were messing with Sanaa’s car.

  “I guess my car is too ugly to egg,” Octavia tried joking to lighten the mood.

  “It’s not funny. Nothing’s funny about this, Octavia,” Willow said. “I knew we should’ve pounced on them heffas when we had the chance.”

  “And what would that have solved?” Sanaa uttered in a somber voice.

  Willow blasted, “It would’ve let them know that they can’t just show up anytime they want in the wee hours of the night!”

  Sanaa screamed, “What? You did almost the same thing to Toni a few weeks back, cutting the fool at two in the morning in her freaking yard!”

  Willow was so tired of Sanaa taking up for her friend who betrayed her. Or had Sanaa betrayed Toni? Willow was still confused about how it all went down. The point was that their relationship was irreconcilable, and Sanaa needed to come to terms with that fact.

  “You can’t be friends with everybody,” Willow huffed and said. “And begging criminals is stupid as—”

  “Okay, okay, guys. Settle down,” Pia said. “The two of y’all gonna fuss at each other again? I won’t come over here and spend the night if every time we do, the two of y’all are gonna argue!”

  Sanaa said, “I’m not arguing with Willow.”

  Willow pointed out, “That’s right, because you don’t argue. Make me the bad one.”

  “Like I’m the one who made you go over to Toni’s house last month and cause a scene?” Sanaa shouted.

  Willow stepped up to her and yelled, “To defend your honor, with your ungrateful behind! Plus, I didn’t destroy any property. She did!”

  “Okay! I just asked y’all to calm down,” Pia said, rushing between them with her phone. “Look, this is crazy. You’re not gonna believe this. Remember how all y’all got letters from the dead Leah girl? Now I got one. It’s another eerie text message. We gotta get to the bottom of this.”

  Pia showed the message to the other girls.

  Dear Swoop List Girls,

  Congrats to you girls for holding it together. I see you’re making a difference in the lives of young people by passing on your story. That’s admirable. But now you’re gonna have to dig even deeper and go to a much tougher place. Get ready to execute the final step in making sure that you conquer the swoop list, instead of the swoop list conquering you.

  To truly sit on top, you need to find out who put you on the swoop list and fix them. Some of your friends may not be up to the challenge, but it’s the only way to end this cycle. Trust me.

  Your Angel, Leah

  “Okay, this is weird,” Sanaa said.

  “If she’s really telling us to help the people who hurt us, she is not an angel,” Willow huffed.

  “Yeah, I’m really tired of this too,” Olive said.

  Pia uttered, “Come on, we promised each other we were gonna try to figure out who this Leah girl is. What the heck are we waiting for?”

  Sanaa said, “Well, with prom and everything, I guess we just got sidetracked. We’re about to graduate in a little while.”

  “Don’t you guys wanna know who wrote this?” Pia said.

  Everyone nodded except for Willow. Willow was so done with complying. She wanted the other girls to get backbones.

  Pia went over to Willow, put her arm around her, and said, “Come on. Live a little. Have a little adventure. Whoever is writing these notes knows all five of us.”

  “Remember that we found Leah’s obituary? She lived in the city of Warner Robbins. This girl is not alive,” Willow said. “I’m not tryna get caught up in who’s trifling enough to use her identity. You know what? I’m about to go call my boo.”

  “Ooh, so you and Dawson cool again?” Olive teased.

  “You better see if Charles made it back from prom and is on house arrest again, while you messin’ with me,” Willow said.

  Olive didn’t take too kindly to the joke, but Willow was telling the truth. By a judge’s order, Charles had to wear an ankle bracelet. He’d gotten it removed to go to prom, but at the end of the night, he’d had to be back at the group home with his ankle bracelet back in place.

  Before Willow could exit the room, Sanaa grabbed her arm and said, “Did you have to be rude like that?”

  Willow said, “Olive knows I was just playing with her. Quit making a big deal out of nothing. Besides, you act like you’re above everybody, but you sneaky too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “What am I talking about? Remember when my car got painted? I think it was Toni and Hillary that did it. And now I saw Toni out there, messing up your car. Hillary was probably driving getaway. You let them go, but I’m not gonna let them get away with this crap. What is wrong with the truth? You’re on me because I told Olive she needs to make sure Charles got home in time? If he is late, there are consequences. I just told her to check on him. I wasn’t making fun about it. I wasn’t saying it’s horrible that she’s dating a guy with metal around his ankle. I just stated a fact to my friend, being me. But you can’t be honest ever. You see a girl you want so badly to be okay with destroying your property, but you let her tail go!”

  Sanaa dropped her head and turned around. She started to tear up, but Willow wasn’t backing down. Sanaa had pushed her to a place where the real Willow was now loose.

  Willow offered, “You need to woman up, Sanaa, because trying to kiss up to somebody’s butt who basically just told you to kiss hers is the craziest.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Darkest (Olive’s Beginning)

  On Sunday afternoon, Olive enjoyed sitting with her head nuzzled against Charles’s chest. She loved spending time with the swoop list girls, but her heart went pitter-patter when she was with Charles. She couldn’t believe that while she’d been looking for love all these years, she’d been actually living in a group home with the guy she’d fall for. Yeah, Oliv
e had caught Charles staring at her every now and then, being a little nervous around her, and maybe overly so. Maybe she should have picked up on it. But she couldn’t go back and change how long it took for her to find him. She was just grateful that things were perfect now.

  “You took me to the prom,” Olive said.

  “Sorry I gave you such a hard time about it. You looked beautiful, too.”

  “And you were quite dapper in a tux.”

  “What you trying to say? Ya boy can’t clean up?”

  “Oh, I know you can clean up.” She seductively smiled his way.

  “I thought you were coming back here after the prom,” Charles said. “But I should have known you wanted to hang with yo’ girls.”

  “If you wanted to hang, you should have said so.”

  “It was cool. I was happy seeing y’all dancing. Had all us dudes just standing around, admiring the view. But I’ve been longing to do this,” he said as his hands roamed everywhere on her frame, and he kissed her.

  “Oh my gosh, what are you doing?”

  “Trying to take my mind off of stuff.”

  She pulled back. “You stressin’? Then let’s talk. You know I care.”

  “I don’t know if I’m the right guy for you.”

  “What are you talking about? Didn’t you just feel the attraction between the two of us?” Olive asked.

  “Ms. B was telling me about all the scholarship offers you got,” Charles said. Since Ms. B ran the group home Charles and Olive lived in, she was involved in helping them plan for what was next. “She said your caseworker planned to help you narrow down a scholarship option. You’ll be going to college in a few months.”

  “And, so ... come with me. You got selected to apply for some scholarships too.”

  “I know, but I’m right at a 2.9. I’m probably not going to get a 3.0. I’m not going to be able to afford college.”

  “With grant and aid, you’ll be able to go,” Olive insisted.

  “It’s not for me right now. I need a little bit more discipline in my life. Plus, if I go to the military, I can get some of it paid for. The government has been taking care of me all my life, and I’m a little tired of that.”