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brown, pleather-cushioned chair, trying to ignore the fact that my pantyhose felt like Brillo pads. I smushed my knee bones together and kept my beige Payless dress shoes planted on the hard, green floor. Sweat trickled down my chest while I fought the urge to scratch at the itchiness underneath the yellow wool skirt and sweater get-up that my mother had picked out and I hated .
    Surrounded by walls painted in a blue ocean scene—dolphins, seals, killer whales—three empty chairs were behind me. But my eyes zeroed in on what was in front—the big eyes of three little girls I’d never seen before in my life. They sat across from me in separate beds, wearing pale blue and white striped gowns and ogling me as if I were E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
    On my lap, I had two books Mama had given me earlier—when she’d introduced me to the girls and then left me all alone in that great big room with them. Thinking of how she had just abandoned me just ticked me off all over again. Why wouldn’t it?
    In my head, I heard Mama going on and on…
    â€œRemember, Taneesha, your evil twin never takes a vacation…”
    Plus, Evella played her can’t-do noise on top of my brain as if she was stuck on “repeat.”
    Loser! Loser! Loser!
    And I just couldn’t control that girl.
    Not only that, but knowing that the only reason I had to deal with Evella’s blabbermouthing that morning was because Mama and Daddy hadn’t listened to me had me smoking mad.
    Now, I knew my mother’s whole evil twin thing was pretty lame. And weird when you got right down to it— split-personality weird.
    Loser! Loser! Loser!
    I knew Evella was only imaginary. Just in my head.
    Loser! Loser! Loser!
    But it really was like I had an evil twin in there.
    That’s what I was thinking when all of a sudden one little word shined its light in my brain:
    Chant.
    I was whipped, and right then, that sounded like a real good idea so I started chanting fast in my head.
    Those little girls kept looking at me like I was
going to say something. But since I couldn’t, I just kept chanting in my mind.
    I don’t know how long we sat like that. Them looking at me. Me looking at them. A minute? Two minutes? I couldn’t tell. But I starting thinking something: “Like it or not, Taneesha Bey-Ross, you’ve got a job to do and there’s no way out.”
    So while those six eyes x-rayed me, I made a decision. Where it came from I couldn’t have said.
    Loser! Loser! Loser!
    But I decided that in spite of Evella’s racket, I was not going to let her ruin everything.
    At least that was my plan.
    â€œOkay, girls, what should I read first?” I asked, holding up one of the books in my lap. “ Kendra’s Not-So-Surprise Party …or—”
    â€œThe party! The party!” squealed a girl, bobbing her chubby body up and down on her mattress. Her two thick braids flapped behind her like floppy wings.
    â€œThe Party! Ow !”
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Ebony?!” I stood.
    â€œThe needle pinched here,” she said, pointing to the place where a clear, plastic tube stuck out
of her arm.
    â€œOkay. Okay. I…I…I’ll get my mother.” Panicking, I rushed toward the door.
    â€œNo. I’m all right. The needle always do that when I jump on the bed.” I looked at her, unsure. “For real. I’m okay.”
    â€œThen don’t jump on the bed, Ebony. All right?” I eased back to my chair. Whew! Girl, you nearly gave me a heart attack .
    â€œAll right. But can you please read about the party?”
    â€œOkay.” I sat. “I like that one, too.”
    That wasn’t so hard. A little drama, but it’s over.
    Even though I hadn’t wanted to be there at first, I started thinking it would be kind of cool to be able to tell Carli that the little kids at the hospital looked up to me.
    I opened one of the books on my lap and