Betty Before X

Betty counts her blessings, which include snowball fights, sewing failures, hugs from Mrs. Collins, and nods from strangers.

Shirley asks Betty is she’s scared of starting high school. Betty can’t wait. She can join the Delsprites—a community service club for Black teenaged girls—and her invitation came today. In the group, she’ll get to wear red and purple, and she will volunteer for local organizations that help children. She and Suesetta are three blocks from home when a boy shouts that the police are killing people.

At home, Mrs. Malloy makes Mr. Malloy turn off the radio. The next morning, Betty learns that police killed 15-year-old Leon Mosley by shooting him in the back. They claim he was joyriding in a stolen vehicle. There are many conflicting accounts, but all agree that he was shot in the back, an indication that he was not advancing toward police officers in a way that could be used to justify the killing. Betty is desperate to go back to the day before, when Leon was alive, and this new horror couldn’t weigh on her and disrupt the League’s momentum.

When Kay and Suesetta arrive, Kay says they’re going to a march.