Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson

Author:Cheryl Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2011-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Later that same day, she walked into the teachers’ lounge. It was a small room—smaller than Mia’s master bedroom suite. There was a TV mounted to the wall. It wasn’t a flat screen, and she didn’t want to sit too close to it, because the mounting didn’t look too secure. The room itself wasn’t so bad. The seats were comfortable enough.

Mia planned to brown-bag her lunch every day with a tuna fish sandwich, a cup of yogurt, a bottle of water, and a small bag of baked Lay’s potato chips. She wasn’t on a diet. But the money they’d accumulated from the several trips they’d made to the pawnshop was dwindling. And Frank’s parents didn’t give them any cash, or so he claimed. They called the creditors directly and paid the bills each month. She couldn’t complain about that, because it was a lot more than her parents were willing to do.

“How was your first day?” Mr. Ross asked.

“Challenging. I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that a fight broke out on the first day of school, even though that young man was murdered over the weekend.”

“In the words of Bishop T. D. Jakes, ‘Get ready, get ready, get ready.’ Nothing surprises me around here anymore.”

“When their parents show up for parent-teacher conferences, that surprises me,” Rochelle Banks, one of the female teachers, said. “When their child gets suspended, and they come up to the school out of genuine concern, not just to curse out the faculty, that’s surprising too.”

“Is it really that bad?” Mia asked. She shook her head. “I always thought charter schools were a little better, didn’t have as many problems.”

“Some of them are,” Mr. Ross said. “And this one used to be. A part of me doesn’t want to blame the parents, but you can’t really blame a kid either, because they’re kids.”

“I disagree,” Rochelle said. “Kids know right from wrong—”

“If they’re taught. If not, a bad student grows up to become a worse parent,” Mr. Ross said.

Mia’s eyes bounced between Byron and Rochelle like a Ping-Pong ball.

“Don’t get me wrong. Not all the kids at this school are bad, but the bad ones leave a lasting impression,” Rochelle said. “And the good ones sort of fade into the background, trying to survive long enough to graduate.”

“I can feel what you’re thinking,” Mr. Ross said to Mia. “‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ”

“You’re a mind reader.”

“Welcome to Clayborne,” Mr. Ross said. “A lot has changed, Mia. Back when you were teaching, the economy was still healthy, and so was Detroit. But look at Detroit now. We’ve fallen so hard and fast as a city. Dateline just did a special that puts us in a very bad light.”

“Detroit will rebuild,” Mia said as she pounded her fist on the table.

“You’re a glass-is-half-full type of person, I see,” Mr. Ross said with a smile, showing off his beautiful white teeth. One more thing she found attractive about him on a list that continued to grow.

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