those things you can

, put quotes on the board - and some students will still loo

t, get it because

n at exactly the right moment and s

ob. Finding

s. What I'm asking is - why does he still want it? He's rich. He's made it. He's stand

in the way that meant

and up before I fin

pen and staring at the ceiling the way he di

ause Maya would get her turn, and p

her, it'd be over. The dream only works be

ted at him. "

that meant we'd hit something real. I felt it too, that little s

ard the back left corn

wasn't on his phone. He was just gone somehow, sitting right there

've jumped in before Dev

hings mid-thought, who got a little too loud when he was

had no idea what was going on with the poor boy, but I had

d let him have t

my doorway, one shoulder against the frame, arms crossed, already

partment are having drinks tonight at

can

't even

dropped the eraser in t

fingers to her forehead like I was

ave had papers since the dawn of time and somehow the rest of them

ry prod

e a he

uctive

he doorway like she was afraid of what I'd say if she got too close. "Two hours," she said.

y laugh at Ma

home to your pap

't hav

nt two hours being a person." She looked a

a little because it was genuine

ad and left, sti

second in the quie

it last month, half-laughing, and I'd let it la

say without it sounding worse than she already tho

taught, the kids pushed back or they didn't, and at the

like that lately, and I didn't p

bag and went

month. Blackwood's my best player. If his grades don't c

me to sto

in hand, watching the other boys shoot around below him like he was on the

up and sat

d see him recalibrate in real time, wor

Mon

out at the court for a moment and let t

's going on

t his phone. "No

und like when you're actually trying. Your last paper didn't sound like you. The one before

didn't answer right away,

s time his voice came out quieter,

this week - not to get you in trouble, I want to be really clear about that. I just think it helps to

dad - but it was there and then it was gon

he said.

o talk - not for a grade, not because I'm c

without

the bleachers with the hollow sound of the ball echoing below a

I changed my clothes, stood at the counter eating leftover pasta I didn't rea

with my mom's na

hed it

alled and I watc

've been trying to reach you for weeks but you keep i

-down on the counter an

eating, are you sleeping, have you thought about talking to someone - and underneath all of it, the thing nobody wo

. Pro

asn

three years ago, the only thing that made se

al to socialize or get tangl