Monday morning is going relatively smooth for QJ, however in the middle of class during the afternoon, he’s called in to the office. “The guidance counselor wants to see you" the Principal said with no explanation. "Why?“ a concerned QJ asked to which the principal responded "You’ll find out when you go in”. Reluctantly, he walked over to the office where he was greeted by an African American woman. She had a dark to medium brown complexion, one could describe as Coffee. She was in her mid 50’s and dressed as a pants suit.
“Elaine August” she said as she reached out to shake QJ’s hand.
“Quincy James Martin Jr, My friends call me QJ”
“The principal, from my understanding, wants you to see me for one per week for the next two weeks. AI figured if you visit with me today for 15 minutes with Friday off. I know it’s probably the last place you want to be at this point, however I want to make this as easy and as comfortable for you as possible. Nothing we talk about will be discussed without your consent.”
“Okay…….”
“So tell me about yourself”
“Well, my name is Quincy. I’m in the third grade. I’m named after my dad actually, but all my friends and family call me QJ. I have an older brother and sister, they’re both in the sixth grade. Twins. “
“How about your parents?”
“Well, my mom is a teacher and my dad recently retired from the Airforce.”
“Your mother is a teacher?”
“Yes ma’am, she teaches English and History. She’s also writing a book, it’s supposed to be out next summer.”
“About what?”
“Reconnecting with her Louisiana family. My grandma, her mom, is from Louisiana. She’s from a town called Lake Charles? She went down there this summer for the first time in like years. I’ve been once in my life, but I was a baby so I don’t remember anything”
“I know of Lake Charles, are you familiar with the singer. Nellie Lutcher?”
“No ma’am”
“Well, she’s a soul and jazz singer who is from Lake Charles who later on moved to Los Angeles. You know, it wasn’t unheard of for black people. Particularly black creoles to head out this way for a better life. Black people fled the south to escape Jim Crow.”
“My mom is actually creole, she’s an Arceneaux. My mom is fair skinned, but not to the point that I’d mistake her for white.”
“Right, but you’d be surprised at the ones who tried to pass….any way I digress..let’s get back to your family”
“My brother is the golden child. He almost never gets in trouble. He’s been an A student since preschool. I like school, don’t get me wrong and if you talked to my teachers, I would hope that they’d say good things. My sister…….let me say that she’s the one who likes it least. We all pass. Our mom being a teacher and an English teacher wouldn’t accept us not trying”
Elaine then looked at her watch. “We’ve been in here 20 minutes. I need to send you back to class”.
QJ went back to class where they were in the middle of the reading lesson. Not quite understanding the point of the meeting he agreed for the sake of avoiding a suspension. He pulled out his notebook and began copying the homework assignment down. Afterwards he pulled out his reading workbook to catch up with where the class was. Later that evening at dinner he brought up that he had to see the guidance counselor.
“I’d actually like to meet her” Deja said as she took a bit of stir fry. “Is she nice”
“Yes, she is. She actually asked about you”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were a teacher and that dad was retired Military”
“I have my first job tomorrow” Quincy said. “I am going to be mystery shopping while I look for work”
A curious Deja asked “Is this one of those bogus wiring money schemes?”
“Nope though someone attempted to fool me with that. I went to Volition.com and then applied at a lot of companies. I have to do an automotive shop tomorrow.”
Malachi asked what he’d have to do. “Well, I have to go to a dealership tomorrow and pose as someone looking for a new vehicle”
“What about you Aundrea?”
“Well I got a B on the rough draft of my book report”
“Good job”“Thanks”
After eating dinner, Malachi went to his room and wrote a new journal entry.
“Today we are going to look at several pieces of literature and analyze them. I am still grading essays. So far, you all have some interesting things to say. I am not grading these overly tough; however, the literature essay will not be as easy. Do not worry about it right now, that’s later in the year. Today we are going to identify certain things that you will be quizzed on at the end of the week.” They defined terms such as simile, personification, iambic pentameter, imagery, diction, allusion, epigraph, euphemism, foreshadowing, metaphor, point-of-view, and structure. During that time Deja received a text from Quincy “I’m about to go complete this, pray for me”
At the car dealership, he managed to get the attention of a salesman with the scenario that he was planning a vehicle purchase within the next month. He spotted a navy truck that he like. “Wanna test drive” the salesman asked.
“Yeah I do!”
They drove for 15 minutes, around the block. He went inside with the salesman and obtained a business card and signed up for the dealerships newsletter. He went home and completed the report. He managed the complete his first mystery shop. He also managed to secure three gas station shops later in the week. He was happy to be working again even if it wasn’t a conventional job. If he could obtain enough shops regularly in the competitive market of Los Angeles, he could earn as much as $100 extra per week.
Meanwhile, Malachi and Aundrea were leaving ELA when running into Brianna in the hallway. “Hey, this is my brother, Malachi”
“Hey” Malachi said.
“Hey. I hear you like to read”
“Yeah”
“It’s a form a stress relief for me”
“She’s coming over today, we’re gonna work on our final drafts for our book report”
“Cool”
Malachi then headed to his math class where the teacher announced that they would be learning to solve equations. “Turn your book to page 30” He looked down with a blank stare as his classmates groaned. . While going over the lesson, she assigned some practice problems for homework. It was getting close to the end of the day and for some reason the last couple of hours seemed to drag. When they got to the end of the day, their dad came and picked them up.
“Guys, I managed to pick up a little work. I’m going to be going to certain stores and stocking products. It’ll be during the day. Tonight, we’ll be having brinner”
[TO BE CONTINED WITH EPISODE 18]
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