Their Fall, My Rise

sment sta

m one of Mark' s new Northwood bud

, goody-t

kept

d, "Academy Reject" scrawled

nnouncement about respecting scho

e cafeteria, they' d sit at the next table, their conversation deliberately loud, full of

s pat

building near the community college, for academically focused seniors who needed a quiet place t

ot

the small, clean room felt lik

urse, could

serenading Tiffany' s imagined presence under my window, lo

ed window, and sauntered off with Tiffany

edictably, wer

ol counselor, calle

and Mark used to be close. His grades are... alarming. He' s f

and I are no longer close. He made his c

truggling, but Mark... he was

I said, keeping

nd his mother into her office. I saw

ate who' d been in the offic

, had been outra

her and anyone nearby to hear. "I' m going to be valedictorian. Full

I passed in the hallway. "Unlike some people who

n Mrs. Pete

d. Right there in th

y classmate

o silence. Mrs. Pete