I didn’t remember getting off the train, sifting through the jumble of down jackets squeezing through a metal-detector entrance, nor did I understand how I turned my locker’s combination when it seemed like I had never been in the building before. Ma’s words were still in my head as Mrs. Carly contained me in the now-emptied hallway. She had pulled my jacket as I entered the classroom. I had noticed her standing watch outside her door because I was too busy looking out for Nakesha. I didn’t know if seeing her would result in the fight that led to my permanent unexcused absence—expulsion. Mrs. Carly already had her grip on me by the time Nakesha showed up, looking shocked to see me but then wiping the emotion from her face just to reinforce her new hatred of me.

“Shivana, where you been?” Mrs. Carly demanded. She had a new wig—red with boxy, looped curls—and her eyes appeared larger behind the thick lenses of her glasses.

“I had to help my ma with some stuff,” I told her.

“Shivana, you missed the unit exam on Thursday,” she said. “Without an excused absence, I can’t let you make it up. You were already on shaky ground.”

I guessed she was telling me I was going to flunk. I didn’t know what the hell she expected me to say. She was going to do what she was going to do. Maybe it was for the best. I wasn’t going to have time for this shit once I was living on my own and trying to pay for my own apartment. I would just have to be like Rasul and get my GED.

“Well?” she said.

“Well what?” I asked her, rolling my eyes and hunching my shoulders.

“Your mother needs to get your absence excused or else you gonna flunk my class,” she said. I didn’t respond and she just stared at me. I twisted my lips until she sighed and shook her head, walking into the classroom with me following her inside. She slammed the door hard and loud enough to crash the party her students daily started without her.

Nakesha and I locked eyes as I made my way to the empty seat right next to her. After that she refused to meet my gaze, instead drawing circles on the “do-now” worksheet Mrs. Carly had handed to every student who entered the classroom. She didn’t even look my way as I raised my hand to get a worksheet from Mrs. Carly. There was the figure of the human body, with blank lines to be filled out from head to toe.

“We’ve finished Reproduction and we are now starting on Vital Organs,” she said, handing me a sheet, her authority dangling over the class and keeping closed all the mouths who dared to open with nonsense.