“Carry on,” she said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. He turned on his heel and slouched out of her classroom without another word.

What did she expect him to say? Thank you for harping on me, it’s really great to be talked down to! Victoria gathered her things and tried to calm her nerves. She wondered if she had crossed a line by being so blunt with him. It was one thing to lay down the law, but she shouldn’t have said he had a “strike” against him. Everything she’d said could be misconstrued as harsh and unflinching. She had basically called the boy lazy and uncaring. She’d added the words of encouragement only because she realized her misstep. Who knew if Braden would come back to her class? And if he did, would he harbor some kind of resentment towards her?

Victoria recalled his words. I thought you were one of the cool ones... It angered her that because they shared the same skin color, she was seen as someone to offer favors. Would he say such a thing to a black male professor? As soon as the words had come out of his mouth, Victoria had reverted back to her natural state: Defensive. She had to prove her authority to colleagues like Ken, but there were rare moments when she had to defend her right to be in the front of the classroom to children whose parents paid their tuition.

On the flipside, she still had the strong desire to save every black student who passed the threshold of her classroom. They were rare, but the few who made it scrimped and scraped every last penny to get to Pembroke, and their peers knew it. Any other professor would not have thought twice about marking Braden late or absent. His B+ average would have slid away from his lax grip. No one else would have told him how hard work was the only way to make it out of this place. She had to tell him the truth. Always have a plan... Work hard because your best is just the start. If it was the truth, why did it hurt to repeat her mother’s words?

There was a lump in Victoria’s throat that wouldn’t budge because she knew she had crossed a line. She couldn’t save every student, she just had to do her job. Teach, grade, and nothing more. She wasn’t a counselor or a psychiatrist. She blew out a harsh breath. You can’t be everything to everybody, Victoria.