So that was it. No offers of help, no encouragement or applause, neither of them sitting beside him as he worked on his admission essay and got all the paperwork together. They didn’t stop him—but they didn’t help him. His homeroom teacher, Ms. Havens, looked over his application essay and corrected some things and told him that he was going to go far and he’d do well at Chelsea—but his parents never did. Not once. They used to say that kind of thing all the time, but now … Rashid told himself he didn’t mind—although he found the image of his mother sitting quietly by Kofi as he worked on his applications floating unbidden through his mind at times, her presence a quiet expression of belief. His stomach hurt a lot of the time as he did what was necessary to get in. He told his mother when to call, he filled out the financial aid forms himself, rummaging through boxes of papers and getting distracted answers to his questions. He slid the papers under his parents’ hands for signatures and, when the time came, made sure that they both remembered to take the day off work for the interview. But they pulled themselves together for the trip to the school, looking downright presentable and focused, the way they used to be. They even found some clothes that fit fairly well and weren’t too hideous. They waited quietly in the hall during his interview and listened attentively during the tour of the campus. They nodded approvingly at its vast acreage and looked pleased as the admissions director told them of the school’s one hundred percent college admissions rate. His dad even rested his hand on his shoulder at one point and told the man, with a slight smile, how proud they were of Rashid. Rashid felt tears start to his eyes at this, but, thank God, no one noticed. He started to think that maybe this was it, that maybe things would get better now and they would see him again. But then his mother cried softly in the car all the way home, remembering when they took Kofi to visit Mt. Herndon. His father stared at the road as if daring it to jump up and challenge him to a fight. He did not speak a single word once they left the school.