Chapter 3 - The Flyer
By lunchtime, Ms. Collins had been placed on administrative leave.
Principal Ramirez did not announce why.
That did not stop Brookfield Middle School from knowing.
Students always knew.
By the time Jacob returned home, three different versions were circulating.
Ms. Collins had been fired.
Ava had gotten her arrested.
Jacob had threatened to sue.
None were true.
Nina made grilled cheese while Jacob sat at their small kitchen table staring at his phone.
A group chat exploded every few seconds.
BRO DID SHE REALLY THROW IT AWAY
Ava has the whole vid
Collins is DONE
Jacob say something
He locked the phone.
Nina slid a sandwich toward him.
“Eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You were humiliated before ten in the morning. That still requires lunch.”
He smiled weakly.
For several minutes they ate in silence.
Then Jacob said, “Maybe my essay really was bad.”
His mother stopped chewing.
“What?”
“I mean, she shouldn’t have thrown it away. But maybe it sucked.”
Nina stared.
“You worked on it for four hours.”
“That doesn’t mean it was good.”
“No.”
She wiped her hands.
“But the person who called it garbage didn’t read it.”
That mattered.
Jacob knew it did.
Still, the words had entered him.
Garbage belongs in the garbage.
He wondered how long it would take to stop hearing them whenever he wrote something.
At two-thirty, Principal Ramirez called.
“We had another English teacher review Jacob’s essay anonymously.”
Nina put the call on speaker.
“And?”
“The teacher scored it eighty-eight percent using the same published rubric.”
Jacob looked up.
“Eighty-eight?”
“Yes.”
“Not thirty-five?”
“No.”
He almost laughed.
Then he remembered the trash.
“What did I lose points for?”
Ramirez sounded surprised by the question.
“Mostly organization in the third paragraph and one unsupported claim.”
Jacob grabbed a pencil.
“Which claim?”
Nina touched his wrist.
“You are incredible.”
“What?”
“You just found out your teacher pre-graded your paper and you want editing notes.”
Jacob shrugged.
“It matters.”
Principal Ramirez said, “I’ll send the feedback.”
For the first time since morning, something inside Jacob steadied.
Eighty-eight was not perfect.
That made it more believable.
His essay had weaknesses.
It was not garbage.
Those were completely different things.
Ramirez continued.
“I also want to update you about Summit Academic Writing Center.”
Nina’s expression changed.
“What did you find?”
“Public business records confirm Lauren Collins owns the company.”
“Did Ms. Collins have a financial interest?”
“We don’t know.”
“Did she refer students there?”
“We’re reviewing communications.”
Jacob remembered the flyer.
Ms. Collins had handed them out after returning midterm essays.
She had walked between desks saying, “Some families invest in improvement. Others make excuses.”
At the time Jacob thought she was just being rude.
Now the sentence sounded different.
Nina asked, “How many students received those flyers?”
“At least twenty-three across two classes.”
“And how many had low grades?”
“We’re determining that.”
A knock came at the apartment door.
Jacob opened it.
Ava stood there holding a notebook.
Her father waited in the hallway.
“I brought your science notes.”
Jacob blinked.
“I wasn’t absent from science.”
“I know. But everybody keeps acting like you’re dying.”
He laughed.
Victor Chen smiled from the hallway.
“We’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”
Ava sat at the table.
Nina returned to the phone.
Principal Ramirez said, “There’s one other thing.”
Of course.
“Ms. Collins has provided a written explanation.”
Jacob’s smile disappeared.
“What does she say?”
“She states that she entered preliminary grades based on prior student performance and intended to adjust them after reviewing assignments.”
Nina’s voice became cold.
“Is that allowed?”
“No.”
“What did she say about throwing Jacob’s paper away?”
“That she believed it failed to follow instructions.”
“It did follow instructions,” Jacob said.
Ramirez paused.
“Yes. It appears to.”
“What about what she said to me?”
Another pause.
“She says her comments were taken out of context.”
Ava nearly choked.
“I recorded the context.”
Jacob looked at her.
She was angrier than he was.
Principal Ramirez said, “The video is being preserved.”
After the call ended, Ava opened her notebook.
“I need to show you something.”
She flipped to the back.
There were dates.
Names.
Short notes.
Jacob frowned.
“What is this?”
“I started writing down stuff Collins said.”
“Why?”
Ava looked embarrassed.
“Because of my sister.”
“What happened to your sister?”
“Mia had Collins three years ago.”
Jacob knew Ava had an older sister in high school.
“She hated English after that year.”
Ava tapped a date.
“Ms. Collins told Mia she wasn’t high-school honors material.”
Jacob glanced at her.
“Was she?”
“She’s in AP Literature now.”
He went still.
Ava continued.
“My parents paid for Summit tutoring because Collins said Mia needed it.”
Nina slowly sat down.
“How much?”
“Like two thousand dollars.”
Jacob stared.
“Did it help?”
Ava shrugged.
“Maybe.”
“That’s not the important part,” Nina said.
Ava nodded.
“My dad looked through old receipts today.”
She turned the page.
“Mia’s tutor was Lauren Collins.”
Jacob stared at the notebook.
“Her sister.”
“Yeah.”
Then Ava pointed to another line.
May you like
“And before my parents enrolled Mia, Ms. Collins lowered her writing grade from a B-minus to a D-plus in six weeks.”
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