Sara Jay (or Ms. Jay as her students call her) has been teaching for some time now and its very fulfilling work for her. Helping shape young men’s lives is work that she enjoys. But even though she enjoys it, the work can be pretty challenging. Bureaucracy, parents and of course the students. There are plenty of students who are engaged in class and plenty that just don’t care about school. One of the student’s that Ms. Jay has this year is Branden. Sara had initially taken a liking to Branden at the beginning of the year. He was so adorable! Engaged in class, good grades….he really seemed like he was going to have a bright future. But then something changed. A couple of months ago, Branden stopped participating in class as much. That is, when he even bothered to show up. He’d gone from perfect attendance to coming once or twice a week. There was a shift in his coursework as well. At first, there were mostly A’s with only a few B’s. Now? Mostly C’s with a couple D’s. He’s always on his phone in class. And Ms. Jay’s seen him hanging out with some other students at school who are bad news. Any teacher could see that something was wrong. But whenever Ms. Jay tried to talk to Branden, he gave her some lame excuse. At first she was hopeful that he would snap back to normal. But that was before he forgot his bag in her class. At first, when Ms. Jay saw it she wasn’t sure whose it was. So she opened it. And that’s when she saw the books with Branden’s name and handwriting on them….and something else. Something not good. A mask. Ms. Jay knows what type of students wear those masks. The bad ones. The ones who are on a path to trouble. And she doesn’t want Branden to go down that path. That’s why Ms. Jay decided to pay him a house call. To make sure that he stays on the right path to a successful future. All he needs is a little motivation.
