Ready or Not

Chapter 11

Your first two tutoring sessions go as expected. Your last student is Marissa Paulson. This is the second tutoring session for her in Geometry. You've tutored a lot of students before, but never one like her. After the first tutoring session, in which you used to do some assessment of her needs, you found that she didn't really need tutoring, that the girl has a complete grasp of the material that is being taught, yet her grades do not correspond to her understanding of the material. And for unknown reasons, she is getting awful close to failing her class. Grades in her other classes are not suffering much, although her mother did share with you that there has been some decline overall in grades in general. Marissa is quiet and reserved, but you can see the intelligence and the very high level of educability.

One thing that you definitely notice about Marissa is that she seems somewhat withdrawn, bordering on depression. You intend to use today's session to probe a bit more about what is going on with her. When you get to her house and ring the door bell, Mrs. Paulson greets you at the door and shows you to the dining room where Marissa is already waiting for you. Before you go into the living room, you ask Mrs. Paulson if there has been any changes in Marissa since your last session with her. Mrs. Paulson shares with you that Marissa has been losing weight, that she eats normally but has not been able to keep her weight on. Mrs. Paulson also tells you that there has been no sign of purging or use of diet pills. You thank her for the information and walk into the dining room to start today's lesson.

"Hi Marissa. Good to see you again. How was Geometry in the past week?"

Marissa, only briefly making eye contact says, "Fine. Nothing special really."

You continue, "Did you have any quizzes or tests last week?"

"Yes. I had a quiz."

"How did you do?"

"I passed."

"Okay. Maybe we can start by going over the quiz. Would that be okay with you?"

Marissa hesitates for a moment then says, "Yea, sure." She brings out the quiz and the score says seventy-one. In the small margin, there is a handwritten note that says,

Please come see me to review the answers.

You assume that the message is from Mr. Faraday, Marissa's Geometry teacher. So, you ask her, "Did you go see Mr. Faraday to review the answers already? If that's the case, we won't waste time on it."

Marissa says, "I did go see him." Looking down at her lap, she continues, "We didn't get to go over the whole thing, but I don't think you and I need to."

"Okay. Why couldn't you go over everything?"

"We just couldn't."

"Oh, okay.... Then how about your homework. Can we go over that. I mean the homework for tomorrow's class."

"Sure." Marissa reaches down to her right and fishes out her homework folder from her book bag. But when she bends down to fetch the homework, you can see a couple of bruises on her neck, near the back. They look almost identical to the one that you are sporting under your scarf. Your first thought is, "A make out session with a boyfriend."

After retrieving her homework, she places the folder on the table. When she sits back up straight, the two little love marks, or at least what you assume are love marks from her beau, disappears under her long hair. You can tell that she is definitely gaunter than she was last week. When she opens her homework folder for Geometry, you can see previous homework assignments that were corrected by the teacher. Many of them have handwritten instructions for her to come see him before or after school to review the incorrect ones. Seeing them, you ask, "How often do you go see Mr. Faraday for extra help or to review incorrect homework?"