Donte:14 / Jay:24 I was sat in the living room when I could hear huffing and puffing and mumbling. I knew it was Donte cause he was in the kitchen doing homework Jay: What's up bud? Donte was sat at the kitchen island doing looking like he was about to cry Donte: this homework is bullshit Jay: when is it due in? Donte: tomorrow Jay: when was it set? Donte: today Jay: so they expect you to do it by tomorrow Donte: mhm and if I don't then I have a two hour detention. Jay: I thought you get extra time Donte: nope cause they still need to review it so I have to wait. It's bullshit I haven't even started. I don't understand it. He threw the pencil across the room Jay: It's okay, I understand how hard it is, what do you not understand? I pick up the pencil and sit on the chair beside him Donte: the words are moving. Everything's jumbled up it's a huge mess. The fucking overlay ain't doing shit. He was getting more frustrated and overwhelmed.
Jay: How about we calm down and I'll try and help you Donte: can i take a break? Jay: sure bud He came back 10 mins later. He sat back down and took the pencil from me Jay: so what do you need to do? Donte: read this passage and annotate it and then say what each thing I highlighted means and the effect it has then answer the questions on the worksheet. Jay: okay so read it again He began reading it and I can tell by his facial expressions that he doesn't understand the text. Jay: what do you think he means? He looked back at the left scanning with his eyes. He reads the same part over and over. Jay: can you find it? Donte: no it's too hard it doesn't make any fucking sense. Such bullshit. There's too much to do. He pushed the paper off the island and dashed the pencil across the room. Tears of frustration threatening to spill. Jay: hey bud it's okay. We're not throwing things tho I pick up the paper and pencil and set it back down infront of him. I can't be mad at him it's not his fault. Donte: no it's not okay I'm so stupid. Why can't I do it? Why is everything so much harder for me? I've read the same fucking thing over and over and it's not going in. There's too much fucking work to do and I haven't even started. I hate my stupid brain. He just broke down in tears. The frustration and anger finally spilling over. It broke my heart watching him break down like this. That he is struggling so much. I pulled him into a hug. Jay: hey bud your not stupid. I don't want to hear that. You're not stupid okay. Your brains not stupid you just learn differently. You may struggle with school but you are sure as hell talented at sports. I'll email your teacher and ask if they can break it down next time so it's less overwhelming or give you an easier extract so that way it'll be easier for you but you would still be using what you've learnt in lesson. Donte: you'll actually do that? Jay: of course bud. How about we see if uncle Will or kelly can help with this seeing as we both know this ain't my best subject Donte: okay is uncle Will not working? Jay: what day is it? Donte: er Tuesday Jay: oh shit yeah okay we'll ask kelly Donte: okay Jay: you wanna go make something to eat whilst I speak to kelly? Donte: sure
Phone call Kelly: hey Jay Jay: hey kelly Kelly: what's up? Jay: you any good at English? Kelly: I'm decent why? Jay: would you be able to help Donte? Kelly: yeah sure. What does he need to do? Jay: read a passage and annotate it and then say what each thing he highlighted means and the effect it has then answer some comprehension questions Kelly: damn that's a lot. what's he struggling with most? Jay: he can't understand the text. The overlay isn't helping with the reading and he's just finding it overwhelming. Kelly: okay I'll come over to help. Shift ends in half hour so I'll be about an hour Jay: okay thanks kelly Kelly: No problem
Jay: hey what you make yourself to eat? Donte: noodles Jay: okay. Kelly will be here in an hour. You wanna play basketball? Donte: bet imma whoop yo ass tho Jay: yeah yeah We played for about 50 minutes and Donte hopped in the shower. Donte: Kelly's just pulled up Jay: okay Knock at the door Jay: Tay go answer it Donte went and answered the door Kelly: hey D Donte: hey Kelly Kelly: sup Jay Jay: hi kelly Kelly and Donte went and sat at the island. Jay: kelly you want a drink? Kelly: beer? I went and got him a beer Donte pov Kelly: lemme see the sheet kiddo I gave kelly the sheet and he read through what I had to do. Kelly: okay let's start with the annotating. So grab a highlighter and pick out different language features. Kelly then wrote down on a separate page the different techniques. He then covered sections of the text to make it less overwhelming. I went through it section by section picking out the different techniques. Kelly: good okay now what it means. You tell me what it means and I'll write it down. Would that help you? Donte: yeah 'He was a tight fisted hand' Kelly: what do you think this means? Donte: I have no idea Kelly: okay close your hand tight. What have you just made? Donte: a fist Kelly: okay so what is your hand now? Donte: closed up Kelly: okay and what is a fist? What does it show? Aggression or calmness Donte: oh so he's closed up and seems aggressive. Kelly: that's it. Okay now what's the effect? Donte: er shows he wasn't a nice person and not socialble Kelly: good We did this for four more. Kelly: right the questions. You wanna break? Donte: nah I'm good wanna just get this over with. Imma go toilet tho I went to the toilet and came back down. It was only now that I realised dad was watching TV in the living room Donte: hey dad what you watching? Dad: have you finished your homework? Donte: nearly Dad: go finish it and I'll buy takeout and we'll watch a movie. Donte: Erin not coming back? Dad: nope she's out for dinner with Hank Donte: oh okay. I get to pick? Dad: sure if you finish your work Donte: okay I went back to where kelly was waiting for me Kelly: you ready kid? Donte: mhm let's get this shit over with We switched to the next sheet:
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Kelly: alright first question. Who's the author? Who wrote it? Donte: oh er Charlie something Kelly: close. Look at the top of the text. Donte: oh er Charles Dickens We went through the rest of the questions on the worksheet Kelly: and we're done Donte: thank you for helping Kelly: No problem bud. Glad I could make it easier for you. Go get me your bag so I can put it in the folder cause I know what you're like. I ran and got my bag and gave it to kelly. Once kelly put my work in the folder I put my bag by the door for the morning. Kelly was talking to dad.
Jay pov Jay: thanks for helping him kelly Kelly: it's literally no problem. Glad I could make it easier for him. Jay: you wanna stay for takeout and a film? Kelly: yeah sure I ordered Chinese and Donte came back sat on the floor and chose a film. After eating Donte got half way through the film before he fell asleep. The film finished and kelly went home. I put the rubbish in the bin and took Donte up to bed. Jay: night kiddo I finally called it a night.
