Clarity

Study, Jo Bradbury

Three
Roman
Rushing into the detention room, Roman was out of breath as she slapped her paper down on Ms. Stoudemire's desk.

Jo Bradbury sat in the back of the classroom, her clothes dark and her hair bright. She sat with her feet up on the desk and gum popping in her mouth. She looked like a stereotypical bad girl from the movies. That was because she was. Roman knew the girl under all that dark eyeliner and coldness was a caring person at heart. She could see the pain in her eyes when she was rude to a teacher. She'd witnessed the girl help out a few kids. She knew that Jo Bradbury worked in a homeless shelter, she knew she volunteered at soup kitchens and taught little kids. She'd witnessed it all.

"Hey Jo. Ready for this?" Roman asked tentatively.

Jo rolled her eyes and took her feet off her desk, she pulled out her desk and smiled slightly at her. "I'm glad you're the one tutoring me Ro, and not somebody I don't like." she whispered.

Roman smiled back at her. "I'm always happy to help, Johannah. At any time. You know that."

Jo pulled out her chemistry notebook, textbook, and the worksheets they had gotten over the week.

"Mr. Gamblit gave me till Friday to get these all turned in." she said, spreading out each worksheet.

"Well, lucky for you, I have the next two periods free so we can work on this and whatever else you have for your fifth and sixth hour." Roman smiled, checking her calendar.

"I have Spanish and Band so nothing that has an assignment." Jo said.

"Good, 'cause the only other language I know is ASL." Roman laughed.

Jo laughed a little bit, grabbing her first assignment and setting the others aside for later.

Roman started to go over everything she needed.

***

By the end of the school day, Jo had finished all of her assignments and did a few extra problems from her textbooks on her own. She actually hugged Roman. "Thank you for helping me. I understand everything so much more." she said excitedly.

"It was really no problem." Roman replied, putting her things away.
"But still, you didn't have to help and I'm glad you did." Jo said.

"It's fine, really. I'll see you next week? My house." Roman said.

"Yeah, but I might have to leave early, I've got a thing."

Roman smiled. "That's fine, anytime is fine with me, just shoot me a text."

Jo smiled at her, held up a thumb and walked out of the detention room.

Roman grabbed her paper off Ms. Stoudemire's desk and walked out of the room.

Roman loved helping people, it filled her with a sense of importance. She loved the thrill she got from learning and helping others learn. That's why she wanted to be a teacher and she knew she was going to be. It was going to be her destiny. She smiled to herself as she thought of her accomplishments.

"Hey! Roman wasn't it?" a voice yelled from behind her.

She turned, it was Jasper.

"Yeah it's Roman. What's up Jazz?" she asked as she reached her locker.

Jasper smiled at the nickname and leaned against the locker next to hers.

"So listen, Ava and I are throwing a party at our house tomorrow. Housewarming type thing, but without all the random adults. Wanna come?" he asked.