Exposure

EX:18

Chapter 18

Twon's Perspective

"God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way."-C.S. Lewis

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      I had zero tolerance for any amount of bullshit or disrespect today. I was here to work and receive a paycheck nothing more, nothing less. There were no guidelines when it came to being a mentor for me. My goal was to put some sort of respect into these boys and they were going to listen whether they wanted to or not.

       The silence that once conveyed the empty classroom was suddenly filled with chatter as a group of young men came into the room huddled up having a loud discussion. I continued placing blue wooden chairs in the center of the room in multiple rows, the noise didn't bother me. Once they noticed my presence their conversation came to a stop ultimately trying to figure out who I was.

"Come sit down," I instructed after dusting off my white t-shirt.

       They hesitated before throwing their book bags off to the side and coming to the main portion of the room. The group of boys looked to be about fourteen to fifteen years old. I didn't have time to treat them like little boys though, they were in this type of facility for a reason so I had to be firm with them.

"Who you supposed to be?" A Hispanic boy spoke slouching in one of the chairs.

I sighed, "I'm your new mentor for the next few weeks."

"Man this bullshit ass center, they switch out new mentors for us every week." Another boy chuckled with one of his friends.

"Just sit down and be quiet."

      He gave me a sarcastic expression plopping down in one of the chairs causing the other group of boys to follow. I had no lesson plan, so for today we would be reading a book until I came up with some activities for us to work on.

I didn't like reading, it was boring and made me tired but there was this one novel that I always enjoyed called A Lesson Before Dying, the story had a great message.

       I brought out the bin of books that I picked up from the library earlier this morning as plenty of other preteen and teenage boys entered the classroom. My vibe was instantly disrupted when I noticed the same two young men who were caught trying to spray paint the walls a few days ago were entering the room as well.

      Once everyone was seated and the door was closed I handed a boy the yellow bin asking him to pass around the books so that everyone could get one. While that was taking place I took the time to write my name on the whiteboard ignoring the endless talking behind me about my identity.

"Man this nigga got us reading books I don't wanna do this shit."

I already knew who's voice it was as I finished writing my name. It was the younger boy with dreads who had already been on my bad side for quite some time now.

"You can either read it or get out." I pointed towards the door after meeting eyes with him.

"How you gon kick me out? I thought you was the janitor anyway."