The Plan 4

How could he have gotten those 2 problems wrong? He studied the SSAT's harder and harder and try to know it like the back of his hand. He studied it until it became almost a part of him. When he took the test again, he got everything right.

His mother handed him the envelop with the score. He opened it and he smiled like he hadn't smiled for a long time. He looked at his mother. There was not the slightest sign that she was happy or even satisfied, but she gave him the afternoon off.

"What is this stuff?"
"Weed."
"And I smoke it?"
"Yes."
Derek coughed a few times after the first drag.
"Let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Judith."
"Nice to meet you Judith."
"So you're going to Philips Academy?"
"Yes."
"Lots of drugs there."
"Really," Derek heard himself laughing, "And how would you know?"
"I just heard from my sister."
"I sure hope you don't turn out like everyone else, Derek."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean that you don't become a selfish bastard."
"You guys are way too serious. Aren't you happy for me? I came to America when I was 7. 7. Now I'm going to the top private school in the US. Don't I deserve some respect?"
"The last two years, I've seen you maybe 10 times," John began to speak, "What does your father do in his beauty supply store? Does he think about his life in Korea, of how he was such a great professor... a learned, educated person who hardly ever speaks to his son and drinks his nights away? Why can't you show some respect to me, Derek? Am I just a step in your progress from illiterate minority to model minority? And your father, does he see blacks as illiterate, under-educated, low-class people to be treated with indifference? What are you about, Derek?"
"I don't have to listen to this shit," Derek replied.
"Sit down!" Judith ordered, "Seriously."
"Have a few more drags," John offered.
Derek did not have the strength to leave. He slouched in a corner by himself.

Derek felt that someone was staring at him. He looked up and he saw his mother. He wanted to say something, but he knew that it was useless.

"I don't ever want to see you with those kids again," she stated firmly. She didn't want to see the product of so many years of hard work become a drug addict.

He was going away in September anyway. He was going to meet better people he thought.