The Crossover

Bad News

I sit in Mom’s office

for an hour,

reading

brochures and pamphlets

about the Air Force and the Marines.

She’s in and out

handling principal stuff:

a parent protesting her daughter’s F;

a pranked substitute teacher crying;

a broken window.

After an hour

she finally sits

in the chair next to me

and says, The good news is,

I’m not going to suspend you.

The bad news, Josh,

is that

neither Duke nor any other college

accepts cheaters. Since I can’t

seem to make a decent man out of you

perhaps the Air Force or Marines can.

I want to tell her I wasn’t cheating,

that this is all JB and Miss Sweet Tea’s fault,

that this will never happen again,

that Duke is the only thing that matters,

but a water pipe bursts in the girls’ bathroom.

So I tell her I’m sorry,

it won’t happen again,

then head off to my next class.