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Darnell got us started. “What’s bothering you, Jarod?”
“Look, Bill’s not the first person to give me crap about going to college. My mom does it all the time. But my mom barely makes minimum wage and
is always stressed about bills. She might thumb her nose at college, but it never got to me because I always knew I wanted more than she had.”
“Can’t say the same for Bill, can you?” Darnell said.
Jarod shook his head. “No, you can’t.”
“What did you think you’d get from college?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I always had some vague idea that college would put me on a path to success, but I couldn’t tell you what that path would be. It’s not like I’m one of those people who knows he wants to be a doctor or something. I’d probably just graduate and look for work like my brothers did. But I’ve got work now, and it’s starting to pay well.”
“You don’t think you could do better if you had a degree?” Christy asked.
“Maybe. But I might not. Plus, I’d have to be paying four years of tuition, and be studying when I could be working. I’d have to earn far more after I get the degree for it to be worth it.”
“What about the whole college experience?” I asked.
“Kelvin, I have no doubt that you will go to college and love it. You get excited about learning and school-related stuff. Remember what my goal for this class was?”
“To get the credit so you could graduate.”
“Exactly. To me, education is something you put up with and get through. I can’t wait to get out of this school, and now I’m supposed to sign myself up for another four years?”
“Jarod, can you give me three positives about going to college?” Mr. Griffin asked.
“Well, I guess I’ll have a degree on my resume. That counts, right?”
“Of course. A resume can be a valuable thing when going to work for others. Is that your hope? Or do you prefer to be self-employed?”
“Definitely self-employed. I hate taking orders. That’s one reason I can’t stand school.”
“I’ll still count it as a reason; you never know when you’ll need a job. Anything else?”
“I guess I might learn some cool stuff.”
“What are some things you’re excited to learn?” Mr. Griffin asked.
“Things to strengthen my business. Though I’m most excited to learn on the ground from people like Bill.”
“Can you think of a third thing?”
“All this money I’ve made is burning a hole in my pocket?”
“I’ll take that as a no. Let’s try the other choice. Can you think of three positives about skipping school and focusing on your business instead?”
“Three? How about ten? I’ll save a bundle of money. Won’t have to sit in any more classes. I can put that money I’ve saved into some new equipment that can help me grow faster. I’ll be able to afford a decent place to live, rather than living rough. I can set my own schedule, with no one else telling me what I have to do or where to go. I can start seriously building my business, rather than just doing it part-time. And I could…” Jarod stopped speaking and just nodded to himself.
“What?” Christy asked. “What was that last thing?”
“Just a vision I had for the future. Not everything should be said aloud.”
“Oh come on…”
“I’ll tell you eventually,” Jarod said, “but I don’t think I should be telling you first.”
“Oh. Got it.” Christy sat back, looking very pleased for some reason.
“So, Jarod,” Mr. Griffin said, “what else can we do to help you make a decision?”
“I’m good, Mr. Griffin. Just talking it out was a huge help. The decision suddenly seems pretty darned obvious.”
* * *
“How come you keep coming to the girls’ swim team practices?” Amanda asked me. “Are you the team manager?”
“I’m helping Christy with another video.”
“Oooh, you made that first video? That’s what got me interested in trying out for the team.”
That didn’t quite add up with what I’d heard from Christy. “Didn’t you contact Christy after the article in the paper?”
“Yes, because the article mentioned the team’s struggle to recruit new candidates in the wake of the coach’s death. But my curiosity had already been piqued from the video.”
Amanda held my eyes a bit too intensely while she spoke, and her vocabulary sounded like no other sixteen-year-old I knew. Though still in her street clothes, she already had her swim cap on.
“Christy described you as a natural,” I said, “but said it didn’t look like you’d had much coaching.”
“A natural? Hardly.”
“So how’d you get so good?”
“Before moving here, we lived in a house on a lake in South Carolina. I didn’t have to go to school, so I swam for hours each day. This will be the first time I’ve ever had a coach.”
“You’ll get good coaching here. Both Coach Sue and Coach Dana were top swimmers themselves.”
“You recruited them with your video, right?”
“It helped.”
“Would you like to feature me in this new video?” She threw her head back in a poor imitation of a supermodel pose.
I couldn’t help cracking a smile. “I don’t think so. This one is primarily to help Christy get a scholarship for college.”
“Christy told me she’d be instructing me personally. Wouldn’t you want to highlight that?”
Working with Amanda would undoubtedly make this project more interesting. “I mainly want to focus on Christy’s swimming, but showing how she helps out teammates could appeal to coaches looking for a good team member. Let’s do it.”
Amanda waved and headed toward the locker room. Christy came up beside me. “She’s strange, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said, though I continued to watch her until the locker room door closed behind her.
Upping the Ante
Darnell slipped quietly into class and slumped into his chair without even saying hello.
“Everything all right, Darnell?” Mr. Griffin asked.
“Do I have to talk about it?”
“Of course not. But your Mastermind group is here if you want them, and they haven’t let you down so far.”
Darnell squeezed his eyes shut and said, “I hate being the fat kid.”
“I thought you weren’t motivated by weight any longer,” Jarod said.
“That was before Hugh rejected me because I was too fat.”
“Who’s Hugh?” I asked.
“The owner of Shake Your Smoothie over on Main Street.” Darnell gritted his teeth. “He needs someone in the afternoons, but doesn’t want any fat kids.”
“He said that?” Christy said.
“He said it’s a health-food place, so he wants people who look healthy and fit.”
“That’s discrimination!” Christy said. “He can’t get away with that.”
“Let’s get real, Christy. I’m fat. Really fat. If I were him, I wouldn’t want me either.”
“Why’d you want this job, Darnell?” Mr. Griffin asked.
“Hugh is an expert on healthy eating. The job sounds like a great way to learn. Plus I could be drinking healthy smoothies after school rather than watching my family gorge on pizza.”
“Did you tell him that?” I asked.
“Nooo.” Darnell flushed as though reliving the encounter. “I shut my trap before I said anything I’d regret and got out of there.”
“Seems to me,” Mr. Griffin said, “he rejected you for a good reason.”
“How can you say that?” Christy said.
“Hugh merely pointed out the obvious, and Darnell stormed out of there with his tail between his legs.”
“Come on, Mr. Griffin,” Christy slapped her desk. “You’re not being fair!”
“Fair? You think Darnell needs fair?” Mr. Griffin asked. “Would you want to get a trophy every time you showed up to a meet?”
“Of course not, but this is different. The guy didn’t even give Darnell a chance to jump in the pool.”
“Or maybe Darnell didn’t give him a reason to believe he could swim.”
* * *
The next day I found Christy and Darnell talking together in the hallway. I was used to seeing Christy surrounded by a pack of friends and had never seen her hanging out with Darnell on school grounds—outside of math of course.
I came up to them just in time to see Darnell pour green sludge from one water bottle to the next, and Christy pass him a five dollar bill. I felt like I’d walked in on a drug deal. “What’s that?” I pointed to the bottle.
“Our new breakfast,” Christy said. “Darnell’s making it for both of us.”
“It’s a smoothie with kale, banana, blueberries, and spirulina,” Darnell said.
“What’s spirulina?”
“Algae.” Darnell somehow kept a straight face. “Hugh told me about it. He says it’s the most powerful superfood he knows for injuries.”
“Hugh?” I asked. “From Shake Your Smoothie? The guy who rejected you?”
“Yep. I thought about what Mr. Griffin said. I went back in there after school and told him that if his shop was for people who were fit and healthy, then I agreed that I’d be a poor fit. But if his store was for people working their butts off to become fit, he would not find a better example than me. Then I showed him what I looked like a few months ago.” Darnell pulled out his phone and flipped to some pictures from earlier in the year.
I’d forgotten just how big Darnell had been—the difference was tremendous. “Did you really show him the pictures with the numbers on your chest?”
“Absolutely. He loved it. He even asked if I’d be willing to do that again in the store. He thought it would be both a fun gimmick and a real inspiration for his customers.”
“So he gave you the job?”
“I challenged him to give me a one week trial, and he agreed. But when he sees how committed I am, I have no doubt he’ll make it permanent.”
I pointed to the sludge. “And that stuff tastes good?”
“Well, the spirulina doesn’t, but you barely notice it. Everything else is delicious. Wanna try?”
“No thanks.” I turned to Christy. “This is part of your recovery, I take it?”
“Whatever my dietitian recommends, I’m having.” Christy squeezed Darnell’s arm.
Mr. Griffin had told me that Darnell would find himself becoming more popular because he knew what he wanted and was going at it with abandon. In truth, seeing him stand there next to Christy, he no longer looked so out of place as he would have a few months earlier. His weight was probably down 25 to 30 pounds, but it was his newfound confidence, even more than his thinned-down frame, that made him look at home.
Christy gulped some. “It’s good, Kelvin. Go on, give it a try.”
It was easier to say no to Darnell than to Christy. I took her water bottle and tipped a bit of the sludge back into my mouth. Nothing came out. I held the water bottle at a steeper angle, but it still wasn’t moving.
“That’s the blueberry,” Darnell said. “It’s full of pectin, which can make this pretty solid. Tilt it back farther.”
So I did, until a big glob fell out onto my face. I slurped some down, then wiped the green slime from my lips. “Certainly tastes better than it looks,” I said. “Tastes better than it looks,” Darnell repeated. “Perhaps that will be the name of my
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