Chapter 4 - What Monique Called Help
The argument waited until they reached home.
Derrick did not want it in a school parking lot.
He did not want strangers watching his marriage collapse between parked minivans.
The moment the front door closed, he turned to Monique.
“What tutor?”
Jaylen headed upstairs.
“Stay here.”
“I’m suspended. I’m going to my room.”
“No.”
Derrick pointed toward the sofa.
“Sit.”
For once, Jaylen obeyed.
Monique placed her purse on the kitchen counter.
“His grades started slipping last spring.”
“I know that.”
“You knew they slipped. You didn’t know how bad it got.”
Derrick waited.
“He was failing English and algebra.”
Jaylen muttered, “I had D’s.”
“You had two F’s,” Monique said.
Derrick looked at her.
“How?”
“He stopped turning things in.”
“I was working on them.”
“You were gaming until two in the morning.”
Jaylen frowned.
“You said you weren’t gonna bring that up.”
Derrick looked at him.
Another agreement he had not known existed.
Monique rubbed her forehead.
“I hired a tutor.”
“There’s nothing wrong with hiring a tutor.”
“I know.”
“So why is he talking about lying?”
Monique did not answer.
Jaylen did.
“Because Mr. Ellis did more than tutor.”
Monique closed her eyes.
Derrick looked at her.
“How much more?”
“He helped with assignments.”
“That’s what tutors do.”
Jaylen laughed bitterly.
“He wrote stuff.”
Monique snapped, “Not at first.”
The sentence hung in the room.
Derrick stared at her.
“At first?”
Monique’s voice dropped.
“Mr. Ellis runs an academic coaching service. He came recommended by one of the parents at school.”
“What’s the name?”
“Ellis Academic Consulting.”
“How much did you pay him?”
Monique remained silent.
Derrick asked again.
“How much?”
“Over several months?”
“Yes.”
“About sixty-six hundred.”
Derrick’s mouth opened slightly.
Jaylen stared at his mother.
Even he had not known the total.
“Six thousand six hundred dollars?”
“It included weekly sessions.”
“For him to do Jaylen’s work?”
“No.”
Monique became defensive.
“That is not what I hired him for.”
“But that’s what happened.”
“Sometimes Jaylen would get stuck.”
“Monique.”
“I thought Mr. Ellis was editing.”
Derrick stepped closer.
“You’re telling me you paid a man thousands of dollars and didn’t notice he was writing our son’s essays?”
“I noticed later.”
“When?”
She said nothing.
“When?”
“August.”
It was November.
Derrick laughed again.
“So you knew.”
“I confronted him.”
“And?”
“He said Jaylen needed examples.”
Jaylen interrupted.
“He wrote the whole summer reading paper.”
Derrick stared at him.
“You submitted it?”
Jaylen shrugged.
“Mom knew.”
Monique’s eyes flashed.
“I knew after you submitted it.”
“You still paid him.”
“Because you were starting school and needed help.”
Derrick walked away.
He put both hands on the kitchen island.
For several seconds he simply breathed.
Renee had arrived after Monique called her from the car.
Now she stood near the dining room doorway, listening.
Finally she said, “This isn’t about tutoring anymore.”
Derrick turned.
“No.”
Renee looked at Monique.
“You taught him that if a consequence gets close, you can buy distance from it.”
Monique’s eyes filled.
“That is not what I was trying to do.”
“I know.”
Renee’s voice softened.
“That’s the problem.”
Monique sat down.
“I was trying to keep him from drowning.”
Derrick pointed upstairs.
“He wasn’t drowning. He was learning he didn’t have to swim.”
Jaylen stood.
“Can y’all stop talking about me like I’m not here?”
Derrick looked at him.
“Then tell us the truth.”
Jaylen’s posture changed.
“What truth?”
“Did you photograph Ms. Cooper’s answer key?”
“No.”
“Did Mr. Ellis ever help you cheat on a school test?”
“No.”
“Did you sell answers to other students?”
“No.”
Derrick stared at him.
Jaylen stared back.
Then Derrick noticed something.
Jaylen’s phone.
Partly visible inside his hoodie pocket.
“You’re grounded from that too.”
Jaylen covered the pocket.
“What?”
“Phone.”
“No.”
“Give it to me.”
“You can’t just take my phone.”
“I pay for it.”
“That doesn’t mean you own my privacy.”
Derrick extended his hand.
“Phone.”
Jaylen looked at Monique.
It happened automatically.
The appeal.
The silent request for intervention.
Monique saw it too.
For the first time, she did nothing.
Jaylen’s expression changed.
“Mom?”
“Give him the phone.”
“What?”
“Give your father the phone.”
Jaylen’s face hardened.
“You’re really doing this?”
“Yes.”
He pulled the phone out and slapped it into Derrick’s palm.
“There.”
Derrick caught it.
Jaylen stormed upstairs.
The door slammed.
Monique flinched.
Derrick looked at the phone.
“Passcode?”
Monique whispered it.
He looked at her.
“You know his passcode?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you do.”
He unlocked it.
Messages.
Social media.
Photos.
Dozens of ordinary things.
Then a text thread caught his attention.
Carter.
Derrick opened it.
Messages from two nights earlier.
Carter: If Cooper finds out where you got those pics, you’re cooked.
Jaylen: She won’t.
Carter: Ellis know?
Jaylen: Shut up about Ellis.
Derrick read the messages aloud.
Monique went white.
Renee moved closer.
Derrick scrolled upward.
Then stopped.
There was a photograph.
A blue binder open on a desk.
Beside it sat a printed answer key.
At the top of the picture was a timestamp.
Tuesday.
4:17 p.m.
The exact afternoon Jaylen had stayed behind in Ms. Cooper’s classroom.
Monique whispered:
“Oh, God.”
Derrick stared toward the staircase.
Then he noticed something in the photograph’s corner.
A hand.
Adult-sized.
Wearing a silver watch.
Someone else had been holding the binder open.
Derrick zoomed in.
Beneath the photograph was a message from Jaylen.
You better not tell my mom you gave me this. She thinks we stopped.
Derrick looked at Monique.
“Stopped what?”
Monique shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
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But the contact name above the image answered for her.
Mr. Ellis.
