PENS & PENCILS

By Gia-Rayne Harris

When a fight breaks out, leaving her with a black eye to wear for the rest of the day, Ms. Johnson's morning can't seem to get any worse. She's paranoid about her classroom review and she can't seem to focus on anything other than the leaked images of a disfigured black man who was recently murdered. With heightened nerves, she overreacts to a student misbehaving in class, sending him to in-school-suspension (ISS). She later regrets it and goes to ISS to make things right - but he's gone missing and nobody else seems to know who he is.