The Rich Boy in a Rock Band

Song 33 ♪ Must Stop

Mother Superior and Sister Louisa.

I swallowed with difficulty. It wasn't my past what flashed before my eyes, but my future. The future I wanted of finding myself away from my ma's rules and beliefs, which I could only get if I went to college and got a job somewhere else. I needed to stay in this school, that was for sure.

Ayrton chose that moment to say, "Well, it was nice to meet you all but from here on out you're on your own."

"Cut that out, Ayrton Winters," the Mother Superior said with surprising bite. "You may not be my student anymore by your own foolish choice, but you're not getting out of this."

Jem folded her arms. "Agreed."

The boy fumbled with his words. "Wait, what?"

"Follow me," Sister Louisa said. My feet moved automatically. I was hoping that if they saw I was obedient and remorseful and maybe offered to write a 10,000 word essay that they'd let me off the hook. All of us followed them into the school chapel and stood in a row by the first pew. The younger nun stood by the altar and turned to face us. "I can't begin to express how disappointed I am in all of you." I felt her eyes on me like a burn. I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand them, we all ended up looking at the floor. "Members of our school orchestra, baseball team and an ex-alum, sneaking out after curfew, jeopardizing their integrity and that of the school? This is such an affront to our school honor, we should expel you."

My heart froze in my throat. I looked up, tendrils of fear tightening their hold around me.

Mother Superior Evangeline joined her then. "Alas, we're an institution of education, not of punishment. What lesson will you learn if all the example we give you is of taking the easy way out?" She took her glasses off and rubbed at the crystals with the lapel of what I realized was her pajama shirt. She blew on them and put them back on, as if our futures were not dangling on the tip of her tongue.

"It'd be so much easier for us, for our school reputation, if we simply kicked you out and put out a statement that you are in no way associated with Holy Trinity High School, huh?"

I sensed a but. There had to be a but.

"But," the older woman continued, allowing me to breathe again. "That is not the kind of example we want to set. We are and will continue to be responsible for you. Even when you disappoint us, like tonight."

My eyes welled up again and I looked down.

"Do you know why you are in this school?" she asked us, and I felt her voice grow closer. I looked up and saw that she was pacing up and down our line, hands clasped at her back as she looked us up and down. "Have you ever wondered why you're in a boarding school in the middle of a city famous for its amusement parks, close to the beach and surrounded by nature?"

She paused in front of me and I shook my head slightly, not knowing where she was going with this.

Mother Superior's eyes softened a bit, or at least I imagined it.

"You're here, children, so that somebody can care for you."

I felt, more than saw or heard, the shock that passed through the entire line.

"Whatever the reason may be, your families are busy or broken or focused on other issues, but they've all placed their trust in us to take care of you, and that's what we'll do."

She said this to two kids whose dad was more focused on his political image than on his family. To two kids of color with few resources. To one whose parents seemed to be on the verge of divorce. Another one whose parents were a continent apart.