I got my first request for a high school recommendation

From a kid who got suspended in my class. Who has 14 cut slips from me alone. Whose parents I have met with on multiple occasions. But who can be a very thoughtful kid who is much smarter than his classmates and who really needs to get the heck out of high school.

(In Baltimore you have to apply to go to high school no matter what. There are four or five really good college prep schools, a few small trade schools and the rest are wastelands so where you go is really important.)

At least it's not Reggie who told me last week that he was going to marry me. That's right, he didn't ask, he told me. That's what's so different from most middle schoolers I had met before this year - these ones are so honest and hold NOTHING back. Swearing, telling teachers they hate us or apparently that they plan on wedding us even without our consent.