“I could still say No

just as quick as Jeremy did about my name.

Then this Jolly she says, ‘I can’t do it alone no longer,

see, I’ll get fired, it’s a good job,

I work for the factory, you work for me,

Jilly and Jeremy can count on you being here,

I can’t do it alone.’ But while I’m listening

and sneaking a look around at the mess

and she repeats herself

there’s a surprise:

Jeremy’s hand is in my hand, he reached up for my fingers

At the same time she says, ‘I can’t do it alone’

For her third time.” 

In this quote, LaVaughn meets Jolly and her children for the first time, and though there are many reasons she should turn the job down—Jolly’s house is filthy, her young children will be a lot of work to take care of, the teen mom doesn’t seem reliable enough to pay LaVaughn—LaVaughn decides to take the position. This is a defining, life-changing moment for LaVaughn, as she allows herself to be motivated by emotions rather than her practical goal of staying focused on school. LaVaughn wants to help Jolly, and she wants connection—a connection that seems to be promised by Jeremy “reach[ing] up” for LaVaughn’s hand. As a result of the one decision she makes here, LaVaughn will develop a meaningful relationship with Jolly and her children throughout the book.

“This word COLLEGE is in my house,

and you have to walk around it in the rooms

like furniture.” 

Here, LaVaughn tells readers that the idea of attending college is so important to her, it’s become a physical presence in her life, as real as furniture. Both LaVaughn and her mother place so much weight on college because they see it as LaVaughn’s one chance to escape her inner-city life. College is something you must carefully “walk around” and treat with great respect, because if LaVaughn loses the chance to attend college, she believes she will be trapped in her bleak inner-city surroundings for the rest of her life.