Chapter Fifteen

Props to Keckler, for slogging her way admirably through "Chapter Fourteen." Now she understands my pain, and my joy; my blessing and my curse; now she knows the terror and the life-giving elixir they callBoston Public. How sweet are your barbs, my master.

Previously on The Blessing and The Curse: Tyron told Harry that he shot a kid and Harry gave his word not to say anything; Harry lied to a cop about it; Anthony Heald told Steven about Tina's naughty cheerleading routine for the cheer-litas; the cheer-litas danced sexily; Milton asked My-Fair-Lita's parents for permission to keep seeing her; Harvey overheard Jenna and Tina talking about cute student boys; Harvey told Steven that Jenna was sleeping with a student, because he's senile; Anthony Heald was invited to be a guest conductor for the Boston Pops, and Marilyn helped him prepare; Anthony Heald did a great job conducting.

The music room. Marilyn is "conducting" her choir, though this time she just presses play on a stereo, and nods her head to the hip-hop beat that results. Tyron is here, with various other members of the choir, and they all start doing what people in the college a cappella community used to call "vocal masturbation." They're riffing, and Tyron is really good at it. They're actually singing the Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly." After a moment, Tyron protests that he's being forced to harmonize a girl's part, but Marilyn says, "Never mind, Tyron. Just do it." He does. They sound pretty good, especially Tyron, though none of them blends together very well, because they all have really incompatible voices, but whatever. Marilyn contributes a lot with her "conducting": "Great! Awesome!"

Later, in the parking lot, Marilyn, Tyron, and some of the other students are walking away from the school in the dark. "Straight up girl's song, you know what I'm sayin'?" says Tyron, "I don't know why I gotta sing a girl's song." Marilyn says, "Because you came to the party late. We already chose that song, and the competition is four days away." After some banter with the other students that we don't care about, the others all go off in another direction, leaving Tyron and Ms. Souter alone. She tells him, "The head of the music department at Carnegie Tech is gonna be one of the judges. And my guess is, he hears you singyou want to go to college, Tyron? This is your best shot." Why? I thought he was a good student. Or maybe the problem is money, and he's hoping for a free ride based on how well he sings. It's possible. She offers to give him a ride home, and he accepts, and they get into her car. "So, what, if they like how I sing I'll get admitted?" I guess he's confused too. "Maybe," she says. "Your boards are good." Wait, now I'm more confused. He has good test scores? Why is singing his only chance to get into college? But we don't have time to figure that out, because a mysterious car now pulls up alongside them, and the people in it do not look friendly. Maybe it's their angry facial expressions, or maybe it's the big shotgun one of them pulls out and aims at Ms. Souter's head, but I think they're up to no good. Tyron grabs her and pulls her down with him when he ducks. The gun blast shatters the driver's side window, and the car speeds away. Tyron and Marilyn pop up, unhurt. But Tyron no doubt saw something: that these guys were wearing red. They were Bloods. And that means the word is out that he killed one of them.

Credits. Yep, the rumors are true: no Milton, no Kevin. That's kind of alarming. It never occurred to me, really, that they might be off the show as regulars for good. Then again, that's not necessarily what this means, is it? DEK is probably just tricking us.

Marilyn is being interviewed by our favorite cop, whose name I forgot again, out by her car. Steven is here, and Anthony Heald, and of course Tyron. She describes the people she saw to the cop (Detective Danby, I think his name is), who then turns to Tyron, who says he didn't see anything: "As soon as I saw the gun I went down." The cop points out what a coincidence it is that a few weeks ago someone tried to beat up Tyron, and now someone is shooting at him. He says, "Whoa, whoa. They shot at her!" Which is really lame. What proof is there of that? And why would some random person shoot at Ms. Souter? The cop is not impressed, but turns back to Marilyn for the make of the car. Then he turns back to Tyron, who insists he has no enemies. Then, in a kind of weird moment, Harry appears and just looks at Tyron, who looks back at him and walks away. Steven looks at Harry. Harry looks at Steven. It's all very significant, and if Harry's trying to hide what he knows then he's doing a terrible job.

"Why are you even in today?" In the hallways at school the day, Lauren is asking Marilyn why she didn't just stay home. Marilyn says, "I'm a little afraid to be alone," and Lauren says, "You'll stay with me." That's great. The time gun-toting thugs want to kill me, I hope that teeny tiny Lauren Davis has my back. Marilyn tells Lauren the story of what happened, and nothing was said, and she has no idea why it happened. "You know he's in a gang? Tyron?" says Lauren. Marilyn says, "I thought he was out."

"I am out," says Tyron to Harry Senate, in the dungeon classroom, which I guess is soundproof, because they now feel free to have a loud conversation about secret information, from across the room from each other. "Was this about that?" asks Harry. "Was this your homeboys still mad because you quit the team? Tyron?" After a pause, Tyron admits what he knows to be true. "I think the word is out that I popped that guy." Harry says that he thought nobody knew, and Tyron says he thought that too, but a couple of his friends knew he was in the area, asked him about it, he denied it, but "it seems to me the word is out." Harry shows off his familiarity with the lingo: "So now the Bloods are looking to even the score." Tyron says he doesn't know, but he does.

The vice-office. Harvey Lipschultz is here, as Anthony Heald makes an almost superhuman effort to speak softly and kindly to him. "Are you firing me again?" says Harvey. "I'm not firing you," Scott says, softly and kindly. "I justI have some concerns and I'm trying to address them." Harvey wants to know what the concerns are, and Scott explains, "Your mental well-being." Softly and kindly. He reminds Harvey of his almost getting Jenna fired just because he misheard her, and "add to that the fact that you told Steven you resign, having forgotten why you were quitting. You're almost eighty years old, and I want to be sure you're okay." Harvey gets difficult, and some of the softness and kindness slips out of Scott's voice when he says, "Go get a check-up, Harvey. If you'd like me to make it an issue, I will." Steven enters, meanwhile, in the background, as Harvey asks if that's all. "That's all," says Scott, harshly and unkindly, "do you have any trouble remembering where the door is?" Harvey leaves. Steven asks Scott if that was strictly necessary. "I started off being kind to him, and hehe isn't well, Steven. We all know it." Steven points out that they cannot afford to lose another teacher, just as The Exposition Fairy pokes her head in, bringing along with her a young blonde female student. "Scott, this is Annie Webb. I think you should hear what she has to say." Uh-oh. I sense a "lita" coming on. "You have to tell them, Annie. They'll help you, I promise." Annie comes in and sits down. "Well, I wasn't gonna say anything. I don'tmaybe it's not even that big of a deal." Steven presses her to go ahead. "Well, I used to be on the competitive cheer team, and it didn't work out, and I quit. The reasonTina Knowles, the coachumshe was fondling me." What do you mean, she was fondling you? "I mean she would touch me. My breast, my butt, sometimes my thighs." When did this happen? "In practice. She would ask me to stay late sometimes. It's not like I'm all psychologically damaged, or anything. I don't want to go public with anything. But I think people should know what she's doing." Great. It's Cheer-lita Mo-lesta.

Back in the dungeon, Harry is still arguing with Tyron. "This changes things, Tyron. How can you not turn yourself in?" Tyron argues that he's not even sure they know, but Harry yells, "Why were they shooting? 'Cause you sing like Roberta Flack?" Tyron says, "If I am penned, so what? Payback happens in prison, too." Harry counters with the salient observation that last night Tyron put someone else at risk: "Marilyn Souter almost got killed because of you." But Tyron's got an answer for everything: "So I won't ride with her." Meanwhile, Lisa Greer appears in the doorway, unbeknownst to the two yelling boys. "You killed somebody, and now somebody's looking to kill you! You've gotta go to the police!" At this point, Lisa opens the door and comes in, and Harry and Tyron feel like idiots. "What do you want?" says Harry. Lisa says she wanted to ask him something. "I'll find you later. Get out," says Harry, not softly or kindly. She leaves. "That's great," says Tyron, "you've got all kinds of cool." Harry says he'll deal with Lisa later. Tyron reiterates that prison will get him killed, so Harry hits him with an ultimatum: "My word is dead now. Either I talk to your parents or I'm going to the police."