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confessed.
She made another note.
"Social studies?" she asked gently.
I shook my head. "I'm a little behind," I answered.
"What about English?" Suddenly, I almost felt like crying. I couldn't look at Rosa.
"Having a little trouble there too, huh?" she asked sympathetically.
I nodded.
"It's okay, Claudia, don't worry," said Rosa. "We'll work really hard and you'll be caught up before you know it." She smiled at me encouragingly.
I wanted to believe her. "You don't know how far behind I am," I said.
"Why don't you tell me about it, subject by subject." She pulled my math book off the top of the pile. "So, where are you, and where are you supposed to be?" she asked, flipping the book open.
We went through each subject, discussing the problems I'm having. She looked over my last math test (without commenting on that forty-five, thankfully!), checked out my social studies notes, and read through an essay I'd written for English. I'd left my science notebook at school, in my locker, but I explained to her about how hard it was for me to remember the different kinds of rocks.
She kept making little notes in her book, and murmuring sympathetic comments as I explained how lost I felt in every subject. Finally, we finished going over my situation. I leaned back' and heaved a huge sigh. Then I helped myself to a Milky Way bar. I offered one to Rosa, too, but she shook her head. She was looking over the notes she'd made.
"So, how does it look?" I asked, a little anxiously. "Will the patient survive?" I smiled, to show her I was joking.
She didn't smile back.
"Claudia," she said. "We have some serious work to do. But I think we can put you back on track." She glanced again at the notes she'd made.' "It's obvious to me that you're very intelligent." "Really?" I asked. It felt great to hear that. I know I'm not dumb, but lately I haven't exactly been feeling brilliant. ' "Really," she repeated, meeting my eyes with a serious look. "However, you are lazy, scholastically speaking. And sloppy. And you have terrible study habits, and no idea of how to go about learning the basics 'and then remembering them. You're smart enough to skate along for awhile, but you're going to take a big fall one of these days if you don't buckle down." "I - I don't usually fail tests," I said in a small voice.
"No, I bet you usually pass them, but not by much. And then you immediately forget everything you just learned. Am I right?" I couldn't deny it. She was onto me.
"I used to be the same way," admitted Rosa. "Believe it or not." "I definitely don't believe that. Janine told me you're the best student in her class!" "I do all right in school," said Rosa. "But it doesn't come naturally to me. I've had to work very hard. But it's worth it, to do well." Would it be worth it to me? I wasn't sure. I glanced around my room, looking at some of my more recent art projects. A still life of fruit, done in oil paints. A sculpture of a cat. A watercolor of my mother's garden. A necklace I'd made out of bottle caps and wooden beads that I'd painted with acrylics. All of those things had taken a lot of work, a lot of concentration. But I'd done it gladly, because, for me, art is always worth it. I didn't know if I could ever come to feel the same way about math, or English.
Rosa and I worked hard that afternoon, tackling my math homework. 'We went over every single problem, and she was incredibly patient. Unlike Janine or Stacey, she explained things to me in a way I could understand. She showed me a new way to check my work so I wouldn't make careless mistakes, 'and taught me a great trick for remembering the names of the different kinds of angles.
By the time Rosa left, I felt as if I really might be able to handle whatever Mr. Schubert threw my way. I even planned to ask him if I could take that quiz over again, in' the hope of bringing my grade up.
I was grateful 'that Rosa left at a little after five, before any of my BSC friends showed up. I wasn't sure if I was ready