Second Chances Read Online Free

tonight.  Maybe tomorrow night?”
    “Okay,” Nichole said.  “Tomorrow sounds great. And don’t
worry, I won’t be out too late.”
    Nichole disappeared through the back door, leaving her
mother alone in the kitchen. Lakeisha turned the stove off and put a sheet of
aluminum foil over the steaming dish: macaroni and cheese with tuna mixed in,
Tyler’s favorite.  It was one of the few things he would regularly eat that his
sister Kenni could also stomach.
    “Kenni!” Lakeisha called up the stairs. 
    There was no reply from her moody child, so she climbed up
to the second floor and went to her daughter’s room.  The door was shut.
    Kenni almost never shut her door. She liked to keep it open,
being mildly claustrophobic, and the only time it wasn’t was when she was
upset.  Lakeisha hated seeing her daughter so unhappy.
    And things had been going so well.
    “Kenni?” she asked, gently knocking on the door.
    “Go away,” Kenni said, voice muffled.
    “I’m going to go out for a bit,” she said.  “Do you want to
come with me?”
    “No,” Kenni said.  “I don’t want to go anywhere.”
    Her voice was thick with emotion as though she’d been
crying.  She’d been crying most of the last two weeks, ever since they received
the letter from Northmont middle school.
    Essentially, the school had sent a notice telling Lakeisha
that, despite the court ruling a year ago that Kenni and Tyler would be allowed
to attend Northmont elementary and middle school, the low income housing they
lived in was being reclassified by the city and the school district boundaries
had been redrawn.
    Therefore, the terms of the decision no longer applied and
Kenni would need to return to her old middle school.   The letter informed her
that an injunction could be filed, of course, to change the terms of the
original decision to fit this new circumstance, but it would require a separate
case to hear the new situation.
    Basically, it would cost a few thousand more dollars to keep
Kenni in the same school the courts already ruled she could attend, all because
of a well-orchestrated technicality.
    The news devastated Kenni. It had taken her months to get acclimated
to the new school and make new friends. Some of the students were standoffish
in the beginning, but most had been welcoming and friendly.  
    The anger and fear from the parents had even dissipated, and
everyone Lakeisha dealt with was polite and welcoming.   Once it was clear that
nothing terrible was happening to their school by bringing these new students
in, everyone calmed back down and relaxed.
    During the school year, Kenni had made a lot of good friends
at Northmont, many of which invited her to their homes and several of which
even came here, to Kenni’s home.  Considering it was a two hour drive one way,
Lakeisha considered that quite a win.
    None of those other students at Northmont knew what had
happened with this court case, and summer break was scheduled to last another
few weeks. With luck, none of Kenni’s friends would ever know that Kenni almost
wasn’t coming back to Northmont middle school.  Lakeisha would do everything in
her power to make sure Kenni didn’t have to change schools again.
    Which was where Lakeisha was heading now, to solve that
problem. She needed to go to the bank to get a short-term loan. Then she would
be able to use the money to hire a lawyer and get the injunction filed. More
hoops and roadblocks, but she was determined.  With any luck, this time next
week Kenni would be reenrolled in Northmont Elementary, a solid week before
school started back up.
    She didn’t want to say anything yet to Kenni, not until she
had the money in hand and had spoken to a lawyer. She wanted to make sure all
of the paperwork went through and there weren’t any problems before she got her
daughter’s hopes up. But, she was confident things would work out.
    “Okay sweetie,” she said, leaning against the door.  “I’ll
be home later