This week’s exercise was: Your character’s husband, wife, parent, boss or friend is doing something very hurtful to your character……. I started the second of my HJ Heinz Academy stories. It is the roughest of drafts, posted here only to keep myself working on it, imagining that someone may want to know what happens next.

Here’s my disclaimer just in case something here seems familiar to those who know me: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Restart

Sam entered his classroom at HJ Heinz Academy. It was his second year teaching Chemistry . He loved his students, but overall he was beginning to hate his job. Until last year, he loved teaching his science courses, and was the kind of teacher that administrators, parents and students loved. He could make Chemistry come alive, and students who previously struggled with science found themselves successful. His previous school was closed down by the district, staff and students being sent to HJ Heinz Academy. At first, he was excited about the change. It was the combination of two under performing, low-income schools. Both were in crime ridden neighborhoods. The students they served, all too used to losing friends to gun violence. The new administrative team seemed serious about finding ways to reach their difficult population, raising their achievement levels, and improving their quality of life. They joined forces with community organizations. It all looked too good to be true. It was. ……