At 22, Señorita Powers was upbeat and overly optimistic; eager to make a difference in the lives of inner-city youth. She had spent the summer watching inspirational movies where young, bright-eyed teachers enter difficult schools, fight the system and beat overwhelming odds while leaving an indelible mark on the misunderstood students long labeled as impossible by a long line of low quality apathetic teachers.

The veteran teachers warned her about her third period class. “Chuy Rendón!” they would exclaim as soon as she showed them her roster. “Don’t take your eyes off him.”

“Giselle Smith. Keep her away from Nicole Pernell. They hate each other.” was another warning given to her, emphasized with huge nervous eyes.

“Paco! Oh my God, they gave you Paco! Listen, you really need to make sure that—“ the nervous imploratiion of the veteran teacher was interrupted by students yelling at each other around the corner. Like a masked super hero, the veteran teacher turned and ran towards the commotion.

“I need to make sure of what!” called out Señorita Powers as the other teacher disappeared around the corner.

First and second period went without a hitch. No problems. Sweetest kids ever.

After the bell, she walked to the back of the room and opened the window. The AC in that old building hadn’t been updated in a long time. She wished she had a better view, instead her view was black roof tar and an AC roof unit making all kinds of unholy noises. The only beauty she could see was far off towards the end of the sea of black. The branches of a pecan tree.

She breathed in a huge breath of what she expected would be fresh air but instead almost choked on tar fumes just as the first student walked in.

“Good morning miss.” said a small girl in a red shirt and jeans as she sat down in one of the first seats. Next came a little nerdy looking boy in blue tshirt, black pants, blue tennis shoes and blue laces. “Good morning miss.” he said in a pleasant voice as he smiled and sat towards the back of the room by the window.

The next student to enter was a massive, rough looking kid, a lot bigger than her. As soon as she saw him, she felt a cold shiver. “Paco!” she thought as the student sat in the back of the room next to the nerdy looking kid.

Next came a bunch of other students who filled out most of the seats in the room. Right before the bell rang, two girls entered, eyeing each other sideways. Both were wearing nice color coordinated outfits. Very fashionable.

They smiled awkwardly at each other as they walked in together then paused and eyed the two side by side desks at the front of the room. Simultaneously they turned to look at each other with hesitation, looked around the room with hope but their gaze came back to the two empty desks.

They both seighed loudly and sat down.

“¡Buenos días clase! Mi nombre es Señorita Powers. Bienvenidos a español uno.”

She made eye contact with her students as she walked around the room clicking on her IPad for the next slide displayed on the projector. As she turned to look at her slide the class started laughing. She turned immediately bit there was nothing out of the ordinary anywhere to be seen.

She clicked for her next slide but instead of a picture of her and her adorable pet cat Sammie, a video of two dogs furiously doing it in the middle of a park started playing. The class burst into laughter.

Señorita Powers fumbled with her IPad trying to change the slide but she seemed to be locked out. She ran to her desk at the front of the room and frantically searched for her remote as she caught a glimpse of something strange from the corner of her eye.

A huge cloud of strawberry flavored smoke floated from the back of the room towards the front and just hanged there. ‘Paco!’ she thought as a rush of anger filled her body.

She raced to the back of the room to confront the huge kid by the window. “Give it to me!” she yelled in the scariest teacher voice she could muster.

The huge kid looked startled as he tried to form the words that refused to come out of his mouth. “Give me the vape pen!” she clarified to him in her demon possessed teacher voice.

“Hey Nicole, your mom and dad really like doing it in public. Are they not aloud to do it at the shelter you all stay at?” a mocking voice called out from the front of the room just as the huge kid was about to start crying.

‘That must be Giselle!’ thought Señorita Powers.

“UUUUUUUH!!!!! ” roared the class as Señorita Powers realized what was about to happen. She looked up just in time to see one of the fashionably dressed girls pull her arm back in what seemed to be slow motion throw a punch at the other girl’s face.

From the back of the room Señorita Powers saw the closed fist make contact with the other girl’s cheek a split second before she heard the sound of the punch. As she took her first step forward, the other girl reacted to the punch with a punch of her own. Immediately the other girl grabbed her assailant by the hair and threw her to the ground, sending the chairs and desk flying.

By the time Señorita Powers reached the front of the room, the girls were rolling on the ground slapping, scratching and trying to punch each other.

At that point the class erupted into a tribal chant. “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Señorita Powers reached down to separate the girls but pulled her hand back after it was bitten.

The familiar smell of strawberry filled the air as a huge cloud of smoke filled the area of the fight at the same time that Señorita Powers caught a glimpse of a pair of blue sneakers climbing out the window. She ran back just in time to see the tiny little kid in the blue shirt racing across the tar roof towards the pecan tree. She couldn’t help but admire how nimble he was as he jumped from the roof to the tree and down to the street. And just like that, he was gone.

Señorita Powers stood there in the middle of the chaos as she noticed a vape pen and her remote sitting on the now empty desk that moments ago had been occupied by Paco.

She sighed and returned to the fight.