The movie (and book I guess) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has been advertised pretty heavily. I can't hear that title without thinking about Melody.
It took me a long time to get through college. I used to joke that I was on the 10-year plan but because I was a genius I would finish in 7 years. It wasn't that I was a bad student (I graduated with a 3.95) or cancelled a lot of classes, but I had to work to afford school, and there were some classes that weren't "necessary" but seemed really interesting.
In my third year of school, I had to find a new job as my old one was cutting my hours to the point where I couldn't eat - at least reliably. I took a job with a non-profit that tutored "at risk" kids. At-risk usually meant poor with crappy parents. Most of the kids were hopeless and many didn't graduate high school. There were a few who really did want to succeed although they were often older students going back to get a GED.
Melody was the rare in-high-school student who did want to succeed, albeit without doing any work. She was great in the arts, and writing, but had little aptitude for math and science. Her struggling made studying hard and she had pretty much given up. Unfortunately for her, math and science were needed to graduate. She had no plans to go to college and figured she could at least make a living as an artist; read, a likely continuing of the poverty cycle.
I tutored her off and on in her Junior year. Although the job didn't pay that well, I worked at the same place the next year. Melody had barely passed the previous year, and was struggling more in her senior. I could tell she was working and underneath she wanted to graduate, but outwardly she was giving up. As spring neared, I figured her graduation was almost certainly not going to happen so I made what I thought was a safe bet. I said I would pay for a tattoo she wanted if she actually graduated. The tattoo was one of the only things she talked about. She said she wanted some specific dragon on her lower hip. As I mentioned, I thought I could motivate her to try, but also thought it was a safe bet.
What happened next shocked me. That small thing made all the difference in motivation. As the tattoo was way out of what she (or her family) could afford, that was all she talked about. She also really buckled down and worked. I believe she even started to not skip class. Results were slow but steady. She was not only doing passibly well, but was actually learning. The amount she was behind though still made me skeptical about graduation.
As graduation approached I got more nervous. Since most of the tutoring staff was college students, there were strict rules about interaction with the clients, high school students. Relationships outside of teacher-student were strictly forbidden, and could have legal ramifications due to state laws and the fact that we were "teachers" paid in part by the school district (although most money came through donations). As her finals week approached (and as this was high school, I use the term finals loosely), Melody was getting senioritis, but still working. Her last session with me was two days before her final math test. When we finished, she asked me when she could get her money for the tattoo. By this time, I thought I had a way out. I said I would leave an envelope in a small pocket on the desk. If, IF, she graduated, she could take it. I was taking a couple weeks off and figured I could pick up the envelope after a short trip to Oklahoma and use the money to pay off the trip.
When I got back from the trip, the envelope was gone. I figured the odds of Melody graduating were long, and about 50-50 that she took the money anyways or the cleaning staff did. Although, I hoped she wouldn't have taken it. Lesson learned, don't leave money lying around.
As I was getting ready for the summer school tutoring - a group of hopeless cases if there ever was one - Melody came by. She had this sheep-killing-dog grin as she walked in my office. She asked me if I wanted to see "it." I asked her if she graduated and she replied that she had, and that she wouldn't have done it without me or the agreement, but also that she wouldn't have taken the money if she hadn't. I was glad for that, but less so when she also said she had "earned" her tattoo. "I was surprised the money was there," she said. "Most adults lie." We were only a few years apart in age, but I was one of those adults. She pulled down the side of her pants (a bit farther than I expected) and showed me the tattoo. Tattoos range from defacement of one's body to true works of art. This one was near the artistic extreme. It was multi-colored and gorgeous. I'm not sure how you make a dragon feminine, but this was a very feminine dragon. It was smaller than I thought, given the amount of money that was in the envelope, but it fit her. It was art.
Two days later, I got a phone message from Melody's mother. I'm not sure she was sober on the phone message, but she was screaming about my whoring her daughter out for a tattoo or something like that. I was tutoring a drug addled youth named Albert a day or so later when I saw Melody through the window approach the school with her mother. A police car showed up a few minutes later followed by our director, Jack, sticking his head into my office and asking for me to meet him in his office, NOW.
This one, is going to cost me...
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