The janitor at Pryce High School was given the name Mallory, but goes by her middle name: Jacquelyn. Jacquelyn’s duties include all of what one would expect of a janitor, but today she’s working overtime. She walks down the halls, pushing her mop bucket ahead of her, listening to gospel music in her headphones. Jacquelyn — not Jackie, she hates Jackie — keeps her eyes fixed on her mop handle as she approaches the end of the hall. She passes the various classrooms that line the wing. Jacquelyn looks into room 314 and sees Brandon Thibodeaux, the wide-receiver for Pryce High’s football team who is rumored to be closely watched by scouts from major colleges. Jacquelyn sighs, remembering her own high school days. She reaches the end of the hall and removes her mop from its bucket, beginning to work. She has a hard time concentrating, and try as she might to keep her eyes trained on that mop, at one point she sneaks a glance into room 315 to see Sadie Vu. Sadie, with her reputation for smoking marijuana in her car during lunch, has a calculator in hand, eyes glossy and mouth hanging slightly open. Jacquelyn works her way up the hall, barely noticing when the bell rings to signal the end of a period. Jacquelyn steps around students, careful not to mop anyone’s shoes. Sweat begins to bead at her forehead as she digs the mop-head into the tiled floor, trying to make it shine. So caught up in her work, she forgets to step lightly and slips on a particularly wet section of tile. Jacquelyn falls to the ground hard and she lies there for a moment. She turns her head and looks into classroom 307: chemistry. She is looking into the face of Kennedy Thompson, a freshman who Jacquelyn had once overheard telling a friend that she wanted to go into politics. Jacquelyn brings her hand to her mouth, looking into Kennedy’s eyes, and cannot hold back her tears any longer. They silently stream down her face as she rises and once again picks up her mop. She rings out the mop head, but it isn’t water that falls into her bucket; she can faintly hear sirens over her gospel music.