How Jesse Got His Karma

three

"Karma?" I hear someone say next to me as I lay my head on the table. I look up to my right and see my best friend Paola Ramirez staring back at me as grabs a Taki out of the bag of chips sitting on our table. I give her a blank expression as I sigh and lay my head back on the table.

"It's not even 8 AM and you're already contemplating why you haven't dropped out." she chuckles as she pats my back.

I absolutely hate math so whoever decided to give me a math class this early in the morning I sincerely hope they burn in the next shower they take soon.

I have no business being in AP Calculus right now. I already have a few college credits, and I really didn't need to take another AP class, much less math, but last year when we were signing up for these classes it was at an AP fair, and whenever my parents hear 'college' and 'free' in the same sentence it's like some sort of mating call because my mom took it upon herself to go with me that night.

I made sure to swerve past the AP Calc booth that my Algebra2/Geometry teacher was sitting at. I heard her trying to call my name, but I pretended I didn't see her but for some reason, my mother decided to, loudly, call out to the rest of the fair and me, "Karma! You don't hear this woman calling you?"...She shouted in front of everyone.

I remember freezing in place because I was too scared to look up at all the people that I knew were staring at me. I turned towards my mother and walked slowly towards her and Mrs.Tran. Mrs. Tran smiled awkwardly as she shook my mother's hand and she began to explain she was calling me because she thinks I would excel in her AP class now that she was no longer going to be teaching Algebra or Geometry. I had told her that I would think about it before my mom sucked her teeth at me and told her, "You can expect to see Karma in your class next year." Then she stared me down like she was trying to see if I'd defy her.

I didn't.

Until we got home and I explained I was already taking AP Biology and AP Psychology and that adding another AP class would be too much for me.

She brought my father into the conversation, and he hit me with, "The people that took AP Calculus before you and passed with A's, did they miraculously have two heads?"

My mother piggybacked off of that and said, "I know. Karma, you're very selfish because you don't even know how good you have it."I rolled my eyes as the conversation continued like this."When your father and I were in school, we were at the top of our class. We came all the way to America for you to have better, and this is how you repay us. I don't even know where I went wrong with you, oh." she puts her hand on her heart and shakes her head as my father shakes his at me also.

So that's why I'm here because I was up until late last night pregaming and looking up calculus concepts to prepare. Because my Nigerian parents guilted me into it.

There was some truth behind those words, but there were also some questionable things.

I know damn well not every African parent was at the top of their class.