The light was always too bright in Room B214. Heaven’Le James, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School, sat in the second row, clutching a mechanical pencil with a snapped eraser and staring at a worksheet filled with numbers she couldn’t trust. Every three looked like an eight. Sixes flipped into nines. Math had always been a battle — one she began losing in elementary school — and now the battlefield felt like quicksand.

She raised her hand again, slowly. The teacher scanned the room, called on someone else. Heaven’le put her hand back down.

Home wasn’t a refuge from struggle either. In high school she lost her grandmother and great-grandfather in close succession. Her family moved in to care for her great-grandfather while he was on life support. Every day was a balancing act betwee

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