Promise Boys

A student at the school tells the reader that someone brought a gun to school but insists that “you didn’t hear that from” them (7).

Keyana is supposed to go on a date with J.B. on Friday night. However, when he doesn’t respond to her calls, she goes to the basketball game alone. She runs into him in the doorway of the school, and he is covered in blood. She tries to talk to him, thinking he is hurt, but he runs away.

Keyana wants to think that J.B. is innocent but also notes that you can never “truly” know someone.

Robin has always hated working at Urban Promise Prep. She insists that Principal Moore fosters a school of “toxic masculinity and male fragility” (10). Robin also wonders if he has an alcohol addiction. He is quick to anger, and she never knows what type of mood he will be in.

On the day of the murder, J.B. came to her office with a “shredded” hand from punching something. He refused to talk to her about what happened, and she was nervous about how angry he seemed.

Becca is a tutor at Urban Promise Prep. As a white student, she feels that it is her “responsibility” to help the Black students at Promise.

She lists the three suspects in Principal Moore’s murder: Ramón Zambrano, Trey Jackson, and Jabari “J.B.” Williams. She knows Ramón because she tutored him in English. She considers him nice and sweet, as he bakes with his grandma.

Becca does not really know Trey or J.B. She heard that Trey, a star on the basketball team, can be a bully. She always tried to be nice to J.B., but he always ignored her. On the day of Principal Moore’s murder, she saw J.B. fighting with him in the fall. His hand was bloody from punching a nearby locker.

Unk insists that he does not care about Principal Moore’s death. He considers him an “uppity-ass” Black guy who is intruding on his neighborhood with his prep school.

Dean Wilson Hicks helped establish Urban Promise Prep with Principal Moore. He found Moore’s dead body and is still unable to get the image out of his mind.

He is certain that one of the three suspects is guilty. He thinks it’s J.B., who is always quiet and hides his anger. J.B. also comes from Benning Terrace, with Hicks noting that he “know[s] the type of kids who come out of there” (18).

Bando knows J.B. well. He begins by insisting that J.B. would never kill someone. However, he recalls a time when he convinced J.B. to play basketball with him. When one of the players hit J.B. with his elbow, J.B. retaliated by punching him in the face, knocking the kid out and breaking his nose. Bando claims that J.B. could have gotten angry enough to kill Principal Moore.

Mr. Reggie knows Ramón and Trey, as they spend a lot of time in detention. He considers Ramón manipulative, as he always knows what to say to get on his good side. Trey annoys him, as he constantly tries to get out of detention. On the day of Principal Moore’s death, Trey kept trying to go to the bathroom, which Mr. Reggie knew was just a ploy to watch the basketball game. Eventually, Mr. Reggie gave up and just let him go.

When Trey never came back, Mr. Reggie decided to go find him. Shortly thereafter, he heard a gunshot and ran back to the detention room—which is next door to Moore’s office. Ramón and J.B. were both gone, and he found Hicks next door with Moore’s body.

Mr. Reggie can’t stop thinking about how he saw Ramón’s brush on the floor of Moore’s office. He didn’t tell the police, as he didn’t want to incriminate Ramón, but now he wonders if he made a mistake.

J.B.’s mother says a prayer, asking God to reveal the truth of her son’s innocence.

Detectives Bo and Ash interview J.B., who tells them that he was in detention for the first time ever on the night of Moore’s death. He heard a gunshot but did not go into his office.

When Detective Bo asks if J.B. liked Moore, J.B. doesn’t answer. He then asks if J.B. killed him, and J.B. tells them that he is done answering questions. Detective Ash gets angry with him, insisting that he start answering questions and stop lying if he wants the judge to go easy on him.

The day before Moore’s death, on Thursday, J.B. sits in class. Seeing the school’s motto, “We Promise,” written on the wall, he thinks of the school’s anthem. They recite it three times during the school day, with the students vowing to “work hard” and be “respectful, dedicated, committed, and focused” (29).

He thinks about the “Moore Method,” the harsh pedagogical model that drives Promise. The students are not allowed to talk unless it is to a teacher or adult, especially not in the hallways. They wear uniforms, which Moore scrupulously checks over every day. J.B. dislikes most of it but also admits that he has learned a lot more at Promise than he did in his elementary school.

The teachers use a system of demerits for discipline. Each student starts the day with 100 points and then loses them through various actions throughout the day. Each time, the teacher uses their tablet to deduct points, making a “beep…beep…beep” sound echo through the halls (31).

In the hall, Principal Moore comments on several students’ uniforms, instructing them to get shoe polish or an iron. He tells one student to come by later for a haircut. When he discovers that a student named Solomon does not have a tie, he scolds him and gives him detention. J.B. thinks of how Solomon’s family is poor, so it’s possible that he only has one tie; however, J.B. decides that he is too busy worrying about himself to care about others.

At the end of the day, J.B. goes to the grocery store for his mother. He spots a teacher there, Mrs. Carla Hall. She is one of the only ones he likes, as she is less strict when than other teachers. However, she has been out of school on maternity leave. J.B. sees that she is buying alcohol and that she doesn’t look pregnant. He asks how she is doing, and she tells him that she just got out of a meeting with Principal Moore. He can tell that she is annoyed, but she quickly hides it.

J.B. goes back to his house in Benning Terrace, an old housing project. He is stopped outside his apartment by Bando. He has bought marijuana from Bando a few times but mostly tries to stay away from him. Bando pulls him to the side between two dumpsters and offers to sell him a gun. J.B. is extremely nervous seeing the gun but stays cool and politely declines. Bando tells him to come back if he changes his mind.

When J.B. goes back out front, he sees Keyana, a girl he is friends with and has always had a crush on. When she starts getting harassed by a guy and his friends, J.B. goes up to her and pretends to be her boyfriend. They start to walk away, but the guy gets out of his car and continues harassing Keyana. When he calls J.B. a “simp,” J.B. turns and punches him, knocking him out.

J.B. and Keyana run back to Keyana’s house. As they sit on her bed, J.B. tries to figure out how to tell her that he likes her. He decides to read her the lyrics that he came up with for his newest rap. They are about how much he likes her but how he is afraid to tell her. When he finishes, Keyana kisses him.

After a minute, Keyana pulls back. She tells him that she cares for him but is afraid that he doesn’t like her back or will hurt her. J.B. insists that he likes her more than anyone he’s ever known and that he thinks about her constantly. The two kiss again and then have sex.

When Keyana’s mother comes home, Keyana forces J.B. to sneak out the window, promising to call him that night.

After eating dinner with his mother, J.B. goes to his room. Keyana calls, and they talk about their future. He thinks about how he needs to work hard at Promise so that he can get out of Benning Terrace and provide for Keyana one day. He asks her to go to the basketball game with him the next day, promising her that he won’t let her down.

J.B. is distracted throughout school the next day, thinking about Keyana. He goes to use the restroom during history, where Mr. Finley is the substitute for Mrs. Hall.

In the hallway, J.B. hears Dean Hicks yelling at someone. He tells the person that he has been “very fair in [his] expectations” and then yells at them not to “walk away from [him] when [he’s] talking to” them (54). J.B. can’t see who Dean Hicks is talking to. When he comes around the corner, he scolds J.B. for being in the hall, so J.B. apologizes and hurries to the bathroom.

In the last stall, J.B. tries to flush the toilet, but it won’t work. He takes the back off to check it and finds a gun inside. It is much larger than the one Bando showed him. Panicked, J.B. decides that he can’t tell anyone about the gun because he would be branded as a “snitch.” He also doesn’t want to take it to try to get rid of it because he doesn’t want to get caught with it. Instead, he moves it to hide it.

J.B. spends the rest of the day worrying about the gun. He continues to contemplate how he can get rid of it.

In the last class of the day, the students are let out early. J.B. gets his phone from his locker and reads his messages from Keyana. He goes to text back but has his phone taken from him by Principal Moore. J.B. tries to argue that school is done, but Moore tells him that the day isn’t over yet. When J.B. says it is “bullshit,” Moore gets in his face, calling him a “little shit” (59). J.B. can smell the alcohol on his breath.

Overcome with rage, J.B. spits in Moore’s face. In response, Moore grabs his collar and slams him into the locker. He tells him that he has detention and that he will be expelled and then drops him to the ground.

J.B. thinks of how upset his mother will be when she finds out that he is expelled. He angrily punches the locker and then thinks of all the things he can do to get revenge on Moore. The last thing he thinks about is the gun.