Promise Boys

Trey’s mother comes from New York to be with him. Trey is glad that she looks like she has her substance use under control for the first time in years. He also hopes that Uncle T will not hit him while she is around.

The day after his arrest, Trey waits anxiously in his house. He can hear his mother and Uncle T talking to a lawyer downstairs. He is certain that Uncle T knows he took his gun, but he hasn’t brought it up yet. Trey tries to figure out how to get it back.

Trey thinks about Mrs. Hall. He realizes that he likes her because she is the only person at Promise who isn’t afraid of Moore. He looks her up online and finds her social media. There are recent pictures of her with a drink in her hand, so Trey wonders why she would lie about being on maternity leave.

The unnamed student notes that the guilty person is right there in front of everyone. The truth isn’t ready to come out yet. People just have to start “question[ing] everything [they] think [they] know” (167).

Ramón’s abuela performs a limpia (cleansing ritual), rubbing an egg over Ramón’s body while she prays. When she finishes and cracks the egg, the yolk is full of spots of blood.

It has been four days since Ramón was arrested. He has spent every day at home, wishing that he could undo the last several days. However, he thinks of how everything is tied together—his detention, the pupusas, César’s arrest—and realizes that he would need to “unwind [his] whole life” (169).

Ramón can tell that his abuela has been hearing things about the case, but she won’t tell him what she has heard. Instead, she warns him to stay inside and stay quiet until everything goes away.

Ramón gets a text from Luis checking in on him. Luis insists that J.B. killed Moore, as he is so “quiet,” but Ramón is convinced that it was Trey. He then gets a text from Magda, who tells him that people at her school are talking about Nico Martinez, a kitchen employee who Ramón knows has tattoos from being in the Dioses. Magda says that people think he killed Moore as revenge for César’s arrest.

Ramón thinks of what he said to Ever. He told him to have the Dioses stand down, insisting that Moore didn’t deserve whatever revenge they were planning.

Ramón decides that he can’t just sit back and do nothing. He texts both Magda and Luis together, asking them to come to his house the next morning.

Ramón’s abuela knows that Ramón is innocent. However, she also knows that a lot of people already think he is guilty. She knows that the blood in the egg was not Moore’s. Instead, it was a sign of what is happening to Ramón. The world is delivering him “a thousand tiny bleeding wounds” (174), even as he fights to be a good person.

The next day, Trey decides that he needs to go for a walk just to get out of the house. Shortly after he sets out, he hears Mrs. Hall arguing with someone. He hides behind a dumpster and realizes that she is talking to Detective Bo.

Mrs. Hall asks Detective Bo to look into other suspects, insisting that none of the three kids that were arrested could have done it. Bo is hesitant and then tells her that they are considering Nico, as he has a criminal record. Mrs. Hall thanks him and then hugs him and kisses him on the cheek. Trey is overwhelmed by “dread” and thinks about how Mrs. Hall is a “traitor” for being so close to a detective as harsh as Bo (178).

The conversation makes Trey realize that he needs to do his own work to figure out who else could be a suspect. He goes home to his computer. He remembers helping Mrs. Hall with her computer before. After a few guesses, he manages to remember her username and password to the school’s system. He looks at the records of the different students from the week leading up to day Moore was killed. To his surprise, a fourth student was supposed to be in detention that day: Solomon.

When J.B. shows up to Keyana’s house, throwing bottle caps at her bedroom window, she knows as soon as she sees him that he is innocent. J.B. asks her for help figuring out who killed Moore. Keyana readily agrees and then makes a list of girls at her school who have some relation to Promise students.

After spending a day collecting information, Keyana skips school to go over to J.B.’s house to show him her list of suspects. It surprises J.B. that one of them is Omar Rosario, a student who works in the office. Supposedly, he was the last person to see Principal Moore before he died.

Keyana decides to message Solomon, who also works in the office, to see if he knows anything about Omar. Solomon is excited to help J.B., so he sends back a picture of the visitors’ log from the day of Moore’s murder.

J.B. is surprised to find Mrs. Hall on the list. He tells Keyana that he knows Mrs. Hall was there the day before for a meeting but isn’t sure why she came back. He also recognizes Stanley Ennis, one of the school’s biggest donors.

Because neither of them knows Ennis, J.B. suggests that they ask Trey about him, as he would know him from the basketball team. Keyana is hesitant, as Trey is one of the biggest suspects, but J.B. insists that he will be helpful if he’s innocent.

Trey goes to the soccer field where he knows Solomon will be. He confronts him with the information that he was supposed to be in detention. Solomon reveals that he was given permission by Dean Hicks to work in the office instead. He tells Trey that he was nervous to be in the same detention room as him.

The revelation makes Trey realize that he had always been mean to Solomon. He was just making jokes at his expense, but the idea that it hurt Solomon surprises him.

Solmon tells Trey that Dean Hicks was with him the entire time until a few minutes before. Hicks got a message from security that they needed help. Solomon also suggests that Trey look into Omar or Ramón, as Ramón’s brush was found at the scene.

When Trey gets back to his house, his mother is waiting in his room. To his surprise, she doesn’t seem angry or ask where he was. Instead, she asks how he is feeling.

Trey admits that he feels disappointed, as people who are supposed to help him—Uncle T, his friend Brandon, Mrs. Hall—are abandoning him. His mother adds herself to the list, insisting that she has never been there for him like she should’ve been. She also tells Trey that Uncle T is meeting with another lawyer, fighting for Trey.

Trey gets a message from Keyana asking him to meet with her. He hesitates, but his mother offers to go with him.

Ramón decides to follow Ever. He goes to a Salvadoran restaurant, El Rincón. Nico comes out, and then he and Ever go into an alley. Ever gives him an envelope that Ramón guesses is full of cash.

Ramón realizes that Nico used to be part of the Dioses. He wonders if Ever could be paying him for killing Moore.

Ramón tells Luis and Magda to meet him at Meridian Park, as he wants to make sure that none of the Dioses see them meeting. He also tells Magda not to say anything to César yet.

Although they have no new information, Congresswoman Ford is confident that the police will figure out who killed Moore. She anticipates anonymous emails being made public later that day. She asks the public to come forward if they have any way of identifying the sender.

Ramón texts César. He apologizes for telling Ever not to harm Moore. César assures him that he “never wanted this life for” him (204). When Ramón asks if that means that César didn’t want Moore dead either, César tells him “good night.”

Ramón gets to the park and waits for Magda and Luis. However, he sees J.B. and a girl he doesn’t recognize arrive in the distance. They meet with Trey. At the same time, Magda and Luis arrive.

After talking briefly, J.B., Trey, and Keyana come over to Ramón, Luis, and Magda. The six talk heatedly, arguing and blaming each other. However, they realize that they are all trying to figure out who killed Moore.

Just as Ramón wonders if they should work together, Keyana excitedly tells them that emails from the murderer were made public.

The first email to Principal Moore warns him that the sender knows what he did and that “time is running out for” him (210). In the second, the sender is angry that Moore never responded. The person vows that Moore will see “consequences” for what he did.

After reading the emails, the group begins to discuss the suspects. They first talk about Ennis, as both Trey and Luis remember him fighting with Moore in the gym one day about a month before. Both Luis and Trey dislike how Ennis acted like he “owned” the school.

They then discuss Omar. Luis doubts that Omar, who takes videos of the basketball team, could be guilty. However, he agrees that they should still look into him.

Trey surprises himself when he brings up Mrs. Hall. J.B. agrees that she lied about her pregnancy. They are all shocked when Trey mentions that she might be Detective Bo’s wife or girlfriend.

Trey still isn’t sure how he feels about trusting the others. However, when they talk about who will take Moore’s place, Trey is impressed when J.B. argues that it doesn’t matter; whomever they pick, their reputations are still ruined just because they’re “young and Black” (216).

At the end of the conversation, Trey spots pupusas in Ramón’s bag and asks for one. After hesitating, Ramón hands them out to everyone.

Dean Hicks is chosen to be acting principal. He promises to continue Moore’s vision.