At the end of class, Mr. Johns explained to Jordan how he was genuinely surprised with the quality of her work (and that was the God’s honest truth) – he said that if she had turned in the story as a class project, it would have earned an A+ simply in it’s draft form and he would be using it as an “example piece” for years to come. His compliments were heartfelt, kind, and mature (with appropriate teacher-student boundaries). She felt extremely proud.
“So you’re probably wondering what you need to do to get it ready for the competition?”
“Um, Yeah,” she smiled, standing nearly eye to eye with her teacher.