Epic high school romance

This morning an epic romance just moved one more notch on the rising action slope.

"Evelyn" was dating "Leroy" for over a year. They were in my homeroom always kissing sweetly and holding each other. Evelyn looked out for Leroy and kept him in check because he was always one mis-step from prison. Leroy got Evelyn's name tattooed on his arm. She dumped him. They got back together. She dumped him again.

She started dating his best friend, "Alvin."

Alvin is also in my homeroom. But according to Leroy it didn't bother him. He was okay. I'm stupid so I thought it would all blow over.

Leroy hates this school and came to me for advice on how he can get out of it without dropping out, so I gave him a ton of info about how to get his GED and he agreed it was a better route for him. Any day now he'd be leaving school to start at the nearest community college.

In the meantime he was emailing Evelyn threats to send girls to her house to beat her up. He was avoiding his arrest warrant for his part in a robbery. He was broken hearted and descending more and more into depression and chaos and I didn't see it until today.

I saw it today because right before the bell rang to start class, Evelyn ran up my desk where I was typing up my last blog entry and said, "They're fighting."

She didn't have to tell me who "they" was.

Leroy and Alvin were standing outside, circling each other like great cats, shouting insults while a gym teacher tried to stand between them.

I usually don't wade into fights because I'm small and don't feel like getting hit despite my many kickboxing lessons, but since I know these two boys and they both respect me I lightly grabbed Leroy's shoulder and reminded him that he didn't need more trouble.

They weren't throwing punches but they were about to. Threats were thrown back and forth.

I should also mention that while Leroy is the one with the criminal record, Alvin is a thug. Evelyn has questionable taste in men.

As they separated and two girls offered to sweep Leroy to safety, Campus Security showed up. (Campus Security is hot, but now's not the time.) Both boys were arrested. I wanted to give Leroy some advice but all I could do was look at him, helpless and sad.

I returned to my classroom where Evelyn was doubled over in tears. It turns out Alvin has been walking her to and from school every day because she was afraid Leroy would do something to her. He's been going into her classrooms and tagging on her desk. He keeps following her around when he sees her, telling her how he wants to hurt her.

And he tells everyone he knows that he doesn't care about her anymore.

So now I'm trying to push him on the GED route, get him taken out of my homeroom even though I'm probably the only teacher he connects with and possibly get him arrested for his threats toward Evelyn. I'm afraid we haven't reached the climax of this story and I worry about what's to come.

I really like this kid. It breaks my heart.

Teenage love is a bitch.