Summary
"I won't say I wish I'd had someone," he says. "I wish I'd listened to those I had, like my mom. She loves me to death, but did that take away the pain that I put her through?" Right in the middle of a downtown coffeehouse popular with students and grizzled writers with ancient Apple laptops, he bursts into tears. "Before my mom leaves this earth I'll make up for all the drama I've put her through and show her I'm a good person."
It isn't as though they never disagree. There are times when [Rafael Ragland] thinks she should sing something she doesn't want to sing, or wear something other than what she'd chosen for herself. But the biggest struggles are over [Denise Jackson]'s family "It's like you're driving down the street and you run over a pothole," Rafael sighs, "and it messes up the alignment of your car. The next time you hit that pothole, and have to get your car fixed again, you learn not to take your butt down that street anymore. Well, Denise's mom is like that pothole. I try not to go around there, but I can't keep Denise from her family."Denise saw friends get suspended from high school for fighting, "but I don't like commotion. Day and night, though, there's people coming in and out. Sometimes there's so much going on in my mother's house I can't even sleep. But she can't con me anymore. I'm not giving her or anybody else leeway to con me. Rafael had to teach me that sometimes you just can't help everybody you might want to help."See the full content of this document
Extract
'American Idol and Beyond
Little ditty 'bout Rafael and Denise Two American kids trying to find them some peace
To invite a girl who's beautiful and charming, and who's been on American Idol - twice! - and who's regarded in many quarters as Madison's brightest musical hope, you might imagine the boys would have been lined up all the way to Monona Drive. But she wasn't a party person like the popular kids, because "parties put you in a position to get in trouble, and trouble's not something I want to be in." So Denise Jackson not only attended this year's La Follette High School prom dateless, but had to dress herself for it, and redo her own coiffure after it fell.You might have thought her mother, Charmaine Brown, who gave birth to Denise wh...See the full content of this document
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