We are introduced to Thea's hectic routine, working at the supermarket checkout by day, dressing hair by night, and supervising her four demanding children. James gives his mother $25 which he earned delivering sandwiches during his school lunch hour, but she insists that he keep the money and eat his own lunch in the cafeteria henceforth. Danesha returns from taking Jerome clothes shopping, but Jerome blabs that he had to try on endless badly-fitting clothes while she talked on the phone to her new boyfriend Leonard, who is meeting her at the library later to study, and Thea insists that Jerome pick her up at home so she can inspect him. Meanwhile, Jarvis is supposedly at a friend's house doing a geography assignment, but Thea has found his geography book and knows that he has been at the video arcade instead, and grounds him before she leaves to attend a memorial service. It's the night of a big video game competition, and Jarvis sneaks out to it despite James' attempts to keep him a