Good Kings Bad Kings

Yessenia goes to the “time out room”—which she jokingly refers to as “the Toilet” (31). During her time in the juvenile detention system, she met “criminal” acquaintances charged with drug dealing, theft, and gang activity. She—along with other people at ILLC—attend Hoover High School, and Ricky busses them over daily. Yessenia has a crush on Ricky.

Yessenia and her friend at ILLC, Cheri, joke and laugh about their unfortunate situation. Yessenia also has a counselor, Mrs. Patricia Flowers, who talks to her about her family situation. While talking about her non-present parents, she insists that her mother is her Tía Nene, who has taken care of her all her life. Even her Tía Nene never saw Yessenia as capable and independent and everyone feels that “somebody always gots to take care of [her]” (35).

Teddy is a 21-year-old patient who plans to escape ILLC but gets distracted thinking about his girlfriend, Mia, and his relationship with his father. At ILLC, Teddy mostly does delinquent and vulgar activities with his friend, Bernard, such as stealing their teacher’s keys to sneak into forbidden areas and masturbating into the pool. He wonders about how much a hooker would cost. He gets in trouble often and tries to spend time with Mia, but the “houseparents,” who are responsible for taking care of the patients, interrupt them.