A Father's Dream
- At home, Andy's dad is surprised to see him home from school, even though he gets home at 4:00PM every day. Uh… His parents know nothing about him.
- Andy's dad says his report card came in the mail, and he's failing or barely passing everything. He wants answers for this poor performance, and he lays it on pretty thick. But Andy just complains that a lot of his teachers don't like him or are unfair to him.
- His dad gets more annoyed—these are all excuses, and he asks Andy how he expects to get into college when he can't even pass gym class.
- Andy tells his dad he's never been interested in college; that's always been his dad's dream, not his own.
- When his dad points out that he won't be able to play basketball if he doesn't go to college, Andy replies that he's not sure why his dad cares—he's never been to his basketball games.
- His dad tells him that he knows the accident was a traumatic experience, but it's time for him to move on now. Get over it.
- Then Andy asks his dad why he always calls him Andrew and not Andy.
- His dad explains that it's because his name is Ezekiel Jeremiah Jackson, and growing up everyone called him "Eazy" or "Zeke" and he hated it.
- When he started working, no one knew what to call him, so he went by "E.J." to sound more respectable.
- Andy's dad never wanted him to have to deal with the same thing, so he calls him Andrew—this way he has a strong, solid name that commands respect.
- Andy suspects his dad just wants to fit in with the white people he works with, and tells him so. This bugs his dad, and he tells his son that he needs to start caring about his life.
- Whatever you say, Dad.