m.On the way home from the lake, Jess walks with Mark and tells him her idea for a volunteer program. She wants to set up a program through their social problems class. It will allow students to spend time helping children in the hospital. Mark thinks it is a great idea and encourages Jess to bring it up to their teacher. They are both excited about the plan, but Jess makes it a point that she cannot carry it through until she asks her mom. Jess’s grades in school have not been that great, and she already has an after-school job that takes up much of her time.In social problems class the next day, Mark suddenly brings up Jessica’s idea for the volunteer program. Their teacher loves the idea and suggests that the entire class get involved. When they are establishing the committee, Mark explains that it was all originally Jess’s idea. At this point, the teacher recommends that Jess heads the committee, since it was her idea. When they appoint Jess head of the committee, Mark becomes unjustifiably mad and sulks around for the rest of the day.After school, Jess avoids Mark because he brought up her idea when he knew she was not ready yet. Instead of going with her friends after school, Jess goes straight home to convince her mother to allow her to head the volunteer committee. Her mother is reluctant at first, but agrees to let her do it if she can keep her grades up and handle her job too. To do these things, she has to stop talking on the telephone and watching television.In Jess’s next journalism class she learns how to use everyday resources to find out personal information about people. She decides to use her new knowledge to find more out about Scott. She plans to start after she visits the children’s ward to get a head start on the volunteer program.When she gets to the hospital, Mark and Scott, who has also become involved in the program, have already begun setting the program up. This mak...
