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Monica and Tess begin their 200th assignment together, on a sour
note. While attempting to give Tess a gift, in celebration of
their partnership, she accidentally takes her foot off the brake
and nearly runs down her assignment. This does not go over well.
Not only has she already alienated herself from the person that
she is there to help, but she gets a ticket and must now attend
traffic school. As a result, Gloria must fill in for her as the
new volunteer at the community center. It is Gloria who must now
assist Jessie, a smart urban youth who tutors underprivileged
children. He is also the adoptive son of, Kelly, the woman who
Monica almost hit.
When Monica arrives in traffic school, she is surprised to find
that Kelly is in fact her driving instructor, and she’s not
thrilled to see the new addition to her class. It is a grueling
four hours of stop-sign quizzes and drunk driving videos. At the
end, Monica tries to make peace with the woman she has come to
help, but all she discovers is that Kelly is selling completion
certificates to traffic offenders.
At the community center, Gloria learns that Jessie is a shining
light in a gritty, harsh neighborhood. His student, Guillermo,
strives to better himself, but he is one of several siblings, and
his father is in jail. Jessie tells Gloria that prison is the
only good thing that can be said about Guillermo’s dad.
Unfortunately, the parole board does not agree, and they allow
Lionel’s slick lies to convince them that he is rehabilitated.
Soon he is back on the street, trying to re-enter his son’s life,
and retake the streets he once roamed as a drug dealer. Jessie
tries to get him to leave, but Lionel only laughs at him.
Meanwhile, at the second section of traffic school, Monica
completes her lessons, and confronts Kelly about her
discrepancies. She tells her that God sees what she has been
doing. Kelly flinches, and stares Monica down. “You’re an angel
aren’t you?” she asks. Monica is shocked, even more so when she
discovers that Kelly is also an angel. She was on assignment when
Jessie’s mother died, and she adopted him. She has been AWOL this
whole time.
Monica tries several times to reach her, but Kelly won’t listen.
She does listen however, when Andrew shows up with the news that
Jessie is going to die. Kelly hurries out the door and drives as
fast as she can to the community center. She is not quick
enough. Jessie has gone outside to run Lionel off, when a
drive-by shooting, aimed at the former drug dealer hits Jessie
instead. Kelly is only in time to watch her son die.
Giving up hope for the world and herself, she gives the money she
had been saving to move Jessie to a safer town, to Guillermo’s
mother. And finally she accepts the fact that Monica has come to
take her home. She even smiles when she realizes that Jessie will
be there.
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