In the high-crime neighborhood where the other Wes lived, the people who live there need a positive role model or mentor to lead them towards a better future. Usually older family members are the person they can look up to. Other Wes' mother wasn't there when Other Wes felt perplexed about his future and needed her support and advice. Even though the other Wes' mother hung around and tried to keep the other Wes away from bad influences in the neighborhood, the other Wes dropped out of school and ended up in prison. While author Wes went to private school every day with his friend Justin; the other Wes tried to skip school with his friend Woody. Moore says, “Wes had no intention of going to school. He was supposed to meet Woody later: they were going to skip school with some friends, stay at Wes' house and eat outside” (59). This example shows that the other Wes was not interested in school at the time. Because Mary was busy at work, trying to support her son's education, she didn't have the time or energy to care for the other Wes. Because of this, he didn't know how the other Wes was doing in school and had no idea that he was running away from school. He missed the opportunity to intervene in his son's life and put him back on the right path. Also, when the author was in military school, the other Wes was dealing drugs to people on the street and was already the father of a child. The incident that made the other Wes drop out of school was when he had a conflict with a boy. The other Wes dated the girl without knowing she had a boyfriend. One night, her boyfriend found out about her relationship with the other Wes and got into a fight with him. During the fight, the other Wes chased the boy and shot him. The boy was injured and the other Wes was arrested