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Copyright © 2021 Angel RamirezAll rights reserved The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, livingor dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form orby any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express writtenpermission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 9798484306213 Cover design by: Angel Ramirez Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309 Printed in the United States of AmericaSAMPLE

CONTENTSCopyright1 A Shorter Introduction2 A New Mission3 He Said What?4 Not Giving Up!5 No Video Games?6 You’re Missing Out!7 But Why Not?8 Not Even Bowling?9 You’re Not Nice10 Are You Okay?11 What’d He Do?12 Tell Your Story13 A Great Idea14 This May15 A New View16 Testing A Theory17 Until Next TimeAbout The AuthorBooks By This AuthorSAMPLE

Compassion – our greatest response to this life.SAMPLE

T.J.’s AdventuresThe Vociferous Villain“Mr. Angel” RamirezSAMPLE

1 A Shorter IntroductionIf you’ve already read my first adventure, then reading onwould really be a waste of your time. Useless really. Unless of courseit’s been a while since you’ve read it. Or maybe you’ve just got lotsof time on your hand. Or maybe you just like to read a lot. Anyway, ifyou want to read on, read away!On the other hand, if this is your first time meeting me, thenyou’re probably reading this adventure because the library didn’tSAMPLE

have my first adventure available. Like maybe someone had alreadychecked it out or hadn’t returned it or something. Or maybe someonegave you this book as a gift or birthday present or something like that.It doesn’t really matter what the reason is. All that matters is that youread the rest of this introduction so that everything you read—afterthis chapter—makes sense.My name is Tomas (as in Toe-moss) Raymundo Olivera UribeBarrientos Lopez Espinosa, Jr. But everyone just calls me T.J. I’m inthe fifth grade—though I look more like a tall second grader oraverage sized third grader. I have a little sister—not by choice—insecond grade, named Xochitl. She likes to tattle and annoy me.My best friends are Erick, Justin, Marcus, Paul and Sammy.Erick likes Superman. Justin likes Spiderman. Marcus likes CaptainAmerica. Paul likes the Flash. Sammy likes Wonder Woman. And Ilike Batman. And we’re all part of The T.J. League! It’s a league Imade up since some of us like Marvel superheroes and some of uslike D.C. superheroes. The T.J. League accepts superheroes from alluniverses!In our last adventure, we had our lives turned upside down!Okay. Maybe not our lives. But the most important aspect of ourlives… recess! Let me explain what I mean. Our school brought in a‘recess coach’—Funmaker John—to help us have a better recesstime. I guess? I’m not sure the adults are aware of this, but, if there’sSAMPLE

one thing that kids probably don’t need help with, it’s playing outside.That includes recess.Anyway, Funmaker John changed the rules to nearly everygame we played at recess. He even got rid of some of our favoritegames! I mean, he did bring in some cool, new games. And he evenallowed some students to help him run recess. Including Erick. Hecalled them ‘Future Funmakers’. But all these changes came with-out-warning! And we were not excited about it at all! Even Marcusstarted acting out of character. But the worst change of all, was thefact that we weren’t allowed to play T.J. League!What’s T.J. League? It’s a game that I made up. This is how itworks. I create a scenario with a villain we have to defeat. Sometimesit’s easier and sometimes a bit more difficult. The key to successfullydefeating the villain is teamwork, problem-solving skills and mostimportantly, our imagination! It’s our favorite thing to play at recess.And it was taken away from us. And because of that, Funmaker Johnbecame my new villain. And for a short while, Erick, too.Actually, it was because I threatened Erick that I ended up inPrincipal Martinez’s office. Sort of. Principal Martinez had heardabout our continued defiance against Funmaker John’s recess rule thatended T.J. League and called me in. I guess he figured that I was theleader and that if he could change my mind, then the rest of the guyswould follow me. And boy was his decision effective. He informedme that he wanted me to create a new recess game. One that I wouldSAMPLE

have to name. And come up with the rules for. And parameters. And agoal to achieve. And… you get the idea. Why? So, I wouldunderstand how difficult it can be to create, teach and maintain agame that everyone in the school can participate in.He also, in that same meeting, did something very underhanded.Sigh. He made me a Future Funmaker. He knew I didn’t likeFunmaker John. He knew that I didn’t like all of his changes. He knewthat I wished Funmaker John was gone and that everything would justreturn to the way that it used to be. And knowing all that, he stilldecided that I should be a Future Funmaker.But then again, he also did something that I don’t think even herealized. He gave me a new challenge to overcome. That and a tinybit of control. And boy did I use that to my advantage. How? Hee heehee. In a way I don’t think he ever expected. Oh, I created a newgame all right. I made sure to check off all those boxes he had givenme. New name? Check. Rules? Check. Parameters? Check. Goal toachieve? Check. What kind of game did I create, you ask? Theperfect kind of game. The kind that would allow us to play T.J.League at every recess. Regular recess and lunch recess. I called it,Heroes and Villains.After teaching it to the school, everyone loved it! Kind of. SinceI was now a Future Funmaker—and enjoying it a bit, I must admit—Icould no longer play with the original T.J. League members. Why?SAMPLE

Because I had to run my new game. And boy did they not enjoy that.Not. At. All.After having a bit of a tiff with the guys, my mom helped meunderstand that although I had given everyone else something new toenjoy, I had also taken away a favorite thing from my best friends:playing T.J. League with me. After that discussion, I knew that I hadto do something. And quick! Thankfully, the idea came to me beforethe guys could completely mutiny and kick me out of our league.Due to too many missed homework and classroom assignments,Funmaker John lost a group of his Future Funmakers and was hurtingfor some more. Knowing this, I scheduled another meeting withPrincipal Martinez. And after convincing him that my plan was ab-so-lute-ly genius, and necessary, I had to do the same with FunmakerJohn. I admit, I was a bit leery of his acceptance to my proposal, buthe immediately approved of my idea and did everything necessary tomake sure it was a success.Now, all of us, Erick, Justin, Marcus, Paul Sammy, and I, areFuture Funmakers. That fixed Funmaker John’s understaffed issue.Now we all help at first recess to make sure everything runssmoothly. But what about us playing T.J. League you ask? Well, Iconvinced Funmaker John to allow us to get out of class an extra tenminutes early so that we can play T.J. League before setting up all thenecessary equipment for the recess games. He even agreed to play thevillain for us! Which, I’m surprised to say, made it even better!SAMPLE

Normally, I had to think up ideas, on the spot, whenever one of theguys had an idea on how to defeat the villain. Now Funmaker Johndoes that for me. And boy is his imagination almost as good as mine.So, in the end, everyone ended up pretty happy, and the guysand I are enjoying our Future Funmaker experience. But of course,life goes on. And now a new challenge has come along. I just hopewe’re able to find a solution to it before it becomes a bigger problemthan Funmaker John used to be!SAMPLE

2 A New Mission“Think fast!”“Ow!”Don’t people know by now that I am not good at sportsinvolving a ball! And yes, that includes catching one!“Sorry, T.J.,” Justin apologized. “You were closest to thebasket.”SAMPLE

Our class is playing kickball basketball. If you’re not sure whatthat is, let me explain.First, the set up. Kickball basketball is played on a basketballcourt. One team lines up in one corner of the court at ‘home plate’and the other team uses the rest of the court as the ‘outfield’. Firstbase is the half court corner farthest from home plate. Second base isthe basketball pole farthest from home plate. Third base is the halfcourt corner closest to home plate. And home plate is where youstarted from. It forms a rhombus. Which is pretty much the sameshape as a diamond. At least that’s how Mrs. Whiston explained itwhen she taught it to us.Now to explain how it’s played. First, Mrs. Whiston calls out aspelling word, or state capital, or math problem or something likethat. Like, say, four times eight. Whoever is up to kick has to answerthe question or problem, correctly. If you answer incorrectly, you geta strike. Three strikes and you’re out. If you get it right, she’ll roll theball for you to kick.After kicking the ball, the team in the outfield can catch the ball,but it doesn’t get you out. In order to get someone out, the other teamhas to make a basket in the hoop closest to home base, before you’reable to run around the bases and make it home. If you make it homebefore they can make a basket, it’s a homerun and your team scores apoint. Oh, and there’s no singles, doubles or triples. The other teameither gets you out or you make it all the way home for a homerun.SAMPLE

Justin just tried to pass me the kickball, so I could make a shot,since I was closest to the hoop.“C’mon T.J., you should have caught it!” one of my classmatescalled out.“I did!” I called back, “with my face!”As the other team laughed, Sarah managed to recover the balland make a basket just before Jasmine reached home plate.“Booo!” the other team hissed.“Simmer down,” Mrs. Whiston ordered, as Joseph handed herthe handball.“Easy out!” someone from the outfield shouted, as Jeffersonapproached the plate.“That’s a name,” Mrs. Whiston called out.“I was just kidding,” Shanika called back.If Marcus is the best boy athlete in our school, then Shanika isdefinitely the best girl athlete. And even though I’m not good at anysports with a ball, Jefferson is no good at sports. Period. At least Ithink he’s not. I’ve never actually seen him play any. He’s usuallyreading ‘a good book’ during recess.“Comments stay in our mind…” Mrs. Whiston started.“NOT IN OUR MOUTH,” we all finished.“Make good choices,” Mrs. Whiston said, for the umpteenthtime today. “Okay, Jefferson. What’s the capital of New Hampshire.”SAMPLE

Even though we all knew he would get it right, we all moved incloser to home plate.“It’s an automatic homerun if anyone passes me,” Mrs. Whistonreminded us. Jackson took a few steps back just in case.What happened next caught everyone by surprise. At least Ithink everyone. It all happened so fast that I’m not even sure anyonemoved until Jefferson reached second base. It was either extremetalent or extreme luck. I’m not even sure Shanika had kicked the ballthat far during her last turn at the plate.By the time Shanika even reached the ball, Jefferson hadalready reached home plate, where his teammates were waiting andcheering. Who knew? I guess a bookworm can kick a ball just as wellas he can read!We continued to play kickball basketball until Mrs. Whistonnoticed our school secretary, Mrs. Kelley, walking towards us.Following her, about ten feet behind, was a kid I had never seenbefore.“Okay, students. Water break!” Mrs. Whiston announced.Everyone started running across the blacktop towards thedrinking fountains. Our school has one at the end of every wing.“Can you be-lieve it!” Justin said, as he waited behind me for adrink of water.“Believe what?” I asked, wiping water from my chin.“Really?” he asked, before getting his own drink of water.SAMPLE

“Really. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I answered,walking towards the basketball court.“Jefferson, T.J. Jefferson!” Justin exclaimed.I know that Justin is excited about what just happened, but Ican’t help wondering about the new kid with Mrs. Kelley. We haven’tgotten a new kid in our grade since Sammy joined our class, back infourth grade. Which made me wonder. Why isn’t this new kid in Mr.Anderson’s class?“Maybe it’s because he has more students,” Sammy whisperedin my ear, giving me a small fright.I guess I must have said that last thought out loud. I’ll have tobe a bit more careful in the future.As everyone returned to the basketball court, Mrs. Kelleywalked back towards the office.“Boys and girls,” Mrs. Whiston said, while motioning to thenew kid, “this is Victor.”“Hi, Victor,” the class said, in unison.“Now, I know that we would normally do introductions first, butour computer lab time starts in a few minutes, so we’ll save that fortomorrow,” Mrs. Whiston explained. “Make sure to grab yoursweaters and jackets and let’s head to the computer lab.”“Number order!” Jefferson announced, with a clipboard in hishand. This week it’s his turn to be Line Monitor. Everyone quicklySAMPLE

made two lines behind this week’s line leaders. Number seven andnumber twenty-two.“Shoes!” Jessica called out. Jessica’s number seven.“Behind shoes!” everyone responded.“Arm’s!” Jordan called out. Jordan is number twenty-two.“Length apart!” everyone called back.“Victor, you can stand in the back with me,” Jefferson said, ashe wrote something down on the paper that the clipboard washolding.“Thank you, Jefferson,” Mrs. Whiston said.“Thank you, Jefferson,” someone mimicked, a bit too loudly.“That’s a name,” Mrs. Whiston said, for the second time sincewe had come outside.It was probably a good thing that Jefferson had taken someinitiative, because Victor had stayed still while everyone else waslining up. Which makes sense. Since he’s new, he doesn’t knowwhere he’s supposed to stand or what he was supposed to do.Although, by the look on his face, it also seems that he’s never seensuch a process before. Actually, he even jumped a little when Jessicaand Jordan shouted out their commands, whereas no one else in Mrs.Whiston’s class seemed affected by the volume of their voices. Iguess they don’t have the Recess Revitalization Foundation atVictor’s old school.“Leaders?” Jessica called out, but not as loudly this time.SAMPLE

“May lead,” Jefferson replied.Jessica and Jordan led our class just outside the computer laband stopped. Mrs. Whiston came to the front of the lines and used herclassroom key to open the door. As she did this, Jefferson walked tothe front of the lines and inspected each line, carefully. After amoment of tapping his pencil on his chin, he pointed at Jordan’s line.As Jordan led his line into the computer lab, people from his linecheered quietly while people from Jessica’s line groaned quietly. Bothwere short lived once everyone saw Jefferson put his pencil to thepaper.Once inside the computer lab, everyone knew which station togo to. Everyone except for Victor, who just stood at the front of theroom, silently.“Okay, everyone, please sign-in to Math Munchers while I setVictor up on a computer,” Mrs. Whiston instructed, motioning forVictor to take a seat at the back of the room, where there were threeempty stations.While Mrs. Whiston was helping Victor, an announcement camethrough the phone’s speaker: “Mrs. Whiston, please call the office.Mrs. Whiston, please call the office.”It was Principal Martinez’s voice, which caused everyone towhisper. We usually only hear Mrs. Kelley’s or Mr. Ellis’s voice onthe intercom. We only ever hear Principal Martinez’s voice at the endof the day on Fridays, when he's making important announcements,SAMPLE

like which class has perfect attendance for the week, who's beenCaught Being Healthy or who's done an Act of Random Kindness.While using the phone at the front of the room, Mrs. Whistonturned and looked at me. I know, I know, I should be practicing mymathematics skills on Math Munchers, but sometimes I can be a bit,what’s the right word, nosy.“T.J.,” Mrs. Whiston called, after hanging up the phone, “Mr.Martinez wants to see you in his office.”“Oooo,” the whole class chimed. Seems they’re a bit nosy, too.◆ ◆ ◆“T.J.!” Principal Martinez greeted me, enthusiastically, with ahandshake.“Principal Martinez,” I said, with a little less enthusiasm, since Ihad no idea why he had called me into his office. I mean, I hadn’teven gotten into any trouble. Lately.“Take a seat, T.J.,” he instructed, while gesturing to the roundtable in front of his desk.“So,” I said, a bit confused, “what’s up?”“I know I called you here out of the blue,” he began, “but I needyour help, T.J.”My help? Why would the principal of the school need my help?I mean, he runs the entire school. All he has to do is say that there’s anew rule, and everyone has to follow it. Even the teachers! He mustSAMPLE

have read the confusion on my face because he sat back in his chair ina more relaxed position and began to explain what he meant.“It’s like this. Mrs. Kelley just added a new student to yourclass, right?” he asked.I nodded my head without saying a word.“Victor has been transferred to this school after being expelledfrom his old school,” he continued. “In fact, ours is the fourth schoolhe’s been to in the past three months.”“Whoa!” I said, reacting without really meaning to.“‘Whoa’ is right,” he responded, “and I’d like to put a stop tothat.”“Stop to what?” I asked, still confused as to why I’m here.“It seems Victor has had a hard time making good friends at hisold schools. He always seems to find friends that lead him in thewrong direction,” he continued.“And that concerns me, because?” I asked, still not completelyclear as to what he was getting at.“Because this seems like just the challenge that the T.J. Leaguewould enjoy,” he said, finally getting to the point.“I don’t know,” I responded, not too excited about acceptingsuch a mission. But I guess I could talk it over with the rest of theguys and see what they think. Who knows, this may end up being theeasiest mission we’ve ever had to complete.SAMPLE

After discussing details about his expectations and my views onthe probable outcomes of the mission, Principal Martinez assured methat whatever the outcome of our attempts, he would be grateful.After finally making the executive decision to accept the mission, Imean I am the leader of the T.J. League after all, he and I shookhands, to make it official.By the time I got back to the computer lab, my class wasalready lining up to go back to class, which means that there’s lessthan ten minutes of school left.SAMPLE

3 He Said What?“A new mission?” Justin asked, as we walked towards the frontof the school.“A new mission,” I repeated.“What kind of new mission,” Erick asked.“Making friends with the new kid,” I answered, trying to adjustone of my backpack straps.SAMPLE

“With Victor?” Sammy said, more as a statement than aquestion, while helping me fix my backpack strap. It seems it gottwisted when I put it on.“Yes, Sammy. With Victor,” I confirmed, doing that little wigglething that people do to make sure that their backpack is on just right.“How is that a mission?” Paul asked, scratching his head.“Well—” I started before Mrs. Kelley began making anannouncement over the school’s speaker system.“Don’t forget boys and girls, if you haven’t paid for your classpictures, you have until this Friday to turn in your money. Cash ormoney order only. Your parents can also pay online if that is a betteroption. And remember, you only have to keep the pictures you want.Just turn in what you don’t want, to the office, by this Friday.“If your parents have decided that they want you to retake yourpictures, you still have to turn in your picture packet by this Friday.Make up picture day will be in two weeks and that picture is final.“If your parents just don’t want to keep the pictures, please turnyour picture packet back into the office by this Friday. After that, theywill have to pay for the entire packet, in full.“If your parents have any questions, they can call the office orcome in person. Enjoy the rest of your day!”By the time she finished her announcement, we were already atthe front of the school and our parents were calling for us.“I’ll tell you guys tomorrow!” I promised.SAMPLE

◆ ◆ ◆“He was the worst of all of them?” Sheri asked.“That’s what he called himself in another book of the Bible,”Teacher Jeff answered. “Saul basically went out of his way to lookfor, find, and imprison followers of Jesus. Even if he had to travelmiles and miles away to do it!”Dang! Talk about your Supervillain! At least all of Batman’senemies were basically from the city he lived in. Basically. Of course,I guess there have been some villains who’ve traveled to earth fromgalaxies far away to try and conquer earth. Try being the key word inthat sentence.“But he doesn’t stay that way, right?” Alex inquired.“Can you explain what you mean?” Teacher Jeff asked.“Well, you just said that he called himself the ‘worst’ in anotherbook of the Bible, and my dad said that all the books of the Biblewere written by men who were chosen by God,” Alex clarified.“That’s true,” Teacher Jeff acknowledged.“So, I doubt God would have chosen someone who was the‘worst of them all’. Unless he changed, that is,” Alex continued hisreasoning.“That’s a very keen observation and some rather ingeniousdeduction,” Teacher Jeff lauded.Hold on. I just realized something. You Leaguers probably haveno idea where I am right now. Especially since I haven’t been able toSAMPLE

share with you some of the important things that have happened sincemy last adventure. Let me try and keep this short and sweet with asmuch detail as possible.It all started when Marcus’s church was having a WorldChildren’s Day celebration. It was open to everyone, including peoplewho don’t go to his church. It was kind of like a carnival, with food,games, and prizes and even entertainment on a stage. And it was allfree! Marcus invited me to go with his family and after someassistance from mom, dad agreed to let me go. It was so much fun!On our way home, I asked Marcus if church was always thisfun. He explained that they didn’t have huge celebrations like this oneall the time, but that Teacher Jeff made Bible class and learningenjoyable. He then asked me if I wanted to go to church with him thefollowing day. The following day was a Sunday. I told him that Iwould have to ask my mom and dad, but that it sounded like fun.That was a few weeks ago. When I had my first ever visit toMarcus’ church. Actually, it was my first ever visit to any church.Period. It was kind of exciting on the car ride over, since Marcus hadbeen telling me all these stories of all the cool things he’d learned anddone at church. He made it sound just like going to normal school—Iknow, that probably doesn’t sound very fun, but hear me out—itsounded like going to normal school except that everyone is nice andfeels like family. That they support you and want to see you grow andSAMPLE

do well. That no one makes fun of you or picks on you. Instead, theysay nice things and make you feel good about yourself.Oops. Short is turning into longer than short and sweet isturning into less sweet than is enjoyable. Let’s get back to the present.But first, one more key detail. Today is not Sunday. Today isThursday. My first Thursday ever at church.“In today’s lesson, we will read about Saul’s journey to anotherfar away city, to capture and imprison followers of Jesus. Except,Saul is going to meet someone special along the way. Someone whois going to bring Saul to his knees and help him see that there isanother option. And that he doesn’t have to continue in his hurtfulways,” Teacher Jeff shared.◆ ◆ ◆When we started school the next day, Mrs. Whiston sat Victor inthe empty chair next to me and was setting him up with all thenecessary classroom supplies, including a tablet, while the rest of usworked on our state packet.“You’ll have to read and sign this agreement before you’reallowed to use the school tablets,” she explained. “Your screen nameis your student number, and your password is your birth date.”I’ve never understood why the school makes it so easy to signinto the school equipment. I mean, all someone has to do is learn yourstudent number and your birth date and they can pretend to be you.SAMPLE

Not too wise on the part of the technology leaders at the district if youask me.“I know how to log on,” Victor said, rudely. “It’s not like this isthe first time I’ve done this.”I can’t believe it! All Mrs. Whiston is trying to do is be helpful.He doesn’t have to say it like that. He doesn’t have to be so mean.“Very well,” she said, calmly, taking the freshly signed contractfrom Victor’s desk and placing it in her file cabinet with everyoneelse’s contracts. “I think that now is a good time to find out whichstate each of you will be learning about for your state report.”Mrs. Whiston pulled out the spinner that we use for Bingo, butinstead of balls inside, there are papers. This is going to beinteresting.“Okay, class. I’m going to be pulling out papers from inside thisball spinner,” she explained.“No, duh,” Victor whispered, loudly enough for me to hear.Seriously, what’s this guy’s problem?“I’ll be going in number order to make things simple,” shecontinued. “Victor, as the newest addition to our classroom, you willbe number thirty-two.”This time he didn’t say anything. He just slouched silently,spinning his pencil between his fingers.It took about ten minutes before everyone knew what state theywould have to learn about for their project. I got Idaho. Whoop deeSAMPLE

doo. Besides growing potatoes, I know nothing about Idaho.Somehow, Victor got Hawaii. Beginner’s luck, I guess.“Okay everyone,” Mrs. Whiston said, placing the ball spinnerback on top of one of the bookshelves, “I will now be passing out apaper that tells you everything that you will need to include in yourreport. You will need to research your state as part of your dailyhomework. I will also set aside thirty minutes of class time, each day,so that you can work on your presentation, using your tablets.“In two weeks, you will have to turn in your written report anddo an oral presentation, casting your tablet onto the screen, so that wecan see all your hard work. Make sure to include your name and yourstate on the title screen.”While she passed out the papers, a reminder alarmed on Mrs.Whiston’s laptop.“Oh, my goodness,” she said in a panicked voice. “I wasn’texpecting to set up a new student in class today, so it totally threw meoff my schedule!”“Well, sor-ry,” Victor commented.“Oh, sweetie, it’s not your fault,” Mrs. Whiston correctedherself, “that reminder just lets us know that it’s time for P.E.Jefferson, would you be so kind as to—.”“I would be delighted,” Jefferson interjected, before she couldfinish.SAMPLE

One of the duties of the Line Monitor is to choose which tablelines up first. Sometimes people will just choose their friend’s table,but not Jefferson. We all know what he’s looking for. The same thingthat Mrs. Whiston has been teaching us since kindergarten. He’slooking for clean desks, with people sitting up, and looking straightahead, with their hands folded. And boy does he usually take his timechoosing.“We’re running a little late right now, so let’s try and make itquick,” Mrs. Whiston instructed.◆ ◆ ◆“I think that’s the quickest that Jefferson’s ever chosen the lineorder,” Justin commented, as we waited for the P.E. coach to finishsetting up the athletic equipment. Mrs. Whiston has learned that sheneeds to give Jefferson a couple of extra minutes to choose the lineorder, compared to everyone else in class, that is.“Mrs. Whiston did tell him to make it quick,” I pointed out.“Hey, guys,” Marcus said, with Paul and Erick by his side.“And girl,” Sammy corrected.“You know what he meant,” Erick said, annoyed.“So, are you going to tell us about the new mission or what?”Justin asked, throwing his hands up.“Okay, okay,” I started, “it’s not my fault that Mrs. Kelleyinterrupted me last time.”SAMPLE

“I know, I know,” Justin said, apologetically. “I’m sorry. It’s justthat I could barely focus in class because I was trying to figure outwhat it could be!”“Well, it’s like this.”Explaining the new mission took a bit longer than I would haveliked since I was once again interrupted, only this time by the P.E.coach. Luckily, today is going to be more of a free day for us, sincethere is only one coach. Usually, there are two coaches. And theynormally split us up into two groups, and teach us a skill, or have usdo exercises that will be part of the state examination at the end of theyear. Today, we get to choose a station, for fifteen minutes. Then,Coach Red will blow his whistle for us to switch stations. I think Ilike it much better this way.“So, all we have to do is be friends with the new kid?” Paulasked.“Victor,” I corrected.“Right, Victor,” he corrected himself.“That’s all,” I assured him.“That doesn’t sound like much of a mission,” Sammy pointedout.“That’s what I thought at first,” I said. “But Mrs. Whiston sathim next to me in class and I already want to punch him!”“T.J.!” Marcus exclaimed, a bit surprised. “Everyone deserves achance. It’s like trying a game that’s not the same. He may be new toSAMPLE

us, but who knows, he may just be perfect T.J. League material!”“I don’t know,” Erick said, agreeing with me.“Come on guys,” Paul encouraged us, “there’s only one way tofind out. Let’s go ask him if he wants to join!”There were still a few minutes in our rotation before Coach Redwould blow his whistle for us to switch stations. Until then, we had towait patiently to ask Victor to join the T.J. League. We’re currently atthe badminton station and he’s at the soccer dribbling station.After blowing his whistle, Coach Red announced a water break.Everyone rushed to the water fountains while I rushed to Victor.“Hey!” I said, jogging alongside him.“Hey,” he answered back.“So, my friends and I wanted to invite you to join our league,” Isaid, as we reached the line for the water fountains.“League?” he asked, scrunching up his face.“Yeah,” I answered.“Like your soccer league? Or baseball league?” he questioned.“Oh, no,” I laughed, “I’m no good at sports.”“Then what do you mean?” the questions continued.“The T.J. League,” I said proudly.“‘The T.J. League?’” he said, with a tone of confusion. “Isn’tyour name T.J.?”“Yup, yup!” I answered. “The league is named after me.”“I don’t get it,” he responded.SAMPLE

“To make a long story short,” I began, “some of the people inthe T.J. League like superheroes from Marvel Comics and some likesuperheroes from D.C. Comics. So, I started the T.J. League, whichallows superheroes from any comic universe!”“And,” he said, motioning with his hands for more information.“And I make up scenarios and villains that we have to defeat,” Iexplained. “It helps us to work on our teamwork and problem-solvingskills while improving our real time responses to real life situations.”“So, basically, you play pretend,” Victor pointed out.“Not really,” I countered.“But it sounds like it’s all make-believe,” he shot back.“Not really,” I started, but was interrupted for the third timetoday.“And superheroes aren’t even real,” he said, adamantly.“They’re dumb and unrealistic.”“They are not!” I protested.“What are you? Five? Sure, they are,” he said, “have you everheard of a real-life superhero?”“Well—,” once again I was interrupted, and it is really startingto irritate me.“Of course, you haven’t, because they don’t exist,” Victor said,with a finishing tone.“That doesn’t mean—.”SAMPLE

“You need to take your head out of the clouds and grow up,” heordered, as he took a drink of water and headed back to the field.I knew that it was my turn to drink water, but I was so frustratedabout what Victor had just said, that instead of taking my turn, I juststood there, silently glaring at the back of Victor’s head. Afterrealizing that I wasn’t going to get a drink, everyone just walkedaround me. ‘Dumb and unrealistic’? ‘Nonexistent’? ‘Grow up’? Ican’t believe he said all of those things without even giving theLeague a chance. This mission is definitely going to be more difficultthan I first thought.SAMPLE

4 Not Giving Up!“He said what?!” Justin shouted, as we arrived at the hula hoopand jump rope station.“He said that superheroes were ‘dumb and unrealistic’,” Irepeated to everyone.“He told you ‘take your head out of the clouds and grow up’?”Paul asked.“Yup, yup,” I answered, picking up a hula hoop.SAMPLE

“What’s with this guy?” Justin asked, taking a jump rope. Justinis really good at jump roping. He can go fast, go backward, and evendo that cross over thingy that boxers do in the movies and ontelevision.“What kind of mission would it be if it didn’t have a certainlevel of difficulty?” Sammy asked.“Yeah,” Marcus agreed, “it would be rather boring if it was tooeasy.”“If you say so,” Justin said, sarcastically, as he jumped higherthan necessary, spinning his rope three times before landing.◆ ◆ ◆This may sound strange, but whoever created the P.E., schedulemade sure that recess followed immediately afterward. And when Isay ‘immediately,’ I mean immediately. As soon as fifth gradefinishes with P.E., they line up for recess.Of course, since the T.J. League members are also FutureFunmakers, we only get about half of the P.E. time that everyone elsegets. It’s because first grade starts recess during our P.E. time, and wehave to leave early to make sure that we have time to set up thegames for the first graders.When it was finally time for the fifth graders to go to recess,Sammy had made up her mind to try and befriend Victor next. Shesaid that she ‘enjoyed’ a challenge. Well, good luck Sammy!SAMPLE

“Okay,” Erick began, “here are today’s announcements.”“Announcements! Announcements! Announcements! Yeah!”the fourth, fifth and sixth grade students shouted, while pumping theirfists in the air.“Today, after many requests, we have brought back the Zim-Zam-Zoom Relay,” Paul announced.“Yay!” many kids cheered.“Make sure that all food is eaten in the snack area and that youclean up after yourselves,” Marcus instructed. “Funmaker John isgoing to be looking to catch students who are eating healthy.”About ten kids raised their home prepared snacks, revealing thefruits and vegetables they planned to eat. Funmaker John waved some“Caughtcha Eating Healthy” raffle tickets from behind Marcus.“Since Coach Red had soccer drills during P.E., we’ve set up afield on the grass with some pennies for anyone interested in playinga game of soccer,” Sammy explained.“And for our final announcement,” Justin said, loudly, “today,the play structure is for fourth grade only.”The final announcement brought both cheers and jeers from thefourth, fifth and sixth grade students waiting for their recess to start.“Tattle tales!” the Future Funmakers called out.“Don’t prevail!” the students responded.“Try a game!” the Future Funmakers continued.“That’s not the same!” the call and response continued.SAMPLE

“Don’t shun!” the Future Funmakers shouted.“My Fun!” the daily routine finished, as usual.“Walking feet!” Funmaker John shouted, causing excitedstudents to powerwalk to their areas of interest.“Hey, Victor,” Sammy called.“Who’re you?” Victor asked.“I’m Sammy,” she answered, holding out her right hand. Victorlooked down at her hand and then back to her face.“What’re you doing?” he asked.“It’s called a handshake,” she explained. “It’s a common gestureextended between two people when meeting for the first time.”“Must not be that common,” Victor commented, beginning towalk towards the soccer field. “No one at my old school did that.”“Oh,” Sammy said, lowering her hand in disappointment. “HeyVictor!”“What?” he asked, not stopping to let Sammy catch up withhim.“I noticed that you were pretty good at dribbling a soccer ball,”she pointed out.“According to you,” he said, seeming uninterested.“Well, I thought you might want to be a captain for the soccerfield,” she explained. “I’m running it, so I can make sure it happens!”“Eh,” he said, changing his direction, away from the soccerfield.SAMPLE

“Well, if you change your mind,” Sammy started, before Victorwaved a dismissive hand as he joined a line at one of the handballcourts.◆ ◆ ◆“Who can give me the answer? Let’s see,” Mrs. Whiston said,taking a deck of cards on her desk.This deck of cards is no ordinary deck of cards. Mrs. Whistonhas taken out all of the Jacks, Queens and Kings, so that only theaces, jokers and numbers were left. The jokers stand for zero, and theaces stand for one. We’ve used this deck ever since first grade, whenwe first started learning to do addition and subtraction.What Mrs. Whiston does, is she takes the top two cards from thedeck and adds, subtracts, or multiplies them. Whatever answer theycreate, decides who has to answer the question or problem. If thenumber is too big, she takes the next two cards until the numbermatches the number of a person in our class.“Our first card is an eight,” she said, holding up an eight ofdiamonds. “Next, we have a four. And eight times four is?”“Thirty-two,” the class replied.“Right. Now, normally that number would be too high, but sincewe have a new student,” she explained, gesturing towards Victor, “doyou know the answer, Victor?”SAMPLE

Victor stayed slouched in his chair while looking around theclassroom, since everyone’s eyes were now on him.“What’re you all looking at!” he asked, angrily.“Oh, I’m sorry, Victor,” Mrs. Whiston apologized, “I forgot toask if you had even learned this yet, at your old school.”“We learned this,” he said, now making eye contact with Mrs.Whiston.“Oh, great!” she said, excitedly.“That doesn’t mean I know the answer,” he pointed out.“Oh,” Mrs. Whiston said, in a completely different tone.“My old teacher was trash at teaching math,” Victor alleged.“He didn’t even try to make sure we understood it. As long as thesmart kids understood it, he was happy.”“Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” Mrs. Whiston said, withdisappointment in her voice. “We do things differently at this school.We even have an after-school homework club every day, except forWednesdays. Volunteers from the high school next door, and studentsfrom the nearby college, offer homework assistance for anyone whoneeds help with—.”“I never said I needed help,” Victor interrupted, crossing hisarms.“And I’m not saying that you do,” Mrs. Whiston clarified. “Ijust wanted to let you know, that for every day you go to HomeworkClub, you get a stamp. And for every stamp card you fill up, you get aSAMPLE

one-dollar credit for the student store, where you can buy schoolsupplies and other cool things.”“Sounds exciting,” he responded, in the most unexcited voice Ithink I’ve ever heard.“Very well. Let’s see who’s next,” Mrs. Whiston said, choosingtwo new cards from her deck to multiply.◆ ◆ ◆“Anyone sitting here?” Marcus asked.“Does it look like anyone is sitting there?” was Victor’sdisrespectful response.“Nope,” Marcus answered, placing his lunch tray next to Victor,then gesturing for the rest of us to join him at the table.“That didn’t mean that I wanted you to sit there,” Victorasserted, visibly irritated that we were all taking a seat at his table.“So, Victor, what was the coolest thing about your old school?”Marcus asked, taking a tater tot, and dipping it in some ketchupbefore eating it.“Well, first of all, the food was better,” he answered, pushing histray away.“But didn’t you go to another school in our district?” Sammyasked.“Yeah. So?” Victor asked.SAMPLE

“So, then technically the food would be the same, no matterwhat school you were at,” she pointed out.“The food might be the same, but at least our cafeteria ladiesknew how to cook it,” he said, harshly. “This chicken sandwich isn’teven cooked right. The outside is warm, but the center is still cold!”“There are multiple reasons that could have happened,” Sammystated.“Oh, sure. You would say that,” Victor commented.“What about your favorite subject?” I asked, changing the topic,since Sammy was visibly becoming upset at Victor.“I was the top of my class in everything, except for math,”Victor answered.“That’s okay. I’m no good at math either,” Paul remarked,holding out his fist across the table.“What’re you doing?” Victor asked.“Fist bump. You’re supposed to pound it,” he explained, usinghis other hand to show the proper way it should be done.“You guys have some strange customs at this school,” Victorobserved, opening his chocolate milk.Marcus took a bite out of his chicken sandwich, then made aface after a couple of chews. “Yo wight. The thenter ith thill kind ofcold.” Anyone else would have just spit out their food, but notMarcus. Instead of spitting it out, he continued to chew and thenswallowed. He has too much manners to spit it out.SAMPLE

“Must be time to replace the ovens,” Erick said, “who knowshow old those things are?”Victor rolled his eyes and then finished his chocolate milk.“Well, if you ever need any help with math, you can alwayscome to my house after school. I’d be glad to help you!” Marcusoffered.“I think I’ll pass,” Victor said, standing up to toss his leftoverfood in the trash.“You have to raise your hand,” Justin said, as a supervision aideblew her whistle at Victor, who just ignored it and threw his trashaway, and walked towards the restrooms.Three Leaguers down. Three more to go.SAMPLE

5 No Video Games?After finishing our lunch, we slowly walked to the Zim-Zam-Zoom Relay, where we could discuss what had just happened anddetermine what we would do next.“I can’t believe this guy!” Justin said, bothered.“Seriously!” Erick joined in.“First he puts down the lunch ladies,” Justin said.“Well, it wasn’t the best day for lunch,” Marcus pointed out.SAMPLE

“And then he shut you down!” Paul commented. “‘I think I’llpass’. All you were trying to do was offer some help!”“It’s okay guys. It’s his first day. Change can be difficult,”Marcus said, before running along the painted line on the blacktop,since our team had just lost at Zim-Zam-Zoom.“He doesn’t seem to like anything!” Justin continued to rant.“He has to like something!” Erick said.“Maybe we just have to keep trying until we find out what thatis,” Sammy suggested.We all stood there, silently thinking, as Marcus continued hisway around the painted line, defeating the other team at Zim-Zam-Zoom. He’s even good at non-athletic games!“I’ve got it!” Paul shouted.“What?!” Justin shouted back.“Video games! Who doesn’t like video games?” he asked,excitedly.Just then, Marcus reached the other team’s base, causing Erickto dash along the painted line.“That’s perfect!” Justin shouted, again, thrilled that Paul hadthought up such a great idea.“It’s fool proof,” Paul remarked. “I’ll tell my mom that youguys are coming over on Saturday and we can have a video gametournament.”“Don’t you have to ask your mom first?” I asked.SAMPLE

“Nah,” he said, motioning with his hand, “we never do anythingon Saturdays.”“Saturday is cleaning day at my house,” Marcus said, rejoiningus in line.“Hey! No cutting!” a fourth grader yelled at Marcus.“Dude! He just got us a point!” Justin yelled back.“So! I’m going to tell Funmaker John!” she said, raising herhand.“Um, why are you raising your hand?” Paul asked. “We’re notin class.”“Funmaker John!” she called, across the blacktop.“Okay, okay!” Justin said. “Sheesh!”Marcus walked to the back of the line.“So, as I was saying,” Paul continued, as Sammy took her turnat Zim-Zam-Zoom Relay, “my mom won’t care. I’ll just make surethat I get all my chores done before lunch and you guys can comeover for video games and pizza!”“Pizza!” Justin said, enthusiastically doing a fist pump.“So, when are you going to invite Victor?” I asked, preparingmyself to run, in case Sammy lost.“Tomorrow,” he said, not as confidently as before.“Why tomorrow?” Justin asked.“Well, I have to make sure that my mom doesn’t have anythingplanned for this Saturday,” he explained.SAMPLE

“But you just said that you never do anything on Saturdays,” Ipointed out.“I know, I know. But I still have to ask permission, ya know,” hesaid.“I get it,” Justin responded. “Tomorrow it is.”“Tomorrow it is!” I said, while running along the painted line.◆ ◆ ◆When we got back in class after lunch, Mrs. Whiston gave ustime to work on our tablets for our state projects.“I want you to work on your title page and prepare at least threeslides for your information and pictures,” she instructed. “I will be atmy desk for anyone who needs help. Remember, this is not a groupproject, so I expect zero volume.”She turned on her overhead screen, which revealed that she hadalready turned on the Dynamic Distinguisher app. You know, the onethat our Music Hall teacher had shown us in class. We knew thatanything above double piano meant disciplinary action would betaken.This week Joseph and Sarah are the Technology Leaders. Theyboth walked to the charging station and began to pass out tablets bytable groups. I pulled out the packet that Mrs. Whiston had passed outto us earlier. Page two has example slides from past students. I’veSAMPLE

decided to circle the ones I like, so that I can copy them, except withmy own information.I know what you’re thinking, ‘that’s cheating.’ Not really. It’scalled ‘working smarter, not harder.’ At least that’s what my dad says.He’s always telling me not to ‘reinvent the wheel.’ That and a lot ofother things. He has a lot of what he calls, ‘Papa’s Proverbs.’“Is that a name?” Mrs. Whiston asked, since some people attable five had begun to whisper.Just then, Joseph handed me my tablet. After unlocking it, Iopened the Slide Presentation app that we’re using for our stateproject. As I started to setup my title screen, the classroom phonerang.“Mrs. Whiston’s class, student speaking,” Shanika answered.“Yes, one moment please.” Shanika placed her hand over the phone’sspeaker before calling Mrs. Whiston over. “It’s Mr. Anderson. He’sasking for you.”Mrs. Whiston stood up from her desk and reminded the classthat the Dynamics Distinguisher was still on and that she stillexpected zero volume from everyone.“Mrs. Whiston,” she said, in her ‘phone answering’ voice. “Yes.Yes. Oh, my goodness! Yes! We’ll be right there.”She quickly hung up the phone, hurried to her desk to turn offthe Dynamics Distinguisher app, and her overhead screen, all whileSAMPLE

everyone, except Jefferson, stared at her. Once Jefferson beginsworking, he is very difficult to distract.“Today is not my day!” Mrs. Whiston declared. “I forgot thatMr. Anderson had to change our Weekly Challenge to today, since hewill have a sub tomorrow.”Mr. Anderson’s class and our class usually have our WeeklyChallenge on Fridays, just before school gets out. We normally bringour backpacks with us and continue our challenge until the bell rings.This week’s challenge is a geography challenge. Since our classeshave been studying the state’s locations, capitals, and nicknames, it’sno surprise.“This week’s challenge will require students to start behind thischalk line,” Mr. Anderson explained, pointing at the line to his left.“Mrs. Whiston or I will call out the name of a state, the capital of astate or the nickname of a state. Whoever is at the front of each line,will have to run to the corresponding state, on the map of the UnitedStates painted on the blacktop.”Our blacktop boasts a variety of things painted on it. Fivedifferent four-square games. Three different volleyball courts. Twofull basketball courts and two half courts. Two large circles. One withnumbers up to thirty and one with the letters of the alphabet. A snakewith different two letter consonant or vowel combinations. But mostinteresting, is a complete map of the United States, including Alaskaand Hawaii.SAMPLE

“Whatever class gets to the correct state first, gets a point fortheir team!” Mr. Anderson said, excitedly. “Does anyone have anyquestions?”Victor raised his hand.“Yes, Victor?” Mrs. Whiston said.“Do I have to play?” he asked.“Oh, I’m sorry, again. Had you learned your states and theircapitals at your old school?” she answered his question with anotherquestion.“I know them. This just seems like a waste of time,” hecommented, crossing his arms, and looking away.“‘Class participation makes up ten percent of your overallgrade,’” Jefferson quoted Mrs. Whiston, from the beginning of theschool year.“That’s correct, Jefferson,” Mrs. Whiston praised. “I can’t forceyou to participate, Victor, but it will negatively affect your overallgrade. The choice is yours.”Victor shrugged his shoulders and walked to the back of ourclass’s line. I noticed Paul move from his place in line to the back ofhis class’s line. Seems he’s decided not to wait until tomorrow toinvite Victor over for video games and pizza. I hope his mom saysyes when he asks her!“Hey, Victor!” Paul said, holding out his right hand in a fist.Victor looked at Paul’s hand and then straight into Paul’s eyes.SAMPLE

“Oh, right, no fist bumps,” Paul said, remembering our earlierencounter with Victor. “So, the guys and I are getting together onSaturday for some video games and pizza. I was wondering if,maybe, you’d want to join us?”“Video games?” Victor asked.“Yeah. Some one on one. Some team games and probably atournament or two,” Paul explained. “And don’t forget the pizza!”“I don’t think you understand,” Victor said, “I’ve never playedvideo games before.”“What!” Paul shouted.“Is everything okay, Paul?” Mr. Anderson asked, as everyonehad turned around to see what was going on.“Yes, Mr. Anderson,” Paul answered. “I just can’t believe thatGerald lost that one!”“It’s just a game, Paul,” Mr. Anderson reminded him.“To you maybe!” Justin said, excitedly.“Is that a name?” Mrs. Whiston asked.“No, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am,” Justin apologized.“Thanks, Justin,” Paul whispered, as soon as everyone turnedback around. “Now, back to you. You’ve never played video games.As in, never ever?”“Nope,” was Victor’s simple answer.“Not even on your tablet or phone?” Paul asked.“Don’t have any,” he answered.SAMPLE

Wow, Paul mouthed, while looking back towards the front of hisline. He couldn’t believe that anyone had never played video gamesbefore. Video games were a major part of Paul’s life. He evenboasted, for like a week, when he beat the high score on some arcadegame, at some random diner, on this deserted highway when hisfamily went on vacation to the Grand Canyon.“So, what’re you going to do now?” I asked, as we grabbed ourbackpacks to walk home.“Don’t worry, I’ll think of something,” was Paul’s response, ashe stared off into the distance.“Look what I’ve got!” Paul whisper shouted the next morning,while holding his backpack open for all of us to look inside.“You brought your handheld?!” Erick said, in disbelief.“Shhh!” Paul hushed him. “I brought it so that Victor can seehow awesome video games are!”“What if you get caught?” Sammy asked.“I won’t!” he answered.“How do you figure that?” Marcus asked.“It’s Fun Friday in my class,” Paul explained.“So?” I said.“So, I can just say that I brought it for Fun Friday,” Paul said,confidently.SAMPLE

“There’s one major flaw in your plan, Kemosabe,” Sammycommented.“What’s that?” Justin asked.“You are not in Victor’s class,” she told Paul, with an air ofdisbelief.“I know that!” Paul said, defensively.“Then how are you going to get Victor to play it?” Sammyasked.Paul didn’t say anything this time. He merely pointed at hisstomach. I have to admit that even I have no idea what he’s doing.When we all looked at him and each other with confused faces, hejust pointed more intently.“I don’t get it,” Justin said, scratching his head.“My hoodie pocket!” he whisper shouted, then sighed, shakinghis head, as if we were supposed to instantly understand what he wastrying to say.“What about your hoodie pocket?” Erick asked.“I’m going to take my handheld to recess and show it toVictor!” Paul said, with a large smile on his face.“And where exactly do you plan to do this without gettingcaught?” Sammy continued to interrogate.“Behind the Big Tree,” Paul said, in a ‘duh’ kind of voice.“Okay. Okay,” Justin said, as if approving his plan.SAMPLE

“What about our Future Funmaker responsibilities?” Erickasked.“I’m not scheduled for today,” Paul said, zipping up hisbackpack.“Well, good luck,” I said, heading for the breakfast line but notbefore patting Paul on the back.SAMPLE

6 YOU’RE MISSING OUT!‘Little minds’? I typed after reading Paul’s message on myschool tablet. Paul had spent the time his teacher had given his classto work on their state project to explain what happened at recess.It seems that Paul had convinced Victor to join him at the BigTree, after a little bit of begging. Once they got behind the Big Tree,Paul instantly pulled out his handheld video game, to show it toVictor.SAMPLE

Please excuse this interruption of your regularly scheduledadventure: I, T.J., am not encouraging anyone to sneak valuables toschool in their backpack. Nor am I suggesting that hiding them inyour pockets to take out to recess is a good idea. And I am especiallynot saying that hiding behind a tree to do things that go againstschool rules is okay. In fact, I am saying the exact opposite of allthose things. Just in case you try to tell your parents or teachers thatyou got the idea from me. There’s no way I’m getting in trouble withmy mom for something you decided to do. Like make bad choices.We now return you to your regularly scheduled adventure:“What’s that?” Victor asked.“A video game. What’s it look like? Just give it a try,” Paulinstructed, after turning it on. “I’ve loaded one of the easiest gamesthere is. All you have to do is get the frog to the other side of thescreen without getting hit by anything or falling into the water. Easypeasy, no need to get wheezy!”“I don’t think so,” Victor said, turning around and walking backtowards the play structure.“Why not?” Paul called after him, immediately putting hishandheld back into his large hoodie pocket.“It’s nothing,” was Victor’s response.“What do you mean?” Paul asked, after catching up with him.“It’s nothing,” Victor repeated, but a bit stronger this time.“If it’s nothing, then just say it,” Paul ordered.SAMPLE

“Okay, you asked for it,” he said, stopping in his tracks andlooking Paul in the eyes. His next words were spoken slowly andprecisely, to make sure that Paul fully understood what he was saying.“Vi-de-o game-s are for peo-ple with lit-tle mind-s.”After making his declaration, he continued to walk towards theplay structure, leaving Paul stuck in time, not knowing how to react.‘Little minds?’ How could he have said that?◆ ◆ ◆“So, I guess that’s a ‘no’ to video games and pizza tomorrow?”Justin commented, as we played foursquare.“Aw, say it isn’t so, Paul. Say it isn’t so,” Erick begged. “Ialready told my mom about it.”“Oh, we are definitely still on for video games and pizza,” Paulsaid, confidently.“You’re a life saver!” Erick said, relieved. “My little brother hasa birthday party to go to tomorrow and I do not feel like hanging outwith five-year-olds.”“Man! Everything we try seems to fail!” I said, strongly.“This mission is definitely harder than we originally thought itwould be,” Marcus noted.We all played foursquare in silence for the next few moments.Until Justin spoke, that is.“Guess I’m the only one left,” he observed.SAMPLE

“What do you mean?” I asked.“I’m the only one he hasn’t turned down,” he explained.“He hasn’t turned me down,” Erick pointed out.“You also haven’t tried,” Sammy pointed out.“Not for a lack of trying!” he corrected, “I just haven’t had thechance!”“So, what’s your idea?” Marcus asked Justin, who had begunstroking his chin.“Let’s see. T.J. already tried inviting him to join the T.J.League,” Justin said, counting with his fingers.“I offered to let him be soccer captain during recess,” Sammyjoined in.“I offered my house for homework help, instead of going toHomework Club,” Marcus said, after getting Sammy out.“And now we know he doesn’t like video games,” Paul finishedup.“Hmmm,” Justin said, beginning to stroke his chin again. “So,technically he never turned down sports. He just rejected your offer.Right?”“Right,” Sammy answered.“Maybe it was just that a girl asked him. No offense!” hefollowed up quickly, by holding his hands in front of him, sinceSammy seemed visibly offended.“Yeah, sure,” she said, irritated.SAMPLE

“It’s just that some people are brought up thinking that girlsaren’t any good at sports,” Justin explained himself.“That is true,” Marcus defended. “There was a girl on my oldsoccer team, and the guys on the other team used to laugh at us assoon as they saw her. They would usually say some mean things, too.But they usually got really quiet as soon as they realized how goodshe really was.”“See, I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just saying that maybe ifa guy asked him to play some sports, he might be more willing tojoin,” Justin said, getting out, since he wasn’t paying enoughattention.“If you say so,” Sammy caved.“Then it’s settled,” I agreed, taking over Justin’s square. “Justinwill try next. And hopefully he has more luck than the rest of us havehad.”Justin immediately left the foursquare area to find Victor.“So, how’s your day going?” Justin asked Victor, when hefinally found him.“I’ve had better,” Victor answered, not giving Justin muchattention.“Well, maybe I can help make it better!” Justin said, excitedly.“And how do you plan to do that, exactly?” Victor asked, stillwalking without paying much attention to Justin.SAMPLE

“Why not join me for a game of basketball? I need a teammatefor two on two!” Justin said, placing himself in front of Victor,forcing eye contact.“Basketball?” he said, disinterested.“Yeah, basketball,” Justin said, motioning towards thebasketball court where two on two was set up.“I don’t know. I don’t really feel like getting my hands alldirty,” Victor said, walking around Justin.“What about soccer?” Justin asked, stepping in front of Victoragain.“What about soccer?” Victor asked.“Sammy said that you were good during P.E., yesterday,” heexplained.“So?” Victor continued.“So, let’s go kick some soccer butt!” Justin said, kicking aninvisible soccer ball.“Can’t. Just got new shoes,” he said, pointing at his pristineshoes, then walked around Justin again.“Okay. I can understand that,” Justin said, walking alongsideVictor. “How about Badminton? It’s the newest game to the school.No dirty hands and no dirty shoes!”“Badminton?” Victor asked. “What’s that?”“It’s a mix between tennis and volleyball. Instead of hitting avolleyball with your hands and getting them all dirty, you hit a birdieSAMPLE

with a small tennis racket,” Justin said, miming the motions he wasexplaining.“‘Birdie?’” he asked.“Yeah. It’s a little foam ball attached to some feathers,” Justinexplained.“‘Feathers?’” Victor said, in a confused tone.“Well, not real feathers. They’re plastic,” Justin said.“Sounds boring,” Victor said.“How about hula hoop tag?” Justin suggested.“Don’t feel like getting sweaty,” he responded.“Handball?” Justin asked.Victor didn’t say anything. He just held up his hands.“Oh, right. Dirty hands,” Justin said. “Zim-Zam-Zoom Relay!”“Are you even serious?” Victor asked.“What?” Justin asked.“That’s just a game of chance. I might as well take upgambling!” Victor pointed out.“Well, I know you like soccer. Is that your favorite sport?”Justin asked.“I don’t have a favorite sport,” he answered.“Oh, I get it. It’s hard for me to choose, too. They’re all just somuch fun!” Justin said.“That’s not what I meant,” Victor corrected.“Oh. What did you mean?” Justin asked.SAMPLE

“Sports are overrated,” Victor began. “Just because you can playsome game better than others, you get paid millions of dollars.”“That’s not exactly—,” Justin started.“Take baseball for example. If you can hit a ball and get on baseonce out of every three attempts, you’re considered a great batter.That’s only thirty three percent,” Victor explained.“You also have to—,” Justin tried to interject.“Just imagine only getting a thirty three percent on a homeworkassignment. Or a test. Or a project!” Victor said passionately. “You’dfail!”“Okay. Okay. What would you like to do?” Justin asked, hopingto get an idea of what Victor liked to do. He figured that even if it wassomething that he didn’t really enjoy, it would be worth it to Try AGame That’s Not The Same.“How much do you know about the Einstein Rosenbergbridge?” Victor asked, finally stopping, and looking Justin in theeyes.“The what?” Justin asked.“That’s what I thought,” Victor said, continuing to walk, whileJustin stayed behind.“The Einstein rosebush fridge? What in the world is that?!”SAMPLE

7 But Why Not?“I think you mean the Einstein Rosenberg bridge,” Sammycorrected Justin. “It’s a theory that states—.”“Whatever!” Justin rebutted. “All I know is that he turned downevery recess activity the school has to offer! And when I asked himwhat he wanted to do, he asked if I knew about that Einstein rosebushthing.”“Einstein Rosenberg bridge,” Sammy repeated.SAMPLE

“Whatever!” Justin shouted, throwing his hands up in the air.“I guess that just leaves me,” Erick said, not sounding tooexcited.“Hey, you never know. Maybe you’ll be the one who knowshow to get his attention.“I sure hope so!”◆ ◆ ◆Normally, we have Music Hall on Thursdays, but our musicteacher had to reschedule us because of the upcoming, district wide,earthquake drill. Emergency drills usually only last five to fifteenminutes, depending on what kind of drill it was.Fire drills are short. Once we hear the fire drill bell, we quietly,and calmly, line up outside of our classroom, while one of theEmergency Drill monitors grabs the doorstop and makes sure that ourclassroom door is propped open. The other monitor grabs theEmergency Bin – which is basically a trashcan on wheels, filled withemergency supplies – and rolls it to the back of the line. Our classthen walks out to our designated spot on the field. Once every classhas turned in their attendance report, the ‘All Clear’ bell sounds andwe head back to class.Earthquake drills take a little more time. When we hear theearthquake drill bell, we quietly, and calmly, secure ourselves underour desks or chairs, and wait for the fire drill bell to sound. WeSAMPLE

usually have to wait a minute or two before that happens. Besidesthat, everything is the same as the fire drill.Last year’s district wide earthquake drill was completelydifferent. It was an earthquake drill, but last time we had scenariosthat staff, and students, had to play out. Some staff and students were‘injured’, or ‘stuck’ in a classroom, or ‘under rubble’. One kid was‘too scared’ to leave the classroom. One second grader, at least I thinkshe was in second grade, even got to take a ride in the school’swheelchair, because her leg was ‘broken.’Anyways. Because next Thursday’s drill will last like forty-fiveminutes, we have to combine with Mr. Anderson’s class for MusicHall. It’s not that bad, actually. We’ve done it before. No biggie.“Okay, class,” Mrs. Whiston said, before heading to Music Hall,“remember, I’m going to be looking for good choices and zerovolume during Music Hall. Every time Mrs. Jordan has to saysomeone’s name or redirect our class, that will be a point taken awayfrom our classroom total.”“What if it’s the same person over and over?” Jessica asked.“Every time,” Mrs. Whiston repeated.“That’s not fair!” Shanika protested. “The whole class shouldn’tbe punished for one person’s bad choices.”“If it’s the same person over and over, then they’ll get to sit nextto me for the remainder of the class,” Mrs. Whiston explained. “Andremember, if you have to sit next to me, that means that you’ll have toSAMPLE

fill out a Corrected Behavior sheet and get it signed by a parent orguardian.”Corrected Behavior sheets are sheets of red paper stapledtogether. Your name and date go at the top of each page. On the firstpage you have to fill in the following blanks: Inappropriate BehaviorI Displayed, What Led Up To My Behavior, and 3 Choices That WouldHave Been Better Than The One I Made. At the bottom, your parentor guardian has to print their name, sign it and date it. On the secondpage, you have to write an apology to whomever it was that your‘inappropriate behavior’ was directed at.And that’s not the end of it. You lose your recess the followingday. And if you don’t bring back your Corrected Behavior sheets thenext day, signed, you lose the next day’s recess, too! And the processcontinues until you bring them back. Signed.◆ ◆ ◆“Who remembers what we did last week?” Mrs. Jordan asked,scanning the room for raised hands. “Marley.”“We learned about how without math, we couldn’t have music,”Marley recollected. Marley is the smartest girl in Mr. Anderson’sclass.“Correct,” Mrs. Jordan praised. “And why is that? Jefferson.”“Because we get our names for musical notes from thefractional name that they represent in mathematics,” JeffersonSAMPLE

explained. I think.“Correct. But how can we say that more plainly?” Mrs. Jordanasked. “Marcus.”“It’s like pie,” he began. “A whole note is like a whole pie.”“That’s right,” Mrs. Jordan commended, while drawing a circleon the board.“And if I cut that pie in half, I now have two half pieces,”Marcus continued, as Mrs. Jordan drew a line inside the circle,making two equal halves. “That’s where we get the name half note.”“Who can continue from here?” Mrs. Jordan asked.“Josephine.”“If we cut those pieces in half, we now have four pieces. If weeat one piece of the pie, we’ve eaten one fourth, or one quarter.Which is where we get the name quarter note.” she explained.“Very well explained,” Mrs. Jordan said, drawing whatJosephine had said. “Let’s do one more. Yes, T.J.”“If we cut each quarter piece in half, we now have eight pieces,”I said, waiting for Mrs. Jordan to draw it on the board.“You may continue,” Mrs. Jordan permitted.“Thank you. If I eat one piece of the apple pie, I’ve eaten oneeighth of the pie. One eighth. Eighth note,” I concluded.“Great job guys!” Mrs. Jordan said, excitedly. “Now since wedon’t have enough instruments for everyone to use today, I’vedecided that we’re going to do something different.”SAMPLE

This caused most of the people in Mr. Anderson’s and Mrs.Whiston’s class to ‘aw.’“I know. I know. I’m such a terrible person,” Mrs. Jordan said,in a pouting voice, as if talking to a baby or little person. “But I guessthat means that I brought these for nothing.”What Mrs. Jordan held up for everyone to see immediatelychanged our jeers to cheers!“Okay. Okay. Let’s see. I like the way that Jeremiah iscontrolling his body,” Mrs. Jordan pointed out. Everyone quickly satup straight, folded their hands in their laps and listened quietly.“Great job guys. So, I know we normally use these to play agame with just one class,” Mrs. Jordan began, “but today, I’m goingto change things up to make it a bit more fun.”You’re probably wondering what in the world Mrs. Jordan heldup in her hand that made everyone get so excited. And you yourselfprobably wouldn’t normally get excited over such things. But youdon’t know Mrs. Jordan. She knows how to make things that arenormally boring, into things you can’t believe you’re enjoying!Mrs. Jordan held up flash cards in her hand. Usually, she wouldbreak our class up into four equal groups. At least as equally as shecould. And we would play the Flash Card game. But since we hadtwo classes, she did change things up a bit. She combined the FlashCard game with Steal the Bacon.SAMPLE

Each class lined up against opposite sides of the room. With ahelper from each class, she lined one set of flash cards for each class,in the center of the room. Then, she called out a Music Symbol,Letter Name, Dynamic or Tempo. Lastly, she called out a number andthe person with that number had to run to their set of flash cards, findit, and hold it up as quickly as they could. Whoever held up thecorrect answer first, scored a point for their class.Before we started, Mrs. Jordan made sure that Victor had musicat his old school. After rudely telling her that he ‘already knew all ofthis,’ the game began.◆ ◆ ◆“One point, T.J.! One point!” Justin repeated over and over onour way out of school. Our class had lost by ‘one point.’ Actually, wehad to have a tie breaker. Mrs. Jordan let each class choose arepresentative for the last point. We chose Jefferson, of course, andMr. Anderson’s class chose Marley. Unfortunately, Marley was just alittle bit quicker at finding the correct flash card for her team.“Get over it,” Sammy ordered.“I know what I’m going to do,” Erick said, out of nowhere.“Going to do?” I asked.“To get on Victor’s good side,” he said, excitedly.“What’re you going to do?” Marcus asked.SAMPLE

“I noticed at the end of Music Hall, when Mrs. Jordan wasplaying the High Five Song, Victor was doing a little dance,” heexplained.“A little dance?” Paul asked.“Yeah,” Erick answered. “It wasn’t much, but I noticed it. Andhe has good rhythm!”“So… what’re you going to do?” I asked, still not exactlycatching on to what Erick was thinking.“I’m going to ask him to be my partner for the Annual DanceOff!” he said, jumping up and down enthusiastically, then busting acouple of moves.“I don’t see how a ‘little dance’ and ‘good rhythm’ is going toturn into a pledge to win the Annual Dance Off,” Sammy said,unenthusiastically.“Why do you have to be such a downer!” Erick said.“I’m just saying, we’ve already tried the things we thought heliked,” Sammy said, defensively. “What makes you think tryingsomething we’re not even sure he likes is going to work?”“Because it has to,” Erick said, confidently.◆ ◆ ◆“Blind? As in can’t see?”“Yes, Carson. Blind as in can’t see,” Teacher Jeff answered.“But he wouldn’t stay that way for more than three days.”SAMPLE

“What do you mean he wouldn’t stay that way? You’re eitherblind or you’re not!” Carson continued.“He could just get Lasik eye surgery,” Trang suggested.“I don’t think that technology existed back then,” Marcuspointed out.“I can confirm that,” Teacher Jeff agreed, holding his indexfinger up.“So how in the world is he supposed to get his sight back?”Carson asked.“Yeah. If Lasik didn’t exist, were there any other ways theycould heal his eyes?” Marta asked, holding both hands in front of her.Teacher Jeff stayed silent while leaning forward, causing theroom to go silent and all of us to lean toward him. Then hewhispered. “To be continued.”“No!”“C’mon!”“Really!”“Just tell us already!”“If that clock is correct, we still have fifteen minutes of class.”Teacher Jeff smiled and walked back to his Bible on the musicstand. He then lifted his Bible with both hands, which was hisuniversal sign for ‘let’s get a readin’.As we read on, we learned that although every Jew was terrifiedof Saul, it took just one man to make a change. One person goingSAMPLE

against everything his heart and mind were telling him. Just oneobedient soul to make a difference. A difference he could neverexpect. And it all started with one act of compassion. Toward anenemy.SAMPLE

8 Not Even Bowling?“First comment!” Erick shouted, after writing his name onPaul’s leg cast.“I think you mean ‘first name’,” Sammy corrected.“You know what I mean!” Erick clapped back.“So how mad was your mom?” I asked.“Let’s just say that we won’t be having any video game andpizza get togethers any time soon,” Paul answered, as Marcus tookSAMPLE

the marker from Erick to write his name on Paul’s cast.“So, you still think the whole Dance Off idea is going to work?”I asked Erick, who had shared more details with us, about his plan toget on Victor’s good side, while at Paul’s house this past Saturday.“It’ll work. Just trust me,” he said.“Planning another way to stalk me?” came Victor’s voice, frombehind us, as we stood up to walk toward our class lines, causingErick to scream.“Stalk you?” Paul asked.“You don’t think that I’ve noticed?” came Victor’s nextquestion.“What are you talking about?” Justin answered his questionwith another question.“Ever since T.J. invited me to join your little imaginary team.Tried to be all friendsy. Ever since then, you’ve come to me, one byone, trying to be my friend,” Victor called us out. “Everyone, exceptfor you.”“And what’s wrong with trying to be your friend?” Erick asked.“It assumes that I need friends,” Victor answered.“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Sammy asked.“Like what?” he asked back.“The fact that you’ve assumed our attempts to be friendly withyou were actually attempts to become your friend,” Sammyrationalized.SAMPLE

“Isn’t that what you were trying to do?” he continued tointerrogate.“Would that be so bad?” I asked, a bit offended.“I don’t need anyone feeling sorry for me just because I’m thenew kid,” Victor said, rudely.“It’s sad how often kindness gets interpreted incorrectly,”Marcus said, backing up Sammy.“What?” Victor asked, seeming genuinely confused, for the firsttime since he’d come to our school.“If you saw someone drop their books and decided to help pickthem up, would that necessarily mean you were trying to becometheir friend?” Sammy asked.“Or if you saw an old lady, carrying a large bag, waiting to crossthe street, and you decide to carry the bag for her, are you attemptingto become friends with her?” Marcus asked.“Yeah, and what if—.” Justin was interrupted by the morningbell, giving Victor the perfect chance to walk away.“Hey! We’re not done!” Paul called to Victor. He didn’trespond.“Man, I can’t stand that guy!” Justin said, through clenchedteeth.“I think he’s on to us,” Sammy commented, sarcastically.“I don’t care, I’m still going to ask him,” Erick stated,assertively.SAMPLE

◆ ◆ ◆“Don’t forget that we will be visiting the aquarium tomorrow, soif you haven’t already turned in your permission slip, make sure youhave it with you tomorrow morning,” Mrs. Whiston reminded theclass. “No permission slip equals no field trip.”I’m just glad our field trip is scheduled for a Tuesday. If thefield trip had been planned for today, I wouldn’t be able to go. I’vebeen so focused on Operation New Kid that I completely forgot tohave mom sign my permission slip!“Now, use the next twenty minutes to continue working on yourstate project. Your rough draft is due on Friday. Both your writtenportion and your slide presentation,” Mrs. Whiston said, turning onher Dynamic Distinguisher app, before taking a seat at her desk.Thankfully, mom’s been helping me make sure that my spellingis correct, so I’m almost done with my written portion. I’m just goingto use the index cards we’ve prepared to make my slide presentation.“What?” Victor said, just a moment or two after turning on histablet.“What’s wrong?” I asked.“Seems your friend didn’t get the hint,” he said, shoving histablet in my face.It was a message from Erick. It seems he decided to messageVictor through his tablet instead of talking with him face to face. ItSAMPLE

was a message with a flyer for the Annual Dance Off as anattachment.“Saw your moves during the High Five Song on Friday. Howabout me and you show this school what dancing is supposed to looklike?” I whispered.“Bad judgment and bad grammar,” Victor whispered, loudly.“Huh?” I said, handing him back his tablet.“‘Me and you’,” he said. “It’s supposed to say, ‘how about youand I show this school what dancing is supposed to look like’.”“So, what do you say?” I asked Victor.“Say about what?” he asked.“The Dance Off, duh?” I answered.“Is that a name?” Mrs. Whiston asked, looking up from the pileof papers she was grading.I pointed at my tablet and then at Victor’s tablet. He gave me a‘what are you doing?’ look. I opened the messenger app on my tablet.Let’s talk on our tablets so we don’t get in trouble, I typed, thenpressed send. A push notification showed up on Victor’s tablet.There’s nothing to talk about, he responded.But what about the Dance Off? Are you going to do it? Imessaged back.I wouldn’t do that idiotic Dance Off if you paid me! He typed,then hit send with a ‘this conversation is over,’ finger push and lookSAMPLE

on his face. Too bad I’ve decided I’m terrible at reading finger pushesand faces.Why? Are you scared? I messaged him, with an emoji to match.I’m not going to acknowledge your last message with aresponse, he answered back.Um, you sorta just did, I typed with a crying laughter emoji togo with it.You’re such an ignoramus, he typed back, with a gif of amonkey picking its nose and eating what he picked.Just give me one good reason why you won’t do it, I messaged,with an gif of someone scratching their chin.Dance contests are just like sports. They don’t prove yourintelligence or how successful you’ll be in life, he answered, followedby an image of ‘The End’ on a theater screen.◆ ◆ ◆“Of course, they don’t ‘prove your intelligence,’ or ‘howsuccessful you’ll be in life’,” Erick said, as we set up the playgroundequipment for recess. “They’re just meant to be fun! Doesn’t heunderstand the concept of fun?!”“I’m starting to think he doesn’t,” Marcus said, as he finishedplacing the cones for dodgeball.“That makes us oh for six,” Sammy pointed out, carrying hulahoops to the Hula Hoop Tag zone. “I’ve never gotten a zero percentSAMPLE

before. It feels gross!”“It doesn’t matter how many times you fall,” I said, trippingover the jump ropes I was carrying. “What matters is how many timesyou get up after falling.”“Um, can Kemosabe please explain his ‘wisdom’ for us non -genius types,” Justin said, sarcastically.“He means that as long as we don’t give up, the mission can stillbe successful,” Marcus clarified.“Ohhh,” Justin said, giving me a double thumbs up and asideways smile.“Good thing I have another idea,” Marcus said, closing thebottom half of the equipment room door.“What idea?” Erick asked.“Yesterday, when we got home from church, Daniel said hisyouth leader announced that they’re going to be having a cosmicbowling Fun Friday next Friday,” he explained.“But isn’t that only for middle schoolers?” I asked.“Normally, you would be right,” Marcus concurred. “But don’tforget, Daniel’s in middle school.”“And?” Justin asked.“And Larry said they could invite family or friends,” Marcusanswered.“Who’s Larry?” Erick asked.SAMPLE

“The youth leader,” Marcus said, just as Funmaker John blewhis whistle to call us into our pre-recess huddle.“So, when were you going to invite us?” I asked, as we walkedtowards Funmaker John.“Yeah. I’m pretty sure we fall under the ‘friends’ category,”Sammy said, sarcastically.“I was going to invite you!” Marcus protested.“Uh huh, sure,” Justin commented.“Why do you think I mentioned it!” Marcus said, throwing hishands up.“I don’t know,” Erick said, mockingly.“Really! I was!” Marcus continued, not realizing that we wereall messing with him.“Okay, Future Funmakers. Let’s remember that we have to keepour eyes extra open today, since Paul’s injured his leg,” FunmakerJohn instructed.“Injured?” I asked.“I think you mean broke,” Justin said.“Either way, we all have to be on top of our game, today,”Funmaker John said, as the first class began lining up for recess.◆ ◆ ◆“Ever been bowling?” Marcus tried to ask casually, whenfourth, fifth and sixth grade finally came out for recess.SAMPLE

“Yeah, but not by choice,” was Victor’s response.“What about cosmic bowling?” Marcus followed up.“What about cosmic bowling?” Victor asked, trying to increasehis distance from Marcus.“Have you ever been cosmic bowling?” Marcus clarified.“No. What’s ‘cosmic bowling’?” Victor asked.“It’s just like regular bowling, except they turn down the houselights, and turn on the dance style lights, and play fun music,” Marcusexplained.“Whoopie,” Victor said, indifferently, while shaking his handsin the air.“I didn’t get to the best part,” Marcus continued, “unlimitedpizza, wings and potato wedges!”“What? No soda?” Victor asked mockingly.“Actually, it’s soda, sweet tea or lemonade,” Marcus clarified,“your choice.”“And how much does this cost,” Victor asked, feigning interest,but Marcus didn’t notice.“No cost!” he said, excitedly. “Guests are free!”“Interesting,” Victor responded.“So, what time should I tell my mom to pick you up?” Marcussaid, feeling a great deal of excitement. Victor had turned everyoneelse down and he was so close to succeeding!SAMPLE

“Never,” Victor answered, in a tone that sent Marcus’ feelingsof elation straight into the ground.“But—,” Marcus started.“You didn’t think that I was actually interested, did you?”Victor said, with a slight chuckle.“Well, if you change your mind—,” Marcus began.“I won’t,” Victor said, callously.SAMPLE

9 YOU’RE NOT NICE“Whoa. That’s cold,” Paul said, as we ate our lunch.“Yo, put me down!” Justin said, excitedly, “I’m about to set anall-time record for the most free wings eaten during a cosmic bowlingsession!”“Actually, it would be ‘the most wings eaten during a cosmicbowling session’ for ten dollars,” Marcus corrected Justin.“But you said that guests were free!” Justin reminded him.SAMPLE

“I kinda made that part up,” Marcus admitted, rubbing the backof his neck while looking down.“Not, cool, dude. Not, cool,” Justin commented.“Wait, I thought you didn’t believe in lying?” Sammy pointedout.“I don’t. I just figured that if I said it would cost ten dollars, itwould give him an easy way to shut me down,” Marcus clarified. “Ihoped that saying guests were free would pique his interest and leadto him saying yes!”“I would say that we should quit while we’re ahead,” Iinterjected, “but we’ve been behind the entire time!”“Oh for seven,” said Sammy, still keeping track.◆ ◆ ◆“Have you finished your rough draft for your state project?”mom asked, as I worked on another cell of my most recent Batmancomic.“Yup, yup!” I answered, without turning away from my work.“Then I guess I can give you this, now,” mom said, placing asigned permission slip on top of my unfinished artwork.“Oh, yeah!” I said, excitedly. “Wait, how did you get that? Icompletely forgot to give it to you!”“Mrs. Whiston sent it through the Classroom Communicationapp, with a reminder about tomorrow’s field trip,” mom answered. “ISAMPLE

printed it out earlier and signed it.”“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!” I said, getting up from myseat to give my mom the huge hug that she deserved.“You’re welcome,” she said, shuffling my hair. “You know, Ihad decided to make you earn it.”“Huh?” I said, releasing my arms from around my mother.“I was going to make you do something to earn it,” she said,mischievously. “According to Mrs. Whiston’s message, she handedout permission slips over a week ago.”“Ohhh,” I said, sheepishly. “Yeah. She kinda did.”“But you’ve been doing so well, working on your projectwithout being told, I decided to let it slip,” she explained.“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!” I repeated, including hugand all.“This time,” she clarified.“Don’t worry. It won’t happen again,” I said confidently,looking up to meet her eyes. She smiled and let out a soft chuckle.“Of course, it will,” she said, kissing my forehead. “Now get inthe shower if you want a scrumptious lunch for tomorrow.” Sheturned me around, gently nudged me toward my bureau and lightlytapped me on the behind before leaving my room.◆ ◆ ◆SAMPLE

“What’d your mom pack for your lunch,” Justin asked, reachingfor my lunch bag, as we waited for the school bell to ring.“Food for me,” I answered, pulling it away before he could grabit.“At least you got a special lunch,” Paul said, slowlyapproaching us with his crutches.“Well, it isn’t our fault you decided to try and do a flip on yourcouch,” Erick said, reaching to take Paul’s backpack.We all agreed to take turns helping Paul around school. Luckily,his mom picked him up after school. You see, Paul lives farther awayfrom school than anyone in the T.J. League.“So, what’re you going to be doing since you can’t go on thefield trip?” I asked.“Mr. Anderson said that I’ll be put in another class,” Paulanswered.“Lucky!” Justin shouted.“Not really,” Marcus remarked.“What do you mean?” Erick asked.“Review packet,” Sammy retorted.“Huh?” Justin said.“I’ll have to do a review packet,” Paul clarified. “You know,that way I’m not just sitting around, bored.”“Bummer,” Justin commented, lowering his head.“You’re telling me!” Paul agreed.SAMPLE

“Have you ever been to the aquarium before?” Justin asked.“Yeah,” Paul answered. “That’s why I told my mom that I wasokay missing this field trip.”“But why aren’t you going?” Marcus asked.“I just figured it would be too tiring, you know, trying to keepup with the group and all. And since I’ve already seen it, I won’t bemissing out on much anyways,” Paul answered.◆ ◆ ◆“Okay, let’s line up outside, in our two lines,” Mrs. Whistonordered.Everyone grabbed their things for the field trip and lined upoutside.“What about me?” Victor asked.“You and Paul will be going to Mrs. French’s class,” she said,going back into the classroom, grabbing two review packets from herdesk, and handing them to Victor.“You gave me two,” Victor said, pointing out the obvious.“Yes. Could you please carry Paul’s for him since it will bedifficult for him to carry his with his crutches,” Mrs. Whiston asked.“He could just put it in his backpack,” Victor commented,handing it towards Paul.“Or, you could just carry it for him,” Mrs. Whiston said, whilegently pushing the packet back towards Victor, with a smile I hadSAMPLE

never seen her use before. And it wasn’t a happy one, I can tell youthat! Victor rolled his eyes and shook his head, obviously not happywith Mrs. Whiston’s response.“Have fun guys,” Paul said, as we walked down the hallway.“Oh, and don’t forget to get me a shark tooth necklace!”“Okay boys, Mrs. French is expecting you guys, so no playingor stops along the way,” Mrs. Whiston instructed.“Have fun!” Justin said, in a sing song voice.“Don’t get eaten by any sharks!” Paul returned, in a sing songvoice of his own.As Paul turned around to go to Mrs. French’s class, Victor wasalready turning the corner. Seems he really was upset that Mrs.Whiston had him carry Paul’s review packet. Paul never had Mrs.French as a teacher, since our school has you stay with the sameteacher from kindergarten through sixth grade, but he had heard thatshe was tough.By the time Paul made it to the three hundred wing, which iswhere Mrs. French’s class was, Victor was nowhere in sight. WhenPaul pulled on the door, it was locked, so he knocked lightly. Afterjust one second, Mrs. French opened the door, almost hitting Paul.“That’s what the yella lines on the floor 're for,” shecommented, “to keep ya from getting whacked by the door whensome’n’s openin’ it.”SAMPLE

She was talking about the yellow semi-circle in front of everydoor in the school. Classroom doors. Bathroom doors. Office doors.You get the idea. We were taught in kindergarten that the yellow lineshowed where the door would go when someone opened it. Then wewere instructed to walk around the yellow line in case someone wascoming out of a room.In this case, Paul couldn’t walk around the line because he wasknocking on the door. And since he’s on crutches, it took a little bit oftime to move away from the door. Therefore, he almost got hit by thedoor.“Took ya long enough to git here,” Mrs. French said, dryly.“Your friend’s been here for a few minutes already!”“Sorry, ma’am, but my crutches slow me down a bit,” Paulcommented.“I don’t want no excuses. Just hurry on in, I got a class toteach,” she said, releasing the door and returning back to the board.Paul hurried as fast as he could, to get inside before the door hit him.Victor was sitting at a kidney table, in the back of theclassroom, so Paul decided that he should sit next to him. When hegot there, he noticed that Victor had already started his review packetand left Paul’s on the seat next to him.“Thank you,” Paul whispered, as he put his backpack down.Victor didn’t respond. He simply kept working on his packet.SAMPLE

Paul leaned his crutches up against the back wall, hopped thecouple of feet back to his seat and sat down. After taking a pencilfrom his backpack and writing his name on his packet, he noticed thatVictor’s review packet looked different from his.“Hey,” Paul whispered, “your packet’s different from mine.”“Probably to keep you from copying me,” Victor said, icily.“I don’t copy people,” Paul said, defensively. Once again,Victor didn’t respond. He just turned the page and kept working onhis packet.◆ ◆ ◆By the time lunchtime came, Paul and Victor had finished theirpackets. When they came back from lunch, Paul asked Mrs. Frenchwhat they should do.“If ya finished early, ya could work on your state packet. Or, yacould help some of muh third graders with their work,” she hinted.“Wally over here’s fallen behind and could use some help. Why don’tI have him sit with you guys and ya’ll could help him.”“That sounds easy enough,” Paul said.“That sounds boring,” Victor said.“Say ag'in?” Mrs. French ordered.“That’s not our job,” Victor said, looking her right in the eyes.“I know that’s not yer job,” Mrs. French responded, “I wasmerely giving ya a chance ta do some’in’ nice. Ya know, be a goodSAMPLE

citizen.”“You’re trying to get us to do your job,” Victor shot back.“You’re not a nice one, are ya?” Mrs. French asked.“Look, I’m just here to do my work,” Victor said, crossing hisarms.“Well, if work’s whatcha want, how ‘bout ya write down all thestates and their capitals,” Mrs. French said.“That’s easy,” Victor said, reaching for his backpack.“I wasn’t finished,” Mrs. French said, with a tone that mom’suse when you’re in trouble. “I want ‘em in alphabetical order.”“I can do that,” Victor stated.“First by state. Then by capitals. That should keep ya busy for awhile,” she finished, then looked at Paul.“I’m good with helping Wally,” Paul commented, throwing hishands up, before Mrs. French could give him the same assignment.SAMPLE

10 Are You Okay?“He really told her that?” Marcus asked, as we waited for Paul’smom to pick him up. She had called the school and told them that shewould be running late, so Marcus and I decided to wait with him.“Yup. And he said it, all while staring her in the eye!” Paulemphasized, giving Marcus a stare that I’m sure is a bit exaggerated.“Whoa. Talk about being disrespectful,” Marcus commented.SAMPLE

“There’s definitely something wrong with that guy,” Icommented.“Seriously wrong,” Paul corrected me.“I don’t know,” Marcus said, in an uncomfortable tone.“What do you mean you don’t know,” Paul asked, seeming a bitoffended.“I mean, no one’s born that way,” he clarified.“I’m not getting what you’re saying,” I said, a bit on Paul’s sidefor the moment.“Maybe he’s been raised that way and just needs someone toshow him some kindness so he can change,” Marcus suggested.“And what do you call what we’ve been trying to do?” I asked,the one a bit offended this time.“You didn’t let me finish,” Marcus pointed out. “It could bethat, or it could be something else.”“Like what?” Paul asked.“Maybe something’s wrong at home,” Marcus said.“Like what?” I asked, sitting up in my seat and leaning towardsMarcus, hoping that maybe he would give me an idea on how toreach Victor.“I don’t know! I read somewhere that sometimes people whodon’t get enough attention at home look for it in other ways,” Marcusexplained.“Like how?” Paul asked.SAMPLE

“Any way,” Marcus answered.“I don’t get it,” I said, slouching into my seat, realizing helpwasn’t going to come.“Bad ways,” Principal Martinez said, giving us all a good scare.“Oh, my goodness!” Marcus said, clutching his chest with hisright hand.“I already have a broken leg,” Paul said, gesturing to his cast.“You trying to give me a heart attack, too?”Principal Martinez chuckled.“How long have you been listening?” I asked.“Long enough to realize that Operation New Kid isn’t going aswell as you’d like,” he answered.I know he says that he knows everything that happens in hisschool, but how in the world did he know that I had dubbed hischallenge, ‘Operation New Kid’?“What did you mean when you said, ‘bad ways’?” Marcusasked.Principal Martinez took the computer chair from the attendanceclerk’s desk and rolled it in front of us, before taking a seat.“You see, some students who don’t get attention at home. Or notenough attention at home, usually look for it in other places,” heexplained.“Uh huh,” Marcus said, with furrowed eyebrows and a lockedgaze on Principal Martinez.SAMPLE

“And since they spend most of their day at school, they tend toseek it here,” he continued. “Unfortunately, they don’t usually do it inthe proper ways or even at the proper times.”“What do you mean?” Paul asked.“For example,” he began, “some students know that if theymake inappropriate sounds, or rude comments, when a teacher or staffmember is speaking, their classmates will usually laugh at them. Ortheir teacher will scold them. When their friends laugh at them, theyreceive positive attention. When they get scolded or disciplined by ateacher, they receive negative attention.”“Go on,” Marcus instructed, now scratching his chin.“You see, a student who is looking for attention, doesn’tnecessarily care what form that attention comes in. Positive ornegative. He or she is just seeking to replace that attention they aremissing at home,” Principal Martinez finished.“You mean that they don’t care if they get in trouble or not?”Marcus asked.“Nope,” he answered.“But why do they usually get mad and sometimes yell?” Paulasked.“Believe it or not, it’s all part of the game,” Principal Martinezsaid.“But Victor doesn’t do that,” I pointed out.“Yeah,” Paul agreed, “he’s just rude when you talk to him.”SAMPLE

“Really?” Principal Martinez asked.“Yup,” I answered.Just then, the phone rang.“Maybe I’m wrong,” he said, standing up from his chair. “Butthen again, that’s just one example of how people look for attention inthe wrong ways.”He returned the computer chair back to the attendance clerk’sdesk and answered the phone.“Your mom’s here,” he said, after hanging up the phone. “Thankyou, Marcus and T.J., for waiting with Paul. You guys truly are agreat example of what a true friend is.”After helping Paul to his car, Marcus and I walked home insilence. Paul’s mom had offered to give us a ride, but we thanked herand said we’d rather walk. I think we were both focusing on the samething. We’re both trying to figure out how to use what PrincipalMartinez had said. Trying to figure out a way to make Operation NewKid a success.◆ ◆ ◆Unfortunately, the T.J. League has run out of ideas forbefriending Victor, so we’ve decided to leave him alone for the timebeing.After a couple of days, everything went back to normal. The T.J.League worked with Funmaker John to run recess, and sometimesSAMPLE

lunch recess, when we were needed. Lunch recess is usually run bythe sixth graders. And instead of focusing on Victor, we focused onhelping Paul around until his leg healed.We even joined Marcus and his youth group for cosmicbowling, pizza, potato wedges, and wings at his youth group’s FunFriday. Justin almost set a new record for most wings eaten, but wasbeaten by someone unexpected. Sammy! Who knew she liked wingsso much?But something’s been bothering me. These last few days I’venoticed Victor sitting alone at the Buddy Bench. Even when peopleinvite him to play, he just sits there. He doesn’t shake his head ‘no’ orshoo them away. He just sits there. When I went up to him andoffered to help him find a game to play, he didn’t say anything. Hedidn’t even look up from the ground.I don’t know what it is, but something is definitely wrong. AndI’m going to find out what it is.◆ ◆ ◆“So, what!” Justin said, as we were setting up equipment forrecess.“Yeah,” Erick agreed, “we’ve all tried to be nice to the guy. Andhe just doesn’t care. So why should we?”“I hate to admit it, but I concur,” Sammy said, picking up abasket of jerseys.SAMPLE

“But isn’t it our job to make sure that everybody is enjoyingrecess?” I asked.“Technically, we can’t force anyone to do anything that theydon’t want to do,” Sammy said. She is definitely too smart for herown good, sometimes.“What if it was me?” I asked.“But it’s not you!” Justin said, shaking his head.“I’m just saying,” I tried.“And we’re just saying,” Erick interrupted. “We’ve all tried ourbest be nice to him and he’s shot us all down!”“Yeah! What do you expect us to do?” Justin said.“I expect you to keep on trying!” I said, starting to get upset.“Since when does the T.J. League give up?”“Well, maybe this is one time we should,” Sammy said.“Yeah,” Marcus agreed. “It doesn’t seem like we’re getting hisattention.”“But maybe we still could!” I argued.“Plus, he’s so rude,” Justin added.“But he could change,” I shot back.“Unlikely,” Sammy commented.“I agree. It doesn’t seem like he wants to change his ways, T.J.Maybe he’s just unreachable.”“‘Unreachable’? Really, Marcus?” I asked. “I’m surprised tohear that coming from you.”SAMPLE

“Why? It could be true!” he said, defensively.“But what about what Teacher Jeff has been teaching us? Abouthow some people may seem unreachable but that no one is trulyunreachable. And about how Saul was a bad guy. The worst even.Someone that the Jews never thought would change. Never imaginedcould change!” I reminded him.“What are you talking about?” Justin chimed in.“I believe he’s paraphrasing a story from the Bible. The NewTestament if I’m not mistaken,” Sammy answered for me.Of course, she’s right. Not much of a shocker.“You go to church?!” Erick asked, surprised.“You don’t?!” I responded.“Guys! We’re getting off-topic,” Paul intervened. “T.J., we’veall pretty much made up our minds to let Victor be Victor. If hechanges his mind, we’re willing to give him another try. But untilthen, he’s on his own.”Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.“Well, I don’t care what you guys say. We’ve never failed amission before, and I’m not about to give up on this one!” I said,walking away to set up two on two basketball.◆ ◆ ◆After recess, I couldn’t focus. Actually, I’m not even sure whatMrs. Whiston has been teaching us. Something is definitely wrongSAMPLE

with Victor. He hasn’t even said anything rude to correct Mrs.Whiston. And when I asked him for a pen because mine had run outof ink, he simply reached for one in his backpack and handed it tome. No snide remark. No tossing it out of my reach. He simplyhanded it to me. Now I know for sure that something is wrong.There’s got to be something I can do. There just has to be.Instead of working on my United States map like I’m supposedto be doing, I’m trying to think of a way to figure out what I can do.You know, to get Victor to tell me what’s wrong. I started making alist of things that might work, and I figure I’ll just go down the listuntil something works out.What’s the first thing on my list, you wonder? I’ve decided thatat lunch recess, I’m going to sit at the Buddy Bench with Victor. Evenif he tells me to leave. I’m going to sit there every day if I have to.Until he tells me what’s wrong.And if that doesn’t work? Then I’ll move onto the second thingon my list. Which will have to work. Why you ask? Because that’s allI’ve got so far.◆ ◆ ◆Since no one else in the T.J. League thinks that Victor is worththeir time, I’ve decided not to tell them about my plan. After finishingmy lunch, I headed straight for the Buddy Bench, but there was oneproblem. It was kind of a major problem, though. Victor wasn’t there!SAMPLE

I know I had seen him get up, throw his trash away and leave.It’s not that I was stalking him or anything. It was just that I wantedto make sure that he would be there, waiting at the Buddy Bench,when I finished my lunch. And now, here I am. All alone. At theBuddy Bench.“Hey, T.J.!” a fourth grader greeted me. “Want to join us for agame of four square? We only have three people and need one more!”“No thanks,” I answered, and just stayed sitting on the BuddyBench. “Maybe next time.”I know what you’re probably thinking. You’re probablythinking that I was rude. That she was just trying to be nice. You’rethinking that I should have just joined her and her friends for a gameof four square. You’re probably saying to yourself that I could havejust tried to talk to Victor tomorrow. And although you’d probably beright, you’re forgetting something. I stink at any game involving aball! Don’t believe me? Go back and read chapter two!As the fourth grader walked away, I began to scan the blacktop.Where could Victor be? As I looked towards the Hula Hoop Tagzone, I noticed Victor coming out of the four hundred wing boy’sbathroom. That’s why he wasn’t at the Buddy Bench. He had to usethe restroom!As he got a drink of water at the fountain, I decided to walkaway from the Buddy Bench in case he decided not to sit down theresince I was already there. I went to the playground and weaved in andSAMPLE

out of the running fifth graders, all while keeping an eye on Victor.As he sat down, I began counting. I had decided that fifty secondswas long enough to wait, so he didn’t think that I was stalking him.As I reached forty-five seconds, I started walking towards theBuddy Bench. Someone had already approached him and invited himto play a game, but he just sat there, lifeless, as he had done for thepast few days. I approached the bench from the left side, since he wassitting on the right side.At first, I sat in silence, just watching people play on theblacktop. I know I had decided that I was going to go through withthis, but it was proving harder than I had thought. Victor had been somean, that deep down inside, I was a bit afraid that he would just bethe same old Victor.But then it hit me. And after it did, I couldn’t believe it. Icouldn’t believe that I had been scared at all. Mrs. Whiston had taughtus that the hardest and scariest obstacles to overcome tend to teach usthe greatest life lessons. The kind that last a lifetime. She also saidthat when we overcome these obstacles, future obstacles tend to beless frightening. That we learn more about who we are when we don’tback down.I know who I think I am, but now I have a chance to prove it.There’s no way I’m passing up a chance to prove it. I’m going for it.You’d better believe I am. I’ve made up my mind. There’s nochanging it. Here I go. Wish me luck!SAMPLE

“Sooo,” I said, not even looking at Victor, “are you okay?”SAMPLE

11 WHAT’D HE DO?“T.J.,” my mom said, concerned. “Is everything okay? What’swrong, baby?”I had rushed into the house and thrown myself around mymother’s waist, burying my face into her stomach. Normally, I wouldbe at Marcus’ house today, but I told him that I needed to go straighthome. I’m sure he didn’t know why, but I think the tone in my voicetold him that it was important to me.SAMPLE

I may be making my mother a bit uncomfortable, but I just can’tlet her go. I also can’t stop crying. Something inside me is hurting. Ahurt that I’ve never felt before. Somewhere inside me is hurting. Aplace that I didn’t even know existed. And ever since this hurt started,it hasn’t faded away, like other hurts do. This one has stayed. Right inthe center of my chest. I don’t know what it is, but I know what’scaused it.◆ ◆ ◆After sitting down with Victor at the Buddy Bench and askinghim if he was okay, something unexpected happened. His eyes begantearing up. Victor’s eyes began to water. And before I knew it, heleaned forward, his hands covering his face, and began to bawl.I didn’t know what to do! Any time I had talked to Victor beforethis moment, he had responded with sarcasm or some snippy remark.I was prepared to ride him out to find out what was wrong. For daysif that’s what it took. But I was not prepared for this. Or for whatcame after.“Oh, my goodness,” I said, scooting over to sit next to him,“what’s wrong.”Victor didn’t answer. Not surprising. What was surprising wasthat he didn’t push me away when I placed my hand on his back.Although, he did shrink away a little, he didn’t get angry and orderme to ‘go away’. He just sat there. Crying.SAMPLE

“Come on,” I said, standing up, “let’s go to the office.”I don’t know if this is the right thing to do, but I know that Ihave to do something. And normally, when someone is crying, youtake them to the office.Victor didn’t get up at first. He just sat there. Still sobbing. Idecided to put one hand under his arm and my other hand around hisback to help him stand up. He shrank back, again, when I touched hisback. Kind of like I do when I get a bad sunburn after we’ve gone tothe beach. But he didn’t fight me.After standing up, he kept his hands over his face as I guidedhim towards the office. It’s weird. It’s kind of like he trusts me. Victoris trusting me. I didn’t think he trusted anyone. Except himself, ofcourse.As we entered the office, Mr. Ellis was giving someone an icepack, which they immediately placed on the back of their head.“And remember, just because someone else decides to weave inand out of the swings while people are swinging, doesn’t mean it’s agood idea,” he said, in a fatherly tone.“And what’s the damage here?” he asked me, as I stood with myarms still around Victor.“I’m not sure,” I answered, truthfully, “he just started crying.”“Well, people don’t just start crying for no reason,” Mr. Elliscommented.SAMPLE

“I know,” I agreed, “but I didn’t know what else to do, so Ibrought him here.”After unsuccessfully trying to get Victor to talk, I suggested toMr. Ellis that maybe Victor would be comfortable talking to Mrs.Garrison, the school’s Intervention Aide. He agreed and radioed forher. She was finishing up her lunch but came as soon as Mr. Elliscalled.“Good afternoon, Victor,” she greeted him, “I can see thatsomething has upset you. Would you like to tell me what it is?”Once again, Victor didn’t answer. He still hadn’t even taken hishands away from his face.“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, sweetie”she said, placing her hand on his shoulder.Once again, he shrank away. Mrs. Garrison immediatelyremoved her hand with a concerned look on her face.“How about we go to my office,” she offered, “that way we cantalk in private. Thank you, T.J., for helping Victor up to the office. I’llgo ahead and help him from here.”After nodding to Mrs. Garrison, I turned around to go back tothe playground, but Victor stopped me. He grabbed me, by the wrist,removing his hand from his face for the first time since we were atthe Buddy Bench. As I turned around to look at him, he had a ‘I don’twant to go alone’ look on his face. I immediately looked at Mrs.Garrison, unsure of what to do.SAMPLE

“It’s okay, T.J. It seems he wants you to stay with him,” sheremarked, as she walked to the office door and held it open for us.As soon as we exited the office, Victor covered his face again,so I guided him to Mrs. Garrison’s office.For those of you who don’t know who Mrs. Garrison is, she isawesome! She is trustworthy, respectful, fair, caring and kind. Shealways knows just what to say to calm a person down. And she givesgreat advice.The best part of all, she’s real with you. If what you did waswrong, she’ll tell you! But, instead of just making you feel bad orguilty, she’ll sit with you and help you figure out what better choicesyou can make next time. ‘Make good choices’ is basically her motto.She’s also a great listener. If you’re having a bad day, she’ll sitand listen to what you have to say, without interrupting you. Shedoesn’t belittle you for feeling the way you do. Although, she will tellyou if you’re milking something. You know, like if you struck outduring whiffle ball at recess and decided to turn that bad five minutesinto a drama that lasted all day.“Right in here boys,” she instructed as we reached her office.After entering the room, Mrs. Garrison motioned for me to sitdown on the couch in her room. She grabbed a nearby chair and sat infront of us. Just as she sat down, we could hear Funmaker John blowhis whistle to signal that recess was over, so she stood back up andSAMPLE

walked to her desk. She picked up her classroom phone and called theoffice.“Hello, Mr. Ellis, this is Mrs. Garrison, could you please let—”she covered the speaker with her hand and whispered to me, “who’syour teacher?”“Mrs. Whiston,” I answered.“And what about Victor?” she asked.“Mrs. Whiston,” I repeated.She then took her hand off of the phone’s speaker and finishedher sentence.“Could you please let Mrs. Whiston know that T.J. and Victorare with me in my office?” Mrs. Garrison asked. “Thank you.”After hanging up the phone, she came back and sat down in thechair she had placed in front of us. And for the next fifteen minutes orso, I learned more about Victor than I had in the past two weeks! Imay sound excited, but let’s just say that I almost wish I didn’t knowas much about him as I do now.After getting a hold of Victor’s hands and helping him to calmdown with some breathing exercises, Mrs. Garrison did what she doesbest. She focused, one hundred percent, on Victor. She listened, askedthe right questions, and offered her support in any way that she could.And Victor, well, I think, is glad that he shared.◆ ◆ ◆SAMPLE

“Mi amor, what’s wrong?” my mom asked, as I continued tohug her tightly. “Let’s go take a seat.”My mom shifted my hug to the side of her and walked us to theliving room. Then, without letting go, we sat down on the couch.Luckily Xochitl isn’t here, or she would be laughing at me andteasing me for crying.“Okay. Okay,” mom said, gently pulling me away from her,“talk to me.”After letting go, mom used her apron to wipe my eyes and cleanmy nose. It took me a moment before I was calm enough to speak.“Are we better now?” she asked. I nodded my head slowly.“Okay, tell me what’s wrong.”Just thinking about what was bothering me almost made mestart to cry again. My eyes began to water but mom grabbed sometissue from the coffee table and dabbed my eyes before I could start.“You’re okay now. Just talk to me,” she said.“Why are people so mean?” I asked, wanting to know theanswer more than anything I had ever wanted to know before.“What do you mean, mi amor?” she asked.“I mean, how could he do that to Victor?” I clarified. Sort of.“How could who do what?” mom asked.“How could Victor’s mom’s fiancé treat him like that?” I said, abit of anger in my voice.“Victor. The new kid in your class, Victor?” she asked.SAMPLE

“Yes,” I answered.“What did Victor’s mom’s fiancé do?”SAMPLE

12 Tell Your Story“There’s no rush, Victor. Take your time,” Mrs. Garrison said, ina reassuring voice.Victor explained to Mrs. Garrison, and me, I guess, what led upto today’s episode at the Buddy Bench. And the more we sat therelistening, the more emotion you could see on Mrs. Garrison’s face.She usually has a pretty good poker face, but something about whatVictor was telling her kept her from hiding it today.SAMPLE

You see, Victor had told Mrs. Garrison that when he was a baby,his dad had left him and his mom. And that until he was in the secondgrade, his mom was a single mother. That’s when she had met Jack.Jack was a great guy to Victor. Jack would buy Victor thingsand take him places. He would do all the right things. All the greatthings you see on television and in the movies. Victor’s mom fell inlove with him, and so did Victor.The first time Victor’s mom told him that Jack was going tobabysit him because she had to take on a double shift, Victor was soexcited! He couldn’t believe that he was going to have this great guy,who might be his dad someday, all to himself. He had even plannedout the entire night. Games and toys and pillow forts. You know,everything a seven year old would like! But as soon as Jack pickedhim up from school, Victor knew that something was wrong.Jack didn’t have that same smile on his face when Victor got inthe car. And when Victor started to tell Jack all about the plans he hadmade, Jack turned up the volume on the radio. Then, when Victorhanded him the paper, with all the plans he had written down, Jackcrumpled it up and threw it out the window. Victor knew immediatelythat something was wrong. This wasn’t the Jack that he knew.Usually, Victor’s mom would take him straight home and feedhim a snack before helping him with his homework. Then they wouldcuddle on the couch and watch Victor’s favorite show. Jack didn’t doany of that.SAMPLE

Jack drove him to a neighborhood that he didn’t recognize,where streets were very narrow, and the houses were almost touchingeach other. They stopped outside a house and Jack told him to stay inthe car while he went inside and talked to a friend.While he waited, Victor noticed something strange. There wereno kids outside. Back at home, there were always kids playingoutside. Then Victor noticed something even more strange. Someonehad thrown their shoes onto the electrical line. Why would they dothat? They still looked brand new. If Victor ever wasted a new pair ofshoes like that, he knew he would be in big trouble with his mom!When Jack finally came back, Victor asked him about the shoes,but Jack told him ‘don’t worry about it’. Then they visited a few moreof Jack’s friend’s houses. Each time, Victor had to wait in the car.Eventually, he fell asleep from boredom.When he woke up, he was at home. Sort of. He was in front ofhis house, still in Jack’s car! He took his backpack and tried to getinside, but the door was locked. After knocking and ringing thedoorbell for a few moments, with no answer, Victor had gottenscared. He sat down on one of the chairs on his porch, and just likeany scared little kid would do, Victor started to cry. Jack finallyopened the door and ordered Victor to get inside before anyonenoticed that he was outside, alone.When Victor asked for a snack, Jack told him to get onehimself. When Victor asked Jack for help with his homework, JackSAMPLE

told him that he didn’t have time to help any kid. That if Victor was assmart as his mother claimed he was, then he could it by himself. So,he did.When he had finished his homework, Victor decided that hewould still try and do some of the things he had written on his list.First was play with the action figures from his favorite televisionshow.When he asked Jack, Jack asked him if he was five years old.Victor reminded him that he was seven and a half. Jack asked himwhat they were supposed to do with his toys. They didn’t exactly doanything on their own. Victor explained that they would make believethat they were alive. ‘You know, play pretend’ Victor had told him.Jack said that it was ‘dumb and unrealistic’ and not worth his time.Jack finished it up with ‘you need to take your head out of the cloudsand grow up’. Victor was hurt and decided that he wasn’t going to tryanything else he had written on his list.Instead, Victor asked if he could watch his favorite televisionshow since he was done with his homework, like he normally would,but Jack wouldn’t let him. He said he was watching an importantgame. ‘Go do something in your room’, Jack had ordered him.This was not what Victor had expected. There had been nogames. No toys. And no pillow forts. Jack was being a completelydifferent person. That was, until his mother came home.SAMPLE

You see, Jack had ordered pizza for dinner, and Victor was inthe middle of his second slice when he heard his mother’s car pull upin the driveway. Jack had quickly asked Victor what his favoritetelevision channel was and changed it as fast as he could. He thenpicked Victor up, pizza and all, sat Victor down beside him, and thenput his arm around his shoulders. And he did it all before Victor’smom could come through the front door.When Victor’s mom had asked how everything had gone, Jackhad done all the talking. Jack told his mother that he had helpedVictor with his homework, that they had played together and that hehad even let Victor choose dinner. Of course, it had all been a lie. Andwhen Victor’s mom went to the restroom, Jack pulled Victor in closeand told him that if he ever told his mom what really happened, thatshe wouldn’t believe him. Because who would she believe? An adultor a kid?But Victor didn’t give up on Jack right away. He figured thatmaybe he was just having a bad day. So, the next time Jack had tobabysit Victor, Victor decided to give it a second try. He wouldn’t askfor Jack to play make believe. Instead, he asked if Jack would takehim to the mall. His friends at school had told him all about this newarcade they had built in there. It would be his first trip to an arcade!Once again, Jack shot down his idea. When Victor told Jack thathis mom wouldn’t take him because she didn’t have the money, andthat he had been saving up his allowance so that Jack wouldn’t haveSAMPLE

to pay for anything, Jack still denied his request. But Victor didn’tgive up. He really wanted to go to the arcade, so he ran to his roomand came back with all the money he had saved up and even offeredto pay for Jack to play. The money seemed to get Jack’s attention. Hetook it from Victor and told him that he would hold onto it so thatVictor wouldn’t spend it too quickly. The next thing he knew, he andJack were on their way to the mall. At least that’s what he thought.After a few minutes in the car, Victor noticed that they weregoing the wrong way. When he told Jack, Jack told him that theywere going somewhere more important. When Victor reminded himthat the arcade was important to him, Jack told him that ‘video gamesare for people with little minds’ and that Victor would thank himwhen he was older. Instead of going to the arcade, they ended up atthat house with the shoes on the electrical line. Victor never did gethis allowance money back.Once again, Victor decided not to give up. When Jack had towatch Victor again, Victor decided to try something completelydifferent. Victor had noticed that Jack was always watching soccergames on television. He would get so angry and yell at the televisionwhen his team was doing badly. He would also get excited and cheerat the top of his lungs when they scored. Sometimes, when theyscored, he would even lift Victor up high and spin him around theroom. So, Victor decided to learn how to play soccer.SAMPLE

Victor would play soccer at every recess. He wanted to be thebest that he could be. He figured that if he could get good at soccer,that maybe, just maybe, he could get on Jack’s good side. He had runout of other ideas. It was this or nothing.Luckily, his chance to impress Jack came sooner than hethought. After he finished his homework, he went to his room andchanged into the soccer jersey his mom had just bought him. It was ajersey of Jack’s favorite team. Then he grabbed his soccer ball andrushed to the living room where Jack was watching soccer.Victor asked Jack if he wanted to play soccer with him. Jacktold him to get out of the way. He couldn’t see the game. So, Victormoved aside and asked Jack again. Jack didn’t answer. Victor steppeda little closer to Jack and asked again. And again, Jack said nothing.Finally, Victor stood right next to Jack and asked, with a huge smileon his face, if Jack wanted to go outside and play soccer. ‘Go playwith yourself!’ Jack had shouted while backhanding Victor awayfrom him.Victor explained how he had spent every recess learning how toplay soccer so that they would have something in common. He eventold Jack that not only was he the smartest kid in his grade, but thathe had now become the best soccer player in his grade. Withouttaking his eyes off the television, Jack told Victor that ‘sports don’tprove your intelligence or how successful you’ll be in life’.SAMPLE

For the next two years, it was the same thing. As long asVictor’s mom was there, Jack was every single mother’s dream. Andevery time Jack had to babysit Victor, he was the complete opposite.That was, until Victor and his mother moved in with Jack.Jack had gotten a promotion at work and told Victor’s mom thatthey should move in together. He told her that with his raise, hewould be able to cover the rent and the bills. That she wouldn’t haveto work double shifts anymore. And that any money she made wouldbe all hers to spend however she wanted.Victor’s mom had liked the idea, but told Jack that she wantedto wait until the end of the month so that she could notify the landlordand so that she didn’t lose out on any money she had already paid.Jack had agreed that it was a smart idea.After moving in with Jack, things had only gotten worsebetween him and Victor. It had given Jack more time with Victor.That meant more time alone with Victor. Victor basically becameJack’s slave. Even when his mother was around. But he always triedto make it look and sound like he was just playing. ‘We’re justbonding’, Jack would say.Of course, Victor’s mom didn’t see what happened when it wasjust Victor and Jack. Not only that, but they also never stayed in oneplace for more than six months. And any time Victor would whine ordo something Jack didn’t like, Jack would push or smack Victor. Atfirst, it didn’t hurt that much. And it usually didn’t leave any marks.SAMPLE

But the longer they lived with him, the stronger the shoves and hitsbecame.And it wasn’t just the physical attacks. Jack would also say themeanest things to Victor. Like tell him that he was dumb. Or that hewould never grow up to be anything important. And that Victorwould never be as successful as Jack was.One time, when Victor asked why Jack was so mean to him,Jack told him ‘because no one likes you!’. And when Victor pointedout that he had lots of friends, Jack told him, ‘Those aren’t yourfriends. They only pretend to be your friends because they feel sorryfor you’.This last statement had caused Victor’s voice to get all shaky.Mrs. Garrison placed her hand on Victor’s knee but didn’t sayanything. Victor took a deep breath and sighed before continuing totell his story.About a month ago, Jack had told Victor’s mom that he had afriend in the realty business who had found them a house for cheap.‘It’s a deal we can’t pass up’, he had said. And as his mother thoughtabout it, Jack had gotten on one knee and proposed to her. After that,Victor’s mom agreed not only to marry Jack, but to move here, withhim.It was Victor’s worse nightmare. He had recently thought abouttelling his mom about how Jack wasn’t really the great guy that shethought he was, but now it was too late. Jack had even given Victor aSAMPLE

fake hug, just so that he could tell him ‘don’t you dare ruin yourmother’s day’. And later that night, as he offered to ‘tuck Victor in forbed’, he reminded Victor that nobody believes what a kid has to sayover an adult.Mrs. Garrison ensured Victor that she believed everything thathe was telling her. I just sat there in awe and disbelief. I had neverheard anything like this. I had never even seen anything like it ontelevision or in the movies!Mrs. Garrison then asked if Jack had hit Victor recently. Victordidn’t answer. Instead, he stood up and turned his back to Mrs.Garrison.“Victor?” she called.Still nothing. Mrs. Garrison couldn’t see it, but I could. Victor’seyes were filling up with tears. But this time he wasn’t covering hisface, and as I stood up to place my hand on his shoulder, he shrankaway before I could touch him.He then did something I didn’t see coming. With his back nowfacing both of us, Victor lifted his shirt. Slowly. And the higher heraised it, the more terrified I became. Victor’s back was covered inbruises.Some were thin lines. Some were round. Some were lighterwhile others were darker. But it was the darkest one that scared methe most. Not only was it the darkest, but it was also the biggest. Andit was in the shape of a hand. An adult sized hand.SAMPLE

Now I knew why Victor had shrunk away like I did when I havea sunburn. Then I began to tear up. How could anyone do this toanother person? How could anyone do this to a kid!Mrs. Garrison, whose eyes were also filled with tears, slowlyand gently pulled Victor’s shirt down so that it was back to normal.She then turned Victor around and gave him the biggest, gentlest hugshe could. Then Victor did another thing I had never seen him do. Hehugged her back.SAMPLE

13 A Great IdeaI had finished recounting my story about Victor, and I expectedmy mom to say something, but she just sat there. Tears in her eyes.Tissue, clenched in her right hand. Then she pulled me close and gaveme the same kind of hug that I had given her when I came home.It was weird. The hurt that I was feeling when I came home wasfinally starting to fade. I guess telling my mom about it had helped.SAMPLE

After a minute or so, my mom finally released her hug and usedthe tissue in her hand to wipe her tears.“How could he do that, mom?” I asked. “How could he do thatto Victor?”“I don’t know, baby,” she answered, truthfully. “Some peoplelike to have control over other people. Especially people smaller andweaker than they are.”“But that’s not right!” I objected.“I agree, mi corazón. But that’s just the way it is sometimes,”she said, standing up to throw her tissue away.“We have to do something!” I said, following her to the kitchen.“I agree, mi hijo, but the school has probably taken the propermeasures to make sure that Victor is safe,” my mom explained.“But there’s gotta be something that I can do,” I protested.My mom tossed her tissue in the trash, then slowly turnedaround and knelt down so that she and I were eye to eye.“You already did, T.J.,” she said. “You’ve done more than youeven understand.”“I don’t get it,” I said. “I didn’t do anything.”My mom placed her hands on my shoulders before sayingsomething that I had not considered before.“You didn’t give up,” she said.“Huh?” I said, in confusion.SAMPLE

“When everyone else in the T.J. League had given up on Victor,you didn’t,” she pointed out. “When you saw Victor sitting at theBuddy Bench, day after day, you were determined to find out why.You cared. And when he needed you most, friend or not, you stayedby his side. You were there for him, T.J. You showed compassion.And by what you’ve just told me, Victor not only needed that, heappreciated it.”I was following everything that mom was saying. Everythinguntil her last statement. How had Victor ‘appreciated it’? Mom musthave seen the confusion in my eyes, because she continued to help meunderstand what a great act of kindness I had just performed.“You said that Mrs. Garrison told you that she would helpVictor and that you turned around to leave, right?” she asked.“Yes,” I answered, softly.“And how did Victor react?” she continued her questioning.“He stopped me,” I said, grabbing my own wrist.“That’s right,” she said, with a smile on her face.“I still don’t get it,” I admitted.“T.J., he didn’t want to be alone,” she said. “I doubt Victorknew who Mrs. Garrison was before today.”“Probably not,” I agreed.“And he was probably scared,” she continued.“Yeah,” I said.SAMPLE

“And who did he choose to be with him when he finally decidedto tell someone about all the horrible things that have been happeningto him?” she asked.“Me,” I said, not proudly. Just shocked.“He chose you, T.J. He chose you,” mom said, placing her handon my chest. “He chose the one person who showed that he cared themost. The person determined to become his friend. The person thatprobably showed him how wrong Jack was.”Once again, mom had completely lost me.“You said that Jack told Victor the only reason people werefriends with him was because people felt sorry for him, right?”“Yes,” I answered.“You proved him wrong,” she said, with confidence. “Youshowed Victor, through your actions, that you didn’t feel sorry forhim. You showed that you truly wanted to be his friend. And in theend, you showed that you truly cared.”“Really?” I asked.“Really,” she answered.“Thanks mom,” I said, with a short-lasted smile, “but I stillwant to do something for Victor. He deserves it.”“Oh, mi tesoro, you have the most beautiful heart,” mom said,giving me another hug. “Maybe you should talk with Mr. Martinez.He’ll probably know what could help Victor best.”Just then, the doorbell rang.SAMPLE

“Mom! It’s me!” Xochitl’s voice rang, through the living roomand into the kitchen.“Oh!” mom said, standing up quickly. “I forgot that Thalia’smom has an appointment today.”For the rest of the day, I couldn’t stop trying to think of a way tohelp Victor. And now, here I lay, staring at the ceiling. Still trying tothink of something. There just has to be something I can do.As it became harder and harder to keep my eyes open, it poppedinto my head. I knew what I could do!SAMPLE

14 This MayOnce I got to school, I went straight to the office.“I’m sorry, T.J.,” Mr. Ellis apologized, “but Mr. Martinez isn’there yet.”“That’s okay. I can wait,” I said, taking a seat in an office chair.I took out my notebook and began to read over the notes I hadtaken last night. They are a bit more sloppy than usual since I wasSAMPLE

half asleep when I was writing them. This is a great idea. I just knowit.“T.J.!” an excited voice boomed, from behind me.“Principal Martinez!” I said, standing up and shaking his hand.“What brings you into the office this early in the morning,” heasked.“It’s kind of private,” I said. “Could we maybe talk in youroffice?”“Sure. Of course. Right this way,” he said, motioning for me tolead the way. “Hold any calls, Mr. Ellis.”“Will do, Mr. Martinez,” he said, giving a small head nod.“So, what can I help you with today?” Principal Martinez asked,after closing the door behind him.“I’m not sure you heard about what happened with Victoryesterday,” I said, placing my backpack on a chair at his round table.“I did,” was his short answer.“So, Mrs. Garrison told you what happened in her office?” Iasked.“She did,” he answered, in a concerned voice.“Good,” I said.“I’m not sure I follow, T.J.,” Principal Martinez said, taking aseat at his round table.“It’s good because I promised Victor that I wouldn’t tell anyoneabout what he told us yesterday. And since you already know, I don’tSAMPLE

break that promise,” I explained, opening my notebook to my greatidea and placing it on the round table.“What’s this?” Principal Martinez asked, wrinkling hiseyebrows.“It’s my idea to help Victor,” I said, proudly.“Oh, T.J., bless your heart,” he said, placing his hand on myshoulder, “but Mrs. Garrison and I are making sure that Victor isgetting all the help that he needs.”I know that he didn’t mean to be rude, but it was almost like hewas saying that my great idea wasn’t needed.“And I’m sure that your idea is great, but—,” he began to saybefore I interrupted him.“You’re right. It is great. And that’s why we have to do it,” Isaid, looking him straight in the eye, while placing my hand on hisshoulder. “Not for me. For Victor.”Principal Martinez took a deep breath, closed his eyes and said,“this world needs more T.J.’s.”After explaining my idea to him, Principal Martinez smiled andtold me that my idea truly was a ‘great idea’. He then informed methat we wouldn’t be able to do it today, which immediately turned myexcitement into sorrow.“But why not?” I asked.“Victor won’t be at school today,” he answered.“But why not?” I repeated.SAMPLE

“Victor is getting some much needed help,” he said, somberly.“He should be back to school in a day or two.”“Oh,” I said, disappointedly.“That’s good news, T.J.,” Principal Martinez said, excitedly.“I know. He’s getting the help he needs,” I said, taking mynotebook and closing it.“Not only that,” he said, leaning in close, as if to tell a secret,“that gives us time to set up your great idea!”I hadn’t thought of that part before. It would take a bit ofpreparation. And Victor getting the help he needed is more importantat the moment.“Thanks Principal Martinez,” I said, standing up, placing mynotebook in my backpack, and giving him a big hug.◆ ◆ ◆Victor ended up missing two days of school. But it was just theright amount of time for Principal Martinez and I to set up my greatidea.Since Principal Martinez knew that Victor would be returningtoday, he asked all the teachers to show up to school fifteen minutesearlier than usual. He had explained what was going on and how whatthey were about to do might change Victor’s life. For the better.Principal Martinez had also spoken with Victor’s mom andasked her to bring Victor to school early. He said that he wanted toSAMPLE

meet with them about something important. She said that she wouldmake sure they were there on time.Of course, I had shared with my mom what my great idea was,and how it was important for me to be early to school, also. She saidshe was proud of me and made sure that I was up early enough to getto school before Victor did.When I got to school and entered the office, Mr. Ellis motionedfor me to come behind the counter, so I did. He then motioned for meto come to him. He had never done that before.As I approached him, he put his right hand in the air as if askingfor a high five. I was a bit tentative, but I obliged him and gave him ahigh five anyway.“It’s no wonder you’re the leader of the T.J. League,” he said.“Every league needs a great example for their leader. And you, T.J.,are not just a great example to the members of the T.J. League, youare a great example to us all.”I didn’t say anything back. I just smiled and gave a small nodbefore walking through the hallway that led to the teacher’s lounge.When I got there, Principal Martinez and all the teachers werewaiting around for Victor. All except for Mr. Weatherman that is. Hewas stuck in traffic due to an accident on the freeway.“This is a great idea, T.J.,” Mrs. Whiston said, walking up to meand placing her hand on my head.SAMPLE

“Thanks,” was all I could say. For some reason, I’m becomingvery nervous.A few minutes later, Mr. Ellis rushed in to say that Victor’smom had just parked her car. Mr. Ellis is on ‘Victor watch’.“Thank you, Mr. Ellis,” Principal Martinez said.Once Mr. Ellis exited the room, Principal Martinez and I stoodat the entrance of the teacher’s lounge while all the teachers organizedthemselves around the edges of the room. All we can do now is wait.And boy is that nerve wracking! The longer we wait, the morenervous I become.“Right this way,” we could hear Mr. Ellis say, from the frontoffice.Victor entered the teacher’s lounge first, with his mom closebehind, her hands on his shoulders.“Hi, Victor,” I said, holding my hand out.“Hi, T.J.,” he responded, shaking my hand. “What am I doinghere so early before school starts?” he asked Principal Martinez.“Well, Victor, your friend, T.J., here, came to me a few daysago, very concerned about you,” he answered.Victor took his attention off Principal Martinez and lookeddirectly at me.“But don’t worry, he didn’t break his promise,” PrincipalMartinez assured Victor. “He came to me and said that he wanted todo something to help out his newest friend. Something he couldn’t doSAMPLE

alone. Something that might show him that not all people are bad.And more specifically, not all adults are bad.”Principal Martinez gestured to his left, where Mrs. Jenkins, akindergarten teacher, stood holding out her hand. Victor slowlyapproached her and shook it, followed by his mom, who also shookMrs. Jenkins' hand.“Good morning, Victor. My name is Mrs. Jenkins and I’m akindergarten teacher. When I was in kindergarten, I was very shy, andkids used to pick on me. My teacher would get upset with me becauseI had a soft voice that was difficult for her to hear. And believe it ornot, I wanted to be a singer when I grew up! Confusing? I know.“In the third grade, I signed up for the school talent show. Isigned up to sing my favorite song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.When I showed up for the tryouts and people found out that I signedup to sing in the talent show, they picked on me so hard that I cried.“I went to the teacher in charge of the talent show and said that Iwas quitting the tryouts. But she wouldn’t let me. She told me not tolisten to those mean-spirited people and told me to sit next to her. Sheallowed me to regain my composure and even let me perform last.“When it was my turn, I was so nervous that I couldn’t sing. Shetold me to close my eyes and imagine that I was in my favorite placein the whole world. She then started the music again and I began tosing my heart out.SAMPLE

“Not only did I amaze those kids who were making fun of me, Iamazed the talent show teacher. She chose me to be the closing act ofthe talent show and told me that if I wanted to be a singer, that Ishould chase my dreams and not let anyone discourage me.”“But then why did you become a teacher?” Victor asked.“I became a teacher so that I could be like that talent showteacher. I wanted to be someone who could encourage kids toovercome,” she answered with confidence.Mrs. Jenkins then motioned towards Mr. Thomas, who wasstanding right next to her. He held his hand out, and the hand shakingcontinued.“Hi, Victor. My name is Mr. Thomas and I’m a first-gradeteacher. When I was in elementary school, I was always the shortestkid in my class.”“But you’re so tall,” Victor pointed out.“Yes,” Mr. Thomas chuckled, “but it wasn’t always that way.When I was in elementary school, I really liked sports. But I was soshort that I wasn’t very good at any, so I used to get picked on a lot. Iwas too short to be fast. Too small to hit or kick hard. And worst ofall. My favorite sport was basketball.“I was so short, that no matter how hard I tried, I just could notmake a basket. Not even if my life depended on it. Because of that, Iwas always chosen last. If I was even chosen at all. It really hurt,when I wasn’t chosen.SAMPLE

“When I was in middle school, our P.E. teacher, Mr. Carpena,announced that the school would be having basketball tryouts. I hadnever been on a team before, but I practiced at home, every day, sothat I could make the team.“When I showed up for tryouts, boys started pointing at me andlaughing. It really discouraged me, and Mr. Carpena noticed. Hescolded them and said that if they couldn’t be good sports, hewouldn’t let them try out for the team.“During tryouts, I couldn’t keep up with the other boys. Icouldn’t make any three pointers. I could barely hit the rim for freethrows. By the end of tryouts, I had decided that there was no way Ihad made the team.“Little did I know it, but I had gotten the attention of Mr.Carpena. Before I was able to leave, he approached me and told methat I had the best drive and the best heart of anyone at the tryouts. Ipointed out that I hadn’t made a single basket. He said that it didn’tmatter. That basketball was more than that.“When he posted the results the following day, my name was atthe top of the list. As team captain. I was flabbergasted! When I askedhim why he had chosen me as team captain, he said that I had themost spirit. My teammates weren’t too happy to find out that I wastheir captain, but Mr. Carpena assured me that they would get overthat soon enough.SAMPLE

“During that first season of basketball, my confidence and self-esteem grew by leaps and bounds. And so did I! By the end of theseason, not only was I as tall as my teammates, but I was also the bestpoint guard we had!“I stayed on the basketball team all through middle school andhigh school. I even earned a full ride scholarship to college!”“So why did you become a teacher?” Victor asked.“Because, Mr. Carpena made a great impact on my life. Heshowed me that things this world may see as a weakness, you can turninto your greatest strength.”Mr. Thomas then motioned to his left and the process continued.It took about fifteen or twenty minutes, but Victor and his momheard what every teacher had to say. And each one had a unique storyabout how they were negatively affected by the words and actions ofpeople in their lives, but that it took just one person to see theirpotential to keep them going. To help them realize that the words andactions of other people don’t determine who you are or who you’llone day become. And before Victor was even halfway through theline, Principal Martinez had to leave the room to fetch a box oftissues.After the last teacher offered their story, Victor’s mom walkedup to me and thanked me with tears in her eyes before hugging me.“You’re welcome, ma’am. I just hope this helps,” I saidhonestly.SAMPLE

“This may help. It just, might, help,” she said, turning to look atVictor who was nodding his head gently.SAMPLE

15 A New ViewThere was still some time before school started, so I headed tothe breakfast line to get some food while Victor and his mom metwith Principal Martinez in his office.“What were you doing in the teacher’s lounge?” Justin asked.“Nothing really,” I answered.“‘Nothing really’? ‘Nothing really’? Students are not allowedinto the teacher’s lounge, so I doubt it was ‘nothing really’!” he said,SAMPLE

excitedly.“You’re right,” I admitted.“I know I’m right,” he said, “so what were you doing?”“Students aren’t allowed into the teacher’s lounge,” I answered,before taking a spoonful of cereal into my mouth.“Fine! Don’t tell me!” he said, walking away in protest.“Is everything okay?” Marcus asked, as he passed by Justin, onhis way over to me.“Nuffing wong he-ew,” I said.“What about the other day?” he asked, sitting down next to me.“The other day?” I asked, truly unsure of what he meant.“The other day,” he said in a ‘don’t you remember’ kind ofvoice, “you didn’t come to my house because you wanted to gostraight home.”“Oh!” I said, now knowing what he was talking about.“‘Oh!’” he mimicked.“Yeah. Everything’s okay,” I said, taking another spoonful ofyummy, sugary cereal.“That’s it? Just ‘everything’s okay’? No details?” he asked.“Yup!” was my short answer.Marcus gave me that ‘best friends don’t keep secrets from eachother’ look. But it wasn’t going to work this time. I had made Victor apromise, and I was determined to keep it.◆ ◆ ◆SAMPLE

Just before lunch, the whole T.J. League got called up toPrincipal Martinez’s office. We had no idea why. And when we got tohis office, Principal Martinez wasn’t even there!“Do you know why we got called up here?” Erick asked me.“No,” I answered, truthfully. “Why would I know?”“Because you’re in Principal Martinez’s office more than any ofus!” Paul pointed out.“That doesn’t mean I know why we’re here!” I said,defensively.“There you guys are!” Principal Martinez said, loudly, fromoutside his doorway.“Good morning.”“Hi.”“Nice to see you.”“Follow me,” he said, enthusiastically.As Principal Martinez led us down the hall, we all exchangedconfused glances. It was my turn to help Paul, so I walked slowly,that way he wouldn’t get left behind. Luckily, Principal Martineznoticed and slowed down so that we all arrived at our destinationtogether. Mrs. Garrison’s room.He then opened the door and motioned for us to enter. When wegot inside, I noticed that all the tables in Mrs. Garrison’s room hadbeen put together to create one long table. In the center of that table,SAMPLE

there was pizza, drinks, and ice cream. And at the far end of the table,stood Mrs. Garrison, Victor, and his mom.“Come on in boys, and young lady,” Mrs. Garrison greeted us.“What’s all this?” Sammy asked.“This is for you,” Principal Martinez answered.“But why?” Marcus asked.“Dude who cares why?” Justin whispered, loudly.Everyone else in the T.J. League turned and gave him a ‘are youserious?’ look. To which he responded with a ‘sor-ry’ look and raisedhands in defense.“It’s just my way of saying thank you,” Victor’s mom said.“For what?” Erick asked.“For everything you’ve done for my son, Victor,” she answered.Everyone in the T.J. league, but me, exchanged confused looksagain.“Well, for everything you tried to do,” she clarified. “To try andbecome his friend.”“I’m confused,” Paul said, handing me his crutches and taking aseat.“You see, Victor has had trouble making friends at his oldschools,” she started. “We haven’t exactly stayed in one place longenough for him to make the right kind of friends. And I was afraidthat when we moved here, he wouldn’t have much luck, just likebefore.”SAMPLE

“Why don’t we all take a seat,” Mrs. Garrison suggested.As everyone took a seat, Mrs. Garrison and Principal Martinezbegan to pass out the pizza and drinks. I guess so that the pizzawouldn’t get cold.“And if it wasn’t for you guys,” Victor’s mom continued, “Inever would have found out what was happening to my Victor.”Confused looks were passed around, once again. Then Victordecided to speak.“If it wasn’t for you guys,” he said quietly, “I never would havehad the courage to tell my mom that Jack was abusing me.”“What?”“Who’s Jack?”“Jack was what!”“Jack is—was—my fiancé,” Victor’s mom clarified.“Jack had taught me that nobody cared about me. And that theonly reason that people were my friends, was because they felt sorryfor me,” Victor explained.“That’s terrible!”“That’s horrible!”“That’s unforgivable!”“That’s why I was so mean to you guys,” Victor said. “That’swhy I said all those mean things. Not because I was trying to bemean. I was just tired of people feeling sorry for me.”“I never felt sorry for you,” Sammy said.SAMPLE

“Yeah!” Justin chimed in.“We just truly wanted to be your friends!” Marcus pointed out.“But why did you guys want to be my friend so badly?” Victorasked.“I think I’m at fault for that one,” Principal Martinez said,holding his hand up. “You see, I read your file and the notes that yourteachers and principals had written in it. And there seemed to be anongoing theme: becoming friends with the wrong people.“And Erick, Justin, Marcus, Paul and Samantha, and T.J., alsoknown as the T.J. League, are some of the school’s best examples ofwhat a true friend should be. So, I just thought that if I asked them toshow you around the school, you might just have a better chance ofmaking the right friends.”“Thank you,” Victor’s mom said.“Yeah, thank you,” Victor echoed. “I think I get it now. Afterhearing everything those teachers had to say and looking back at thepast couple of weeks, I now know that people can and do care. I justneed to surround myself with the right people.“I’ve also learned that that no one gets to determine who I’ll besome day. Only I get to determine that. And with the right kind offriends and teachers, there’s nothing I can’t do. Who knows? Maybeone day I’ll be a teacher. Maybe I’ll be the one with a story to tell.Maybe I’ll be the one that gets to help a kid get a new view on life. Ifnot me, then who?”SAMPLE

Victor paused, looked down at his lap and then back up at me.“But until then, I was wondering if joining the T.J. League wasstill an option.”“Of course!”“Yeah, man!”“Let’s go!”SAMPLE

16 Testing A TheoryAfter that special lunch, Victor became an official member ofthe T.J. League. He didn’t have any favorite superheroes, but that wasokay. Sammy made sure he had plenty of reading material to make hisdecision. In the meantime, we’ve been having loads of fun justplaying and hanging out.It seems that Victor was paying attention when we were tryingto become his friends. So much so, that he took each of us up on ourSAMPLE

offers. You know, the things we had invited him to do?First, he started with Sammy. Not only did she introduce Victorto the amazing world of comic books, through her personal collectionat home, but she also introduced him to recess soccer. Sammy chosetwo fourth graders as team captain then loudly mentioned how goodVictor was at soccer. You know, the way people do while looking atthe sky, on their tippy toes, with their hands behind their backs. Yeah,like that.Because of that little trick, Victor wasn’t picked last. He alsowas the star of the soccer field that recess! You see, soccer works justlike basketball. As soon as a team scores, the game resets. Thewinning team gets to continue playing, while the losing team has toget back in line and wait their turn to play again. Victor kept scoringon the other team, so his team never lost!Second, Victor asked Marcus for some help with his mathhomework. Of course, Marcus obliged. And because Marcus and Iswitch houses after school, for homework, Victor got to meet ourfamilies!While at his house, Marcus showed Victor some great tricks forlearning his times tables. You know, how anything times zero is zero.And how you just have to add a zero to the number being times’d byten. Or how when you multiply by nine, the tens place goes up by oneand the ones place goes down by one. Things like that.SAMPLE

Then Paul organized another video game and pizza day at hishouse. It took some convincing, but after promising that there wouldbe no acrobatics, his mom finally agreed to let us come over.We decided to start off with an easy game. The same one thatPaul had tried to get him to play that day at the big tree. After gettingthe timing down, Victor ended up being the best of all of us at gettingthat frog across the screen! And when we decided to play some moredifficult games, he was a natural at those, too! I think Victor hasfound his calling!Next, we went to the park so Justin could give Victor somepointers on how to shoot a basketball. We all decided that playingaround the world was better than trying to have a full-on game.‘It’s all in the wrist,’ Justin kept on telling him. And after nottoo long, Victor found out he was a pretty decent shot! He ended upbeating Paul and me! I mean, yes Paul is still on crutches. And yes,I’m terrible at sports with a ball. But still! You have to admit. He stilldid pretty well for his first time!After that, Victor’s mom organized a bowling trip so we couldall go bowling. Unlimited pizza and wings and all!For the first game, we all started with the bumpers, you know, tomake it fair. But for the second game, we tried it without thebumpers. Then we found something out. We’re all pretty terrible atbowling!SAMPLE

As for whether or not Justin upset Sammy as the wing eatingchampion, once again he was defeated. Actually, Sammy didn’t wineither. Victor, who pointed out that we didn’t have to eat them all atonce, paced himself during our time at the bowling alley, and beatSammy out by just one wing!Finally, Victor asked Erick if he still wanted a partner for theAnnual Dance Off. Erick jumped so high, that he almost fell downwhen he landed. With just a week to go, Victor spent every lunchrecess practicing and every afternoon at Erick’s house so that theywould be as ready as they could possibly be.When the day finally came, the whole T.J. League showed up tooffer our support. After all the dance routines had shown their talent,the judges needed time to tally up the points, so Principal Martineztook the mic and tried some standup comedy. Tried being the keyword. I think he should stick with being principal. He’s good at that!Even though they didn’t win, when their names were called outfor second place, Erick and Victor shared an enthusiastic handshakethat took like ten seconds to complete. Guess dancing wasn’t the onlything they were practicing over the past week!Erick’s and Victor’s mom offered to take us out for ice creamafter the dance off. And after some begging on our parts, our parentsagreed to let us go.“So, guess we’re seven for seven,” I said, taking a lick of my icecream and looking at Sammy.SAMPLE

“What?” Victor asked.“Oh, nothing,” Sammy said, smiling while kicking me under thetable and with a ‘be quiet!’ look on her face.“What made you do it?” Marcus asked Victor.“Do what?” he asked.“You think I didn’t notice?” Marcus shot back.“Notice what!” Victor said, genuinely confused.“Yeah, notice what?” Justin asked.“You took us all up on our original offers,” Marcus said.“What do you mean?” Paul asked.“It’s like this,” Marcus said, leaning in as he spoke. “We allapproached Victor with an idea to become his friend.”“Uh huh,” Erick said, while we all leaned in with Marcus.“First, T.J. asked him to join the T.J. League,” Marcus said,using his fingers to keep count. “Secondly, Sammy offered to makehim a captain for soccer at recess. Then, I offered to help him withmath. After that, Paul invited him for video games and pizza. Justinwanted to teach him the best way to shoot a basketball. I tried againby inviting him to go cosmic bowling. And with you, Erick, being thelast person who approached him, Victor has now done everything weoriginally asked him to do.”“Oh!” we all said, in unison.“So, I repeat,” Marcus said, “what made you do it?”SAMPLE

“I wanted to see what Principal Martinez was talking about,”Victor answered.“I’m confused again,” Justin said, raising his hand like we werein school.“At that lunch we had in Mrs. Garrison’s office, PrincipalMartinez said that you guys were some of the best examples theschool has of what a true friend should be,” Victor said.“Uh huh,” Sammy said, slowly with her eyes slightly closed.“And I just wanted to see if what he said was true!” he admitted.“You know, test his theory out for myself!”“So?” I said.“So, what?” Paul said.“So, what do you say?” I clarified. “Do we pass your test?”“Hmmm,” Victor said, sitting quietly for a moment whilescratching his chin and staring at the ceiling.“Oh, come on!”“Really!”“Dude!”“Just say something, already!”Then he took another lick of his ice cream and smiled thebiggest smile I’ve ever seen him use.SAMPLE

17 Until Next TimeThe great times with Victor and the T.J. League continuedbeyond that night at the ice cream parlor.Any time he needs help with homework, Victor walks homewith Marcus and me. His mom has offered to drive us, but he says helikes the time we get to spend together when we walk. He alreadyknows how to get to our houses, from memory! And because he’sSAMPLE

taller than Marcus and me, he has no trouble jumping the fence in thebackyard.Now, we would walk to his house after school, but he lives evenfarther than Paul! But I think that it’s worked out for the better. Ourmoms have even gotten to know his mom pretty well and sometimesthey even ask her and Victor to stay for dinner!Sammy continues to provide Victor with endless supplies ofwhat she calls ‘research’. Since comic books aren’t actually allowedat our school, Principal Martinez just asks that we exchange themafter school, which we agreed was fair.Victor says that his favorite character, so far, is Wolverine. Hesays that he likes how Wolverine has a past that could have led him tobe a complete bad guy. But, because one person saw the potential inhim; because he surrounded himself with the right kind of people, henow fights for the good guys. He fights for those who can’t fight forthemselves.We’ve also discovered that Victor is a complete natural when itcomes to video games! We even went mini golfing last Friday, andsince we had some extra time before our moms were going to pick usup, we went inside to the arcade. Victor hadn’t brought any moneywith him, since he thought we were only going to be mini golfing. Ihad five dollars on me, so I gave him one dollar and I kept the otherfour.SAMPLE

When I had finished using up my money, I searched the arcadefor Victor, assuming he had already spent his four quarters. Boy was Iwrong. Not only was Victor still playing an arcade game, but he stillhad fifty cents in his pocket! I asked him if anyone else had given himany money and he said no!When it comes to soccer, Victor has become the second-bestplayer in our school! The only person that can beat him is Marcus.Which is why they’re not able to be on the same team. Kind of likeMarcus and I aren’t allowed to be on the same team for freeze tag. Hesays that he’s okay being second best.And we still go to the park sometimes, to play around the world.And although he hasn’t gotten much better, he still beats Paul and me!Paul blames it on his leg. I don’t blame it on anything. I just remindeveryone that balls full of air and I have an unspoken agreement tostay as far away from each other as we can. Except when I’m being aFuture Funmaker, that is.And now, every week at the end of Music Hall, when Mrs.Jordan plays the High Five Song, Victor shows us the newest dancemoves that Erick has taught him. Except when she plays classicalmusic. Then he just twirls around and jumps in the air like he’s aballerina. This usually makes everyone laugh. Including Mrs.Whiston and Mrs. Jordan.◆ ◆ ◆SAMPLE

“I can’t believe I was missing out on so much!” Victor said,excitedly, as we sat, finishing our lunches.“Well, I’m just glad you came to our school,” I said.“Yeah,” Justin agreed.“You’ve made this year so much better,” Erick pointed out.“And I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to beat yourhigh score on my game!” Paul said, throwing his hands up.“How’s that a good thing?” Sammy asked.“Because of Victor,” Paul said, gesturing at him with bothhands, “I’m going to have to practice more. Which will in turn, makeme a better gamer!”“Makes sense,” Marcus said.“Thanks guys,” Victor said. “For everything.”“Thank T.J.!” Justin said, redirecting praise to me.“Yeah, thank our fearless leader,” Paul chimed in.“He’s the one who wouldn’t give up on you,” Erick pointed out.“A great leader, through and through,” Marcus said, patting meon the shoulder.“There’s no one else like him,” Sammy said, patting me on theother shoulder.“I just did what Batman would do. I didn’t give up until I foundthe right solution to the problem. And boy am I glad I did,” I said,putting my arm around Victor’s shoulder.SAMPLE

“Group hug!” Justin shouted, causing everyone to squeeze inthe best they could, since they were all standing up and Victor and Iwere still sitting at a table.◆ ◆ ◆After school, Victor asked his mom if he could walk home withMarcus and me, but his mom said that they had something importantto do, so he couldn’t go. Marcus and I didn’t think anything of it. Wejust figured he had forgotten about a doctor’s or dentist’s appointmentor something. So, we started walking home without noticing Victor’smom walking back into the school. Little did we know that we wouldfind out the real reason the following day.◆ ◆ ◆The next morning, Victor wasn’t at school. As I sat next to hisempty chair, wondering why he wasn’t there, the T.J. League wasonce again called up to Principal Martinez’s office. Only this time, itwasn’t even recess time yet!When we got to the office, Principal Martinez’s office door wasclosed, so we waited at the front of the office. And once again, wequestioned each other to see if anyone knew why we had been calledup. And once again, no one knew why!After a few minutes, the door to Principal Martinez’s officeopened and he invited us to all come in. I was the first one to enterand I was surprised at what I saw. Behind Principal Martinez’s deskSAMPLE

stood Victor and his mom! Victor’s eyes and Victor’s mom’s eyeswere red as if they had been crying.“What’s going on?” I asked, as we all squeezed into the room.After closing the door and squeezing his way behind his desk,where Victor and his mom stood, Principal Martinez motioned forVictor’s mom to explain.“Good morning,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “I just wantto start off by thanking you all again for being such great friends tomy Victor.”She took a deep breath and continued to talk.“As we explained before, my ex-fiancé, Jack was abusingVictor. And when I found out, I had him arrested. Since then, Victorand I have been living the best life we’ve had since he was just a littlething.“Unfortunately, the house we’re living in, is in Jack’s name.And because of that, we can’t stay. Yesterday, his lawyer stopped byand told us that we had forty-eight hours to leave, or we would bearrested.”Nobody said anything, so as not to interrupt, but I’m sure thelooks on our faces and our clenched fists spoke all the words that wewanted to say.“That’s why Victor couldn’t walk home with you, T.J. andMarcus. Actually, after you guys left, I had a meeting with Mr.Martinez. He’s helped us find a place to stay until I can finish all theSAMPLE

necessary paperwork to make sure that Jack never gets to hurt Victor,ever again.“And once that’s finished, to make sure that Victor stays safe,we’re going to be moving somewhere secret so that we can get a freshstart.”“But you’ve already gotten a fresh start!” Justin said, throughwatery eyes.“Yeah,” Erick sniffled. “You can’t just leave us.”“You still have so much more research to do!” Sammy said,wiping a falling tear.“And how can I rub it in your face when I finally beat your highscore?” Paul said, looking down at the ground.“You guys,” Marcus scolded, “you’re not making this any easierfor him.”“Yeah guys,” I agreed. “This is not how we treat a fellowLeaguer.”“But—,”“‘But’ nothing,” I said, in a commanding tone.“Sorry.”“Do you have anything you want to say, Victor?” PrincipalMartinez asked.Just like his mom, Victor took a deep breath before speaking.“I know that I’ve said this over and over these past weeks, butthank you. Truly, thank you. Principal Martinez was right. You guysSAMPLE

are the bestest friends anyone could ask for.“It’s because of you guys that I know, whatever school I go tonext, I can make friends. And it’s because of you guys, that I’ll knowwhich ones are the right kind of friends. The ones that aretrustworthy. Respectful. Fair. Caring. And kind. The ones that stickup for those who can’t stick up for themselves.“I will never forget you guys. And don’t worry, I’m sure we’llmeet again, someday.”After finishing what he had to say, he stepped forward and gaveus all hugs. One by one. His mother followed behind and did thesame.“Okay, you guys. Thank you for coming up,” Principal Martinezsaid. “You can head back to—.”“Wait.” I interrupted. “There’s something important we have todo.”Once I realized that Principal Martinez wasn’t going to object, Iplaced my hand in front of me like I had done so many times before.Marcus placed his hand on top of mine, followed by Erick, Justin,Paul, Sammy and finally, Victor.“Once a Leaguer, always a leaguer,” I said, looking at everyonein the eye. They all nodded in agreement. “We protect and serve allliving things!”“The T.J. League reigns supreme!”SAMPLE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR"Mr. Angel" Ramirez"Mr. Angel" has been writing stories since hiselementary school days, and after MUCHencouragement from students, friends, andfamily, has decided to publish some of them forothers to enjoy. When he isn't writing, he can befound leading the Blueprint Youth Ministry atCalvary Chapel Into The Light, spending timewith his niece and nephews, or enjoying hisfavorite food: cookies!SAMPLE

BOOKS BY THIS AUTHORT.J.'S Adventures - Operation Full ControlThe T.J. League 'protects and serves all living things' and does it nearlyevery recess. That is until he came to the school. Now things have changedand no one is having fun. Well, except for Erick. Something must be done.Can the T.J. League get things back to the way they were? Join us and findout! Parental Guidance: Visits Topic of Strained FrienshipsT.J.'S Adventures - The Nighttime NemesisT.J.'s scary bedtime story has been read by the entire fifth grade and theoutcome is probably not what Mr. Anderson or Mrs. Whiston were thinkingof when they assigned this free write. Bad dreams. Angry parents. Stuff likethat. And now something new has come to light. What ever will T.J. donow? Parental Guidance: Visits Topic of Bed WettingT.J.'S Adventures - Objective: Protect & ServeIt's been raining for days now, making recess a bit different for the T.J.League, Funmaker John and the rest of the students at T.J.'s school. Andguess what? Today starts off just the same. But now the electricity is out,the Internet is down and the T.J. League is stuck in the MPR with all thefirst graders. There's no way things can't get any worse. SAMPLE

Parental Guidance: Visits Topic of a School LockdownT.J.'S Adventures - Operation Superhero SupportIt's almost Christmas, and the T.J. League, like everyone else, is preparingfor all the fun things that the season brings. Until Sammy noticessomething, that is. But it could be nothing. But then again, maybe it'ssomething. T.J. can't remember the last time Sammy was wrong. But thenagain, there's a first for everything. Right? Parental Guidance: Visits Topic of Women and Children's SheltersSAMPLE