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Tuesday, September 26–Wednesday, October 4

Summary: Tuesday, September 26

It’s the second game of the season for the soccer team at Tangerine Middle School. Their opponents are from Kinnow Middle School, and there is an impressive turnout of fans. Some people bring tangerines and water. The Cruzes’ father is there, as are Shandra’s mother and other mothers with smaller children. Paul thinks about how his own parents aren’t there and how they would be in attendance if it were a football game. This game is less warlike than the last. The girl players are strong, and both teams play well. At halftime, Coach Bright notices that Victor is bleeding, so she sends him to the emergency room for stitches. Victor feels angry about missing the game but walks off the field giving his teammates a war cry. Coach Bright puts Paul in the game, where he ends up back on the front line. To his own disbelief, Paul scores a goal. When Victor returns from the hospital, he congratulates Paul.

Summary: Tuesday, September 26, later

Paul answers a call from his grandmother back home. In her “no nonsense” voice, she asks Paul for details about the sinkhole incident. Paul hands the phone to his mother when she walks into the room, relieved he doesn’t have to continue the discussion. Paul later receives a call from Cara, Joey’s girlfriend. Cara asks Paul if she remembers her friend Kerri from Lake Windsor. Paul, confused, says he does, and Cara tells him, “Kerri says hi.” Joey later tells Paul that the girls were “scamming” him and Kerri was likely on the other end of the line listening. He explains that this is the girls’ way of finding out if a boy likes them. Paul can’t believe that Kerri has seen him with his coke-bottle glasses and still is potentially interested in dating him.

Summary: Wednesday, September 27

Joey is now an official part of the soccer team at Tangerine Middle School. Just as Victor teased Paul when he first arrived, Victor teases Joey too. Paul explains to Joey that Victor did the same thing to him, but Joey still feels upset. When Mrs. Fisher comes to pick Paul and Joey up, she notices Shandra and Maya, two girls from the team, leaving the field. Mrs. Fisher tries to “encourage” the girls by saying they are just as good as the boys, but the encouragement is lost on the girls, who are star players. Paul feels embarrassed. He says that Maya is the lead scorer and is about to make the All-County team.

As they pull up to Joey’s house, they notice that homes in his section of the development are covered in blue tarps. Joey explains that the homes are getting fumigated for termites, and his is next. Mrs. Fisher offers to have Joey sleep over at their house when the time comes, but Joey declines. He leaves the car, still angry at Victor. Paul knows that Joey will never come to his house after Erik and Arthur made fun of him there.

Summary: Friday, September 29

Joey doesn’t come to the next team practice. Tipped off by Mrs. Fisher about the star girl players, Mr. Donnelly arrives with his news truck to report on the co-ed team and their team’s lead scorer, Maya. Coach Bright and the girls are annoyed with the attention. Coach Bright tells Donnelly that this isn’t “news” as she’s had girls on her team for five years. Victor is happy Donnelly’s there and tries to get his attention. Donnelly has his crew take some video of the girls, takes down their names from Coach Bright, and leaves. The next day, there is no story, just a photo of Nita with an incorrect caption reading “Maya Pandhi Leads All Scorers in Tangerine County.” The team loses twenty minutes because of Donnelly’s disruption.

Summary: Monday, October 2

Paul and Joey are in class. They’re assigned a cross-curricular project for which they will have to write a science report on Florida agriculture. Paul asks Tino, Theresa, and Henry D. if he and Joey can join their group. They say yes. Joey feels annoyed, and he doesn’t understand why Paul is being nice to them, especially Tino, who made fun of Joey earlier. Paul tries to get Joey to see that this is a way to become closer to the team. Joey announces that he’s no longer on the soccer team and that he turned in his uniform. He explains that he’s going to play football when he gets to high school. Paul is stunned. Joey, embittered by his situation, makes racist slurs about how Paul dragged him to this “dump” school that’s like the “Amazon jungle” and they’re learning to live among the “natives.” Paul cannot believe Joey’s words and doesn’t know how to respond. He thinks about how different he and Joey are.

Summary: Tuesday, October 3

Paul recalls how Joey’s comments about Tangerine Middle School weren’t the first racist comments he’s made. He remembers how, on Joey’s first day, Joey refused to let Theresa show him around because he didn’t need a “guide dog.” Paul also recalls when Joey asked if Paul thought Theresa was good-looking, and when Paul said he did, Joey said Paul had been at the school too long.

The science team has their first meeting for their group project. Theresa announces they’re going to do their team report on the Golden Dawn tangerine, the new variety of citrus her brother Luis is creating. The tangerine is seedless, juicy, and resistant to cold weather. Luis has been working on it his whole life and hopes it will revitalize the area and return it back to being the tangerine capital of the world. Theresa gives everyone a printout of the research plan. Joey offers to print all their materials on his printer at home, but Theresa explains that she and Tino only have a typewriter and so the printer can’t help them. Embarrassed, Tino gets defensive and provokes Joey. Joey insults Tino and Luis, and they end up scuffling. On his way out of class, Joey calls Paul a coward for sucking up to everyone, including Erik, girls, and now these “lowlifes.” Tino reacts angrily to Joey’s words and gets suspended for three days. Joey joins another group.

Summary: Wednesday, October 4

Mrs. Fisher holds a Homeowners’ Association of Lake Windsor meeting at her home. Paul is there, doing his homework. Mr. Costello, who is a lawyer, presides over the meeting. Paul notices how lined and drawn his face looks since his son Mike died. Paul eavesdrops on the conversation. The issues discussed include the unsightly series of lightning rods Mr. Donnelly has installed on his roof (he was approved for one lightning rod but installed ten), the koi that keep disappearing from the pond (people think they’re being stolen but Paul knows it’s the ospreys that are eating them), the recent robberies of the homes that are being fumigated, and the muck fires. Mr. Costello becomes aggravated when residents stubbornly insist that something must be done about the fires. People have already tried dousing the fields, but the created a swamp and attracted mosquitoes. Now, they need to spray for mosquitoes because they carry encephalitis. As he’s listening, Paul finds a file on his father’s computer called “Erik’s Scholarship Offers.” He notices that no one has contacted Erik with offers yet.

Analysis: Tuesday, September 26–Wednesday, October 4

Paul, as a child who has not yet fully come of age, is often affected by the actions of adults. Coach Bright takes a chance on Paul despite his limited eyesight, and this choice stands in stark contrast to Coach Walski at Lake Windsor, who kicked Paul off the team the moment he found out about Paul’s IEP status. The attitudes of adults at Tangerine Middle School are more open and willing than those at Lake Windsor, where the faculty and even parents aren’t willing to risk reputation or appearances on behalf of the students.

With his peers, Paul slowly starts to feel less like an outsider. Victor congratulates Paul on his goal when he returns to the game, putting an arm around Paul like a brother, a move that signals Paul’s inclusion in this community. Paul is encouraged to learn that a girl, Kerri, is romantically intrigued by him, and to realize that Kerri has actually seen him, knows he has glasses, and is still interested in him. Kerri—unlike Paul’s parents who are too busy with Erik’s life and the issues starting to plague the development community—notices Paul and makes him feel not just “normal” but genuinely confident. Coach Bright, Paul’s War Eagle teammates, and his friends at Tangerine Middle School help Paul create an identity for himself and find his place in the community. At Lake Windsor, Paul was quickly assessed, labeled as an IEP student, and ostracized as an insurance risk. The difference in how the two school bodies treat Paul reveals the difference in the values of both communities.

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