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Part 2

Monday, September 18–Saturday, September 23

Summary: Monday, September 18

It’s Paul’s first day at Tangerine Middle School. Outside the school, Paul and his mother notice kids karate kicking each other. The building is old and run-down. Dr. Johnson, the principal, introduces Paul to Theresa Cruz, another seventh grader who will be his escort for the day. As they walk through the halls, kids slam into Paul. During lunch, Paul asks Theresa about the soccer team. She tells him that they have a great team and that her twin brother, Tino, plays on the team. Tino and his friends Victor and Hernando are suspended, however, and won’t be at practice today. Paul later realizes when he sees Theresa’s brother’s Luis’s truck, the same truck he saw at the carnival, that these are the kids he ratted on for the carnival incident. Theresa further explains that Victor is the star soccer player. The current goaltender is a girl, Shandra Thomas. Paul is astounded to hear that there are girls on the soccer team. Theresa says there are four girls on the team: Shandra, Maya, Nita, and Dolly.

Paul goes to practice. The coach of the Tangerine Middle School War Eagles, Betty Bright, tells Paul that he can play, but he can’t take any of the positions of her star players just to go back to Lake Windsor. They agree he’ll be a backup goaltender for Shandra. Back at school, Paul is afraid once he sees that Mrs. Murrow, Mr. Murrow’s wife, is his language arts teacher. He worries Mr. Murrow, his former guidance counselor, will tell her Paul is an IEP student. When Paul’s mom picks him up, she tells him that his IEP form “went missing” from his file and that it’s the kind of thing they should never mention again. Paul makes an aside that “maybe the osprey took the file,” and his fears are calmed.

Summary: Tuesday, September 19

Paul follows Theresa around school again. This time she introduces him to Victor Guzman, the star player of the soccer team. At lunch, Victor harasses Paul, saying his team back at Lake Windsor is a “joke.” Paul takes a risk on a witty retort and says, “What do you expect, we practice on a sinkhole.” This loosens Victor up a bit and makes him laugh. Victor and Tino relate how they’ve been in vandalism jail because Tino karate chopped the “Axe Man” exhibit out of fear. Victor says they were caught because Tino was carrying a soccer ball around that day. Paul feels relieved, thinking he might get away with ratting on them. Later, at practice, Victor shoots hard on Paul, but Paul miraculously catches the ball. Victor comes up and angrily pushes the ball out of Paul’s hands and yells, “Goal!” Tino catches what happened and says there was no goal. Other kids congratulate Paul for a good save. On the drive home, Paul thinks how this is the part of Tangerine County where he wants to be.

Summary: Wednesday, September 20

Back home, Joey comes over with his new soccer uniform from Lake Windsor. Muck fires are raging, and Paul can hear Arthur and Erik revving Arthur’s Land Cruiser engine doing mud runs. Paul and Joey compare uniforms. Paul’s is used and much less polished than Joey’s. Erik and Arthur come back to the house. Arthur sees Joey and calls him “Mohawk Man’s brother,” a cruel reference to Joey’s dead brother Mike. Erik and Arthur start making shrouded jokes about Joey’s strange preoccupation with Mike’s shoes after Mike was struck dead on the field.

Joey doesn’t get the references they’re making, but Paul does. He’s angry. Joey implores Paul to tell him what they’re joking about, and Paul tells him that they’re making fun of his brother’s singed-off hair and his taking off Mike’s shoes on the field. Joey, teary-eyed, recalls how Mike always took his shoes off first thing after coming home to be comfortable and that Joey was just acting instinctively, in a state of shock, trying to make Mike comfortable on the field. Joey is anguished with the way he’s made fun of at school now because of Mike. Paul suggests Joey transfer to Tangerine Middle School. He reminds Joey that his father is a lawyer and has strings to pull in the Lake Windsor school system since Mike died on their grounds. Joey agrees it’s a good idea.

Summary: Friday, September 22

Paul plays his first game with the War Eagles. They play an away game against Palmetto Middle School. Betty Bright, the coach, doubles as their bus driver. Paul is on the sidelines, which he’s happy about. He watches the game, noticing how aggressively each team is playing. It’s more of an outright brawl than an actual game. There’s a lot of unfair playing going on, and the referee seems to be favoring the Palmetto team. Paul grants that Palmetto has great individual players, but they don’t play as a team like the War Eagles. Tino gets knocked down by another player and starts punching in retaliation. Coach Bright drags him off the field and puts Paul in. Paul, stunned, is now playing center forward. He is set up for a shot but misses the kick. He gets knocked down by other players and has mud in his eyes. Paul feels embarrassed and ashamed. Victor tells Paul that he played decently and tells him that now that he’s a War Eagle, they’re “brothers” and they all protect each other. Paul feels relieved that he has been accepted by Victor and into the community.

Summary: Friday, September 22, later

Joey calls Paul to tell him the news: He’s coming to Tangerine Middle School. Paul feels excited. He tells Joey to ask for a girl named Theresa Cruz to show him around.

Summary: Saturday, September 23

It’s the first day of the football season for the Lake Windsor High Seagulls. There is barely enough room on the home bleachers because half of them have been condemned from the sinkhole. Lake Windsor is hosting the Cyprus Bay Cardinals. Their fans have no place to sit, which Mrs. Fisher thinks is contemptible. The game starts, and Paul thinks it’s a boring game. He notices that Antoine Thomas is clearly the Seagulls’ star player. It starts to rain. Mrs. Fisher motions for Paul and Mr. Fisher to go to the car where it’s safe, but they refuse. Mrs. Fisher goes ahead anyway.

Toward the end of the game, Erik is called to make a game-winning field goal. This is his first chance to show everyone his skills. Antoine is his ball holder rather than Arthur, the teammate he’s been practicing with. Just as Erik is about to make the kick, Antoine takes the ball away and runs to make the touchdown. Erik slips and falls back into the mud. The Seagulls win, but Erik has been made to look like a fool. Back at the car, Mr. Fisher relates the story to Mrs. Fisher but alters the story to make it seem like Erik didn’t look so bad and was the clear star of the game. Paul knows better. At dinner later that night, the family watches the highlights of the game on TV. They watch Erik’s fall on replay. The anchors laugh, and there’s footage of Antoine laughing as well. Mr. Fisher turns the TV off, and everyone sits in silence. He tells Erik to laugh it off. Paul knows that Erik won’t laugh it off. Instead, he’s going to make someone pay for this embarrassment.

Analysis: Monday, September 18–Saturday, September 23

As Part 2 begins, it’s clear that Paul’s life at Tangerine Middle School will be different than his life at Lake Windsor. Tangerine Middle School is run-down, the kids are rougher, and there’s a co-ed soccer team. He compares his shoddy soccer uniform with Joey’s, which is newer and better quality. The uniforms at Tangerine Middle School are used and tattered, signaling the class differences between the two communities. Instead of feeling alienated, however, Paul is excited about his new environment, largely because he already feels more secure and included in this community.

Paul has his own challenges to face at the new school, however, in the form of Tino and Victor. He quickly realizes that these are the kids he ratted on at the carnival and worries he’ll be exposed. This predicament shows the moral complexities Paul must wrestle with and the way he weighs the consequences of his actions. Paul’s conscientiousness stands in stark contrast to the callousness of his brother Erik, who shamelessly makes fun of his dead teammate Mike and pays no heed to the effect of his remarks on Joey.

Paul learns to bond with the natural world around him and work with it—similar to the way he approaches his new classmates at Tangerine Middle School—in stark contrast to his family and the other members of the Lake Windsor Downs community who try to pave over the incongruities of the natural world. When Paul sees that Mr. Murrow’s wife is his language arts teacher, he worries that he’s going to be exposed as an IEP student and yet again won’t be allowed to join the soccer team. However, when Paul learns the record of his IEP is missing from his file, he jokingly blames the osprey, a creature he alone notices throughout the novel, for taking it. Paul’s astute observations of the natural world speak to the way he, despite his blindness, can see the truth around him better than his own family.

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