It was all very confusing.
As Mrs. A. dismissed the rest of the class for recess, I realized that must be how Tyler felt about Study Buddies. I loved it, but it had been almost two weeks now, and it still didn’t seem like he liked it at all. But Tyler didn’t have to decide when to quit because our two weeks were almost over.
“I bet you’re glad that Study Buddies is almost done,” I said to Tyler as we walked up one hallway and down the other toward the second-grade classrooms.
But he just shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” And when we got there, he just sat down quietly in a little chair.
Katie and Maya ran over to hug me, and Mrs. Wilson said, “OK, class, let’s head outside,” because the Study Buddies session, it turned out, was PE. “We’re working on basic ball skills like throwing and catching. So just take your groups and play ball.”
Tyler’s eyes got big. “That’s it? Just play ball?”
Mrs. Wilson nodded.
I got Katie and Maya and me all set up in a triangle so that we could practice throwing and catching the ball, but when I looked over, Tyler was doing this cool thing with his group: bounce-pass keep-away, which he had made up right there on the spot. The rules were that the big player (say, Tyler) went running toward a little player (Logan or Chloe), and right when he almost got there, the little player did a bounce-pass under Tyler’s hands to the other little player.
Logan and Chloe loved it! They loved how they could keep the ball away from a great big fifth grader. They kept laughing and laughing, and Tyler was laughing, too. It looked like way more fun than the boring pass-the-ball-around-the-triangle thing that I had set up. Katie and Maya must have thought so, too, because they ran over to play with Tyler’s group. Soon, all four second graders were keeping the ball away from Tyler and laughing and laughing.
Meanwhile, I was just sort of standing there. I looked over and saw Mrs. Wilson smiling at Tyler, and suddenly I realized that at that very second, Tyler was being a better Study Buddy than me.
Just as I was getting ready to say to the kids, “How about I get in the middle now?” Mrs. Wilson told everyone that recess was over. So our Study Buddy session was done, too.
I tried to think of something quick I could do that was as good as what Tyler did, but all I could think of was to take Katie over to the classroom sink. The dirt and dust from bouncing the ball on the playground were stuck to all her sticky parts, and her face was also dirty from where she scratched itches.
I asked her to wash her hands and then showed her how she could use the wet paper towel from drying her hands to wipe the dirt off her face, too.
“There, doesn’t that feel better?” I asked, and she nodded yes, and when she hugged me good-bye it was less sticky, which was nice.
But that still wasn’t as good as what Tyler had done.
Tyler high-fived Logan and Chloe, and as we were leaving, Mrs. Wilson said, “Nice work today, Tyler,” like he really had been outstanding for once, instead of a pain in the you-know-what (his favorite word). “Thanks, Jordie,” she added as she turned to the class.
And then I knew that Mrs. Wilson thought Tyler had done better, too, because “nice work” is better than “thanks.” It was weird because everyone knew Tyler was the worst kid in the whole class, but he’d just done better than me.
Tyler smiled the whole way back to our classroom.
The rest of the morning, I sat in my seat, wondering how Tyler could have done better than me. At lunch with Megan and Jasmine and Aisha, I wondered about it even harder.
After we finished eating, we went out like always to sit on the benches on the side of the school. Usually, I was too busy blabbing with them to pay much attention to who else was out on the playground. But I didn’t feel like blabbing now.
I half listened to Aisha talk about shopping with her cousins to buy matching shirts while my eyes wandered around the monkey bars and slides, out across the soccer field . . . until I saw Tyler, walking over to the basketball courts.
Instead of stopping at the tall hoop for the big kids, he kept walking until he got to the shorter one for the little kids.
“What’s he doing?” I stood up.
“Who?” Megan asked.
Little kids started running over to him, and when I looked even harder I realized it was Mrs. Wilson’s class! I hadn’t noticed they had afternoon recess at the same time as our lunch period, but Tyler had noticed.
“Who are you looking at?” Megan asked again, but I was already walking toward them.
“Jordie, where are you going?” Megan called after me.
“My Study Buddies are on the playground!”
I walked faster as Tyler started teaching the second graders how to shoot baskets, the whole class waiting to try—including Katie and Maya!
Just as I reached the courts, Mrs. Wilson called the kids over to head back to class. Their recess was done. I only had time to wave to Katie and Maya before they went inside.
Tyler had been a better Study Buddy than me twice in one day!
It bugged me so much the rest of the afternoon that by the time the bell rang, all I wanted to do was go home and cuddle Baxter.
I walked extra fast, ignoring TJ every time he said, “Wait up!”
When we got home, TJ made a beeline for the cereal, but I didn’t want a snack. I said, “I’m going to get Baxter for our walk.”
I hurried over to Professor Reese’s. But when I took the key from under
