Harry proceeded to take care of business, finally looking like his old, healthy self in retiring three discouraged Pirates in a row to seal the victory.
All the Yankees rejoiced together. To Derek, it was as if a ten-ton weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Whatever happened next, at least they’d made the playoffs. No one could say their season had been a failure.
He looked over at Avery, who was finally smiling. “Hey, you! Up top!” he said, and she gladly high-fived him. They even exchanged hugs, as if the tension and testiness had never existed.
“You okay?” he asked.
Her smile vanished, replied by a quizzical look. “What are you talking about?” She looked at him like he was crazy.
“Uh… nothing. Forget it,” said Derek, shrugging. “Great game, huh?”
“Hey, we made it,” she said. “That’s all that matters!”
Derek let it go at that. Whatever her problem had been, she seemed all right now. He went to find his mom and celebrate some more.
Chapter Two STRESS TEST
“All right, class—listen up, please.”
Derek turned his attention to the front of the room. The bell for last period had just rung. Ms. Terrapin was rapping on her desk with a ruler, and the class had now quieted down enough for her to continue.
“I’m going to hand out the schedule for finals,” she said, picking up a sheaf of papers and handing a few to each student in the front row. “Pass them back, please. Now, don’t panic,” she added. “Your class presentations in social studies and foreign language will be counted as your finals in those subjects, so it’s just math, English, and science you’ll have to bone up on.”
Sighs of relief greeted this happy news. “HOWEVER,” Ms. Terrapin went on, “there’s a new twist this year. As I told you back in January, you’ll also be taking the national standardized tests.”
A worried murmur rose from the four corners of the room. Derek vaguely remembered her saying something about standardized tests, a long, long time ago—but he’d let himself forget all about them. He’d taken them before—way back in fourth grade—and the one thing he remembered was that his teacher had told Derek’s parents not to worry that he hadn’t scored as well as he usually did on his finals, that he’d probably just had “test anxiety.”
“Hey, Jeter! Where’re you running? C’mere a minute.”
Derek looked back over his shoulder to see Gary Parnell emerging from the classroom. Gary approached him, a sinister grin on his face.
Uh-oh, thought Derek. Whatever that grin signified, it could not possibly be good. “What’s up, Gary?” he asked, trying to sound casual.
“I think you already know—don’t you?” It wasn’t even really a question. “Of course you do. It’s time for our annual finals challenge!” He rubbed his two hands together eagerly. “I, for one, can’t wait! You?”
“Joy,” said Derek sarcastically.
Gary had been in Derek’s class every year since second grade. Every year, Gary had challenged Derek to a contest—whoever got the highest grades on their finals won. And the loser had to pay a price.
“I figure since we’re bigger this year, we should have bigger penalties,” Gary said. “Don’t you agree?” The grin grew wider.
“Totally,” Derek said, trying to shoot a cocky smile back at Gary and wondering if it looked cocky enough.
“Of course, if you’d rather not compete this year…”
“Not compete?”
“I mean, I could understand. I’ve had another year to leapfrog your pathetic intelligence. It probably wouldn’t even be a fair fight—”
“You’re on!” Derek said hotly, even as he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Gary almost always got better grades than Derek did. The few times when he’d beaten Gary had only served to keep Derek in the game for future punishments.
“Seriously?” Gary said, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “You actually think you can win this thing?”
“I know I can.”
“Then how about this for a penalty—on the last morning of school, the loser has to write on every classroom blackboard, ‘Gary Parnell is smarter than I am.’ And sign it.”
“You mean ‘Derek Jeter is smarter,’ ” Derek corrected him. “Sounds good.” A hysterically funny idea crossed his mind, at the same time that he felt an urge to stick it to Gary. Those two things combined at that fateful moment to make Derek say something he would soon come to regret:
“And I’ll go you one better. Whoever loses has to dress up in a chicken suit the last day of school!”
“Oooo… I like it!” Gary said, rubbing his hands together some more. “I can’t wait, Jeter. You are dead meat—I’ve always killed on standardized tests.”
“W-wait. Who said we were counting those?” Derek asked, suddenly thrown off-balance.
Gary shrugged. “They’re part of our finals, aren’t they? So there we are—best three out of five. Since you’re so baseball crazy, think of it as an academic ‘World Series.’ Unless, of course, you want to back out. In which case—”
“No way,” Derek said, thrusting out his hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
“I shouldn’t have agreed to include the standardized tests,” Derek said to Vijay as the two friends rode the school bus home to Mount Royal Townhouses.
“Don’t worry,” Vijay told him. “You will beat him. You’ll see.”
“Did I say I was worried?”
“It’s not what you said. It’s the look on your face.”
“What look?” Derek asked, a little irritated.
Vijay chuckled. “Never mind. Look, the standardized tests are a snap. No problem for you.”
“How do you know that?”
“You’re one of the smartest kids in school. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I am very experienced with these kinds of tests. My parents had me do a whole battery of them when we came here from India. I think they wanted to show people I was not behind in my schooling.”
Derek laughed. “Behind? That’s funny.”
“So with
