Slugfest

Arnie Yashenko goes by his nickname, “Yash.” He’s the only middle-school kid who plays on the high school’s junior varsity baseball team, and the book opens as he hits a home run out of the park and leisurely strolls around the bases while the cheerleaders scream his name. In order to let Yash play high-school sports, Yash’s principal put him in last-period gym class so that he wouldn’t miss any academic classes. However, the state education board has recently changed the rules, and Yash has missed too many gym classes to graduate middle school. To make up the class, he’ll attend the summer-school gym class, which is known as “Slugfest” because the kids who go there are thought to be as slow as slugs. Yash tries to argue that Slugfest will ruin his reputation and his chances to break into the high-school football scene. The principle apologizes because there’s nothing he can do, and Yash acquiesces, thinking, “Slugfest, here I come” (8).

After missing three months of school because she broke her foot in a skiing accident, Cleo Marchand has to make up all her eighth-grade classes to graduate, including gym. While she loves sports, she’s quit them for good because “nothing is worth what [she’s] been through these past few months” (10).