Slugfest

On the night of the open house, Arabella’s headline project about a teacher scandal is missing from the wall outside the investigative journalism classroom. Yash, Cleo, and a few others took it down and tore it up. In the auditorium, Yash sees his football buddies in the audience and is grateful that they came to support him. During the obstacle course, he notices his friends jeering as some of the less coordinated kids bungle the activities, and with a jolt, Yash realizes that his friends didn’t come to support him: “They came to make fun of me and my fellow slugs” (127). Angry, Yash puts everything he has into the obstacle course in an attempt to regain some respect for the slugs. Cleo does the same, resulting in the two of them all-out racing each other, and when they finish, Yash’s friends don’t look smug anymore.

Next is the scene from Andromedon, which Yash hasn’t practiced at all. After one mishap, Yash reads carefully, managing to deliver the monologue. Afterward, Cleo and the rest of the cast scurry off stage, and Arabella comes right up to the microphone. Panicking, Yash grabs a prop  made from a football and hurls it at the microphone, knocking it away.

The next morning, Cleo’s anger is divided between Yash for bumbling the monologue and Arabella for trying to highjack a microphone. Arabella admits that she was wrong to highjack the play and proposes a deal—she’ll only break the story if the investigative journalism teacher thinks it’s worthwhile. In class, the kids start work on their projects. Everyone takes a particular interest in Jesse’s, which involves spreading the rumor that the town is banning toilets to see if people will believe anything they read. Yash is covering the summer football tournament and invites everyone to come watch practice. Cleo argues that they don’t have enough time. Jessie texts his brother for a ride, and Cleo notes that “everything always works out for the quarterback. It’s a rule” (145).

At the practice, Yash explains what’s going on, and to Cleo’s surprise, he’s infinitely patient with the rest of the slugs. When it’s clear that Yash is annoyed about Nate’s place on the team, Cleo feels sympathy because she realizes that Yash has to be in summer school and has been replaced on the team. On their way back to school, the kids see Nate speed off on his bike down a road that leads to another town.

Arabella believes that the slugs don’t like her because of her commitment to the truth. She’s determined not to let their disapproval prevent her from doing what she sees as her job because she knows that if you let one lie slide, then “[p]retty soon you’re in a world you don’t recognize anymore” (151). Since her father left, Arabella’s mother has started reading historical romance novels that she sends Arabella to get from the library. One day, Arabella runs into Nate, who’s checking out a book about football. He goes ahead of her in line, and as he checks out his book, Arabella notices that his address is in a different town.

Jessie starts his investigative journalism project by posting an excellent forgery of a city letter on social media, proclaiming that toilets will be banned because of unstable plumbing. After class, Arabella tells Yash about Nate. Yash is torn by the news. On the one hand, he wants to become quarterback on his own merit. On the other, if Arabella is right, Nate is breaking the rules. Arabella will pose as a cheerleader to get close to Nate. Yash doesn’t want to rat Nate out, but Arabella argues that “telling the truth isn’t being a rat” (161).

A few days later, Jesse is annoyed that no one has shared his fake post yet. Arabella goes to football practice to snoop on Nate. She lets the air out of his bike’s back tire and then helps him bring it to the gas station to refill it. The two grab food, and Arabella tells Nate about her commitment to fairness. Sounding guilty, Nate explains that his father is really competitive about sports and insists that Nate play on a top team, which is why he sent Nate to another city’s team. Instead of feeling vindicated, Arabella feels bad because she’s had her own troubles with her father, who divorced her mother, leaving her family in financial difficulty. Afterward, Nate thanks her for being a good listener, to which Arabella thinks, “I’m a reporter—the worst person you could spill your guts to when you’ve got a secret” (168).

After school one day, one of Yash’s football friends comes to find him. The coach posted a list with Nate as the first quarterback and Yash as the backup. Yash is shocked and hurt, but he refuses to rat Nate out for living in a different city, thinking, “[I]f investigative journalism means you rat on people just because you can, then count me out” (173-74). Yash’s friend leaves, and Yash feels lost without football.

One day, Yash is absent, but the slugs practice out in the yard anyway. Cleo watches them out the window. Though she feels like she’s missing something, she tells herself that her decision to give up sports was a good one. Later, she finds Yash lying by the lockers. He tells her about Nate—that he got quarterback and doesn’t even live in their town. Since Yash doesn’t want to report Nate, the only way for him to be quarterback is to prove himself at the big tournament, which he can’t do without a team. Cleo suggests that the slugs could be his team, offering to join them. Immediately, Yash brightens, and Cleo can’t believe that “Arnie Yashenko is getting his way again—and [she’s] the one who’s making it happen” (183).

As the kids practice for the tournament, Jesse laments that his toilet prank hasn’t taken off. Everyone improves except Kaden, who continues to trip over himself. The last thing the kids need is a name, and though Cleo doesn’t like it, they go with “Slugfest.”

A few days later, Jesse learns that Arabella has been spending time with Nate. When he confronts her about it, Arabella blurts the truth about where Nate lives. Jesse calls her out for keeping Nate’s secret while she tries to ruin Mrs. Finnerty. Arabella shrugs this off and passes in her investigative journalism project. Jesse frets about whether the teacher will green-light it, realizing that he can’t help because “when something really bad is happening, you don’t want a clown” (192).

Jesse calls Yash, who knows that the investigative journalism teacher left after lunch, which means that Arabella’s project is just sitting on the teacher’s desk. With help from Cleo, the three sneak into the school, setting off an alarm. Jesse runs, afraid that he’ll be expelled if he’s caught. Yash and Cleo dart to the classroom, steal a keyring of a janitor’s cart, and manage to grab the project folder just as the janitor arrives and hauls them to the office.

Mrs. Finnerty arrives and bails the kids out before asking why they’re there. The kids say that they can’t tell her, which Finnerty accepts. The kids help her carry some baked goods to her car, and she invites them over for snacks. After snacks, Yash tears up Arabella’s project and flushes it down the toilet. When he comes out, he discovers an Olympic gold medal that Mrs. Finnerty won years ago for swimming. He also sees a news article with her given name and realizes that they didn’t find her under Finnerty on the list because she got her teaching qualifications before she was married.

Yash and Cleo explain Yash’s situation—how he got stuck in summer school and can’t practice with the high-school football team. Hearing that the slugs have formed a team for the summer tournament, Finnerty concludes, “[O]nly thing you’re missing is a coach. I guess that has to be me” (209).