Slugfest

Cleo is another point-of-view character and a foil for Yash. Where Yash spends the entire book obsessing about his place in high-school sports and doing everything he can to prove himself, Cleo tries to give up her love of sports because she doesn’t want to go through another accident and recovery like she did before. Cleo thus spends most of the book suppressing the truest part of herself—her love of pushing herself to the limit. This self-repression makes her miserable. Though she enjoys her other summer-school activities, like the play and the investigative journalism class, sports call to her. Competing in the football tournament is the turning point for Cleo. Though football isn’t her sport, she excels quickly because she’s able to transfer the skills she has learned in other games. In particular, pushing herself to her full running speed to score a touchdown awakens the part of her that she’s been trying to suppress and makes her realize that she doesn’t want to give up sports because the rush of physical success is “the most incredible feeling in the world” (244). Thus, Cleo’s character offers an exploration of weighing risks against rewards when making a choice.

Cleo is unique among the slugs as the only person who consistently goes against the consensus among the class. This is most directly seen through the questions about Mrs. Finnerty’s certification status. As Arabella leads the charge to expose the truth, Cleo remains steadfast in her belief that Mrs. Finnerty and the system will not let the kids down. Though the system has already let them down by changing the requirements to graduate from middle school, Cleo still trusts that things will work out because she wants to believe that the system will fix its own mistakes. Since Mrs. Finnerty has always been supportive of the kids, Cleo wants to support her in return. Cleo appreciates Mrs. Finnerty’s approach to getting everyone involved in gym class, even if the simple games feel infantilizing. Cleo’s determination to push through the discomfort aligns with her broader willingness to try new things. Instead of looking at summer school as a punishment or something that’s been forced on her, she chooses to make the most of the situation. Again, this shows her trust in the system. She believes that there is more to the bureaucracy than ripping students off—it’s also a chance for new interests and relationships to thrive.

Arabella is a third point-of-view character, and her arc represents The Importance of Context in Determining Fairness. In Chapter 4, when Arabella expresses skepticism about Mrs. Finnerty’s teaching methods, Cleo tells her to lay off, to which Arabella replies, “I’m not a ‘laying off’ kind of person” (49). This line defines Arabella’s initial character and sets the stage for her eventual transformation. At the beginning of the book, Arabella is committed to fairness for everyone in all situations. After her father left her mother with nothing, Arabella developed an intense need to pursue justice in all situations, but she doesn’t always know how to weigh the consequences of her own actions. This is shown through her determination to learn the truth about Mrs. Finnerty. Arabella is willing to do whatever it takes, including hack the state website, to find the truth about Mrs. Finnerty’s certification status. This fixation highlights Arabella’s key character flaw—jumping to conclusions based on confirmation bias (defined as seeking information that matches one’s pre-existing beliefs). Arabella stops searching for evidence once she has what she believes is an open-and-shut case. Instead of asking more questions when Mrs. Finnerty isn’t listed under her last name on the state website, Arabella jumps to the worst conclusion. As a result, Arabella risks creating needless trouble for a teacher who has always been supportive, and she is forced to admit that she was wrong and take a failing grade on her investigative journalism project. Overall, Arabella’s character arc is a cautionary tale about the dangers of an inflexible approach to justice.

Mrs. Finnerty is the Slugfest teacher. Years ago, Mrs. Finnerty taught second grade and, later, a home economics class. Throughout the novel, she is most known for making the kids play kiddy games in gym class and for making the most outstanding baked goods the kids have ever tasted. The kids appreciate her kindness and her baking, but the lack of rigor in the class leads them to doubt her qualifications. Mrs. Finnerty represents The Need to Keep an Open Mind. Her friendly personality, small size, and mothering tendencies are not what any of the students expect from a gym teacher, and the simple games played in her class—designed to make physical education accessible for even the least athletic students—are not what they expect from a gym class. Thus, they are even more surprised when they learn that she is an Olympic gold medalist. Mrs. Finnerty also symbolizes the importance of thoroughness. If not for Yash and Cleo accidentally discovering that Mrs. Finnerty was certified under her given name (not her married name), Arabella would have presented a report based on insufficient evidence that could have been easily disproved by a quick search with the correct information.