Summer Ball

Danny finally speaks to his mother, but, excited with the prospect of seeing Tess, puts the idea of his fake injury out of his mind. He claims his knee will be fine and declines when his mother offers to put his father on the phone. Instead, Danny, Will, Ty, Tarik, and Zach sneak out and steal a canoe. Together, they paddle across the lake to see Tess. They approach her on the shore: “Usually [Danny] was soooooo cool toward Tess when Will and Ty were around, never acting like he was too happy or excited to see her” (131). This time, however, Danny shows his excitement, standing up in the canoe, waving at her, and falling into the water.

Tess sets the other boys up with her uncle, and they watch a baseball game while Tess and Danny speak alone. Danny opens up about his fears and failures at basketball camp. Despite his protests, Tess remarks, “‘I’m still just seeing the captain of the team’” (134). Reassured, Danny tells Tess about what Coach Powers said to him, which Tess rejects, reminding Danny how little Coach Powers knows about him.

Tess convinces Danny to return to Right Way, just as he returned to basketball after he originally got cut from the travel team: “‘I thought you always used to tell me that the championship you guys really won in travel was the championship of any kid that got told by an adult they weren’t good enough’” (137).