The four Chess Club kids had one small bin, plenty big enough for two folding chess boards and two sets of chess pieces. One medium bin was large enough for all the supplies used by the kids in the Origami Club. There were two boys and two girls in the Robotics Club, and they needed two medium-sized bins full of parts and tools and wires, plus another small bin loaded with batteries and power adapters.
The six kids in the Lego Club had four small bins plus two huge ones—all set for some serious building.
There were no bins at all for the Chinese Club. The three kids at that table brought their own equipment each day—iPads and headphones and workbooks borrowed from the school library.
Alec had to smile when he looked at the sixth table, the newest table—his table. No bins, no group of kids, just a table. And Mr. Willner had placed it exactly where Alec had asked him to—right in the corner.
The last thing Alec watched Mr. Willner take out of the storage closet was a stack of all the club name cards. They weren’t fancy—simple sheets of heavy tan paper, folded lengthwise. Each little two-sided sign was about three inches high and twelve inches long, and the club names had been written with a thick black marker.
Mr. Willner was walking from table to table, placing each sign where it belonged. The placards looked good—Alec had noticed how clear the lettering was on the very first day, and he wondered if Mr. Willner had taken a class to learn how to write that way.
Alec arrived at the table in the corner just as Mr. Willner did.
“Hey, Alec. How’s it going?”
“Great!”
Mr. Willner held out the new name card for inspection.
Alec smiled. “Looks perfect—nice lettering.”
“Thanks,” said Mr. Willner. He hesitated a moment. “And you’re sure I’ve got this right?”
Alec nodded. “Yup, exactly right.”
“Okay,” he said, and he put the sign on the table. “See you later.”
Alec slid onto the bench along the back side of the table so the wall was behind him—it made a good backrest. Also, if kids got close enough to see the name of the club, from this side he’d be able to watch their faces. It might be fun. Alec was sure that during the entire history of the Extended Day Program, this was the first time there had ever been a group called the Losers Club.
He reached into his backpack and once again took out The High King. But before opening the book, he looked across the gym and noticed that all the Active Games kids were clumped in the far corner near the climbing wall. They were waiting for Mr. Jenson to pass out kickballs and basketballs. And at the head of the line? Kent, of course.
For just a second, Alec thought about standing up on his club table and yelling all the way across the gym: Hey…yo, Kent! Check out my new club! And I didn’t need any help from YOU!
But he didn’t. Alec shoved the talk with Dave and Kent completely out of his head—and for the fifteenth time, he also made himself stop thinking about the talk he’d had with Mrs. Vance.
Because that letter she was sending to his mom and dad? It could be at home right now, like a little tornado trapped in an envelope, ready to burst out and blow his life to bits. He knew the storm was coming, and he’d been getting ready for it…but since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it at the moment, Alec opened The High King to chapter six and began to read. Instantly, the action pulled him off to a distant world.
But he only got to stay there for about ten minutes.
A huge burst of cheering yanked his eyes away from the book. In the far corner of the gym, Kent had just kicked a grand slam. As he rounded third base, his team went wild, all in a circle now, chanting, “Champs! Champs! Champs! Champs!”
Which seemed to be the name of Kent’s kickball team.
Alec had to smile. Kent hadn’t just been bragging yesterday—he truly was great at kickball, and Dave was almost as good.
The resentment Alec had felt about being called a bookworm for the five hundredth time? It melted away, just vanished. Well…almost.
He did still feel bad for Dave, about the way he’d been caught in the middle of that argument. But Kent had been right—this really was going to be a club for kids who wanted to sit and read, and Dave probably wouldn’t have liked it much.
Plus, Kent was entitled to his own likes and dislikes, right? Because everybody was. And even though Kent had tried to put him down and tease him, all that had ended up being a huge help.
Because today? Today he had his own table, he had plenty of room to spread out, he had a fantastic book in front of him, and he had three hours of totally free time.
And he had a full bag of Cheetos along with two drink pouches of supersweet Hawaiian Punch.
Plus, that girl, Nina? She was…smart. And sort of pretty, too. And she was headed his way.
Trying not to be obvious, Alec watched Nina walk across the gym. When she got close enough to read the new sign on the table, she smiled.
At him.
Nina was still smiling as she shrugged off her backpack and dropped it onto the table.
She pointed and said, “Nice sign!”
“Yeah,” Alec said, “I really like it. Mr. Willner did the lettering. I think he must have taken a course or something to learn how to make his writing look that good, and I want to ask him about that sometime—about what kind of markers he uses, and if there’s a name for that style of lettering, and if the kind of paper makes a difference, and…and stuff.”
Alec stopped talking. His hands were cold and clammy. He felt like he’d just said way, way too much about the stupid sign.
Nina sat down kitty-corner from him, and Alec noticed that she looked almost the same as yesterday, except her T-shirt was dark green. She was definitely in his language arts class. He had seen her there this morning, but he hadn’t tried to talk to her. He had also spotted her during lunch, sitting alone, reading.
And he noticed that, since lunch, she had pulled her hair back into a short ponytail. One sleeve of a pale blue sweatshirt was sticking out of her backpack—probably the same sweatshirt she’d been using as a back pillow when he had talked to her yesterday at the origami table.
“I wasn’t sure they’d really let us start a club with that name,” she said, nodding at the sign, “on account of how it sounds.”
Alec still could hardly believe he’d been brave enough to walk over and talk to Nina yesterday. Even now, it felt odd. He’d already said more to her than he’d said to any other girl he could think of—not counting his mom. And he definitely did not count his mom as a girl.
He wanted to keep the conversation going. He had to gulp a few times, but more words came. “What do mean, how the name sounds?” he asked.
She tilted her head. “It sounds sort of…sarcastic. Or sort of tough, like we’re a gang of thieves or a motorcycle club or something.”
“Oh, right,” Alec said, “kind of like the greasers in The Outsiders.”
Her face lit up. “Exactly—I loved that book!”
Alec nodded. “Me too, and her other books are just as good—she’s amazing!”
Nina stared at him.
“She? S. E. Hinton is a woman?”
“Well, yeah,” said Alec.
“Oh,” Nina said, then quickly added, “I mean, there’s no reason a girl couldn’t write about tough guys and motorcycles and fights and stuff….I think I could.”
Alec didn’t know what else to say. He wanted to add that S. E. Hinton had written that first book when she was still a teenager, but he didn’t want Nina to think that he thought he was some kind of a know-it-all. And he didn’t want to try to change the subject all of a sudden and start blabbing about something else. She was the one who’d said she didn’t want to be in a regular book club with a bunch of talking….
Nina ended the awkward pause herself.
“Anyway, like I said, it’s a nice sign. And sitting here is way better than hearing kids talk about folding paper all afternoon.” Then she zippe
d her bag open, pulled out a book, and began reading.
Alec couldn’t see the title, but he noticed that it was a paperback, which made him start thinking.
So…it’s not A Wrinkle in Time, because that one was a hardcover. Which means she’s a really fast reader, because she must have finished the whole rest of that book last night! But maybe she reads several different books at the same time….
Alec made himself stop.
He shifted position so that he faced away from Nina, then opened up his book. He was almost to chapter seven now, which had a battle scene he loved. It always got his heart thumping and made his hands feel cold and sweaty at the same time—which pretty much described how it felt to try talking to a girl.
Except reading felt safer.
Fifteen minutes later Alec was standing shoulder to shoulder with a band of warriors out in front of a castle. Deep inside the story, he felt like he was right next to Taran, with the harsh clang of steel on steel ringing in his ears. Then, as Taran dodged spears and arrows, something struck Alec’s foot—in real life.
“Whoa!”
He jerked both legs upward, and his knees thumped the table.
Which made Nina jump—“Ooh!”
Alec blinked in confusion, and a voice said, “Hey there, loser. I’ve gotta get that ball.”
It was Kent, smirking.
Alec looked down and saw a red kickball under the table. He smiled. “No problem…champ. Help yourself.”
Then Kent noticed Nina.
“Oh—hey. How’re you?”
Nina closed her book and turned sideways to look at him.
Kent smiled at her and straightened up, pushing his hair back off his forehead.
“Didn’t see you much there at the end of the summer.” He smiled again.
He looked tall and strong, and Alec decided he probably would have been good at using a sword and a shield. In a battle.
Nina said, “We were away.”
Alec was no expert, but he was pretty sure Kent was interested in Nina. As a girl.
And even though Nina didn’t smile back, the way she didn’t smile made Alec think that she was also interested in Kent. As a boy.
Alec had noticed something a long time ago, way back in fourth grade: Kent had girl skills. He knew how to talk to them, and, even more amazing, he seemed to know how to make girls want to talk to him. The guy was fearless.
Kent turned and gave Alec a big smile.
“Y’know, if you’d told me that she was going to be in your club, I would have signed up right away!”
Totally calm, totally at ease.
Except his smile looked totally fake to Alec. Alec wanted to roll his eyes and say something sarcastic, but he controlled his face and managed to look pleasant.
Nina said to Kent, “What makes you think I would have joined this club if I had found out that you were in it?”
And her smile looked totally real to Alec.
The kids over at the kickball game started yelling, so Kent ducked down, grabbed the ball, and said, “Gotta go win a game. See you later, losers.”
But when he said “losers,” it didn’t sound the way it had a minute ago. This time the word didn’t have any bite.
Kent ran back to his game with a huge burst of speed. Alec knew that was cheap show-off stuff, and he guessed that Nina knew it, too. But she seemed to enjoy it anyway.
Before she could start reading again, he gulped and said, “So…I guess you already know Kent.”
She nodded. “We moved here around the middle of July, and he lives about five blocks away. He was riding by on his bike and he saw my brother, Richie, playing basketball—he’s in seventh grade. So Kent stopped to play, and then he kept coming over. He’s good at basketball.”
Alec said, “Yeah, Kent’s great at sports. I’ve known him since preschool. My house is close to his, and we were pretty good friends for a while, mostly during the summers.”
“But not now?” She seemed interested.
“No, not much,” Alec said.
“I know what you mean,” she said. “I had friends like that at my old school. ’Course now, I’m starting all over again—back to zero friends.”
Alec glanced down at the table. He could see the title of her book now—Island of the Blue Dolphins. Alec remembered reading it during third grade. The whole story flashed through his mind, and he pictured that girl, stuck alone on an island for years and years, learning how to survive—and it was based on a true story!
He decided his guess about Nina being a fast reader was correct.
But there was something else, about that particular book. Nina’s face had looked especially sad then, right after she’d said “zero friends.” And he wondered if books worked like that for her, the way they did for him. Because whenever he was reading a story, it tried to spill over into his life…or maybe it was the other way around—that his own life spilled into the thoughts and actions of the characters.
She was still looking at Alec. “What we were talking about a while ago, about the name of the club? Weren’t you worried it was going to get you teased all the time? I mean, it’s like giving everybody an open shot to call you a loser. The way Kent just did.”
“Yeah, I thought about it,” Alec admitted. Then he shrugged and smiled. “But I’m not a loser—whatever that means. And I know I’m not.” He paused a second, then asked, “So…did you think about that, what kids would think about the club name? And about you?”
She shook her head and pushed out her lower lip. “Kids can think whatever they want about me. Doesn’t matter.”
Another pause.
Then she said, “Did you really ask Kent to join this club?”
Alec felt a sudden sharpness in his thoughts, a tightness in his chest—the way a warrior feels when he draws a sword. Or a lightsaber.
Because Nina had just given him a perfect chance to take a slash at Kent. All he had to do was tell about the way Kent had butted into his conversation with Dave. The truth was, Kent would never have joined this club—he wouldn’t have wanted anybody to think he was a loser in any way, shape, or form, not even for a second. And making sure that Dave didn’t join? Another example of Kent not wanting to lose at anything.
But saying this stuff to Nina? It didn’t seem…honorable. And in The High King, his heroes were big on being honorable.
So Alec put his sword away and said something else, a different truth.
“I invited another friend to join, and Kent heard us talking. So I guess he could have joined if he’d wanted to. But he loves playing kickball, and he’s really good at it. So he wasn’t interested.”
“Did he know it was going to be a reading club?”
Alec smiled. “Yeah, he figured that out.” He almost started to tell her how Kent had been the first kid who ever called him a bookworm, but he didn’t want to get into all that.
“So, he doesn’t like to read much?” she asked.
Again, Alec felt like he could probably score some points against Kent, could probably make Nina think that the guy wasn’t much of a reader, talk about how he mostly obsessed about sports, maybe even tell her what he’d said about joining the club….
Alec made himself stop.
He didn’t want to talk about Kent’s reading habits, didn’t want to talk about Kent with Nina at all—not now, not ever.
So he shrugged and said, “Kent could tell you about that better than I can.”
She nodded. “Right.”
Nina looked over her shoulder toward the kickball game, and Alec could tell she was watching Kent.
And he was sure Kent knew she was watching.
Alec opened his book and forced his eyes to stay on the page, to move from word to word.
But the desperate battle scene in front of the castle felt flat now. He couldn’t stop noticing how Nina kept looking over at Kent—not that it was any of his business. This girl was totally free to go ahead and get interested in whatever guy she wanted to…but
did it have to be Kent?
Alec suddenly wished that he could reach into his book and get his hands on some of the magic powder Taran was tossing around the battlefield—stuff that caused blindness.
And if he’d been able to get some? He wasn’t sure if he would use the powder on Nina or on himself.
Probably better to use it on himself.
That would be more honorable.
At two minutes after three on Friday afternoon, Alec was walking across the gym toward his table, and he was surprised to see a girl standing there. He recognized her from the Origami Club—she was the youngest kid, the fourth grader.
Alec sat down in his regular spot.
The girl said hi, then seemed like she might walk away.
But she stayed, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet, as if she was afraid someone else would hear.
“Is…is this club really for losers? Every time I look over here, you and that girl are just reading.”
Alec wanted this conversation to be over fast, so this girl could go back where she’d come from. He had finished The High King last night and wanted to get going with the Olympians again—he was starting The Lightning Thief for the third time.
He didn’t smile at the girl, didn’t act friendly at all, and he tried to look as much like a loser as he knew how. With almost no expression in his voice, he said, “Yeah, we just sit around and read.”
She said, “Well, I’m in the Origami Club, and the other kids? They don’t think I’m very good at it, so…that makes me kind of a loser, don’t you think? And since I like reading…do you think I could join?”
Alec’s first thought was Oh, great—someone who can’t even fold paper, a genuine loser, here to join my club!
But when he looked into the girl’s face, she reminded him of Fern, the girl in the drawing on the cover of Charlotte’s Web—it was the way her hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, and the way her face seemed so open and fresh. Other than that, there wasn’t much resemblance, because this girl was black, and Fern wasn’t. This girl looked really young, too—kind of scared. And it struck Alec how brave she had been to walk right up to a kid she didn’t know and say, “Hey, I’m kind of a loser—can I be in your club?”