Stargirl did not let the insults of the show change her, at least not much. They did not change how she acted. The day after the aborted taping was Valentine's Day. She handed out candy hearts to everyone in her homeroom.
That night was the first post-season basketball game. Stargirl went and she cheered. She cheered for the Mica team. She did not cheer for Sun Valley, the competition. Sun Valley was ahead until their best player, Ron Kovac, broke his ankle. Stargirl's heart went out to him as he lay in pain. She held his head while other people tended to his injury. The loss of the best player on the opposing team enabled the Electrons to come from behind and win the game.
Two nights later things went differently. There was another game. That one was against Glendale. The ability of the Glendale players was more evenly divided than that of the Sun Valley players. All five of the Glendale players were good. Mica lost. Mica's dream was lost. At the end of the game, someone threw a ripe tomato into Stargirl's face.
The following morning Leo discovered a valentine. It had been given
to him by Stargirl.
Stargirl found it possible to not cheer for the opposing team. But,
for her it was not possible to ignore the suffering of a player on the
other team.
The next day at school, Leo researched whether Stargirl had given everyone a valentine. She had given them to her homeroom, but not to the whole school. This disconcerted Leo. He became even more unsettled when Stargirl came toward him at the end of lunchtime saying Hi, Leo. He remained disturbed the rest of the day.
The following day, a Saturday, in the morning, Leo joined a group of students on Archie's porch. Archie knew what he wanted to talk about, a skull. The students knew what they had to talk about. The discussion centered on the students' concerns. They discussed the loss and the tomato.
At the end of the gathering, Archie brought the conversation back to
the ancient skull that he was holding. That fellow had also lost. He had
lost more than a game. He had lost the race for survival.
Leo was not in Stargirl's homeroom. By giving him a valentine anyway,
she showed that he was special to her.
On Monday Stargirl approached Leo with the goal of getting him to thank her for the valentine. He did. That made her smile a smile that was better than any smile he could ever remember receiving.
After school, while he was trying to locate Stargirl, he found out that she had been kicked of the cheerleading squad. The girls who he overheard gossiping about this noticed him and called him Starboy. This pleased him.
That night Leo walked to Stargirl's house. It was two miles away from his house. But, he walked anyway because he wanted to approach it slowly. Once he reached the house he walked around near it for awhile. When he was near the front door, it suddenly opened and he ducked out of sight by the side of a car. Stargirl started talking to him without getting close to him. She sent Cinnamon over to him to get personal.
After they talked for awhile, she decided to go back into the house.
When Leo finally got out of his squatting position, he had trouble standing
and walking.
Leo is definitely in love.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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