Back at his home, Paul answers the telephone. It is Grandmom. Mom fills her in on recent events. Later, Mom returns the phone to Paul. The call is from Cara Clifton, who attends Lake Windsor Middle School. She wants information about Tangerine Middle School. Is he going out with anyone from there? When Paul tells her that he isn’t, she tells him that her friend, Kerri Gardner, says “Hi.” When Paul asks her to return the greeting, she asks him if he likes Kerri. When Paul doesn’t respond, Cara ends the conversation. Stunned, Paul calls Joey and tells him that his girlfriend just called him wanting to know if he likes Kerri. Joey says that he was being scammed. He guesses that Kerri was listening on an extension. Paul asks Joey if Adam from the carnival is still going out with her. Joey doesn’t know. After they hang up, Paul gives the situation a lot of thought. His conclusion is that, even with his glasses, she doesn’t see anything wrong with him.
Paul gets put in Victor’s place during practice, the same as yesterday. Toward the end of practice, Victor watches and heckles Joey. The heckling continues after the game when Victor and “his boys;” Tino, Hernando, and Mano; follow Paul and Joey. Victor asks Joey why he is following Fisher Man. Does Joey want Fisher Man to catch him? Paul tries to encourage Joey to stay loose, but Joey has difficulty doing that. During the heckling, Joey acquires a new name, Charlie the Tuna.
Mom picks up Paul and Joey. After the car goes only ten or so yards, Mom stops the car and talks to Maya and Nita. She gives them encouragement. Mom says that she thinks that Mr. Donnelly of the Tangerine Times should write about them. As they drive toward Lake Windsor Downs, Paul tells his mother that the girls don’t need encouragement.
As they approach Joey’s house, the houses on both sides of his house are covered with tents and signs. There are many signs around them warning of the presence of poison gas. Joey tells Mom that soon his house will also have a tent. He thinks that all the houses on his street will be tented.
Mom suggests that Joey can stay at their house when his is fumigated. She says that Paul and Joey can sleep together, not a good choice of words after Victor’s heckling. Anyway, Joey has avoided Paul’s house since his encounter with Erik and Arthur. He won’t be returning now.
Yesterday, during practice, Mr. Donnelly of the Tangerine Times and a photographer showed up. It appeared that Mom had called Mr. Donnelley as she had mentioned on Wednesday. They wanted pictures of Shandra and Maya. And, they wanted to find out their last names.
When Dolly alerted Shandra to the presence of members of the press, Shandra ran as fast as she could into the school building. Betty Bright, their coach, told Mr. Donnelly Maya’s last name, which is Pandhi, but she didn’t tell him Shandra’s.
This morning Paul looks at the sports section of the Tangerine Times. There is no article about the team. There is a picture of Nita. The caption on the picture refers to Nita as Maya Pandhi.
Monday, October 2 Summary Paul and his friends have two classes, science and language arts, that work together. They do a project in science and write about it in language arts. The students split up into groups at the beginning of each project. Paul asks Tino if he and Joey can be in the group he started with Henry D. (The D. in Henry D. stands for Dilkes.) Joey is unhappy. He doesn’t want to be in Tino’s group. Paul tells him that it would be a good way to get in with members of the soccer team. Joey says that he dropped off the team. Joey goes into a rant about how the school is different. Then, the bell rings and Paul leaves without him.
Notes
Paul and Joey have different attitudes toward Tangerine Middle School.
Their different attitudes result in different experiences.
Paul remembers back to Joey’s first day at Tangerine Middle School. Joey hadn’t wanted Theresa to show him around the school like Paul had suggested. Joey called her a guide dog. He said that, if Paul considered Theresa to be good-looking, he had been at the school too long. Paul suggested that Joey needed an attitude adjustment.
Today is the first science project meeting. Theresa is now in the group with Tino, Henry D., Paul and Joey and she takes charge of the group. She hands out an advertisement for a tangerine that her brother, Luis, has developed. It is called the Golden Dawn tangerine. The members of the group will each do a report on a different aspect of the project. Theresa says that she will type everyone’s report for them. When Joey suggests using a computer and Theresa gets embarrassed because she doesn’t have one, Tino jumps in, confronting Joey and calling him Tuna. Joey stands up and announces that he is going to join another group. He then insults Luis and the tangerine he has developed. When the battle of words turns physical, Mrs. Potter, the teacher, takes Tino into the hallway. Then Joey turns on Paul and tells Paul that he is afraid of the other kids. At that time, Mrs. Potter calls Joey out into the hall. After he leaves, Theresa asks Paul if he plans to leave the group, too. He says that he wants to stay in the group.
Johnson, Jane. "TheBestNotes on Tangerine".
TheBestNotes.com.
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