“Huh?” she asked, still clutching the test in front of her chest.

“What I’m saying is that maybe there’s some space between ‘rules are rules’ and just letting someone slide by. Right?” He lifted his shoulders up, his whole body asking the question. Was he asking her?

“No, no!” she found herself arguing with him, her voice rising slightly. Noticing a couple of kids check her out, she brought her tone down to a near-whisper again.

He’d finally convinced her he was right! And now this!

“Look, Mr. Garcia, you told us that you earn what you earn! And now you’re saying all this stuff?!”

Mr. Garcia checked the clock behind them. He looked toward the kids. Most of them were texting or comparing tests. He took in a deep breath and let it out.

“Okay,” he said. “How about a compromise?”

“Okay…” She had no idea where Mr. Garcia was going with any of this.

“No extra extra credit. But. You still earn the credit for Quiz Quest. That was our agreement, after all. Effort!”

Before she could argue with him, he added, “I think Ms. Cross over there would organize a protest on your behalf if we didn’t allow for that, at the least.”

And he smiled what might have been the most genuine smile she’d ever seen on him. He really liked Vi, she could tell. And why wouldn’t he? Vi was so tough, so loyal.

“That’s still not enough to ensure you pass my class, however,” he went on. “So here’s my final offer: You retake algebra this summer. Practice the concepts. Learn them … And that gets you to high school. In fact, it prepares you for high school. And considering you went from Fs to a B minus today, I think you’ll do just fine. That is, if you’re not too tired of me yet. Deal?” He held out a hand.

“Summer school?”

Marianne imagined a June spent shivering in an overly air-conditioned room under the florescent lights of Anna Etheridge Middle School while summer sport practices went on outside. She foresaw the July twilight hours spent redoing worksheets she should have done in the fall of the eighth grade, slowly mastering each step of each problem with her mom or Vi or maybe even Skyla, instead of soaking in the heat at Roseway Park.

She had once been so far behind even summer school couldn’t save her.

But now it could.

Marianne clutched Mr. Garcia’s hand and shook. “Deal.”

Off his nod, Marianne followed him back toward his desk and stood in front of her seat.

She stared at the test.

She flipped through its pages.

“I got a B minus,” she whispered to herself.

“Huh?” Kylie said.

Marianne scurried to Vi, scooting a chair out of her way to get there. “I got a B minus! On the test!” She waved the papers in Vi’s face. “And do you see how many answers I got correct?” She flipped her hair behind her shoulder.