Derek could see it playing out in his head—the two kids sneak along the walls of the house, doing that zigzag thing. Then when the monster comes out, they moonwalk away—getting nowhere while he gains on them!

Ka-ching! Derek pumped his fist in triumph. Vijay was going to totally love it!

“Thanks, Sharlee!” Derek told her as they buckled up in the backseat after class was over. “That was really fun. Educational, even!”

Sharlee beamed. “So can you come to my karate class tomorrow?”

“Ah, sorry,” Derek said. “I’ve got to work with Vijay. But I think I learned a few dance moves today, thanks to you.”

“Yay!”

“In fact, there’s one of your moves I wish you would teach me. It’s way cool.”

“Which one?”

“That thing you do with the feet, like you’re moving but you’re not moving?”

“Oh—sure! It’s easy. You’ll see.”

“You know, you’ve got the stuff.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. You just keep on doing whatever you’re doing.” He took her hand and held it the whole way home. Even though he got annoyed at her once in a while, Derek knew he had the greatest sister ever.

Derek looked back over his shoulder. Gary was grinning an evil grin at him, pencil in hand. As Derek watched, Gary put down the pencil, closed his test booklet, and got up to leave.

Derek frowned and looked over his other shoulder. There was Sam, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead as he tried to keep plowing through the math portion of the test.

Poor guy, thought Derek. I hope he remembers at least some of what we went over.…

“Eyes on papers, class!” Ms. Terrapin said, and Derek’s neck swiveled back around so quickly that he felt a momentary twinge of pain as he focused back onto his test paper.

He didn’t have much time to finish. It had been the same way yesterday. Derek was usually pretty quick at finishing tests, but not this time. It was harder for him to concentrate than usual. Other things kept intruding on his brain.

Yesterday it had been whether he’d made the cut for the team. Today it was next Saturday’s final tryouts, plus the talent show.…

Derek forced all those other thoughts out of his mind. He got back to work, determined to focus on beating Gary.

“Nice moves!” Vijay said, clapping. “I love the worm! Can you teach me that one?”

“Sure!” The two boys were really into their work—making up for all that lost time.

This is really, really fun! Derek thought. It was the first time he’d felt the same excitement as Vijay about the talent show.

“I have to get home for supper,” Vijay said. “Let’s pick it up again tomorrow.”