Derek tried to nod, but had to stop, wincing in pain. He sympathized with his friend—after all, he was excited about their dance too—but Derek had other, more urgent problems of his own.

“Look, Vij,” he said. “The talent show’s still two weeks away. The school nurse and my mom both said this should be better in a few days.”

“I hope so,” Vijay said dejectedly. “Because if not, this whole thing is going to be a total disaster.”

Derek watched his friend shuffle slowly down the hallway, past the kids at their lockers getting ready to go home for the weekend. Vijay was usually so upbeat—so positive about everything. Derek had rarely seen him this down.

Derek’s dad picked him up from school, so that he’d be more comfortable than on the bus. When they got home, Derek put some of his mom’s wintergreen ointment on his neck, and a heating pad for good measure. It was starting to feel better, and everything he did to treat it helped a little more. Derek was starting to think there was a glimmer of a chance he could try out the next day.

By the time he went to bed that night, he was amazed at how much his neck had improved. The pain was less than half what it had been that morning!

Gazing up at the scoreboard, Derek saw that his team had a 1-point lead, with only thirty seconds left!

He drove the lane, feeding the ball off to Dave, who took the open 3-pointer—SWISH!

Derek flew back down the court on defense—but the other team’s point guard went airborne, right over his head, and slammed home a ferocious dunk!

Hey—it was Sam Rockman, of all people! Wasn’t he supposed to be on Derek’s team?

No time to think about that—only fourteen seconds left! Derek took the inbounds pass and rushed the ball up the court, drawing the double-team. Again, he dished it off to Dave—but this time, Derek took off for the basket, and Dave fed him the pass in full flight.…

Derek was about to lay it up when a huge hand swatted the ball away!

Derek swung his head around to see who it was—

“OWWW!! OW! OW! OWWW!”

Tears welled up in his eyes as the pain shot through his neck. He must have aggravated it waking up from his dream!

Oh no! All his hopes of waking up with no pain were gone—out the window! He had to move as slowly as a turtle to get out of bed, wincing more than once when his neck moved too much.

“How is it?” said his mom, coming in to see what the noise was all about. “Oh. I see. Gee, that’s too bad. Sorry, hon.”