“So, let’s get going!” Vijay said happily. His parents both worked late at the hospital on Thursdays and wouldn’t be home till six, so the two boys had planned to spend the afternoon together at Derek’s.

“Last one on the bus is a rotten egg!” Derek said—and the race was on.

Derek got to the school’s front lobby way ahead of Vijay. And there was Dave, staring at something posted on the big bulletin board.

“Derek! Check this out!”

Derek looked over his shoulder for Vijay but couldn’t see him through the crowd of kids cramming the lobby, all of them trying to get out the door at once.

“What is it?”

“AAU basketball tryouts at the Y!”

“Whoa! Already?”

“A week from Saturday! Are you psyched?”

“Totally!”

“We’re gonna have to get our game in gear,” Dave said.

Just then a breathless Vijay finally made his way over to them. “I couldn’t get through that mob!” he said, laughing. “You are way too fast for me, Derek.”

“Hi, Vij,” said Dave.

“Hi, Dave. Hey, Derek, we’d better get going. The bus is going to leave without us!”

“Talk to you later, Derek,” said Dave, who always got driven home and never took the bus. “We’ve got to make some plans.”

“Definitely!” Derek waved, then followed Vijay out to the bus, his head spinning. Fifteen minutes ago he’d been looking at an easy, relaxed weekend. Now he was looking at a three-ring circus!

Chapter Two TIME CRUNCH

The two boys sat at Derek’s kitchen table, going over their review booklets. Derek’s mom was working till six at her accounting job. His dad taught classes at the university in the mornings each weekday as well as three evenings a week, and he had just gotten home.

But at the moment he was still out with Sharlee at her dance class—or was it karate today? Derek couldn’t remember—his little sister was even busier than he was. Obviously, though, that was about to change.

“I think we should look over your music collection,” Vijay was saying now. “I haven’t got nearly as much music as you do.”

“Come on, man, we’ve got to keep studying,” Derek said. “There’s a ton of stuff here to review before the twentieth.”

“Yes, but we are going to do fine, Derek! We are the best test-takers in the whole class, except for—”

“—for Gary Parnell,” Derek finished the sentence. “I know, I know. That’s just it.”

“I don’t get it,” said Vijay with a puzzled look.

Derek started to speak, then stopped himself. “Never mind. It’s too dumb to even waste time talking about. But I do think we need to keep going over this stuff. I want to make sure we know everything in this booklet backward and forward.”