Something about his anxiety now felt good, epic, as though finally in this fight he had something admirable to fear. And still, tenacious little worries wriggled free. As Ben walked toward the gym, he had seen a bored maintenance worker gently passing a power grinder over the side of the Dragon and another on hands and knees scrubbing at the plaque with a wire brush.

Back in the room Ahmed had been quiet with anger. “I would never imagine such disrespect.” He was wearing Marlboro Racing as he said this, and Ben could hardly look at him. “When so much is given here, to spoil it like that is just…Who would do that? Do you know who it was?”

“It’s just a prank.”

“It is not. It rejects the gifts that the school offers.”

“This school is not a gift, Ahmed. Nothing about it just arises because it’s right and good.”

Ahmed gave him a startled look.

This was the first time Ben was wearing a wrestling singlet in public: its tightness was unsettling, its lack of division between top and bottom, the straps like an undershirt, its fit at the crotch that might reveal that he didn’t have enough there, its blatant bid to be the center of attention. But being in a tight singlet did also sort of turn him on.

His headgear dangled from his hand. Anyone looking at Ben leaning on the wall would have thought he was dozing. If he got kicked out and went to public school, would he have to wrestle because there would be no squash team?

Ben lifted his head off the wall and returned. From the hallway came the sound of double doors banging open, and several rowdy voices: someone had won his match. Ben had to go back now, he knew his slot was coming up and Coach Weber was starting to worry. He stood off the wall. In his singlet he walked into the hallway and toward the arena.

Ben’s opponent had bangs that he brushed out of his eyes as he went into his crouch. The referee dropped his hand and they came together. By the end of the first thirty seconds, Ben’s throat had the same hardness and smoothness as the wood inside a sauna.

10. The K-Point

10. The K-Point