The Perfect Score

Randi is a gymnast whose mom acts like an overbearing coach, pushing Randi to practice six days a week and place in the regional competition so that colleges will start paying attention. Though Randi’s been doing gymnastics for years and is good, she ends the chapter with the confession, “I used to love gymnastics” (4).

Natalie Kurtsman is a straight-A student who always toes the line, and her chapters are written as legal briefs because she aspires to be a lawyer like her parents. Natalie doesn’t understand how other people do the wrong things, as she believes that it is simple to think things through and make good choices. People have told her that not everything is black and white, but Natalie shrugs this off because “when it comes to right versus wrong, [she doesn’t] believe it” (6).

Since first grade, teachers have told Scott that he means well and has great ideas but that he doesn’t always think things through. Unfortunately, things have not gotten better since, and he reluctantly admits that in sixth grade, “[he] really made a mess of things” (8).

Trevor says little. He dislikes summer more than the school year, but despite this, he is excited for the school year to begin.

Gavin and Randi are excited to start sixth grade because their new teacher awards kids with extra recess time and plays football with them. Randi says that ending up in his class was destiny, but Gavin just thinks that they managed to have good luck for once. When a letter arrives stating that their teacher had a family emergency and was replaced by Mrs. Woods, a tough older woman who recently retired, Gavin changes his mind, thinking, “This wasn’t destiny. It was rotten luck” (12).

Gavin likens their new teacher to a famous football player who gets pulled out of retirement. Randi lets him ramble because she knows how much he loves football, but he doesn’t get to play because he always has to babysit his little sister while his parents work. Mrs. Woods taught Gavin’s dad, who warns the kids that she’ll be tough. Randi doesn’t know about that, but she does know that she “[can] kiss the handsome male teacher [she]’d been dreaming about all summer goodbye” (15).

On the first day of sixth grade, Natalie arrives early to make a good impression, but she is disappointed when her teacher isn’t there yet. The classroom seems organized, and she is hopeful until she realizes who she’s in class with—particularly Gavin, who hates her. Mrs. Woods is similarly unimpressive, and if things don’t shape up, Natalie will demand to be put in a different class. She ends the chapter with the observation, “I simply had no idea how tricky and complicated things would wind up getting” (18).

Trevor hates Mr. Woods on sight and grows even more annoyed when she gets the class to make collages about themselves from pictures and words cut out of magazines that she brought. Trevor is amazed to find pictures of female underwear models in the magazines, and he resolves to “show her who [is] really in charge” (20).

Like Trevor, Gavin struggles to find pictures that represent him. Instead, he draws a picture of his sister and a football, getting uncomfortable when the class says that his drawing is good. When it’s time to share, Trevor shows off his poster, saying, “This represents me because I’m a lady’s man and these women could all be my wife someday” (21). Mrs. Woods assigns Trevor to write an essay during recess, and that’s when Gavin realizes that this woman isn’t past her prime at all. Mr. Woods presents her collage last, and Gavin is shocked to learn that she enjoys watching football. Mrs. Woods hangs the collages on the wall to show how they are all unique but still come together. Gavin ignores this because he is sure that this class can’t do anything together.

Natalie spends recess alone, disdaining her fellow students. In the afternoon, Mrs. Magenta, a younger teacher who dresses in colorful clothing and doesn’t wear shoes, visits to introduce herself. Starting the next day, the class will have math and science with her. Trevor objects that math is boring, but Mrs. Magenta argues, “After this year your views will have changed” (27).

To Scott’s excitement, Mrs. Woods ends the day reading aloud to her students because she wants them to learn something other than what’s required for the upcoming CSA tests. She has the best reading voice that Scott’s ever heard, and he gets lost in the story. He’s surprised to find that Gavin did, too, but Trevor did not. Instead, he drew an ugly picture of Mrs. Woods, which she hangs over his collage before taking away his recess the following day. Scott didn’t know that anyone could lose two recesses in one week, and he ends the chapter thinking, “Mrs. Woods was tougher than Dolores Umbridge, that nasty teacher from Harry Potter” (29).

At the end of the day, Randi informs Mrs. Woods that she’ll miss school next Thursday and Friday for a gymnastics meet. Mrs. Woods notes that there was no gymnastics on Randi’s collage, which seems odd since Randi must love it so much. Randi says nothing and hurries away. She’s uncomfortable because it feels like Mrs. Woods can see the truth, and Randi wonders, “[H]ow in the world could my teacher understand anything about gymnastics or my feelings?” (31).

Scott and his family pick up his grandfather for a doctor’s appointment. Scott’s grandpa doesn’t know why he has to go when there’s nothing wrong with him. Scott silently thinks that his grandpa could be diagnosed with loneliness and that he’s aged more since Scott’s grandma died than he ever has before. Since Scott’s mom works from home, helping Scott’s grandpa falls on her, which is stressful. Scott hates to see her so tired, so he helps as much as he can because he’s “good at helping” (35).

On the second day of school, Natalie enters class worried about what will happen if Mrs. Woods doesn’t establish rules and boundaries to keep the troublemakers in line. Mrs. Woods shows the class the Preamble to the Constitution, which they use to write a classroom constitution that says that the students will listen, use common sense, and be kind to each other. If anyone breaks these rules, Mrs. Woods will deal with them how she wishes because, as she says, “I am the judge and the jury in this classroom” (41).

To Trevor’s annoyance, Mrs. Woods doesn’t forget to keep him in from recess. She tells him to consider his goals and write an essay about them. Trevor writes nothing, saying that he has no goals. Mrs. Woods hopes to change that but says nothing else, which Trevor thinks is “the first smart thing the dumb old woman had done” (42).

Recess is Scott’s favorite part of the day because it’s the only time he plays with other kids. He enjoys the giant twisty slide on the playground, even though he once slid down while it was wet and everyone laughed at his wet pants. Today, he finds bird poop smeared all over the slide, so he urinates down the slide to wash it away before climbing back to the ground and joining a game of tag. When he’s “it,” Scott runs to tag Natalie because he wants her to have fun. To get away from him, Natalie climbs up to the twisty slide and goes down because the rules say that she must. After that, she smells like urine, and Scott thinks, “It would’ve been better if she’d broken the twisty-slide rule, but Natalie never broke the rules” (45).

Natalie realizes what happened as soon as she gets off the slide and goes to the nurse’s office, where she explains the situation without mentioning Scott. If he were to go to trial, a jury couldn’t find him guilty of intentionally sending her down the urine-covered slide beyond a reasonable doubt, and thus, neither can she. Natalie goes home from school early, angry about what happened and sure that she’ll be teased about it tomorrow. Her mom agrees that this is likely but says that it’s good practice for being a lawyer because people are mean to lawyers all the time. Still, Natalie wishes that she could skip ahead in time because “being a lawyer seems easier than being a kid” (49).

Mrs. Magenta has the class organize themselves by birthday without talking. Scott holds up six fingers to symbolize that his birthday is in June. The rest of the class gets on board quickly, and Randi reflects, “Little did we know how important silent communication would be in our not-so-distant future” (51). At the end of class, Mrs. Magenta shows a collage that she made about herself, which is a true work of art. Mrs. Magenta is also starting a club for art and community outreach. Randi thinks that it sounds interesting and is sad that she can’t participate because she’s too busy with gymnastics.

Gavin can’t stop thinking about how much he enjoyed having Mrs. Woods read to the class. He’s never liked reading because when he does, “the letters […] run around on the page like players on the field” (54). However, whenever Mrs. Woods reads, he gets lost in the story. After school, Trevor babysits his little sister and wishes that he could play football, knowing that he can’t because he’s needed at home.