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too.”
    “No.” Tavo shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on Donald’s. “I was at wrestling camp with that kid last summer. He’s in eighth.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah. He’s not a bad wrestler.” A smile crossed Tavo’s face. “He’s smart.”
    Donald felt himself blush. “I’m smart.”
    “Smart but dumb. What I mean is, you’re smart enough to learn. But nobody can know what they don’t know yet, you know what I mean?”
    “Sort of.”
    “Good wrestlers make their own luck,” Tavo said. “They know how to finish the job.”
    Donald jutted his chin toward Hector. “What are you doing hanging out with him?”
    “We’re just picking up some pizza and wings for home,” Tavo said. “He’s my brother. Half-brother, anyway.”
    “Oh. He teach you much?”
    “All the time. He knows every move in the book.”
    “Yeah, I’ve seen him wrestle.”
    “Gonna win the state this winter,” Tavo said.
    “I don’t doubt it.”
    Tavo turned to Calvin and started talking about tennis, which Donald had absolutely no interest in. So he slumped back to the floor and listened to the music. There was almost nothing current on the jukebox, just classic rock and things like Sinatra and Johnny Cash, plus some Latin American stuff, since nearly half the people in Hudson City were Cuban or Puerto Rican or Dominican or Mexican.
    Everybody liked pizza, though.
    Hector had two pizza boxes in his arms, and he caught Tavo’s eye and jerked his head toward the door.
    “See you guys later,” Tavo said. He pointed at Donald. “Coach said tomorrow we’ll show you how to get out of that half nelson.”
    “Sounds good.”
    “Don’t eat too much. You’ll get fat.”
    “I wish.”
    Manny took a seat on the floor next to Donald. “You wrestle him a lot?”
    “He kicks my butt every single day. Every time I think I’m ready to turn the tide he throws some new move at me.” Donald shrugged his shoulders very slowly and gave a half smile. “The guy’s good, I gotta admit that.”
    “Well,” Manny said, “the only reason I got good in track was because I got to compete against the best guys around. First time I ran in New York, it was like, whoa, these guys are quick. But when I finally started to realize that I could keep up with them, it gave me a whole new boost of confidence.”
    “Yeah. I guess I’d feel the same if I could beat Tavo just once. I haven’t even come close yet.”
    “And beating him is the only way to get on varsity?”
    “That’s how it works,” Donald said. “You wrestle junior varsity unless you can knock off the varsity guy in your weight class. Coach says we’ll have wrestle-offs the day before every match. If a guy like me challenges Tavo in the wrestle-off, then he has to beat me to keep his spot on varsity. If I beat him, then he drops down to JV.”
    “That’s fair. The top guy has to prove himself every time to keep his spot.”
    “Right. But when you’ve got somebody like Tavo in your class, it makes it impossible for me or Mario to move up.”
    Manny shook his head. “Not impossible.”
    “Pretty close.”
    “Maybe you need to try a different weight class.”
    Donald stared at the pizza crust in his hand for a few seconds. “We’re in the lightest class already. Anyway, you’re allowed to wrestle in a heavier class, but not a lighter one. So, yeah, I could challenge somebody heavier, but I’m already only eighty-seven pounds. If I went after the guy at ninety-five or a hundred it’d be a big disadvantage.”
    “You never know. You’re already at a disadvantage against Tavo.”
    Donald nodded slowly, then shoved the pizza crust into his mouth. He chewed carefully—the crust was his favorite part—then swallowed.
    Manny might have something there. Maybe there was more than one path to varsity.
     
     
    A freezing rain was falling by the time Donald crawled into bed that night, but he kept his window open a crack anyway. He loved to huddle nice and warm under all