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Move from Texas to Florida
Paul was on his way to Florida from Texas. Before he left, his imagination of a zombie following him representing that he was part of the family and that problems follow you no matter where you go. -
Mr. Costello's Visit
Later that day Mr. Costello the president of Homeowner's Association visited them that day. Mr. Costello's son was part of a football team and Mike told Erik that he was able to be his back up in the games. -
School
Paul and his mother then go to Lake Windsor Middle School. Mom wants to give him an opportunity to become acquainted with the layout of the campus before school actually starts. Mom is unhappy to find out that the classrooms for Paul’s class, the seventh grade, are temporary, portable rooms connected by board walkways. -
Tryouts
Today there are tryouts for the football team at Lake Windsor High School because of them, the whole Fisher family is at the school. But, Erik, who this year is a senior, is not really there to try out. Coach Warner already met him and accepted him onto the team earlier.Paul remembers the past when they lived in Huntsville. Back then, Erik played soccer. He practiced making goals. -
First Day School
This is the first day of the new school year. As Paul heads to the bus stop, a memory of another bus stop comes to him. In the memory, Paul was a kindergartener and his brother was a fifth-grader. Someone called him Eclipse Boy. He had never before been called that. But, he soon realized that the name had been given to him.To this day, Paul does not know why. -
Dream
Paige who is a sophomore; and Tina Turreton, who is a junior. The girls are cheerleaders. Arthur holds the football and Erik kicks it. This happens again and again. The two football players and the two cheerleaders had arrived at the Fisher home in Arthur’s white Toyota Land Cruiser. Paul knows that Arthur Bauer will do whatever is required to be part of the Erik Fisher Football Dream because his involvement in the Dream will give Arthur a chance to be somebody. -
Lightning on a House
When they return home, Paul calls Joey Costello and, later, he and Joey run. On their run,Joey points out a house that has been struck by lightning three times. Mr. Donnelly lives there with his son. Paul predicts that it will be struck by lightning again. His explanation is that before the development of the area, where the Donnelly's home is located was the highest spot in the area and lightning would strike there. Now, the area has been leveled, but the lightning remembers the spot. -
Soccer
Today is the day of the soccer tryouts. After school, as they head toward the soccer field, Joey tells Paul that, since Paul is a goalie, he plans to go out for fullback instead of goalie.He tells the players that Gino Deluca will be the team captain this year. Then, it is time for a run around the field followed by calisthenics. -
Mike Costello's Death
As Paul and his mother are unloading bags of groceries from the station wagon, Erik and Arthur arrive and Erik tells them that Mike Costello was killed today by lightning.After Erik tells Mom that Dad had been at the scene and had called 911, Mom tries to get a hold of him. When he returns her call, he verifies that what Erik said was correct. It is Erik and Arthur on the patio. At first Paul cannot understand their happiness. Then, he realizes that they will benefit from Mike's death. -
The Next Day
There were no announcement over the loudspeakers regarding Mike.Mom wants the school to discontinue afternoon football practice.He thinks that there are only two good players besides himself. They are Gino and Tommy.Paul wonders how he would react if what happened to Mike happened to his brother, Erik. He would be relieved.He would also be frustrated if it happens before he figures out the mystery surrounding the eclipse story. -
Football Practice Meeting
Mom's telephone campaign against afternoon football practice begins.She has set up a meeting at their home tonight to discuss the problem because the school has been receiving complaints about afternoon practice when they mention the loss of Mike, Mom interrupts, hoping that he is the last player that they lose.Coach Warner says that Mike would not want the team destroyed because of what happened to him.He brings up the importance of football in the college plans of some students. -
Funeral
Tonight is the time scheduled for Mike Costello's public viewing at O'Sullivan's Funeral Home. As Paul and his parents travel to the viewing on Route 89, he draws their attention to the osprey nests on the high-tension wires along the highway.At the funeral home, there are many football players and seniors. When it is their turn to express their condolences to the Costellos, Mrs. Costello tells Paul that Joey wants to ask him something. -
Soccer Practice
At soccer practice, Coach Walski tells Paul that he won't be allowed to be on the soccer team because he has an IEP that says he is visually handicapped. Paul gets angry. He says that he can see. The coach tries to explain about the insurance that the school must carry on all the players. Paul's response is to cry. As he explains to his mother what happened, he pointedly mentions the fact that she told the school that he is handicapped. -
Carnival
In the afternoon, They arrive at the carnival. Pick up time is to be at seven o'clock. One of the guys playing soccer in front of the carnival tells Paul to give him his ticket. But, Joey immediately hustles Paul away. As if to explain why the guys should be avoided, Joey tells Paul that they are from Tangerine Middle School.Next, Paul goes to the Ferris wheel. He sees Kerri getting ready to ride the Ferris wheel with Adam. -
A good day
Later Paul's grandparents call to tell the family that the sinkhole at the school is on the national news. Paul is disappointed to learn that the sinkhole is smaller than he thought it was.Dad comes home agitated because his office has been getting calls asking why the Department of Civil Engineering had approved putting the school over the sinkhole.Paul is proud of his actions today. He is still afraid of Erik and Arthur, but he is definitely not a coward. -
Trouble
During Paul's third-period math class, someone with a pass comes to tell Mr. Ward, the teacher, that Paul is wanted by Mr. Murrow. When Paul arrives at Mr. Murrow's office, he finds Mrs. Gates and Coach Walski standing beside him. Mr. Murrow has questions for them about something that happened at the carnival while they were there. Paul suggests that it might have been done by guys from Tangerine Middle School.He also saw Tangerine Middle School soccer players at the carnival. -
Sinkhole
The Tangerine Times published impressive pictures of the sinkhole. It also published a letter to the parents of affected students telling them about an upcoming meeting to give details of an emergency relocation plan.More than the portable classrooms are affected by the sinkhole. There are only half as many bleachers for the football stadium as before the disaster occurred. That cuts Erik Fisher's audience in half. -
News
Last night Eyewitness News ran a piece on Old Charley Burns. As of this morning Dad is the Director of Civil Engineering for Tangerine County, formerly Charley's position. The news piece said that Charley did not do his job. Instead, he let the developers take care of the inspections, while he spent his time concentrating on stock-car races and football games. Before being given the job, Dad promised to thoroughly inspect and regulate. -
Relocation
Tonight is the time when the relocation plan is to be discussed. Paul and his family and Joey and his family and maybe a thousand other people are gathered at the gymnasium. The meeting begins with Mrs. Gates thanking all the school staff who have been working hard since the disaster occurred. She introduces the people on the stage.Mrs. Gates tells everyone that the emergency relocation plan will be in effect for three months. And, it will start on Monday. -
Another Start
Paul climbs the stairs to the school office, which is on the second floor of the old building. The principal, Dr. Johnson, greets him and introduces him to Theresa Cruz who is to be his escort today, and longer if he wants. -
Second Day
Paul's second day at Tangerine Middle School goes smoothly in the morning. Then, Victor joins Paul and Teresa at lunch. He gives Paul a bad time, but not terribly serious. When Paul tells Victor that he played on the soccer team yesterday, Victor says that the soccer team was not at school yesterday. Tino explains that they were in the vandalism jail. Paul finally finds out exactly what happened that day at the carnival. -
Dinner
After dinner, Paul and Joey are on the patio comparing uniforms. The muck fire is noticeable. Erik and Arthur are on the outside of the fence sliding around in the mud in Arthur's Land Cruiser. There is more difference between the uniforms than the colors. Joey’s is brand new. Paul’s has obviously been used by someone else.Mike Costello and his brother, Joey. After Erik and Arthur go inside the house, Joey asks Paul what they meant. -
School
Today is the day that Tangerine Middle School plays Palmetto Middle School. After getting into their uniforms, the team boards a noisy old bus with no air-conditioning. The team coach is the driver. The trip takes about thirty minutes. When they reach the school, Victor leads the team once around the soccer field, then they meet the coach at midfield. The action on the field that follows does seem more like war than a game. -
First Game Season
Today, in the first game of their season, the Lake Windsor High School football team, the Seagulls, is playing a home game against the Cypress Bay High School football team, the Cardinals. Before the game starts there is already a problem. There are not enough places for the fans to sit. Cardinals fans start filling up the condemned bleachers. Mr. Bridges, the Lake Windsor High School principal, runs over to the condemned bleachers, but to no avail. -
Soccer Game
Today, the soccer game is at Kinnow Middle School. It is a home game for Tangerine Middle School. There are a lot of fans, including a man with Theresa and Luis Cruz who could be their father. There are no bleachers. Everyone who didn’t bring a chair stands. Joey is now on the team, but not a starter.Victor opens a cut on his head that he got at the Palmetto game. Coach Bright has Tino’s father take Victor to get stitches even though Victor wants to stay in the game. -
At Home
Later back at his home, Paul answers the telephone. It is Grandmom. Mom fills her in on recent events. Later, Mom returns the phone to Paul. The call is from Cara Clifton, who attends Lake Windsor Middle School. She wants information about Tangerine Middle School. Is he going out with anyone from there? When Paul tells her that he isn’t, she tells him that her friend, Kerri Gardner, says “Hi.” When Paul asks her to return the greeting, she asks him if he likes Kerri. -
Practice
Paul gets put in Victor’s place during practice, the same as yesterday. Toward the end of practice, Victor watches and heckles Joey. The heckling continues after the game when Victor and “his boys;” Tino, Hernando, and Mano; follow Paul and Joey. Victor asks Joey why he is following Fisher Man. Does Joey want Fisher Man to catch him? Paul tries to encourage Joey to stay loose, but Joey has difficulty doing that. During the heckling, Joey acquires a new name, Charlie the Tuna. -
Practice
Yesterday, during practice, Mr. Donnelly of the Tangerine Times and a photographer showed up. It appeared that Mom had called Mr. Donnelle they wanted pictures of Shandra and Maya.They wanted to find out their last names.When Dolly alerted Shandra to the presence of members of the press, Shandra ran as fast as she could into the school building. Betty Bright, their coach, told Mr. Donnelly Maya’s last name, which is Pandhi, but she didn’t tell him Shandra’s. -
Science
Today is the first science project meeting. Theresa is now in the group with Tino, Henry D., Paul and Joey and she takes charge of the group. She hands out an advertisement for a tangerine that her brother, Luis, has developed. It is called the Golden Dawn tangerine. The members of the group will each do a report on a different aspect of the project. Theresa says that she will type everyone’s report for them. -
Meeting
While Paul is doing some research on his father’s computer, which is located near the great room, Mom warns him that there will be a loud meeting later in the great room. Mr. Costello has been receiving complaints, some about termites, some about recent break-ins. Mom asks Paul if he or Joey have heard any talk about kids being involved in the break-ins. Paul has not heard anything. -
Before science class
Before science class, Paul gives Theresa his research paper. She tells him that Tino will be able to play tomorrow. Luis talked to Dr. Johnson about the situation. Tino didn’t actually hit anyone. Dr. Johnson shortened his suspension. Then, Theresa told Paul to tell Joey to be more respectful toward Luis, not to talk about him like he did. Paul tells her that it looks like he won’t be a student at Tangerine Middle School anymore. -
Fisher Family
The Fisher family has been busy these last four weeks. Dad is now the Director of Civil Engineering for Tangerine County. Mom is now the head of the Architectural Committee. She is also involved in the Neighborhood Watch as a block captain. Erik has been busy kicking field goals to help his football team win games. Paul has been playing soccer as part of a great fear-inspiring team, the Tangerine Middle School War Eagles. -
Next Day
Tired of waiting for another meeting to be held at the tangerine nursery, Paul decides to just go to the nursery. When he gets to the Quonset hut, Tino implies that he should have called first. But, Luis reminds Tino that he, Luis, invited Paul to return. Paul helps them lay out hose in the Golden Dawn tangerine nursery. After doing that for three hours, the three of them take a break, sitting on crates in the adult grove and eating tangerines one after the other. -
Night
Tonight Dad, Mom, and Paul walked over to Mr. Donnelly’s house, the one with the lightning rods. Mr. Donnelly is interested in football. He has noticed Erik’s talent lately. He wants Erik to meet some football guys that he knows. Mom hopes to find out why Mr. Donnelly has not answered any of the letters she has sent to him from the Architectural Committee. Dad hopes that she doesn’t mention it tonight. Erik isn’t with them as they walk because he has been off somewhere with Arthur. -
Today
Today, in the last home game of the season, Paul scores a goal while playing left wing. As the teams wait for the referee and coaches to confer, a storm blows in, causing a rain delay.As they wait for the storm to pass, Victor questions the referee. They find out that, if the game cannot continue, there will be no rain-out game. It will be as though the game never happened. Paul’s goal will not count. Twenty minutes later, the referee confirms that today was “no game. -
Today in Tangerine
Today’s Tangerine Times includes two articles that seem to be inspired by Mr. Donnelly’s conversation with Paul at last Sunday’s gathering at the Donnelly home. One article is about the soccer teams in the county. The other article is about Betty Bright’s history as a hurdler. -
Soccer
As the Tangerine Middle School War Eagles soccer team waits to board the bus to go to Lake Windsor Middle School for their last game of the season, Paul notices that all the people who attended their home games are in the parking lot. As the team boards the bus, he sees twenty-five or more cars and trucks lining up behind the bus.On the trip to Lake Windsor, Henry D. tells Paul about last year’s game.But, last year, Lake Windsor beat Tangerine. -
Today
Today the science group, Henry D., Theresa, Tino and Paul, get a ride from the school to Paul’s house in Henry D’s brother, Wayne’s truck, which has his mosquito spraying trailer attached. It doesn’t take the group as long to make decisions about how the final report should look as it takes Wayne to complete the spraying. The group goes into the back yard with a soccer ball. -
Next Day
Paul wants to find out if Dad saw what happened yesterday, but he cannot bring himself to mention it. He doesn’t talk about it with Mom either. At school, he doesn’t see the other science group members.In the afternoon Paul and Mom drive out Route 22 and go to the family’s climate-controlled storage bin. After they pick up a box that Mom wants, they notice an insecticide smell, then they accidentally lock the door with the key inside. -
News
Yesterday the big news was the freeze. Even Grandmom and Grandpop in Ohio knew about it. Mom asked the family what warm clothes they wanted from storage. She asked Erik for his key to the storage bin. He said that it was in his locker at school and that he would get it.When Paul went to class, he found that many of his classmates were not there -
The Next Day
Yesterday, Paul slept through Erik’s game. He also slept through Thanksgiving dinner. The closest thing he gets to Thanksgiving dinner is a turkey sandwich around five-thirty. About that time, the newspaper arrives.The sports news is about Lake Windsor defeating Tangerine. Dad sits next to Paul on the floor and complains about Brian Baylor, the Lake Windsor center who is friends with Antoine Thomas. In the game, Brian made five bad snaps. -
Meeting
All day Paul thinks about what Luis said would happen at three o’clock. But, when Erik comes home, it is obvious to Paul that it did not happen. Paul is thinking that it could still happen, only later, when the phone rings. It is Kerri. They make plans to meet Friday night. Mom has a meeting planned at their house tonight. Not many people are interested in attending it. When Paul joins the meeting, he asks Mom what she is writing. -
Death
In first period, Paul learns that Luis is dead. Henry D. tells him that Luis’ father found him in one of the orange groves, dead. Henry D’s brother, Wayne, answered the emergency call. When Wayne reached him, he had been dead for hours. Henry D. says that people are guessing that it was from an aneurysm, possibly after a knock on the head, perhaps from a falling tree branch during the freeze. -
Funeral
Paul stays home from school again today. Theresa calls Paul and tells him not to go to the funeral because she has heard Tino and Victor and their friends voicing some bad opinions. Paul agrees not to go. As he is hanging up the phone, he is shocked by the information hidden in what Theresa said, the information that they know about what happened that terrible Tuesday night. -
Today
Today, the house is empty. At noon, Paul puts on a suit without a shirt or shoes, and goes into the backyard, stopping at the wall at the back of the property. He pulls the sod toward him and exposes sugar sand. Removing the sand, he exposes the soil that was once part of the orchard that the builders destroyed in order to put in the housing development. Paul thinks about Luis Cruz and starts to cry. After the tears stop, Paul puts the sand back, then the sod. -
Luis
Paul tells his parents that he’s sick and he stays away from school. He’s miserable and confused. It’s the night of the senior awards ceremony at Erik’s school. There’s also going to be a memorial ceremony for Mike Costello. Paul goes along glumly. Soon after the award ceremony begins, Paul sees Victor and Tino coming into the auditorium. He doesn’t understand what they’re doing there. He’s terrified as he watches them move toward the stage. -
Betty and Antonie
Joey calls Paul to tell him that Betty Bright’s car is parked outside of Mr. Donnelly’s house. Paul runs over and sees Shandra in Betty’s car. Shandra tells Paul that Betty and Antoine have gone in to tell Mr. Donnelly about the fact that Antoine lives in Tangerine but plays for Lake Windsor. Antoine doesn’t want to lie anymore. He wants to be loyal to his community. He also wants Shandra not to have to hide her name anymore. Betty and Antoine come out of the house. -
Antonie's Story
Antoine’s story comes out in the paper. The news goes around and the decision is made that all of the Seagull’s victories are disqualified. None of it will go on record. Erik’s dream is crashing down. Paul’s dad stares at the paper. Phone calls come in. Everyone is blaming Antoine, including Paul’s dad. But Paul tells him that everyone knew about Antoine. They were all in on it—Paul’s dad included. Paul’s dad looks down, full of shame. -
Fisher family
Later the people of Lake Windsor converge on the Fisher family home for an important meeting. Mrs. Fisher has an announcement to make: she gets Erik and Arthur to come inside and sit in the room. Their faces are badly beaten their eyes swollen shut. Mrs. Fisher then announces to everyone that she found many stolen items from the houses that were robbed in her own storage unit. -
School
Paul and his mom go into the school. She’s very upset. When they arrive at the school Paul’s mom goes into the office and Theresa meets Paul. Tino and Victor are in another office. Theresa is upset with Paul for getting involved in their fight. But when Paul goes in to see the principal, he finds out that he’s being expelled because he attacked a teacher. When he and his mom walk outside, all the kids surround him. They start patting him on the back and cheering for him. He’s a hero. -
The Next Day
Paul’s dad comes home from the police station with Erik. He’s ashamed of Erik now and seems to want to have nothing to do with him. The tables have turned. Tino calls Paul and Paul tells him that he’s going to St. Anthony’s Catholic School. Tino wonders if Paul will be able to play with the War Eagles. Paul tells him that he definitely will. Then Tino tells Paul about the new generation Golden Dawn tangerines. He invites Paul to come help out on the grove any time. -
Afternoon
Later Paul writes his full statement for the police. He thought he’d only write a paragraph. Instead he writes for hours. He explains everything he knows and feels about Erik. He also writes at length about Luis and his family. When he’s done he brings the work to his parents and gives it to them to read. -
School
It’s Paul’s first day of school for the third time this year. His dad drives him to school this time. As they drive by Lake Windsor High, Paul’s dad points out the memorial tree that was planted for Mike Costello. Paul thinks it’s nice. But he also thinks about the trees planted for Luis—more than just one tree—an entire orchard. As they drive to the school they pass vast orange groves. Paul rolls down the window and takes in the scent of the oranges.
