Falling Short

Hearing Marco’s strained breathing, Isaac realizes that his friend is having a panic attack. Isaac wraps his arms around Marco and urges him to take deep breaths. Marco gasps out that he has to be perfect at academics because it is all he is good at. Isaac tells him that he is a good friend and person and that his grades are not what others value about him. Marco begins to relax. Isaac suggests that Marco sleep over; as Marco falls asleep beside him, Isaac decides that he must do something about Marco’s incomplete homework.

When Marco wakes in the morning, he finds Isaac asleep at his desk. He sees his laptop open and realizes that Isaac has done his math homework for him. Isaac finished at nearly five o’clock in the morning because he had to complete practice problem after practice problem trying to understand how to do the work. Marco is overwhelmed with gratitude. He wraps a blanket around his sleeping friend and climbs out the window to head home.

Isaac wakes to his alarm. Marco comes into his room wearing an apron, holding a plate of waffles he made for Isaac. Isaac worries that he has ruined Marco’s homework by pressing the “help” option so many times before finally solving the final problem. He worries about how his mother will feel when she learns about his unfinished work. Marco asks why Isaac seems upset, and he confesses that he is not just physically tired; he is tired of feeling like a failure.

Marco tries to convince Isaac that he showed real grit in solving such a hard problem, but Isaac can only think about his incomplete homework. Once the boys are at school, he leads Marco to the cafeteria so that he can sit down and try to get some of the work done. Marco is shocked when he realizes that Isaac skipped his work to complete Marco’s. He takes Isaac’s math homework, saying that he will work on it while Isaac concentrates on his science homework.

Marco feels guilty that he has lost track of his own identity and allowed his desire to prove himself through basketball to create a bad situation for Isaac. When the bell for first period rings and Isaac’s work is still not finished, he sends Isaac off to class and huddles in a bathroom stall, determined to complete Isaac’s homework. He notices that Isaac’s math homework is easy but repetitive and wonders “how this is supposed to help anyone” (182). He thinks that Isaac would be better off in honors math, “if he only believed in himself more” (182).

In the second period, Isaac feels sick as he waits for his science teacher to hand him a parent notice for his incomplete homework. When he does not get such a notice, he logs into his account and sees that his homework was submitted five minutes before class. He realizes that Marco must have somehow done it. All through class, he thinks about how to get Marco on the basketball team in return. He makes a list of Marco’s strengths and weaknesses as a player. The list of weaknesses is long, but he manages to think of some important strengths: Marco can shoot free throws, he has Isaac to rely on during games, and “[h]e’s got the heart of a champion” (185). He thinks that if he can draw an opponent’s defense away from Marco and get him to the free throw line, Marco can shoot from there. He diagrams several plays that he thinks might allow this to happen.

After finishing Isaac’s homework, Marco heads for his second-period class. Mr. Slaughter apologizes to the class for accidentally including a much-too-difficult problem in their homework set. He congratulates Marco for being the only person to finish this problem and enthusiastically praises the determination shown by completing 23 practice problems to finish this one difficult problem. Marco feels terrible, but he cannot confess that he did not complete the problem without implicating Isaac. Then, Marco gets called to the principal’s office, and he is sure that he is about to get into trouble for skipping the first hour. He feels his anxiety flooding back.

He heads for Mrs. Carey’s office, focusing on his breathing, and resigned to make a complete confession and beg for mercy. Then, he realizes that this will get Isaac into trouble, and he begins to panic all over again. Ms. Ornelas spots him and takes him into her office to help him calm down; he tells her the whole story, and she urges him to tell Mrs. Carey the truth. He decides to take her advice, but when he tries to confess, he chooses words that unintentionally give Mrs. Carey the idea that he was in the bathroom with diarrhea all first period. Mrs. Carey ends up giving him his permanent bathroom pass and some candy. Completely unaware of the miscommunication, Marco leaves her office astonished at how understanding she is.

Isaac joins Marco, Ryan, and Mick at lunch. He is exhausted from staying up all night and dismayed when Ryan reveals that basketball tryouts were moved up a week and will start right after school today. Marco expresses concern about whether Isaac will be able to try out, but Isaac assures him that he is fine. Isaac is not sure whether he believes this, himself.

Five minutes before the end of school, Marco hears the announcement about basketball tryouts. He thinks about his injured finger and what he has read about Kobe Bryant. He recalls that Bryant usually tried to take the last shot of the game because “he’d worked harder than anyone else on the court for that same moment” (200). Marco realizes that Isaac has worked much harder at basketball than he has and feels that the odds are against him making the team. Still, he is determined to try.

Isaac heads outside to the basketball courts after school, nervous about what he knows will be very competitive tryouts. He sizes up the competition and heads for the farthest court, where Coach Chavez is watching the school’s best players warming up. Dos Equis, wearing a bright blue cast on his leg, is standing with Chavez. Chavez jokes about whether Isaac is coming to throw up on him again and then introduces Dos Equis, saying that he will be Chavez’s assistant coach since he cannot play this season.

Isaac is surprised when Dos Equis apologizes for what happened in class; Isaac apologizes in return. Chavez introduces Byron as his star player. Marco, Ryan, Nick, and Saul show up, and Isaac introduces them to Chavez, explaining what each has to offer the team. Isaac struggles to find a way to praise Marco without lying. When he sees Marco’s injured finger, Chavez decides that he will let Marco do a modified tryout; fortunately, this is just what Marco needs to demonstrate his strengths without exposing his weaknesses. When Chavez learns how Byron has treated Marco, he kicks Byron off the team.

Even though he knows Chavez is already predisposed to put him on the team, Marco is determined to earn his spot. He joins the other hopefuls for wind sprints, running harder and faster than he ever has before. Impressed, Isaac showers Marco with praise. At Chavez’s insistence, Marco sits out of the shooting and passing drills. When Chavez announces that he wants to see some defensive skills, Marco volunteers to demonstrate, knowing that this is what he practiced with Isaac. He and Isaac stand up and begin a drill where Marco guards Isaac; when Marco manages to knock the ball away, everyone cheers. Marco is confused, thinking they must be cheering for Isaac. When he succeeds in doing it a second time, he sees that Isaac looks mad, and he worries that he has messed up the drill.

Isaac is embarrassed that Marco has managed to do what almost no one can ever do: effectively guard him. He bounces the ball between Marco’s legs, then instantly regrets showing off in this way. Marco pokes the ball away a third time, and Isaac finally controls his temper and can feel happy for Marco. Unfortunately, Marco has now injured a finger on his other hand too. Isaac walks him to the nurse’s office, thinking that if he had not been showing off, Marco would not have been hurt.

After icing his finger, Marco wants to get back on the court. He tells Isaac that he wants to earn a spot on the team, not have it handed to him. Isaac tells Marco that his defensive playing has already earned him a spot. He has to explain why what Marco did while guarding him was amazing. Apá arrives to pick the boys up, and Isaac is relieved that he is sober. After he hears how Marco guarded Isaac successfully during tryouts, Apá is impressed and praises Marco. He offers to take the boys out for burgers to celebrate. Isaac notices Marco’s strained expression and guesses that he is in pain from his injuries.

The perspective shift to Marco reveals that his pain is emotional, not physical. He is feeling jealous of Isaac’s relationship with his father and sad about the way his father treats him. They head for Don Francisco’s, where Marco thinks about how differently Isaac and his father talk to one another than he and his father do. He recalls how he used to make up friends and athletic accomplishments to impress his father with. Eventually, he got tired of lying and just gave up. Now, he thinks that his relationship with Isaac’s father is the closest thing he has to a father-son relationship.