Miss Thompson didn’t see any of it because she had gone to find a janitor to get Bones’ shoe off the roof. I was so angry that I didn’t even care how popular the kid was. I started to make a charge at Mazz when Bones stepped up to him.

“Hey, why don’t you get that shoe?” He was calm and didn’t seem the slightest bit afraid of the class speedster. Mazz laughed and said, “Hey, how about I don’t get it, Skyscraper?!”

The second fastest kid in school, Steve White, who was also Mazz’s sidekick and never had an original thing to say, chimed in, “Yeah, how ’bout he don’t get it, Skyscraper!” Everyone laughed, but Bones just kept staring at Mazz. And then Bones did what no one had ever expected. He challenged Mazz, the fastest fourth-grader in the school, to a race.

Bones took a step closer to him and said, “If I beat you, you go get his shoe.” He pointed over at me and then he pointed to the roof. “And then, you go get mine.”

All the kids who were gathered around us started laughing because they were thinking the same thing as me: This kid couldn’t even kick a giant ball coming at him—how in the world was he going to beat the fastest . . . and most popular kid in fourth grade?

Mazz could already taste victory, because he set the stakes even higher. He pointed down at Bones’ lone shoe and said, “Okay. But if I beat you, you chew your shoe.”

The crowd loved it. They started to chant, “Shoe! Shoe! Shoe! Shoe! Shoe!”

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