Chapter 14

Mark Proves Himself Useful

“Hey, neighbor.” Jasmina tapped Mark on the shoulder at his locker.

“What?” said Mark. He continued to organize his PRIVATE AND NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS binders on his locker shelves. It would have weakened the effect of his storming out of school last week if he had stopped to organize his locker, so he still had some morning binders on the afternoon shelves. Since he prided himself on neatness (and got a blue ribbon for most organized desk in third grade), he couldn’t stand it.

“I’ll wait,” said Jasmina. She chewed on the tip of one of her braids.

Mark sorted his binders more slowly.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “I want to talk to you. Can’t you just look up or something?”

“It is rude to rush someone.”

“You’re one to talk about being rude,” Jasmina scoffed. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. The other Mark told me you refused to help him with math. What is wrong with you?”

“What do you mean?” Mark asked innocently. All of his books were on their proper shelves, but he didn’t stand up or turn around.

“He’s a nice guy,” Jasmina said. “Everybody likes him. And he’s a really good artist. What do you have against him?”

“If you think he’s so nice and talented, why don’t you teach him math?”

“I would,” Jasmina said, “but Miss Payley won’t let me. I asked.”

Mark stayed down so Jasmina wouldn’t see how taken aback he was. Jasmina was his friend, and even though he hated him, Mark was his problem. “What, do you like him?” he sang. “Oooh.”

“I like him a lot more than I like you right now,” Jasmina countered.

Mark stood up and whirled around. “You can’t possibly. We’ve been friends since preschool,” he said. “He just moved in. You don’t even know him.”

“Neither do you,” Jasmina said. She crossed her arms. Having been friends with Mark since preschool, she knew two things about winning an argument with him: (1) Don’t bother trying, but (2) If you do bother trying, make him think he’s won. She decided to go for the second one. “Look,” she said. “You’re really smart, and a really good person, so he clearly looks up to you,” she lied.

Mark puffed out his chest a bit. “Duh,” he said.

Jasmina hit him with her backpack. “So—you probably already know this—but the smart thing to do is help him out.”

“I did know that already,” Mark said with a sneer. As he said it, however, he realized that it was true.

“I figured,” said Jasmina. “So just be nice. You may even get something out of it.”

Mark knew that Jasmina probably meant he’d find that being nice would get him far—he’d heard that enough in school assemblies—or that he’d actually start to like the other Mark. But he thought about it in other, more important terms: the Mastermind tournament and evidence of artistic talent. He had a plan, and it would be a lot harder to accomplish if he and Mark Hopper were archenemies. “All right,” he said to Jasmina. “But only because I’m a good person.”

Jasmina nodded solemnly before breaking into a grin. She wanted to pat herself on the back, but in keeping with the second rule for arguing with Mark Hopper, she threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly instead.