chapter 5

DAN GUESSES

When Dan was at the bottom of the cliff beside the others, he unclipped himself from the rope. Rufus clipped in and started to climb, very slowly, up the rock.

“Have you ever climbed that part where I was?” Dan asked Mr. Kwan.

“Put your right foot in that crack,” Mr. Kwan said to Rufus. “Sideways!” Then to Dan: “Yes, I have.”

“Yeah, but you’re tall,” said Dan. “You could have reached that last hold easy.”

“Well, sure, sometimes being tall helps,” said Mr. Kwan. “But a lot of top climbers aren’t very tall. Somebody told me that girl, Elisabeth whatever-her-name-is, climbed that route. She’s not tall.”

“Who’s that?”

“A girl who moved here from Colorado. I saw a TV special about her.”

“She’s been on TV?” asked Clara.

“Yeah.”

“I want to be on TV,” said Dan.

“You’re too ugly,” said Willy. “You’d break the camera.”

Dan just rolled his eyes.

Mr. Kwan frowned, but he didn’t take his eyes off Rufus, who was halfway up. “Listen, Willy,” said Mr. Kwan, “no insulting allowed, not even in kidding. That reminds me. You shouldn’t call Dan a ‘scrub,’ either.”

“No, no, that’s not an insult,” said Willy. “Rufus and Dan and I were so bad at football last year, other guys called us ‘scrubs.’ We decided we liked it. We’re the Scrubs. Clara’s an official Scrub, too. Right Clara?”

“You bet,” said Clara. “And proud of it.”

“Is that right, Dan?” asked Mr. Kwan.

“Yeah, true story,” said Dan. “But . . . .”

“But what?” asked Mr. Kwan. “You don’t like being called a ‘scrub’?”

“I guess it’s all right.”

“What do you mean, ‘you guess’?” asked Willy.

“I mean, I guess.”