Rivalry

Junior's new friend, Roger, makes a suggestion that would change Junior completely. He tells Junior to make the tryouts for the basketball team, and surprisingly he manages to enter the varsity team and this leads him into other conflicts later. He trained hard for his first game and manages to win, but everything changed when he was notified he was going to play against his former school, Wellpinit. Playing against them is shocking for Junior and specially against Rowdy, Wellpinit's basketball star. The first match demonstrates Junior how angry the reservation is with him for leaving him and transferring. Everyone turns their backs to Junior and during the game Rowdy elbows Junior in the head and knocks him off unconsciously. In the second game, Reardan manages to win and Junior blocks Rowdy in the game and a rivalry starts. He feels victorious until he saw Wellpinit players faces after their defeat and he remembers the difficulties they face at home and their lack of hope for a future. Ashamed he breaks down into tears and vomits in the locker room, nothing was the same.

"But for once, and for the only time in my life, I jumped higher than Rowdy.

I rose above him as he tried to dunk it.

I TOOK THE BALL RIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS."

 

 This quote demonstrates how Junior has changed during the story. Before he entered Reardan, he would do anything to make Rowdy feel good and if he needed to loose to make Rowdy feel good, he would do it. Now he is different, he is not timid anymore now he feels comfortable, he feels somehow superior and now he is competitive and doesn't care if his opponent feels good or not.

"But I looked over at the Wellpinit Redskins, at Rowdy.

I knew that two or three of those Indians might not have eaten breakfast that morning.

No food in the house.

I knew that seven or eight of those Indians lived with drunken mothers and fathers.

I knew that one of those Indians had a father who dealt crack and meth.

I knew two of those Indians and fathers in prison.

I knew that none of them was going to college. Not one of them.

And I knew that Rowdy's father was probably going to beat the crap out of him for losing this game."

 

The basketball games between Reardan and Wellpinit are complicated for us, as readers, since we are cheering for Junior, but we also kind of want the poor people at Wellpinit to win. Junior now starts ti regret his decision to play against his old friends, he feels guilty of leaving Rowdy and he finally understand how poor people really feel and are. He miss his old and simple life. 

 

 

JUNIOR'S CHANGE DURING HIS TWO SCHOOLS

 This part really changes Junior's life and the reader can see how he has grow up and change during this story. The climax finally occurs when he realize how bad he was after beating his former school Wellpinit. He felt like a different person, he knew his life had changed and that no matter what he did he couldn't go back to the old and boring Arnold (first time in the book he is actually named with his real name). He regrets his choice, he feels sorry for his old friends, he knew that everything was going to change after he left his old life.