Super-sized Slugger by Cal Ripken Jr. Page A

work.”
    Hearing this, Cody felt relieved. The two of them climbed to their feet and exchanged a fist bump.
    â€œWhen will you try out this so-called plan?” Jessica asked.
    â€œTomorrow,” Cody said. “Right after school. I’ve put it off long enough.”

Cody awoke before dawn the next morning, unable to get back to sleep. He had tossed and turned for much of the night, finding it nearly impossible to shut off his brain as dozens of different “what if” scenarios ran through his head.
    What if this crazy plan of his dad’s didn’t work? What if all it did was make Dante even angrier? What if the big guy decided to whack him like a piñata right then and there? Good luck sending up a Bat-Signal to Jessica.
    No, in a cruel bit of irony, Jessica would be at her karate class by 2:45. And what could she do even if she knew Cody was getting pummeled? Raise her hand and say, “Sensei, may I be excused to go save my not-so-chubby friend from Milwaukee again?”
    Not so chubby—that doesn’t sound bad, Cody thought. Even in his wired state, it made him smile.
    All morning in school, he could barely pay attention. In Ms. Wratched’s science class, he completely zoned out. Part of that had to do with Ms. Wratched, who spoke in a low, droning monotone and who had been deemed the Most Boring Teacher Ever by much of the eighth grade. But part of it was Cody’s out-of-control imagination, which kept picturing Dante’s fist crashing into his face like some kind of killer asteroid.
    At lunch, Cody plopped down next to Jordy, Connor, and Willie at their usual table.
    â€œI have an announcement,” Cody said, rustling through his lunch bag. “Today is D-day. And you know who the D stands for.”
    Three pairs of eyebrows shot up at once.
    â€œDude, didn’t we go over this?” Jordy said. “Didn’t we say he’ll pound you like a—”
    â€œBad piece of meat. I know, I know…” Cody said. He shook his head firmly. “It’s still D-day.”
    His three friends looked at one another with alarm.
    â€œWill you talk to the boy?” Willie said to Connor. “Tell him he’s not just walking into the jaws of death, he’s sprinting?”
    Connor started to speak, but Cody held up a hand.
    â€œI don’t intend to get my butt whupped,” he said. “Sure, it could happen. But I’m hoping to use psychology.”
    â€œPsychology,” Willie repeated. He looked incredulously at Jordy and Connor, then back to Cody. “How about if Dante uses physics? Such as Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction? Like, you come near him and he punches your lights out?”
    Cody gulped. But he tried to keep his voice even.
    â€œI think I’ll be okay,” he said, taking a bite of an apple. “Besides, look what I’m eating now instead of cookies. Getting in fighting shape!”
    Hearing himself talk so boldly about a showdown with Dante, Cody felt like the proverbial kid whistling past a graveyard. But there was no sense getting into the details of his plan right now. Or when he would execute it. His buddies wouldn’t understand. Or they’d think he was nuts and try to talk him out of it.
    Soon the conversation shifted away from Dante to a new video game, Wipeout on 64th St. , where the hero surfer navigated his board through a grim urban obstacle course filled with menacing villains. Cody sighed and looked out the window. Even though it was a warm sunny day, he felt a shiver go through him. Wish the only thing I had to worry about was video game bad guys, he thought. At that moment, he felt like the loneliest kid on the planet.
    The rest of the afternoon seemed to crawl by even more slowly than the morning had. Social studies was Cody’s favorite subject. But when Miss Brock stood in front of the class and said, “Who can name