Tangerine

Joey calls Paul to tell him the Coach Bright’s car is outside of Mr. Donnelly’s house. Paul decides to figure out why she is there and if it has something to do with his exploits of the night before. He discovers, instead, Shandra waiting outside: Her brother Antoine has decided to confess that he has been playing for Lake Windsor high ineligibly. Antoine has felt guilty that his deceit has kept Shandra from getting the recognition she deserves, as well as the fact that it alienates him from his old friends back in Tangerine.

When Antoine comes out of the house, he sees Paul and talks to him about the value of honesty: “Don’t spend your life hiding under the bleachers, little brother. The truth shall set you free” (261). Paul realizes that Antoine, too, witnessed the attack on Luis. He will be going to the Sheriff’s Department to make a statement.

Mr. Donnelly’s article in the paper reveals all about Antoine Thomas’s deception and the consequences it wreaks. It turns out that “every record that they [Lake Windsor High team] set with Antoine on the team has been nullified” (264). Effectively, the Erik Fisher Football Dream is over. Mr. Donnelly, however, defends Antoine’s actions, stating that opportunities to play in college rarely come to underfunded Tangerine High while they frequently come to Lake Windsor’s more prosperous school.

While Dad appears shocked by the news, along with several other adults invested in the football team. Paul points out that he never saw Antoine in the neighborhood and never saw him going for a run or his family shopping for groceries. Anyone with decent eyesight could tell that Antoine did not reside in Lake Windsor, according to Paul.

Mom and Dad have called a meeting for the neighbors at their house, which Paul has forgotten about amid everything else. Erik and Arthur lurk outside as the living room fills up with people. Mom patiently asks Erik to come inside, but he balks until Arthur’s father yells at the boys to come into the living room now. Apparently, Erik and Arthur committed the neighborhood robberies. Mom found the stolen items in the storage unit. Their methodology was simple: While the houses were tented for fumigation, Arthur would don a gas mask, gain entry into the houses, and take valuables while Erik kept watch outside.

Dad—truly unable to relinquish the Erik Fisher Football Dream—has concocted the meeting as a way to get the neighbors to agree to a plan wherein their items are returned, full restitution of money if not, so that they will not pursue official charges. One of the victims points out that if Erik and Arthur were kids from Tangerine proper, they certainly wouldn’t be receiving any preferential treatment, and most of their parents couldn’t afford to pay restitution. Still, the group reluctantly agrees to the plan, and all appears as if it will be resolved.

However, a sheriff’s deputy shows up at the house to arrest Arthur Bauer for the murder of Luis Cruz. Antoine has taken his story to the police, and now Paul finally has his chance to come clean as well. He tells the police that he can corroborate Antoine’s story, letting them know that the weapon was a blackjack and where its probable location is. He also relays that he witnessed Erik instructing Arthur to cause the injury. When Dad questions Erik about this, he, clearly defeated, “started to nod” (276). As the gravity of the situation sinks in, Paul’s grandparents arrive. Dad sits broken-hearted at the computer, staring at the scholarship file. Mom receives a call that Paul will need to report to the principal’s office first thing in the morning.

When Paul comes into the office, he sees Theresa, who serves as an office aide, waiting to hear the fates of Tino and Victor. He hands her their science report, which she exclaims is “beautiful [...] an A-plus for sure” (281). She asks him why he did it—defend her brother, finish the report despite everything, come to Tangerine Middle at all—and he simply replies, “I didn’t think at all. I just did it” (282). Theresa considers for a minute, then says that, since Luis always called him Paul, she will also call him Paul.

While Paul thinks that he will merely get a suspension for his role in the melee at Lake Windsor Senior Awards Night, he gets expelled. The principal explains that this is because Paul assaulted a teacher. Thus, Paul will now be shipped off to his third school in a semester. As he is leaving Tangerine Middle, a crowd of students greet him—even the toughest of the eighth graders. They treat him as a hero, or at least a legendary outlaw, for helping out Tino and Victor.

Paul informs Mom that he intends to return to Tangerine Middle next school year and make the All-County soccer team. She implicitly acquiesces, then takes Paul on “an enormous shopping spree, unprecedented in my lifetime” (289).

Dad takes Erik to the police station and washes his hands of the matter. He has given up the Erik Fisher Football Dream and now seems to harbor no connection to his eldest son. Paul takes a call from Tino, who informs him that Luis’s Golden Dawn tangerines are in high demand, assuring his legacy. Paul says he’ll help out in the groves whenever he can, even though he’ll be going to another school. Tino wishes him well, calling him “brother,” which resonates strongly with Paul. Erik, on the other hand, is “pacing back and forth, back and forth, in the cage that he had made for himself” (292).

Paul writes up his account of what happened the day that Luis was attacked. He fears he might have strayed from the simple facts of the case that the police might want, but he decides he “had too much to say” about Luis, and the contrast between his character and that of his brother’s (293). He saves a copy of it and hands it to his parents, who read it intently.

It is Paul’s first day at yet another school, but this time, Dad drives him. They pass by the tree that was planted in honor of Mike Costello. Paul thinks about the fact that Luis has his trees, too. He rolls down the window as they drive past the groves, letting the scent of citrus fill the car.