Big Deal

© 2008 by Heather Klassen

I stare up at the rope dangling from the gym ceiling. Today’s the competition, and boy, do I wish I could climb that rope. But I can’t. At least not fast enough. Actually, hardly at all.

So I get to be the team manager. Oh boy. Big deal.

“Mark!”

I whirl around at the sound of my name and see Tony, Maddie, Simon, and Joel rushing toward me.

“The T-shirts are great!” Maddie exclaims as the team reaches me. “Thanks for getting them, Mark.”

“Sure,” I reply, shrugging. After all, T-shirt ordering is part of the manager’s job. So big deal.

“There are so many teams here already,” Tony says. “Where are we supposed to go, Mark?”

I glance around the gym and see groups of kids pouring in from every entrance. This rope-climbing competition is a big deal in our area. Practically every school sends a team.

I point to a spot across the gym. “I have our staging area roped off,” I tell the team. “I put flags with our team logo on them on each chair.”

“Thanks, Mark,” Simon replies. Then to the rest of the team he says, “Let’s get to our area and start stretching.”

I watch my teammates head off, but I don’t go with them. Instead I stand there and watch other teams warming up, some of them by climbing the ropes.

I don’t tell anyone, but I have to admit to myself that I’m envious of all the other kids who shinny up those ropes like monkeys heading for the top of a banana tree. Me, I’d still be clinging to the bottom of my rope as they reached the top of theirs.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. I have tried—hard. But I’m smaller than just about everyone else in my class, and I’m just not strong. At least not yet. So I can barely make it halfway up the rope, and only really slowly. So of course I couldn’t be on the team. But every team needs a manager, so that’s what I got stuck doing.

“Mark!”

This time when I turn around, it’s not one of my teammates calling me. It’s Mr. Sanchez, my teacher, and our school’s coordinator for the competition.

“You should get over to your area now,” Mr. Sanchez tells me. “The competition’s about to start.”

I hurry over to our staging area and am quickly bombarded with questions from my teammates.

“What’s our order again?” Maddie asks.

“Where’s the chalk?” Simon wants to know.

“I can’t find my gloves!” Tony exclaims.

“Where are the water bottles?” Joel asks.

I jump into action locating water bottles, chalk, and gloves, explaining the order yet again, and dispensing advice and encouragement left and right.

Then the whistle blares, signaling the start of the competition.

It’s a multi-level elimination contest, so as long as your team keeps winning, they get to keep competing against more teams until they either get eliminated or finally win.

My team is hot today. They scramble up that rope as if their lives depend upon it. We keep winning. My teammates keep climbing, and I keep cheering and advising and handing out water and chalk and pats on the back.

Then I’m screaming myself hoarse because my team’s in the finals.

“Go, Maddie!” I scream.

“Way to go, Tony!” I cheer.

“Go for it, Simon!” I shout.

“Great job, Joel!” I yell as he hits the buzzer at the top first, and starts back down.

“We won! We won!” I’m shouting and jumping around as my teammates swarm each other into congratulatory hugs.

Then Maddie, Tony, Simon, and Joel are whisked off to the stage to receive their trophy. I stay behind to watch, sitting with my fathers and the rest of the audience.

And then there’s a hand on my shoulder. It’s Mr. Sanchez. “Why aren’t you up on that stage, Mark?” he asks. “You’re part of the team, too.”

I shrug. “Not really,” I admit. “I mean, I’m not strong enough to climb the rope, so they just gave me this stupid manager job to be nice.”

“To be nice?” Mr. Sanchez echoes me. “What are you talking about, Mark? This team would never have won without your organizational skills, technical advice, and all your support and encouragement. Maybe your muscles aren’t that strong yet, but you have incredible strengths, Mark.”

As if they had heard the conversation, all of a sudden my teammates start calling for me from the stage.

“Where’s Mark?” Joel calls.

“Get up here, Mark!” Simon shouts.

Mr. Sanchez gives me a gentle push. “They want you up there, Mark.”

Dad and Papa smile at me and give me friendly pushes, too.

So I make my way through the crowd and up onto the stage, where my teammates greet me with huge smiles. Maddie hands me the trophy.

“This belongs to you as much as to us,” she explains.

“Yeah, you’re the greatest manager ever,” Tony says.

“We could never have won without you,” Joel tells me.

So I take the trophy, and then I smile, too. Because I learned some stuff about myself today that I never knew before. Like, okay, maybe I’m not totally strong yet. But there are other kinds of strengths. And I have some of those strengths. And maybe, just maybe, those things are a big deal too.

Heather Klassen lives with her family in Edmonds, Washington. She has been writing fiction for children and teenagers for the past twenty years and has had several books and hundreds of stories published in numerous magazines and anthologies. In addition to writing, she works part-time with children. Besides her favorite hobbies of reading and spending time with her family, she is an avid swimmer, having just learned how to swim four years ago.