The next morning Gordo moped around the house in his pajamas, watching cartoons, eating Fritos and trying hard not to think about Lizzie and everything that had happened. Miranda called about ten o'clock, asking again if he wanted to come over. He said no. She would want to talk, and he was too depressed for that kind of talk.

Despite everything Lizzie had said the night before about keeping the Three Musketeers alive, Gordo doubted anything was going to change. Case in point: he asked Miranda if she knew what Lizzie was doing today, and her answer was, "Not sure. I think she and Brett---"

"Never mind."

"Gordo---"

"Forget it. No, wait. Don't forget it. Has she talked to you yet? Since last night, I mean. Has she talked to you about us three doing something together?"

"Well, she did call me," Miranda said.

"And what did she say?"

"Not much. About a minute into our call, Brett rang through and she put me on hold. She said she would be right back, but…"

"At least you got put on hold, " Gordo said miserably. "I more or less got hung up on."

"So you talked with Lizzie last night?" Miranda asked, full of interest. "What did she say?"

Here's where Gordo decided the conversation had gone far enough. "Oh, hey!" he said suddenly, as he flipped through the channels. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I haven't seen them in years. I'll talk to you later, Miranda. Bye!"

After he hung up, he felt terrible. Just because he was annoyed with Lizzie was no reason to take it out on Miranda. He would apologize to her. Later. Now he settled back with the Turtles in the sewers of New Your City and felt himself sinking deeper into the pit.

His mother returned from food shopping about one p.m. and Gordo was forced to put on real clothes so he could help her carry in packages from the car. (Gordons did not appear in public in their pajamas.)

This task completed, Mom said, "Well, as long as you're dressed, dear, why don't you go outside for a while? It's a beautiful day. You could practice on your skateboard."

Gordo didn't want his mom asking questions. She was looking at him suspiciously enough already. As a psychiatrist she well recognized the first signs of depression. Being his mom didn't help, either.

"You're right, Mom," Gordo agreed. "Beautiful day. I think I'll skateboard."

In New York last August, Adam had gifted Gordo his old skateboard as an early birthday present. The design had worn off but the wheels were still in pretty good shape. Adam was still learning himself, but he knew enough to teach Gordo some basic maneuvers and tricks. During those few weeks they practiced together often in Central Park. Adam said when he visited Hillridge with his family for Thanksgiving he wanted to see Gordo do a perfect ollie. That was nearly six weeks away, and Gordo was not even close. A practice session was definitely in order.

Gordo spent an hour in the park, perfecting his braking techniques, flipping his board and flying over curbs. He felt good. He was breaking a sweat and he wasn't thinking about Lizzie. He rolled through the park looking for a higher curb or step to conquer. He did not find one, but he did find Larry Tudgeman playing chess with a very cute girl.

"Tudge!" Gordo exclaimed, skating up to their table, then flipping his board expertly into his hands.

The girl looked up at him, frowning. She gave him a loud "shhh!" then went back to staring at the chessboard.

For a few moments Tudgeman and the girl sat motionless, intent. Gordo noticed a timer on the table. It was about to "bing!" when Tudgeman exclaimed, "Ah ha!" He made a moved and grinned. "Check."

The girl reset the timer, moved her queen and said, "Your turn."

"Hey!"

Gordo stood by and followed the progress of the game until at last he could see that Tudge was in serious trouble. Only a few moves more and it was "Checkmate."

"You win again," Tudge conceded, smiling at his opponent. "Another one? Or maybe you'd like to play Gordon? He was pretty good…back in the day."

Gordo laughed. "You mean in 5th grade math class?"

"Gordon and I would finish our fractions way before everyone else," Tudge explained to the girl. "Mrs. Tate didn't know what to do with us, so she gave us a chessboard. We must have played a hundred games that year. And pretty evenly matched."

"Even?" Gordo said. "I beat you six-tenths of the time. Or don't you remember?"

"I don't remember," Tudgeman said quickly, then, "Hey, Gordon, I want you to meet my girlfriend, Meryl. Meryl, this is David Gordon."

"Hi," Meryl said, looking up at him, smiling now instead of frowning.

Gordo smiled back. He couldn't remember when he had seen so many freckles. "Hi," he said.

"So you think you're pretty hot stuff, huh?" Meryl said, but still smiling. "I beat Tudge 74 percent of the time, so I think you and I might have a pretty good game. Want to give it a go?"

"Well…" Gordo began, "it's been a while. I'm sure I'm rusty."

Suddenly Meryl stood up and Gordo noticed how very short she was, even shorter than him. How refreshing!

"Go ahead," Meryl said. "I'll let you warm up on Tudge. Let's see what you got, Gordon."

"Well…okay." Gordo said down where Meryl had been. His chess game was indeed rusty, and Tudge won the first game, but Gordo said "Best two out of three," and with that challenge accepted, Gordo squeaked out a victory on the second game and quickly clobbered Tudge in the third.

"That last one was pure luck," Tudge said. "Meryl was distracting me."

Meryl giggled. She had been distracting him, sitting beside him and blowing in his ear. "It's part of the training, sweetie," she reminded. "You've got to be able to concentrate amid all kinds of distractions."

"I find that clock kind of distracting," Gordo said. "You guys are really serious about this, aren't you?"

"The clock is always used in Matches," Tudgeman explained. "We're in the Chess Club. We challenge other schools in the District, and if we do well, we'll go to County, and maybe even State."

"I wouldn't plan quite that far ahead," Meryl said. To Gordo she added, "Tudge is kind of a dreamer, don't you think?"

Gordo laughed lightly, remembering the Tudgeman from middle school. This guy seemed a lot better off, a lot happier. After all, he had a new shirt, and best of all, he now had a girlfriend.

"Hey, nice shirt," Gordo said.

"Gordon!" Meryl exclaimed suddenly. "You beat Tudge two out of three. That means statistically you'll probably pan out as a better player than him, and no doubt much better that Anna Belle. You ought to join the Chess Club."

"Good thinking, Merry!" Tudge exclaimed and they did some quick crazy motions with their knuckles. As Gordo watched, he wondered if this was the secret handshake of the Chess Club or only their own personal communication.

"Join the Chess Club," Tudge said to Gordo. "We go to a lot of Matches and we're doing pretty good. And you remember Mr. Dig from middle school?"

"Yeah, I've seen him around," Gordo said. "I guess he graduated when we did."

"The pay is better for high school teachers," Tudge explained. "He applied for a job at Hillridge High and got it. Now he's the Advisor for the Chess Club. And any time we have a Match he takes us all for pizza, whether we win or lose."

"He's a lot of fun," Meryl said.

"It's all fun," Tudge added. "I know it sounds kind of dorky, a bunch of smart kids playing board games, but everybody's really decent."

"Though a little weird," Meryl added.

Gordo chuckled, thinking Then I should fit right in.

"You gonna do it?" Tudge asked.

I don't know," Gordo said. "I'm not sure I'm good enough."

"You beat Tudge," Meryl reminded.

"But I could always beat Tudge."

"Then you gotta try to beat me," Meryl said, scooting Tudge out of the way and taking his seat. She began to set up the pieces. "Not that you'll actually be able to do it," she grinned.

Gordo helped set the board, now up for the challenge. "Oh yeah? Bring it on!"

Meryl, he soon found out, was a tough opponent. Game one was impossible, but on their second try he began to understand her strategies and fared better, though he still lost. On their third game he chased her around the board for so long that even though he lost again, he now knew he could indeed beat her some time in the future.

"Good game, Gordon!" Meryl said, jumping up from the table. "It's late! I gotta go!"

"See you, Merry," Tudge said as he gave her a kiss. Now there was an odd sight!

"Nice meeting you, Gordon," Meryl said.

Gordo nodded. "Yeah. You too, Merry."

As they watched her run off, Gordo suddenly realized how late it really was. Hours had passed…hours during which not once had he thought about Lizzie or felt depressed. Chess was good to get his mind off his problems. Maybe he should join the Chess Club.

He looked at Tudge, who was still looking at Meryl, running off in the distance. Tudge signed wistfully. "Isn't she something?"

"Yeah, she's really something," Gordo agreed. "And smart too."

Tudge looked sideways at Gordo. "Don't get any ideas," he warned. "Meryl is mine."

"Oh! Absolutely!"

"And that 'Merry' business," Tudge added. "That's mine too. Don't call her that."

"Sorry. I didn't know."

"Well, now that you do," Tudge said, "I think we're gonna get along just fine."