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“If I’d suggested that answer,” Jake said, “you’d make fun of me for being a dumb baseball player. Or football player. Or whatever it is I play.”

Winston and Mal shared a panicked glance. Mr. Garvey advanced on Jake, his eyes glaring. “I’m not going to argue with you, Jake. Just give me the computer!” He grabbed it away from Jake’s loose hands.

Maybe Mr. Garvey had expected Jake to argue further. Maybe he expected to have to wrestle Jake for possession of the computer, like two little kids fighting over a toy. But Jake didn’t resist one iota when Mr. Garvey snatched the computer away.

Mr. Garvey used too much force. It was like lifting something that you think will be very heavy . . . but is instead surprisingly light. Mr. Garvey snatched the computer from Jake’s hands only to throw it backward over his own head. For a frozen moment, they all watched it fly through the air. Winston’s heart stopped as if it had predicted what was going to happen next.

The mini computer hit the back of the park bench. There was a sharp cracking sound. The computer then dropped to the seat of the bench, teetered there for a moment, and fell to the grass.

Mr. Garvey made an inarticulate cry and ran to pick it up. He inspected it for damage and then pressed the power button. There was no teedly-teedly-tee. He pressed the button again. Nothing. Mr. Garvey shook the computer lightly, and Winston could hear a slight rattling sound. Something in there had become disconnected. The computer was dead.

It felt like an hour or two had passed with Mr. Garvey standing there cradling the dead computer in both hands like a beloved pet and the three boys stunned and not daring to move an inch for fear of somehow making things worse. Although how things could get worse than this, Winston could not imagine.

But it wasn’t an hour. Only a few seconds passed before Winston heard muffled laughter. Winston looked over to see the team from Lincoln Junior High sitting on the next bench down. They had seen what had happened. Even their teacher, Rod Denham, had his hand over his mouth to hide his amusement. His eyes were shiny with pleasure.

Mr. Garvey saw that, too. His face was painted with fury and humiliation. He said to Jake in a low voice, “What did you do? You’ve ruined us.”

Jake looked terrified, but he nonetheless said, “If you hadn’t grabbed it out of my hand, it wouldn’t be broken!”

“If you had given it to me when I asked for it, I wouldn’t have had to take it from you! Now what do you want to do? Hmm?” The math teacher looked at all of them. “What should we do now? Even if we solve the puzzle, we have no way to submit our solution. It’s like you boys don’t want to win.”

“I want to win,” said Mal. “But I wasn’t planning on having a heart attack if we didn’t. It’s not the end of the world to lose.”

Mr. Garvey waved a finger at him. “That’s the attitude you’ve been giving me all day. Acting like a kid on a picnic.” He repeated Mal’s words as if he’d never heard such a concept uttered before. “It’s not the end of the world to lose!”

“Well, it’s not!”

“If that’s what you think, Mal, then you’re going to lose. To win, you have to care. You have to focus on it. You have to be driven.”

“So if Brendan Root wins,” Jake said, “I guess you’ll be the first to congratulate him? He was so driven that he actually cheated.”

Mr. Garvey rolled his eyes. “I’m not in favor of cheating, Jake. I never said I was.”

But Jake persisted. The fear was already out of his voice. “Did you tell those other teams about the memo pad to warn them or because you wanted them to get scared and quit?”

The math teacher gave a little laugh. He looked around as if trying to find somebody to share his disbelief. “What, this again?” he said.

“I’m just asking,” said Jake.

“We’re not talking about that,” said Mr. Garvey. “We’re talking about the computer that you broke.” He waved it in Jake’s face.

“I didn’t break it! I didn’t grab it out of your hands and fling it into the nearest hard surface!”

Winston said, “Uh, guys.”

Mr.