The Trouble with Mark Hopper by Elissa Brent Weissman

further. He looked at the quick sketch he had drawn while trying to figure out one of the word problems. It wasn’t stupid, he wondered, was it?
    He felt something hit him in the back of the head. He looked around. A boy named Jonathan was grinning at him and pointing at the floor. There was a piece of paper folded into a tight triangle. Mark pointed at himself with wide eyes, and Jonathan nodded. Mark checked to see that Miss Payley wasn’t looking before he picked up the note. “The Cool Mark Hopper” was written on the outside in spiky handwriting. He felt his ears turn red once more as he carefully unfolded it. “Stinks you have to have the same name as that jerk!” the note read. Mark turned around and nodded at Jonathan, who laughed in response.
    â€œWhat’s funny?” asked Miss Payley.
    Mark turned back around to pay attention. For the first time since he found out about him, he thought that this other Mark might actually be good for something.

    After class, Jonathan caught up to Mark. “Did you go to elementary school with that other Mark, too?” he asked.
    â€œNo,” said Mark. “I just moved to Greenburgh this summer.”
    Jonathan patted him on the back. “Aren’t you in art eighth period?”
    â€œYeah,” said Mark.
    â€œAre you going to join the art club?”
    â€œYeah!” said Mark, his eyes wide. Then, trying to pull back his enthusiasm, he shrugged. “Are you in it?”
    â€œI’m going to the meeting after school to see what it’s all about.”
    â€œI want to go,” Mark said, thinking about his meeting with Miss Payley and feeling his mood dampen again. “But I might be kind of late, and I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
    â€œWell, I’m definitely going, so I can let you know what happens and sign you up. Do you have lunch now?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œMe, too. Let’s go.”
    Â 
    Ashamed at having gotten detention, Mark was mostly quiet the rest of the day. He didn’t raise his hand once during computers, and he barely spoke at all while doing group work in science—though strangely enough, the other kids in the group seemed to like him more for it. One of them, a pretty girl he thought was named Julia—though maybe it was Julie or Maria—even asked him if everything was okay. “Of course everything’s okay! Mind your own business,” Mark snapped back at her. She held up her hands in surrender and walked away, and Mark rolled his eyes.
    He sat at Jasmina’s lunch table, like he did every day. As he ate his turkey sandwich, he listened to the conversations around him and wondered how all of these people seemed to have so many new friends already. Well, he had Jasmina. And he had the Mastermind tournament to plan for. It was good that he didn’t have more than one friend yet, he reasoned. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to prepare fully because he’d be so busy socializing.
    He heard a familiar voice from a few tables away. It was the other Mark Hopper talking easily to a group of boys. He was showing them what seemed to be a drawing. Mark pretended to stretch and looked over. It was a complicated sketch of an old man. Mark figured he must have traced it—no one in sixth grade could draw that well—but the other boys seemed to be impressed anyway. If that wasn’t bad enough, after Mark finished saying something, the other boys laughed and responded. The other Mark Hopper had friends.
    â€œMark.” Jasmina snapped her fingers in front of Mark’s face. “Earth to Mark.”
    â€œWhat?” Mark said.
    â€œWhat is wrong with you today? Did you do badly on that math test or something?”
    â€œOf course not,” Mark said sharply. “I have to stay after school for a little today. Can you wait to walk home?”
    Jasmina shook her head and her braids clicked together.