Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Miss McDaniels has Merci draft a letter of apology to Michael. After several failed drafts, the one that Miss McDaniels approves states that Merci did not respect the rules, as is required at Seaward Pines, and that betting goes against school ethics. Miss McDaniels tells Merci that she should have known better than to do what she did: She can give Michael a pass as a new student, but not Merci. She tells Merci that if anything like the baseball incident ever happens again, she’ll be removed from Sunshine Buddies: “My chance to ditch this dumb club is here, but it’s all wrong. Leaving isn’t the same thing as being kicked out,” Merci says (172).

After the meeting, Merci anticipates the talking-to she will receive from her mother, but it’s her father who has come to pick her up. He tells her that her mother had a staff meeting at the rehab center where she works. He says, “Here’s the deal […] You have to show everyone here every day that they did the right thing accepting you. You have to act like a serious girl” (174). When Merci tells Enrique that other students to foolish things at the school all the time, Enrique sighs.