Rivals United

Eleven-year-old Jax and Maren have been fierce rivals since kindergarten. When their teacher pairs them for the school Field Day three-legged race, they must learn that the best teammate might be the person who pushes you the hardest.

Jax Torres sat in the back row of Ms. Huang's fifth-grade class, doodling a cartoon rocket ship in the margin of his notebook. He was eleven years old, a fast runner, a decent artist, and the second-best student in the entire grade. Second-best, because the actual best was Maren Okafor, who sat three rows up and never, ever let him forget it.

'One day I am going to beat her at something big,' Jax muttered to himself, adding extra flames to the rocket's engines. 'Just one big thing. That is all I need.'

Their rivalry had been going on since kindergarten, when they both wanted to be line leader on the same day and neither one backed down. Now, six years later, they competed over everything: test scores, relay races, art contest ribbons, even who could eat lunch fastest.