The Perfect Shot

Warren and Todd pick up Brian, and then they all go to the police station together. On the way, Warren asks them to tell him anything he might need to know about Julius beforehand, such as whether he has been in trouble before. He hasn’t, but Brian concedes that Julius can be rude to teachers sometimes. He doesn’t think he would act that way toward a stranger, especially a police officer. Even though Julius was one of Todd’s main bullies, Todd vouches for his clean record.

Warren calls the station and tells the officers that he is Julius’s lawyer and that they will need to have all paperwork and copies of his file ready for him to review. He tells them that they should not have kept Julius at the station for over 24 hours without counsel and threatens to go to the press about the way they mishandled the situation. Brian is impressed by the way Warren holds the police accountable. Warren explains that a lot of police officers will suspect that a person has committed a crime and then treat them like criminals before they know anything about them. It is his job to make sure they follow the appropriate procedures rather than jump to conclusions based on racial stereotypes and prejudices.

At the police station, Warren continues to demand documentation of everything that happened with Julius at the station. After Julius is released, Warren, Brian, and Todd follow him back to his house. Julius runs into his house without saying anything, and Brian believes he is embarrassed about the incident and wants to pretend it didn’t happen. Warren says that usually once someone has had a run-in with the police, he may continue to be a suspect for a long time.

Brian gets up early the next morning to shoot baskets outside. His father comes outside and plays with him for a bit, then tells him he did the right thing and that he is glad he helped Julius. He says that one day, Brian will understand that he was trying to protect him; sometimes, doing the right thing can have unintended consequences. Brian doesn’t understand how doing the right thing could ever be a mistake. His dad tells him that one small wrong choice can lead a person down a path that they can never return from. Brian realizes that his dad is talking about his own life and how he has taken a detour from his passion: hand-carving beautiful works of art. Brian knows that his dad is not as happy as he used to be, and a lot of the pressure that he puts on him to be successful stems from that pain. Brian realizes he feels sorry for his father and loves him despite his misguided perspective on some things. He offers to play a game of “HORSE” with him, and his dad happily accepts.

Brian calls Julius all weekend, but he never answers. When he sees him at school on Monday, he is surprised to find him spending time with Keesha, a girl who has a crush on him but whose affection he never returned before.

Julius asks Brian if he told anyone about his arrest, and Brian says no but that he should probably tell people himself. Julius wishes he hadn’t brought Todd and Warren because he does not trust them. He asks why Brian’s dad didn’t come, and Brian tries to explain that his dad didn’t want to get involved without hurting his feelings. Julius seems angry about it anyway.

As Julius walks away with Keesha, Todd approaches Brian. He promises that he will never say anything about Julius’s arrest—it is one of Warren’s conditions for Todd living with him. Then he suggests that they record their own music for their movie—Brian on guitar and Todd on keyboard. Brian is not sure that he can play well enough, but Todd encourages him to try.

Later that afternoon at basketball practice, Julius is more aggressive than usual, deliberately ignoring the coach and hogging the ball. Coach Guilford is infuriated by his behavior and Brian tries to step in and get Julius to calm down. He asks Julius if he has started working on his history project, and Julius replies that he doesn’t care about it. Julius asks Brian if he’s coming out for pizza, but Brian declines.

After practice, Brian gets a ride home and goes straight into his dad’s woodworking studio. Between Julius’s erratic behavior, his research on Leo Frank, and Mr. Daine’s trial, he is feeling overwhelmed and confused about how to handle everything. He picks up a guitar and starts playing and feels as though Amanda is there, guiding him.

When he comes down for dinner, his parents tell him that his playing sounds good. After they eat, he watches the news. The defense lawyer argues that not only does Mr. Daine no longer possess the model of firearm used in the murder, but he does not have the shooting skill required to make the kind of perfect shots that killed his family. One of his former coworkers, Officer Recks, disagrees. He testifies that Mr. Daine is a very good shot, and though he doesn’t believe he did it, he could have shot his family in the manner that they were killed.

Brian feels more confused than ever and questions how well he actually knew Mr. Daine. He wonders if his father is right about the jogger not being important, but he also notes that his father made the wrong call about not helping Julius.

Brian’s basketball team has two more games the following week. During the second game, Julius behaves erratically and takes wild shots. He hogs the ball and acts like he’s a one-person team. Coach Guilford threatens to bench him if he doesn’t start playing with his team. He also scolds Brian for not doing his job as captain. They win the game, but Brian still feels like it’s a loss because his team is no longer cohesive.

Ashley drives Brian home, and he can tell that she wants to spend time with him. They kiss, but Brian does not feel about her the way he did about Amanda, and she can tell. When Brian gets home, he sees a new headline about Mr. Daine’s trial in the newspaper. The prosecution believes they have found a motive for the murders: Mr. Daine was having an affair, and they believe he killed his family so he could be with the other woman. Brian wonders if this is what Amanda meant when she told him that things with her parents were bad. He wonders if Mr. Daine wanted a divorce and Mrs. Daine refused.

Brian goes to bed that night feeling extremely angry at the prosecutors, Mr. Daine, Julius for his new attitude post-arrest, and the officers who arrested him. He tears up the newspaper and falls into bed, feeling as if his world is out of control.

Brian goes to Todd’s house to work on their project, but he can’t concentrate—he is still too angry about Mr. Daine’s case. He ends up telling Todd about Mr. Daine’s affairs; he still believes that he didn’t kill his family, even if he was cheating on his wife. He points out that the prosecutors in both the Daine case and the Frank case used illicit sex as proof of the men’s guilt. Todd questions whether Mr. Daine is innocent, which makes Brian even madder. He points out that as an outsider at school, he thought that Todd would be more sensitive to people drawing unfair conclusions based on prejudices.

Todd backs down and tells Brian that he’s right. Then he asks how Brian knew. Brian is confused by what he means; he doesn’t know anything about Todd except that he is a bit different from other kids at school. Todd reveals that he is gay. His father is a preacher, and both his parents are very conservative Christians, so when he came out to them, they refused to accept him. They disowned him, and Todd went to live with Warren and Elise.

Todd asks Brian if he sees him differently now that he knows he’s gay. Brian replies that he does, but not in a bad way; he feels as though he understands Todd’s perspective a little better and can appreciate how tough some of his experiences have been. Brian begins to realize that Julius, as a young Black man, and Todd, as a young gay man, face difficulties that he never will, so the way they see things will inevitably be different.

Brian is waiting for the basketball team to arrive at his house, and soon, everyone is there except Julius. They are all annoyed with Julius after his performance at their last game. Brian decides to tell them about the arrest, thinking the team will cut him some slack if they know. He shares that he is worried Julius will get into even more trouble if he keeps blowing off his history project, and they decide that they will come together to help him, even if it means kidnapping him and dragging him to the library.

After their next practice, the team tells Julius that they are going to get pizza, but they bring him to the library instead. He explodes with anger, and Leslie, whom the cheerleaders brought, isn’t happy either. Brian tries to think of a way that Julius can use his academic strength—math—on the project. If Leslie and the team can do the research and the presentation, Julius can do his part by crunching the numbers. They figure out a way to incorporate statistics into their report about military generals who either turn their post-war countries into dictatorships or work to uphold the ideals of democracy. Eventually, they make some progress, and Brian feels a little better about the situation.

When Brian gets home that night, he watches the news. Mr. Daine’s lawyer says their strategy is mostly to prove that Mr. Daine has an alibi—they will find witnesses who can corroborate his claim that he was playing basketball at the gym when the murders took place. Brian’s dad reassures him that his information about the jogger doesn’t appear important to the trial. Brian disagrees, but he doesn’t say anything. He decides to take one thing at a time—finish his history project, beat Jackson, and get his team to regionals.