- Mark is selected for a black tennis team to play in the Annual National Junior Tennis Championships.
- But the government announces they may not let the championships go forward due to concerns about black youth coming near the white suburbs of Pretoria.
- Scaramouche tells Mark just to keep practicing. Regardless, there are some black tournaments coming up and he'll register Mark in the singles and the two of them can play together for the doubles. Further, he says he'd like to introduce him to Andre Zietsman, a white tennis player who had just returned from a tennis scholarship in America.
- The tournament takes place after all and Mark returns from it, determined to make this tennis thing work. He'll strengthen his relationships with white tennis players and figure out how to win a scholarship to an American college.
- Schools finally reopen in August and Mark enrolls. Simba Quix still supports him financially so he can play tennis each afternoon.
- Most of Mark's classmates, however, are gone – many of them having joined Umkhonto We Sizwe. When they re-entered the country, it was as guerrilla soldiers. The government continued to pick students up for questioning and arrest, and Mark worries that he'll be picked up as well.
- Mama reassures him that he'll be safe, that God is protecting him.
- Mark begins to go to church, primarily because he feels safe there. As he reads the Bible, he finds it helpful. He visits numerous churches and begins to hear pastors talking about the need for liberation. More and more churches, in fact, are joining the freedom struggle.