I wanted him to see that even though he was good at math, there were other things in the world to be good at besides knowing math facts and how to figure out problems.”
-- Marc (chapter 1)

Importance: Marc is already seeing Danny as his competition, and he hopes to be better at pull-ups than Danny. Danny demonstrates that he works hard at every activity, pushing himself to do his best. While Marc's attitude is not always positive, this competition eventually pushes Marc to do better.

If there is something that you don't like doing, something that makes you uncomfortable, you should do more of it. It will make you better.”
-- Jake (chapter 4)

Importance: Jake immediately knows that Marc does not like to run and hates pushing himself to run hard. This is his answer. It takes the entire summer, but Marc eventually pushes outside his comfort zone, running a mile in less than six minutes.

Relaxing'...
-- Jake (chapter 7)