The Tryout Trap

The Common Ground Club made room for anyone. Now the school wants them to make a rule for that.When Maple Grove announces a new Peer Leadership Team, Avery sees the perfect way to make the club official - a written response, a teacher recommendation, even a live group tryout. Jade sees something else entirely: the exact kind of gatekeeping the club was built to avoid. Somewhere between a clipboard and a chair, the five girls who agreed on almost everything find themselves on opposite sides of what "welcome" is supposed to mean.Meanwhile, a quiet fifth grader named Ren is learning to trust that showing up doesn't have to come with a script - if Maya can figure out how to make space for him without ever making him feel watched.Between a ceiling tile disaster, a spilled tray, and a tryout that tests a lot more than talent, the Common Ground Club has to answer its hardest question yet: can you measure kindness with a checklist? Or does the whole point disappear the moment you try?Book Three in The Common Ground Club continues the story of five friends learning that the rules meant to protect a good thing can just as easily choke it - and that the bravest tryout is the one where you let someone in without asking them to prove anything first.