“Who says it’s going to all go to hell?” Camille shoots back. “This is supposed to be fun, Julian. Fun! Taylor hanging their flag on our flagpole is hardly revolutionary stuff,” she says. “Not exactly going to start World War Three with that, are they?”

“Camille’s right,” I say quietly.

“I thought you were on my side,” he says, angry. “I’ve already told you both that things don’t always go off without a hitch during these pranks. I’m sure Taylor didn’t come to the game twenty years ago prepared for WrestleMania SmackDown, either. People have gotten hurt; some guys lost scholarships. I don’t have the luxury of taking those chances. And I don’t want to get anyone else on the team in trouble, either.”

“I am on your side,” I tell him. “But I’m also on the team’s side. No one is expecting you to have some brilliant plan of attack that involves doing something that’s going to get you into hot water with the administration or get you kicked out of school. It’s okay to plan something harmless. Something small. I think that would be enough to get the team and the alumni off your back. Show them that you do care about what they think. That maybe their traditions aren’t so bad.” I shrug.

The room falls silent after that.

The memory of the newspaper clipping that I saw in the shed drifts through my head. The picture of Julian’s dad and my father loading wrapped Christmas presents into a pickup truck. “What if we did some kind of community service? As a team? After the prank. Give the guys what they want, without getting too out of hand, and still find a way you can honor your dad.”

Julian looks up at me.

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” Camille says quietly, bumping Julian gently with her shoulder.

“I could think about that,” Julian says.

I can hear a crowd gathering outside the door in Camille’s kitchen. I know eventually we’re all going to have to come out of the bedroom, but it doesn’t look like Julian ever wants to leave.

“We better show our faces before my mother comes looking for us,” Camille says.

Julian agrees, but he’s the last one to get up and follow us through the door and into the fray. We join the party in the kitchen and on the back patio. Pastor Ernie and Figg are there, and they both give me high fives. There are some faces I recognize from bingo, including Mr. Cooper and Ms. Brownie and a few team members and their families. There are plenty of people I don’t recognize, too. I try to stay either close to Julian and Camille or alone in a corner.