“Can I have a word?” Coach said. Marwan had been late, but only by a few minutes. So it couldn’t possibly be that. Maybe it was good news—that Marwan had been selected as the goalie for the upcoming tournament and Coach was giving him a heads-up before making an official announcement. Or the opposite—that Max had gotten it. Coach didn’t look happy.

“When I assemble my teams,” Coach said, “I consider the whole person, Marwan. And these days the whole person involves your digital footprint.”

“Well, I barely have one,” Marwan said, “so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Except there is,” Coach said.

Marwan just waited.

“I went on your Instagram and saw your latest post,” Coach said.

“Which one?” Marwan said. “About the flyer about the missing dog poop?”

“No,” Coach said. “The girl.”

“What girl?”

“The girl I saw you with the other day.” Coach sounded impatient now, annoyed at having to have this conversation. Marwan felt that way, too.

“There’s nothing having to do with her on my Instagram,” Marwan said.

“There was a photo, Marwan.” Now sounding disappointed. “Not the kind of photo a young man who respects women would ever share on social media.”

“There must be a mistake,” Marwan said. “I’ll get my phone. I’ll show you.”

“Marwan,” Coach said. “I know what I saw.”

“Well, it wasn’t me,” he said. “I must have been hacked or something.”

“But I saw you with her,” Coach said.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Marwan said.

“We’re done talking about this,” Coach said. “But suffice it to say, I’m disappointed in you. And I’ve had to make choices based on the whole picture.”

“But you’re not seeing the whole picture,” Marwan shouted.

“We’re done,” Coach said, and he walked away, and put his whistle in his mouth and blew it.

Marwan went into the locker room and struggled with the combination lock—had to do it twice—and got out his phone and opened Instagram. He tapped on his own profile and, sure enough, there was a photo of Eden. He deleted it before even looking at it too closely because it just felt wrong.

It made no sense, except that it did.

He took a minute to review her plan again, then folded the paper and put it back in his jacket pocket with his phone. Outside, he unlocked his bike and got on and didn’t bother with his helmet and rode off feeling like he might be the thing to explode.

Eli

ELI

His grandfather was in his bed, asleep, all wired up with monitors. The room beeped. Eli sat on the ottoman and let his backpack drop to the floor. It was awful to admit, but he was relieved not to have to talk to his grandfather right now and only hoped the device would be quiet for a while.