He came in. Ms. B had gotten to know him well during the past year: First while he pestered her to take the idea of an eSports club seriously. And then while they worked together on the grant proposal. He could be so determined and persuasive, and she’d come to believe he could do anything he set his mind to. Besides, they’d shared confidences. She felt she could trust him. He’d told her about Crosby’s plan to cheat on the geometry test. In her opinion, Caleb Arnett was a reliable boy.

“Looks like your dream of an eSports club is about to come true,” she said to him. “Congratulations.”

Caleb beamed. “Amazing, huh?”

Ms. B nodded. “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Would you try to get Zach Cook to come to the informational meeting this afternoon? I think it would be good for him.”

It was sixth period and Zach was relieved to be in the safe confines of the library where he didn’t have to worry about Ratface Crosby bothering him. Snot rockets like Ratface would rather lick toilets than be seen in the library.

It had been a stressful day for Zach. After Ratface forced him to ask that dumb question during the assembly, he’d spent most of the morning in the office waiting for Principal Summers to mete out his punishment—she’d given a stern lecture and a week of lunchtime detentions sitting at a table facing teachers. He and his fellow prisoners weren’t allowed to speak. They couldn’t even rest their heads on their arms. Was there any punishment worse than having to look at teachers across a table for forty minutes?

So it was a relief to be in the library during a free period. Zach had taken over two PCs. On one he played Minecraft, one of the few games the school district’s filters allowed. On the other, he watched surfing videos.

Then, out of nowhere, Extra Credit Caleb sat down beside him. “Minecraft and surfing, huh?” the kid said. “You see on Twitch about people building the Taj Mahal on MC? The details are amazing!”

Zach wasn’t sure what to do. He and Caleb had been in school together since kindergarten, but they’d hardly ever spoken. Zach paused the game and glanced around the library. Was this a prank? Were Caleb’s friends hiding in the stacks, watching or recording them? Meanwhile, Caleb pointed at the other computer screen. “You into surfing? Cool.”

Why is Caleb Arnett trying to be friendly? Zach wondered. What does he want? Is he just going to sit there and talk the whole period?

Zach began to blink and bounce his knees rapidly. At a loss for what to do, he turned to the other keyboard and pulled up “Biggest wave ever surfed.” He and Caleb watched the tiny image of extreme surfer Marc Nguyen scudding down the face of a giant blue wall of curling water at Nazaré.