“Biggest wave ever?” Caleb said. “Sick.”

Once again, Zach looked around to check if anyone was watching. But he also knew Caleb wasn’t the type to play tricks or make fun of someone. He was one of those kids whose hair was always neatly trimmed. His shirt was always tucked in and his sneakers looked new and barely scuffed. He was too much of a do-gooder to be openly mean.

“So listen,” Caleb said. “Know the eSports club Ms. B is starting?”

Zach frowned. eSports club?

“Remember the morning announcements?” Caleb caught himself and grinned. “You were busy watching your phone in that notebook, right?”

Zach felt his face turn warm with embarrassment. He recalled how Caleb had come back to the classroom while Ms. B was chewing him out about the notebook.

“What were you watching anyway?” Caleb asked.

“Good War tutorials,” Zach said, barely above a whisper.

“That’s what I’m playing!” Caleb gushed. “Don’t you love how smooth the gameplay is? And how the developers actually care about keeping it balanced? Real boots-on-the-ground combat. Not one of those dumb FPS extravaganzas set in the year AD six million with all that made-up futuristic crap, you know?”

Zach nodded. It sounded like Caleb knew what he was talking about.

“Know what would be super cool?” Caleb asked excitedly. “If that’s the game the eSports club plays.”

Fat chance, Zach thought. The Good War was rated M. No way would it ever get through the district web filter. And he still didn’t understand why Caleb was telling him this. Zach didn’t like school, and he didn’t like clubs. Why would he like a school club?

“Want to give it a try?” Caleb asked.

Why is he trying to get me to be in a club? Zach wondered. Caleb had never shown any interest in him before. Normally, Caleb was interested only in things that gave him a chance to excel and show everyone he was the best.

“I mean,” Caleb went on, “don’t you at least want to check out those Providia X-Masters? They freaking sound awesome.”

Zach had to admit that Caleb seemed sincere. It was so rare that anyone at school wanted anything to do with him. He said he’d think about it.

“So, Ms. B caught you,” Gavin said to Crosby. School had just ended, and they were walking to the computer lab to see what the new eSports club was all about.

“She didn’t catch me,” Crosby muttered angrily. Twenty minutes ago, in the middle of the geometry test, Ms. B suddenly told Crosby to join her out in the hall. There she asked to see the sides of his fingers, where he’d written the formulas in tiny letters and numbers. Then she told him to go down to the boys’ room and scrub his hands.

“Then how did she know?” Gavin asked.

Good question, Crosby thought. There was only one person he’d told about his plan to cheat, and that was Gavin. Crosby didn’t want to believe that Gavin would rat on him, but then, he didn’t actually know Gavin that well, did he? It was only for the past month that Gavin had let Crosby hang out with him, and the guy never wanted to talk about anything personal.