“Somebody must’ve told her,” Crosby said, curious to see how Gavin would react. A bunch of sixth graders were gathered in the middle of the hall ahead of them, but when they saw Gavin approaching, they quickly moved to the side. Crosby enjoyed walking with Gavin. Nobody, not even the eighth graders, dared mess with the big red-haired seventh grader. Crosby liked to bask in the glow of power that seemed to radiate from the guy.

“Oh yeah?” Gavin said. “Who do you think told her?”

Does Gavin really not know? Crosby wondered. Or is he just pretending in order to throw me off the scent?

Emma was walking toward the computer lab when someone behind her said, “Hey.” She turned. It was Caleb. “Thought you were going to save me a seat at the assembly,” he said.

Emma felt her face flush. “I did. I saw you come into the gym but you didn’t see me.” That was sort of true. Though, with Mackenzie and Isabella there, Emma hadn’t tried to be seen.

Caleb’s eyebrows dipped. “I thought I looked everywhere.”

“Maybe you didn’t see me because it was so crowded,” Emma said lamely. For the next few steps, neither of them spoke. Emma felt bad. Surely Caleb suspected she wasn’t being entirely truthful. When in doubt, change the subject, she thought. “Ms. B said you had something to do with the eSports club?”

Caleb explained how last spring he’d collected a bunch of news stories about schools that were launching clubs and showed them to Ms. B. And how he wrote the grant proposal for the new computers.

“You wrote it?” Emma asked, surprised that Caleb, who’d been a sixth grader last spring, had done something like that.

“Sure,” Caleb said with a grin. “I mean, I got some help from Ms. B and my parents. But the thing is, the people who read those grant proposals have no idea how old you are.”

Emma was impressed. Writing a grant proposal sounded complicated. But it was just the sort of thing Caleb would do. Suddenly, Caleb leaned close to her. “Know what? Maybe it would be better if you didn’t tell anyone about the grant,” he said, barely above a whisper. “I already have a reputation for being a suck-up.”

Emma felt honored that he’d confided in her. She wondered if it was because they’d partnered on a project in art the year before. The assignment was to make spray-paint landscapes. Most of the kids in the class just used the materials the art teacher provided, but as always, Caleb wanted to do more. Emma found his enthusiasm infectious and was happy to be his accomplice. While the rest of the class did traditional landscapes like forests and mountains, Caleb suggested they do an underwater scene with corals and fish, a shipwreck and sea turtles. They’d researched the idea together. Then Caleb found foam brushes and palette knives, while Emma got specially colored spray paints. Together they turned an everyday art project into something unusual. And in the process, she’d developed a little crush on him.