“And how was the first meeting of the eSports club?” his mother asked. The meeting had only been announced that morning, but his mother already knew about it. Caleb wasn’t surprised. Both his mother and father were plugged into what he called the Parental Hovernet. The Hovernet was an aggregation of school announcements, teacher-parent emails, texts, rumors…anything that helped helicopter parents like his keep tabs on what their kids were doing on a daily, if not minute-to-minute, basis.

Caleb said that the meeting had gone well.

“I think it’s wonderful that you did that for the school,” his mother said. “But I hope it doesn’t mean that you’re just going to play video games from now on.”

“Hey, don’t knock it,” Mr. Arnett said. “If he gets good enough, he could get a college scholarship.”

“The top players make millions,” Caleb added.

“Are you really thinking about becoming a professional gamer?” his mother asked with a frown.

Caleb didn’t need to be a professional gamer. Writing the grant proposal and getting the Providia computers and fast connection was good for the eSports club and for the school and had been a challenge for him. Of course, it would also look good on his transcript, where his one glaring weakness was in sports.

But despite what he’d accomplished, Caleb didn’t feel satisfied. The brief glimpse of school life through Zach’s eyes that afternoon was nagging at him. There was definitely more to Zach than the weird kid you saw in the halls walking backward or making bizarre noises. Caleb was surprised to discover that it bothered him that any kid had to be afraid to join a club, or to get on a bus. It was bad enough that every time they had a lockdown drill, they were reminded that the world was full of maniacs with semiautomatic weapons who might break into school and kill a bunch of students. Why should Zach, or any other kid, have to live in fear of the people who were already in school?

Crosby was psyched about the eSports club. He’d been playing The Good War for a couple of months and already knew the maps. He even knew a few lesser-known spots and glitches that would give his squad an advantage in the game. And having that advantage would make Gavin happy.

When Crosby first got into TGW, he played against random gamers based on their Elo ratings. But over time he’d gotten to know some players and considered them friends. Now they squadded up when they saw each other online. They even had their own private Discord channel to chat. One guy he particularly liked had the handle 88Rising. He was a good listener.

“My girlfriend’s annoying sister, Mary, came over for dinner,” Crosby told 88Rising that night. Crosby didn’t have a girlfriend. But 88Rising’s deep voice made Crosby think he was in his twenties, so Crosby pretended to be older. In reality, his aunt Mary had come over because Crosby’s mom was seriously ill. Aunt Mary was a nurse in Franklin, but three or four nights a week she drove a couple of hours to Ironville to cook dinner and help with his mom’s care.