Seeing those tears in Tyler’s eyes reminded Crosby of how lucky he was to be on Gavin’s good side. It was a relief a month ago, when Crosby figured out how Ms. B knew about his plan to cheat on the geometry test. When Crosby awoke in the middle of the night, it was because he’d remembered who sat in front of him and Gavin on the bus most mornings. It was those two sixth graders who always shut up the second Gavin and Crosby sat down behind them. And who sat in front of the sixth graders? Extra Credit Caleb. Crosby knew he sometimes forgot to use his inside voice. And he recalled how the whole time he was telling Gavin about his plan to cheat, Caleb was gazing out the window with one ear aimed back toward them. So Caleb definitely could have overheard him. And it would be just like Caleb to snitch to Ms. B.

88Rising got online, interrupting Crosby’s thoughts. “Hey, CrossBow.”

“Hey, bro, you’re late. What took you?” Crosby said.

“Got stuck talking to some wacko,” 88Rising said. “You’ll love this, CrossBow. The guy was telling me about this organization called the Illuminati that’s plotting to take over the world. Guess where he says their secret headquarters are? Under the Denver airport.”

“What?” Crosby asked with a laugh.

“Crazy, right?” 88Rising said. “I mean, that’s the thing about the internet. It’s overrun with lunatic conspiracy theories. Lesson number one: You can’t believe everything you hear.”

“Right,” Crosby agreed, although the truth was that he hadn’t heard much one way or the other. “It makes you wonder what you can believe.”

88Rising was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “You can believe what we’ve talked about, CrossBow. That America was founded as a white country for people of European heritage. I’m not saying that America needs to be a hundred percent white. I mean, I like Mexican food as much as the next guy. But I don’t think you’ll be able to say that America is America at the rate we’re going. It’s gotten so bad that you can’t even say Merry Christmas anymore without people losing their minds. You told me you work in fulfillment, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Crosby said. He’d told 88Rising that he worked in an Amazon warehouse because that was what his dad had done before his parents had split up.

“Imagine what it would be like if all your coworkers were black and brown and yellow,” 88Rising said. “Imagine if your boss was some brown guy wearing a freaking turban? Think you’d be comfortable in a situation like that?”

Crosby had no idea how he’d feel. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen anyone wearing a turban. But he could sense the answer 88Rising expected from him. “Guess not,” he said.

“See? That’s what I like about you, CrossBow,” said 88Rising. “You’re smart and you’re honest. You tell it like you see it. With the liberals breathing down our necks, guys like you and me have to stick together.”