A moment later, Caleb felt Crosby’s warm breath in his ear. He knew that Crosby was trying to scare him by getting that close. Caleb turned in his seat. Crosby’s face was so close that Caleb could see the blackheads in his forehead.

“Know why I’ve been giving you the hairy eyeball for the past month?” Crosby asked. “Because I know it was you who told Ms. B about me cheating on the geometry test.”

It took all of Caleb’s willpower not to blink or look away. But there was no way Crosby could know that for sure. Caleb trusted Ms. B. She never would have told Crosby how she knew about his plan. Besides, Ms. B had said that someone else had also told her about it. Caleb decided that Crosby was bluffing. He’d said that just to see how Caleb would react.

“What are you talking about?” Caleb asked.

Crosby’s eyes narrowed. He glanced at Gavin, then back at Caleb. “You better watch yourself.”

“Last Friday in the hall three boys came up to me, very excited, and asked if it was true that the school had an eSports club,” Ms. B told Principal Summers in the computer lab. “I almost asked where they’d been four weeks ago when we had the informational meeting.”

Principal Summers sighed. “No matter what we do, it seems like half the kids don’t listen to the morning announcements.”

“So I told them, yes, there’s a club,” said Ms. B, “but right now we’re just testing the idea to see what works and what doesn’t. If it goes well, hopefully we’ll be able to expand for the spring semester.”

“Then there’s growing interest?” Principal Summers asked.

“Which may grow even more after the ITV story comes out,” Ms. B said, reminding the principal that the film crew would be coming to the eSports club that afternoon. “But here’s what’s interesting. It turned out that those boys weren’t asking about the club because they want to play. They were asking because they want to add commentary and stream the matches on Twitch.”

Principal Summers frowned. “Sorry?”

Ms. B might have been far from savvy when it came to internet gaming, but she knew about Twitch. She explained that the boys wanted to broadcast the matches online so that other kids could watch.

“Kids want to watch other kids play video games?” Principal Summers asked, puzzled.

“Just like any other sport,” Ms. B said.

The principal’s eyebrows dipped. She strolled along the table where the Providia monitors sat. “Well, anything that gets the students involved is good,” she said. “But what about the educational part? Are students using these computers for anything besides gaming?”

“Let me show you something.” Ms. B sat down at one of the computers and pulled up an animation. “Remember those models of the solar system we used to make with papier-mâché and clothes hanger wire?”

“Oh yes.” Principal Summers smiled at a memory. “What a mess.”