“Did you make the deadline?” his mom asked in the car.

Caleb said he had. He didn’t like lying to her, but if he always lived the way she wanted him to, it wouldn’t be much of a life.

“Did ITV come to school?” his mom asked next.

“Sure did,” Caleb said. “They asked a lot of questions, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see what they use on the show.”

“Don’t forget to send it to Grammy,” Mrs. Arnett said. ITV only broadcast to a few thousand people around Ironville, but once the grandparents got hold of it, you could count on repeat screenings in retirement communities from Florida to Arizona. “Did they say when it would be on TV?”

“In a couple of days,” Caleb said, and gazed out the window as they passed the old steel mill. These days it was a dark empty brick husk behind a rusty fence. Both of his grandfathers had worked there, and so had some of his uncles. After the mill shut down it was said that life in Ironville changed. People began to move away, and those who stayed had trouble finding steady jobs. It made Caleb feel proud that he’d gotten those Providia computers for the school. It wasn’t the same as getting extra credit just for himself. It was something that benefited others. Something that Caleb was just starting to discover felt good.

MATCH TALLY

THE AXIS: 3

THE ALLIES: 2

For the first time since the football team had been disbanded, Ms. B could feel excitement in the air. It might not have reached the level of rah-rah school spirit on the day of a big game, but there was a definite stirring in the halls. The match a week ago had been streamed. A few days later ITV began running the segment about Caleb and her and the eSports club. Her students were excited to see her on TV and she’d overheard kids in the hallways talking about how they hoped to join the club in the spring.

Not everything went smoothly. “I’ve gotten two calls from parents complaining about those red T-shirts Gavin’s squad wore,” Mr. Parnes said in the teachers’ room at lunch the day after the ITV segment ran. “They said it reminded them of the symbol of the SS.”

Ms. B felt a chill. Mr. Parnes was right. The SS had been an elite, and savage, unit of the Nazi party during World War II. Their symbol had been two white lightning bolts.

“And has anyone noticed that they’ve been talking with German accents?” asked Ms. Dean, who taught math and was the yearbook advisor.

“They’re playing a World War Two game between the Axis and the Allied forces,” Ms. B explained. “Gavin’s team is the Axis. But I should have recognized the lightning bolt sooner.”

Mr. Parnes took off his glasses and cleaned them on the cuff of his plaid shirt. “Do you think maybe they’re taking it a little too seriously?”