Mr. Arnett shook his head. “No, the Japanese uniforms tended more toward brown, and the Italians, tan.”

“Uh, okay,” Caleb said. His dad taught history at Ironville Community College, so it was hard to argue.

“Then the Axis squad is dressing like Nazis,” Mrs. Arnett surmised.

“No, not like Nazis,” Caleb said. “Like the Wehrmacht, the German soldiers.”

“And what exactly would the difference between them be?” his father asked.

“The Nazis were the ones who killed all those people in the concentration camps,” Caleb said, repeating what he’d heard. “The Wehrmacht were just the German soldiers fighting the war.”

Mr. Arnett frowned deeply. “That myth has been thoroughly disproved. Almost all World War Two historians agree that the Wehrmacht cooperated fully with the Nazis when it came to murdering Jews. As did many German civilians who informed on their Jewish neighbors.”

From the looks on their faces, Caleb thought his parents were taking this way too seriously. “Let’s not make a big deal about it,” he said. “It’s just a video game.”

“With students who dress as Nazis,” his mother added sourly.

Caleb knew better than to argue. “If I don’t go right now I’m going to miss the bus,” he said, and dashed out of the house. He was used to his parents examining everything he did under a microscope, but they were wrong about this. It was just a game being played in an eSports club that he was responsible for creating. A game being played on PCs he’d written a grant proposal for. And soon it wouldn’t just be the people of Ironville who saw him on their TVs. It would be many, many more.

In the teachers’ room, Ms. Patrick was telling the others that someone was going through the gym lockers and taking money. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I’m the only teacher there, and I can’t be out in the gym and inside the locker room at the same time.”

“I’ve heard it’s happening with the hallway lockers, too,” said Ms. Dean, the math teacher and yearbook advisor.

Everyone agreed to remind their students to lock their lockers. Ms. B had resumed eating her broccoli salad when Mr. Bostwick, who taught eighth-grade English, joined her. “I’m having my LT kids write first-person narratives,” he said. “Half of them want to set theirs in The Good War. I thought they meant World War Two, but they’re talking about a video game? Something from an after-school club you’re advising?”

“LT” stood for “lower track.” They were below-average students who showed little interest in school. Most were biding their time until they turned sixteen and could drop out.

“It’s a video game set in World War Two,” Ms. B explained.

Mr. Bostwick’s forehead wrinkled. Ms. B reminded herself that he didn’t use email and insisted that he didn’t have a computer at home. She expected him to complain that a personal narrative based on a video game was completely unacceptable. Instead he said, “They’re actually excited about the assignment. And these are kids who never get excited about anything academic.”