“You see the Axis today?” Nathan asked when Emma joined them. “They’re wearing gray shirts. With medals.”

“Metals?” Emma repeated, not getting it.

“Medals. The things they give to heroes,” Nathan continued as if she were a moron. It suddenly hit Emma that this was an act. She knew what a medal was. Nathan was just trying to impress Tanisha.

“Okay,” Emma’s eyes met his, and didn’t waver.

“No, it’s not okay,” Nathan snapped, continuing with the act. “It’s gonna make us look stupid. Kids’ll be watching on Twitch. They’re gonna see the Axis decked out in uniforms and medals and us with this stupid green stuff in our hair.”

Apparently, Nathan had chosen to forget that the green dye was his idea. But Emma knew that if she reminded him of that, all she’d do was embarrass him in front of Tanisha. And as much as he deserved to be embarrassed, it was Emma’s job to keep the squad unified. So she said, “Let’s talk about it in the cafeteria.”

“But—” Nathan began.

“I said, we’ll talk about it at lunch,” Emma repeated firmly.

The bell rang. Nathan made a face and left. Emma opened her locker and dumped some books inside. When she closed it, Tanisha was standing there. She winked at Emma and said, “You go, girl.”

Emma felt herself flush. Had anyone ever said that to her before? She didn’t think so.

To prepare for that afternoon’s match, Emma asked the Allied squad to meet in the computer lab during activity period to practice. As Caleb walked down the hall toward the lab, he had a lot more than that day’s match on his mind: Would this be the day he heard from Brooke Ford?

Brooke Ford was famous. She was a reporter for KFKN, the CBS affiliate station in Franklin, and you could see her practically every night on the six o’clock news. A few days ago, she’d called Caleb and said she’d seen the ITV story and wanted to do a report about him and the eSports club. But before she proposed the idea to her boss, she needed to know if Caleb was interested, and whether he thought his parents would grant KFKN permission to interview him. Caleb had assured her that his parents would be agreeable. Great, Brooke had said. She would speak to her boss and get back to Caleb soon. In the meantime, she suggested that Caleb not say anything to anyone about it. She didn’t want a competing network to get a jump on her.

Brooke Ford! Network television! Every time Caleb thought about it, he felt giddy. KFKN reached millions of viewers. Being interviewed by Brooke Ford would be the biggest thing that had ever happened to him.

When he got to the computer lab, Emma and Zach were already there. Nathan hadn’t shown up. Caleb made himself calm down and practice until the last bell. Soon the Axis squad filed into the lab. Each one of them had a black Iron Cross pinned to the left pocket of a long-sleeve gray shirt with epaulets. Tyler had even brought a toy model of a German soldier with a submachine gun that he placed on the table, aimed at the Allied side.