Dave told Crosby that his brothers needed his support, and it would be great if he could go to the rally and march with them. Crosby said he’d definitely think about it. Then he had an idea. “Know what, Dave? I’m having a problem with a bunch of blue-pill snowflakes myself. They’re guys I’ve been gaming with forever, but now they think they’re hot stuff because they’re in college.”

“Colleges back east, I bet,” Dave said with a snicker. “So what’s the problem, Croz?”

“Next time we game, I’d like to take ’em down a few notches. Got any suggestions?” Crosby said.

“Oh yeah,” Dave said with a laugh. “I know just the thing.”

It was nearly midnight. Emma had been reading for hours and could hardly keep her eyes open. But at the same time, she couldn’t stop. She felt so much like Anne Frank. When Anne wrote that she had everything she needed in life except one true friend, Emma felt like she could have written those exact words herself. When Anne wrote about how smart her sister, Margot, was, Emma felt like she was describing her sister, Sarah. When Anne wrote about her resentment toward her mother for favoring Margot over her, it was exactly how Emma felt about her own mother.

And so, when Anne and her family had to hide in an attic from the Nazis, Emma felt like it was her and her family. She shared with Anne the confusion about why the Nazis were so determined to kill Jewish people. She felt the fear Anne felt each time the doorbell rang, terrified that it might be the Gestapo, coming to take them away.

Finally, when Emma couldn’t keep her eyes open for another second, she put the book down and turned off the light. But as she lay in the dark, feeling the heaviness of sleep overtake her, she thought she finally understood what was bothering her about the eSports club.

On Saturday, Caleb met his cousins at the mall. They shopped and ate pizza and caught up on one another’s lives. After lunch they were at a kiosk trying on sunglasses when Caleb’s cousin, Stephanie, nudged him and whispered, “I think we’re being followed.”

Caleb was trying on a pair of glasses, so he looked in the mirror to see if he could spot anyone in the background. And there was Zach, pretending to look in the window of Sephora, the cosmetics and perfume store. Caleb told his cousins he’d be right back, then went over and said hi.

“Oh, hi!” Zach acted like he was surprised to see Caleb there. He seemed as jittery and squirmy as the day two months before when Caleb came to the library to ask him to try the eSports club. Even though Caleb didn’t ask, Zach offered an explanation for why he was at the mall. “A couple of months ago my uncle sent me an Under Armour shirt for my birthday, but it’s too big, so I’m exchanging it.”