“Okay, I’m here,” Caleb announced. He expected Ms. Dean to give him a chilly reception and for Callie to be glad to be relieved of the drudgery. Both of them looked at him.

And smiled!

“Caleb, they’re wonderful!” Ms. Dean gushed. “The lighting, the expressions, the cropping…They’re fabulous!”

Caleb was caught completely off guard. “Any retakes needed?”

“Maybe two or three,” Callie said. “But that’s all. And we’re almost finished.”

“You don’t have to stay,” Ms. Dean said. “We’ll be done in a few minutes.”

Caleb left the yearbook office feeling befuddled. It sounded like he didn’t have to worry about being accused of showing bad judgment after all. The photographer he’d chosen might have been disorganized, but according to Ms. Dean and Callie, the portraits were great. Caleb wondered if there still might be time to catch up to Zach and walk home with him, but he had one more stop to make—Ms. B’s room. After the malware incident today, he was worried that she might be having second thoughts about the eSports club. He’d invested so much time and energy to get it going. And now, with the Brooke Ford interview on the horizon, he was determined to keep it going.

When he got to Ms. B’s room, she was sitting at her desk, grading papers. Ms. B looked up and waved him in.

“Don’t worry,” she said, as if she could read his mind. “I’m not going to shut down the club.”

Caleb felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

“But I have to tell you,” Ms. B went on, “that I am extremely disturbed by what happened. I thought we could stop it by banning the uniforms and Iron Crosses. But after today, it no longer feels like a game. It feels like what was supposed to be pretend evil has seeped into the real world.”

Caleb didn’t try to argue. He said that he thought the solution might be exactly what she’d said earlier: talking things out.

“Would you start by giving Nathan a call tonight?” Ms. B suggested. “To smooth things over?”

Caleb wasn’t thrilled by that idea. There wasn’t only tension between Nathan and Crosby. There was tension between Nathan and the rest of the Allied squad as well. The classroom got quiet. Ms. B tapped her pencil against the desk and glanced down at the papers she’d been grading. Caleb sensed that they’d reached an “Is there anything else we need to talk about?” moment. But before he left, he had one more thing to say: “I know things aren’t going the way we hoped. But it’s the beta test, right? There are always gonna be a few bumps in the road when you try something new.”

A thin smile worked its way onto Ms. B’s lips. “You’re right. Thanks for reminding me. And it isn’t all bad news. What did you think of Zach today? Being the first one to break up the fight?”

“Pretty amazing,” Caleb said.

Ms. B’s smile grew. “I know it’s a cliché to say someone’s come out of their shell but I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. He really has become a new person.”