Zach smirked. “I have to hand it to you, Caleb. You are good. Really good. Everything you say sounds so real. So sincere. I bet I would have believed every word of it…if it wasn’t for what happened last week after the malware attack. See, I was leaving school with Emma when it hit me how to block that hacker. The whole two-part authentication thing. But when I went to Ms. B’s room to tell her, you were there. And I heard everything she said, Caleb.”

Caleb racked his brain to remember what he and Ms. B had talked about that could have turned Zach against him. He didn’t have to wonder for long.

“You did such a good job of getting me to join the club that Ms. B wanted to tell all the other teachers,” Zach said. “She wanted you to get the credit. And you were glad to accept it.”

Caleb cringed. “That has nothing to do with us being friends, Zach. I swear.”

Instead of answering, Zach started to walk faster. Caleb quickly caught up. “Does this have something to do with what happened at the mall?”

“You’ve never wanted to be seen with me outside of school,” Zach said. “You’ve never once invited me to your house. Or to do anything with you and your other friends.”

So there’s the answer, Caleb thought. It wasn’t just that he hadn’t invited Zach to hang out with him and his cousins at the mall. It wasn’t just that Zach had overheard what Ms. B had said to him in her room after the malware attack. It was those two incidents plus what Zach had just said about Caleb never wanting to be seen with him. Caleb could have told Zach that he never asked friends over to his house because he wanted to spare them the scrutiny of his overbearing parents. But he suspected that Zach’s mind was made up.

“I still don’t get how you could go over to Gavin’s squad,” Caleb said.

“Simple,” said Zach. “He asked me to. Maybe you don’t really know Gavin. Maybe you assume that because he’s big and a football player he has to be dumb. You think he’d have to be a jerk to want to be friends with someone like Crosby. But what if I told you that Gavin was the one who told Ms. B about Crosby’s plan to cheat on that geometry test?”

Caleb stopped short. Gavin? For a moment it sounded absurd. But then slowly it began to make sense. Gavin was the only other person who knew about the scheme. But why would Gavin do that?

Crosby followed for several blocks while the men with the clubs and shields marched. Up ahead, the column was turning a corner. Walking behind them, Crosby couldn’t see what was around the corner. But the men began to chant loudly: “You will not replace us!” and “White lives matter!”