Leo clicked.

It was the last period of a Friday that felt three years long. Mr. Henderson was droning about the quadratic formula, his voice a hypnotic lullaby of x ’s and y ’s. Leo’s friend, Maya, caught his eye from across the aisle. She tapped her nose twice. Operation: Pepperoni was a go.

“What,” Mr. Henderson asked, peering at the screen, “is a Pizza Edition ?”

“The Grabber is cheap,” Henderson mumbled through a mouthful of crust. “You have to double-jump off the left wall to stun him.”

“See me after class,” he said, and walked away.

Leo’s mind went blank. He couldn’t say a secret oasis in the desert of school Wi-Fi . He couldn’t say the only thing keeping me from throwing my calculator out the window .