IN the cafeteria, everyone Theo passed gave him a weird look. Some looked mildly amused, as if watching an Internet video of a dog walking on its hind legs carrying a tray. Most just looked surprised, as if this was the first time they realized he went to their school. One kid punched the air and then gave him a thumbs-up.

“How did word about the fight get out so fast?” Theo asked. “I just told you guys.”

Daryl took a bite from his hamburger while they walked. “I texted Wolfman while Mr. J was wiping up the chessboard with your carcass.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“That you were in a bare-knuckle brawl in the park. I might’ve mentioned that an ambulance was called. Oh, and that you threw rocks at a Hell’s Angels biker who was hitting on your girlfriend. Admittedly, I embellished a little to hook the reader.”

Theo spun, his carton of milk and plate of pizza almost sliding off his tray. “I didn’t want the whole school to know!”

“Then why’d you tell us? You know none of us can keep our mouth shut.”

Thing was, Daryl was right. Why had he told them—notorious blabbermouths—if he’d wanted it to remain a secret? Deep down, did he want everyone to know?

Theo shook off that question and walked away. “Never mind,” he said. “Just never mind.”

He walked outside to the metal picnic tables.

Daryl and Tunes hurried off in a different direction to join their buddies at the World of Warcraft table. They would spend the rest of the lunch break discussing their online strategies against the Horde.

Brian followed Theo to an empty table at the edge of the eating area. No one ever sat there because it was just outside the shade and the metal got as hot as a frying pan. But it was private.

They plopped their trays down opposite each other. Brian started right in. “What’s up with you, dude?”

“Nothing. I told you what happened. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“I’m not talking about the fight. I’m talking about Mr. J’s practice session. Maggot Debridement Therapy, Theo! It has ‘maggot’ in the title. We joked about it when we first read that article in the Aca-lympics study material. Last year you knew all about it.”

It was true. Theo remembered now. Why hadn’t he remembered in the classroom?

“What’s going on with you? You grew a few inches and it stretched your brain out of shape?”

“I’m just…distracted. Suddenly Gavin’s got talent and—”

“I hate to admit it, man, but he really is good.”

Not what Theo wanted to hear. He continued his sentence. “—and I found out Friday night that my dad has secretly joined some online dating service.”

“Whoa, Marcus is on the prowl?” Brian laughed. “‘Imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.’”

Theo chuckled. Brian could always make him laugh, even when he was feeling low.

“Has he actually gone out with any women yet?” Brian asked.

“No, he just joined.”

“How’d you find out so fast?”

Theo told him about sneaking downstairs and breaking into the computer.

Brian stared with his mouth open. “Who are you, dude?”

Theo shrugged. “I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately.”

They ate in silence for a while. Brian gobbled down two pieces of pizza, a bottle of water, and a chocolate cookie. Then he ate Theo’s cookie. “Have you considered quitting basketball? Maybe that’s the cause of all this chaos in your life. It’s messing with your mind.”

“It’s not basketball. Basketball is just a game.”

“No, it’s not. It’s a cult. Every sport at school is a cult. A bunch of kids playing because”—he peeled a finger for each reason—“one, their parents want to raise a sports hero so they can attend all the games and prove to everyone else what great parents they are.”

“That’s not my dad.”

Brian shrugged, as if not wanting to debate it yet. “Okay. Two, because the players want everyone to notice them and think they are massively cool.”

“Does that sound like me?”

“Three, because they’re poor and a sports scholarship is their only hope of attending college. There are only about five kids at this whole school who qualify as poor, and none of them is on a sports team here.”

Theo snorted. (Brooke would have appreciated that.) “What about just for the fun of playing the game?”

“You hadn’t even heard of the game until a couple months ago, when Coach Mandrake asked you to join the team.”

“I had heard of basketball. I’d even played in that summer camp, remember? We both did.”

“That was for one week when we were eight and our parents still hoped we’d be normal kids instead of nerds.”

True. Every summer their parents had rotated them among various sports camps: basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, football—even tennis. Theo and Brian had hated those camps, even though the coaches had been nice about the fact that sports balls were like kryptonite to the boys: when holding one, they lost all coordination and control over their bodies.

Eventually, they were sent to science camp to build robots and rockets. They’d loved it.

Just then, Chris Richards, the usually silent captain of the basketball team, walked by with his empty tray. “See ya at practice,” he said, and kept walking.

When Chris was gone, Brian laughed. “So let me get this straight. You will be at practice and Chris will be at practice, ergo he will indeed see you there. Wow, what a breaking news bulletin.”

Theo watched Chris walk away. Had he meant anything by that comment? Theo was in a couple of classes with other members of the basketball team, yet none had ever spoken to him about basketball. It was as if they were pretending he wasn’t really on the team. Was Chris just being a friendly teammate, or was it some kind of threat because of what Coach had said about building the team around Theo? Were they going to “see” him at practice, but somehow mess him up? “Accidentally” break an arm or leg on the court?

“Maybe he’s been watching too much Avatar. ‘I seeee you.’” Brian said it slowly and creepily, the way they did in the movie.

Or maybe, Theo thought, they were okay with him now because he had been in a fight. Or because he had been playing streetball, trying to improve. Maybe things were changing. For the better.

“I seeeee you, Theo. Do you seeeee me? Do you seeee my pizza?”

Three girls whispered to one another as they walked by Theo and Brian’s table. But one of the girls, Sissy Chen, smiled at Theo. Theo’s mouth went so dry he had to stop chewing. Sissy was very pretty and smart, and Theo had noticed her several times before. He’d even tried to work up the courage to talk to her in algebra, but he never did.

The girls moved on quickly, still whispering and giggling, and Sissy didn’t look back. But her smile had been real. So real he felt he could wrap it in a napkin, put it in his pocket, and feel it there all day.

Brian groaned and raised four fingers. “Fourth reason guys join sports teams: girls.”

“I didn’t join because of girls.”

“No? Then why did you join?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t. I think I joined because I was asked. I’d never been asked before, and it felt good.”

“Okay, now you can check it off your bucket list and move on. You can quit, you know.”

“I know. I just…” Theo watched the kids drifting back to classes. “I just don’t want to. I kinda like it, Brian. It’s hard to explain.”

“Is it? Or maybe you just—”

Suddenly a familiar voice interrupted them. “So, what are we discussing, boys?”

Theo spun around.

Crazy Girl.