There is no Gamer Squad,” I said slowly as if sounding out the words would help me understand them. “There is no group of elite gamers. Just you and me?”

“Yes,” Marcus croaked.

“Then why make a big deal out of it? Why the note and the secret meeting?”

Marcus stared down at his hands. “I wanted to hang out with you.”

“And you couldn’t, like, ask me to hang out? You had to create a fictional secret group of gamers?”

Marcus wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Well, I thought you and I could be the first, and then we’d add more over time.”

“But you wouldn’t let me add Charlie.” I was so confused. None of this made any sense.

Willa groaned and threw her hands up. “He likes you, blockhead!”

I blinked quickly. “What?”

“How can someone so smart be so stupid?” she muttered, shaking her head. “Marcus didn’t add Charlie because he was worried that you liked Charlie, and he wanted you to spend time with him instead.”

My head snapped back toward Marcus. “Is that true?”

Before I even knew what was happening, Marcus tossed some money on the table and ran out of the restaurant. Willa rolled her eyes. Charlie’s jaw was practically on the floor.

I sat, stunned. Marcus liked me? My brain went numb with shock. I opened my mouth to speak but I seemed to have forgotten what words were and how to use them.

Willa elbowed me in my side. “You like him, right?”

I nodded vigorously.

“Are you really going to sit here and let him run away all embarrassed, thinking he just made a fool of himself?”

I shook my head.

She smiled. “Do you need me to come with you or do you think you’ll be able to speak on your own?”

“I … speak,” I managed. Then I started pulling money out of my pocket.

“Don’t worry about it,” Charlie said. “Pay me back later. Go!”

I dashed outside, looking left and right. If Marcus had been running this whole time, I’d never catch up. But I saw him walking slowly, head down, toward the gazebo in the common.

I jogged to catch up. He must have heard my ragged breathing as I got close because he turned around and stopped.

“Wait,” I said, bending over to catch my breath. “Wait up.”

Marcus sat down on the bottom step of the gazebo. “You don’t have to say anything because you feel bad. I get it. You and Charlie forever, blah, blah, blah.”

“It’s not like that,” I said, sitting down beside him.

“It’s not?” His eyes filled with hope.

“Charlie and I are best friends and always will be. But I like someone else.”

“Oh,” Marcus said, his shoulders sagging. “Who?”

He really didn’t know? I smirked. “He’s a year older than I am and super smart. He’s an awesome gamer, and I recently found out that he’s really brave. Sometimes he’s too sarcastic, but sometimes I’m too sarcastic, so I guess that’s okay.”

“Do you mean … ?” Marcus slowly pointed toward his chest.

“Yes, you, dummy.”

A giant smile spread across his face. “I like you, too, dummy.”

An awkward silence drew out between us. As much as this was one of the top three most exciting moments of my life—Marcus liked me! OMG!—my mind went back to tonight and everything we had to do.

I rested my elbows on my knees. “So there’s really no Gamer Squad?”

“Nope.”

Dread churned in my stomach. “So we’re on our own tonight.”

“Not quite, lovebirds,” Willa said, coming around the other side of the gazebo with Charlie. “I hope you didn’t forget about us.”

Not for a second. Willa didn’t know how to program, but she could be the lookout for the Vegans. Charlie’s chemistry knowledge probably wouldn’t come into play, but maybe those football tackles would. Working together as a team, we could do this.

I stood, feeling a sense of determination rising inside of me. “This ends tonight. We’re going to catch the rest of the aliens, fix the code, and send them back home.”

Willa aimed a thumb at the woman and her son who were setting up their fruit stand. “I’ll go buy all their oranges.”

“I’ll bring my laptop,” Marcus offered.

“We can set the trap in the small patch of woods in my backyard,” I said. “And I’ll bring the salt.”

Charlie raised a finger into the air. “Not to burst this bubble of enthusiasm we’ve got going, but we have one little problem.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And that is?”

“We need to replay what we did the night of the field trip with the reversed code. But how do we get a whole bunch of aliens to the observatory?”

I thought for a minute. We would need a giant car with multiple rows of seats. Then I remembered Jason and his friend with the SUV. “I think we will need to involve someone who really doesn’t want to be involved.”

Charlie shook his head. “No. Please, no.”

I gave him a look. “His friend’s SUV is big enough to fit all of us and the aliens.”

“How am I supposed to convince Jason to get involved?” he screeched. “And how would I explain a truck full of aliens to his friend?”

I patted him on the shoulder. “You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.”