“You’re going? Isn’t that walking right into his hands?” When Conner had told Dr. O about Zeltrax’s challenge, he had thought his teacher would do the sensible thing—ignore it.

“Maybe. But he’s not going to stop pushing us around until someone stands up to him.” Dr. O finished tidying the papers he’d been working on, heading towards the exit. “Let’s go see what Zeltrax is up to. Come on.”

Conner trailed behind. “So you just reckon . . . you should fight to sort things out?”

“Maybe not fight—though I expect in Zeltrax’s case that’s what we’re going to do. But you can’t just ignore someone and hope they go away. If I don’t go to meet Zeltrax now, he’ll keep trying—and someone might get hurt.”

Of course, Conner reminded himself, Zeltrax is different. An evil villain. And so was Trent, really, but Trent was different. Zeltrax didn’t follow him round school insulting him. And then Derrick wasn’t evil at all, just . . . anti-geek.

“Dr. O?”

“Yes, Conner?”

“There’s this guy at school . . . he’s a friend of mine, and he’s a good guy really. I mean, deep down.”

“How deep down?”

“Well, quite deep. But he doesn’t like geeks. I mean, Ethan’s not a geek-geek,” Dr. O sometimes got all annoyed when they insulted each other, “But he is a bit of a geek.”

“And this guy’s been picking on him?”

“Well, kind of. I mean, Derrick started it, but it was an accident. Ethan was the one who started being insulting.” Unless it had been Derrick. Conner couldn’t really remember. “Anyway, they were both being insulting. Ethan was kind of winning.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Conner hadn’t been either. “Well, now they’re going to fight. And Derrick’s really, really good at martial arts. Even if he wasn’t, I don’t want Ethan to beat him! Or Derrick to beat Ethan. Obviously.”

“Obviously. I’m surprised at Ethan, though. I though he was smarter than that.”

“That’s what I thought!”

“I’m surprised he agreed to a fight. I would have thought he’d find another way to handle Derrick.”

Okay, that wasn’t so much what Conner had thought. “He did say . . . I just thought he was annoyed with us, but he did say, ‘there are other ways to handle a bully’.”

Conner couldn’t tell for sure, but he would have sworn that behind the helmet Dr. O was smiling. “I’m sure Ethan’s got a plan that doesn’t involve fighting. Now, is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

Yes. Trent. “No. Nothing.”

--

“I have the tape you wanted!”

Ethan was typing frantically when Conner walked in. He didn’t bother to look up, only pointed at the TV in one corner. “Stick it in the video machine. I need to transfer it to DVD.”

Ethan’s video machine was ridiculously complicated. Conner made sure not to touch any of the buttons when sticking the tape in. He glanced at the clock as he did. “Dude, how long’s this going to take?”

“Hopefully not long. We might be a bit late, though.”

“Should I call Derrick and tell him?”

“We won’t be that late.” Ethan left the computer, leaving it on a screen intriguingly patterned with soccer balls. Conner drifted towards it. “Don’t touch that!” Ethan yelled over his shoulder.

Conner scowled, and went to slump on the sofa.

The video was one the school soccer coach had made a few months ago, analysing all their styles of play to see what could be improved. Conner and Derrick had borrowed it in their attempt to improve Derrick’s scoring technique. Why Ethan wanted it, Conner had no idea.

Ethan transferred the new DVD to his computer, skipping through the scenes until he found a clip of Derrick kicking the ball at a goal. After that, the screens starting getting increasingly technical, and Conner gave up watching. He stared at the clock instead, getting increasingly nervous. Even if he broke the speed limit, they wouldn’t get to the soccer pitch in time.

Finally, Ethan jumped up, clutching his laptop. He unplugged it, closing it down as he walked. “Got to save the battery,” he explained, though Conner hadn’t asked.

“Dude, I still don’t see how this is going to work . . .” Of course, it would help if Ethan told him what he was going to do.

Ethan shook his head. “You’ll see.”

--

Conner pulled into the school slightly faster than he should have, breaking sharply at Ethan’s yell of, “Stop!”

“Dude, I wasn’t—”

Ethan ignored him, rolling down his window and waving at some people walking in the direction of the soccer pitch. Some of Ethan’s geek friends, Conner thought.

Ethan handed one his laptop through the window. “Dude, can you get this set up while we go park? Just give it to me when I ask, alright?”

“Sure.”

Conner watched them go. “I can let you off here if you want . . .”

“No, it’s okay. Go park.” He’d finally started to look nervous. “You want to see this too, don’t you?”

He had a point. Conner parked, noting how few empty spaces were left. Obviously the fight had drawn an audience. He could see them as he approached the soccer field with Ethan: geeks at one end, his friends at the other, and neutrals, including Kira, Cassidy and Devin, in the middle.

Derrick did not look friendly. Conner reminded himself that Ethan was smart, probably had a very good plan, and that everything was going to go fine.

It didn’t work. “Dude, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, the guy’s a jerk!”

“Would you just trust me? For once?”

He stood in front of Ethan as Derrick approached, still wishing for some way he could diffuse this. Derrick just glared at him. “Out of my way, McKnight. This is between me, and the geek here.”

Conner glanced behind him. Ethan glared at him as well, and Conner tried not to roll his eyes. At least they’d found something they could agree on.

He moved aside, walking over to join Kira in the crowd. She looked just as worried as he felt. “What’s his plan?” she hissed. “Is it going to work?”

“I have no idea.”

“Okay, here’s the deal,” said Ethan. “I could fight you, but what would that prove? Instead, I’d like to make you a proposition.”

Derrick smirked. “You’re bailing?”

“I think I can improve your game. If I do, you promise to back off me and my friends.”

Conner remembered the soccer site Ethan had been visiting, and the tape he’d wanted. He really, really hoped Ethan wasn’t going to do anything stupid. Criticise Derrick’s game, for example.

“My LT please!” Ethan called. The boy he’d given it to walked forwards, holding it open. Ethan tapped a few keys, and showed the screen to Derrick.

“This is a computer image of you kicking,” explained Ethan. Derrick leaned over to see better. “I superimposed it against the image of a pro player from Manchester.”

Conner fought the urge to yell over that it was Manchester United or Manchester City, not just Manchester.

“How did you do that?” Derrick asked, apparently in reaction to something on the laptop.

Ethan raised his eyebrows. “I’m a computer geek, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Derrick kept staring at the screen.

Ethan shrugged. “So, you going to try it out?”

Derrick paused, and then turned. “Oy! Sutton! Get your goal kit on!”

--

Conner refused to believe it. Whatever Ethan thought he was doing, looking at a computer screen could not make someone a better footballer. Which meant Ethan was possibly about to get his head kicked in.

Ethan was holding the ball Sutton had brought. As soon as Sutton nodded ready, he walked forward and put it on in front of Derrick. Beside him, Kira leaned over to whisper, “Who’s Sutton? Is he good?”

“Luke Sutton. And yeah. He’s our main goalie.”

“Great.”

Derrick paused, measuring the distance to the goal with his eyes. As Conner had seen him do so many times before, he ran forward, and kicked it.

The ball spun through the air. At first, Conner thought it would go wide, but it curved, arching down. Sutton leapt, grabbing for it . . .

And the ball spun past his fingers, hitting the back of the net.

Conner gasped, in equal relief in shock. Kira hit his arm, grinning madly. “Wow! Wow.”

Derrick looked just as shocked. “I can’t believe it worked.” Neither could Conner.

“I told you,” said Ethan.

“Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“The net.” Ethan paused, and frowned, remembering he was talking to a soccer player. “Well, the internet, that is.”

“It’s pretty cool.” Derrick paused, running his hand through his hair, looking embarrassed. His next words were too soft for Conner to hear, but he guessed what they might be.

Kira tugged his arm, and they walked forward in time to hear Ethan say, “It’s a brave new world out there, my friend.”

Conner grinned, looping his arm round Ethan’s shoulder. “Oh, yeah.”

“Let’s go,” said Kira.

Conner grinned at Derrick, who still looked slightly bemused, before following Ethan and Kira.

“Dude, I can’t believe that. I mean, there’s no way a computer should be able to make someone a better soccer player.”

“It didn’t.”

Kira blinked. “Um, hello? He scored!”

“Yeah, but Conner said it himself, remember? Derrick was a good soccer player, he just had some weird handicap about scoring goals. He already knew how to do it, I just needed to show him what to do.” Ethan paused, and frowned. “If that makes sense.”

It did, kind of. Conner grinned, shaking his head. “Well, in future? I will never doubt one of your plans again.”

“Yeah, and just you remember that.”

Conner laughed, feeling glad to be happy. It didn’t last long. He still had his own problems.

He doubted Trent would be impressed by any tricks on a laptop—even if Conner knew how to do any. Which just left Dr. O’s method.

Fight.