The Good War by Todd Strasser

Author:Todd Strasser [Strasser, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The match that afternoon was closer than ever. The Allied squad barely managed to win. The Axis played better and was more organized than in previous weeks. After the match, Emma asked her squad to get together online that night to review what had happened.

But that would be later. Right now, Caleb was at Zach’s house again. They were in Zach’s “workshop,” which was actually the carport next to the trailer. It was jammed with scrap wood and tools.

“Where’d you get all this stuff?” Caleb asked, gesturing at some of the larger woodworking machines.

“Bought some of it used,” Zach said. “My uncle gave me the drill press and table saw when he got new ones. He’s the one who taught me woodworking.”

That explained the homemade skateboards and furniture in Zach’s room. Caleb picked up a set of shiny screwdrivers. They didn’t look used. “Even if you got some things for free, the rest of this must’ve cost a lot.”

Zach spun the blade of the table saw with his fingertip. He started making nervous throat-clearing sounds and bit his lip. Suddenly he wouldn’t look Caleb in the eye. By now Caleb had hung around with him long enough to know why.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” he said.

Zach looked out at the woods surrounding the trailer. The leaves had begun to turn yellow and red. “Wager matches.”

Wha…? Caleb almost asked Zach if he was for real, but all the tools in this workshop were proof that he was. Kids played wager matches for ten or twenty bucks at a time. A good player could make a hundred in a night. But you had to be really good because you weren’t playing against your friends, or even against kids your own age. You were playing against randoms, and if they were playing wager matches, it meant they were really, really good. But there was something else Caleb didn’t get. “If you can make money that way, why build your own furniture and skateboards? Why not just buy them?”

Zach wrinkled his forehead as if he found the question puzzling. “Because I like building things.”

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