What if your future self told you the world was ending, and the only way to stop it was to... go to school?! Lu Jacobs used to believe if you did everything right, things would work out. Until her grandma died. Even though everyone said Lu could save her. So she stopped trying. Instead, she spends her time in The Aftermath, a VR game with clear rules and consequences, and a leaderboard she's fought to get her team to the top of. Then her future self shows up. An artificial intelligence is rewriting the past. The future is collapsing. And somehow, the only way to stop it is for Lu to go to the elite Prescott Academy. Seriously? Prescott is the most advanced school in the world -- hoverboard parks, teachers who've invented microscopic medical drones and hacked the most secure networks, and the VRoom, where students literally live their lessons. More than enough to keep Lu from having to think about her grandma. But somewhere inside it all, there's also an AI pretending to be human. And if Lu can't find it in time, the future becomes a virtual prison no one can escape. Lu does not have a plan. But she does have her team. That will have to be enough.