I didn’t know what to make of him, so I let it go. Troy was back—and even though I didn’t seem to have anything to do with it, my teammates appreciated what I had done. Some even noted that I had been “wronged” in the past and they admired how I “stepped up” in spite of all that.

“Team first,” Danny Brown said to me.

“Team first,” I agreed.

As practice ended, Coach Grady shouted, “Okay, boys, gather around.”

We all took spots on the bleachers. We sucked down water and toweled ourselves off. Troy sat next to me.

“Tomorrow’s practice will be at four thirty,” Coach Grady said. “We’ll be in the other gym for the first half hour, then we move into this one.” Coach Grady continued his little spiel, hitting on a few more logistical points. We would be getting our uniforms on Monday, he said. We had the scrimmage in West Orange on Tuesday.

Then he paused and got to the heart of the matter.

“Drug tests for all Kasselton High School winter sports have been declared null and void. It doesn’t matter why. All you guys need to know is that we will be running new tests starting in two weeks. Okay, that’s it. Young guys, let’s get this place straightened up. The rest of you, do your homework and get some sleep.”

By “young guys,” Coach Grady meant the three juniors and me, the solo sophomore. We were supposed to do the team chores. Some might call it mild hazing, but it wasn’t really that. We pulled out the bleachers for the team meetings. We swept the floor at the end of practice. We put the balls back on the rack and locked them up.

Today Brandon helped out. He didn’t have to, but as captain, he was that kind of guy. He and I picked up the balls and put them on the rack. Again I couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t himself.

“I figured you’d be happy,” I said.

“Why’s that?”

“You were the one who thought Troy got a raw deal.”

He nodded slowly. “I guess I did.” Then he looked at me. “Where were you last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“Before you came to my house. Where were you?”

There had been no reason last night to tell him about breaking into the shed. There was even less reason now. “Why?”

“Do you know why they’re making us retest?”

I started spinning a ball on my finger. “No.”

“Because the old specimens got contaminated.”

The ball dropped off my finger. It landed on the floor. The sound echoed in the now-still gym. “How?” I asked.

“Someone broke into the storage center last night.”

“What storage center?”

“The town has a storage center where they keep all the drug samples. Last night someone broke into it.”

I swallowed. “Where’s this storage center?”