Mom marched in so mad that sparks flew. First she lit into Chen, asking if he realized what a remarkable person I am. “Daniel’s well thought of by his peers,” she said. “Indispensable to his team. Excellent grade-point average. Involved in several extracurricular activities. Studying pre-law.”

Law? That was news to me. I been thinking TV, a sports-caster maybe. But you could tell that Chen was starting to sweat.

Then Mom demanded to know what proof Chen had that I was involved in this mess. So Chen showed her our three test papers. Rob’s looked like he used it to clean the mud off his boots, but you could still tell we all had the same answers.

Without missing a beat, Mom changed her battle plan. “Do you have any idea how much money I’ve personally raised for those new auditorium seats, Kevin?” That was a good touch, using his first name like that. But she might have overdone it when she added, “You’d think, Kevin, that the hundreds of volunteer hours I’ve put in for this school would count for something!”

Chen mumbled that her involvement was appreciated but irrelevant.

Mom continued through clenched teeth, saying that he better think twice before he puts this on my permanent record or gets me booted off the team. “This could destroy my son’s chances of getting into a top school,” she said. “You could ruin his entire future!”

“I didn’t do this to him,” Chen said. “Daniel did this to himself.”

Then he lectured all of us for a while on how bad it is to buy and sell tests, that the value of a true education is not in the grades, and on and on. While he was ranting, I was thinking, Hey, man, that’s not a bad idea! A guy could really clean up around here selling grades! Of course, one screw-up like this—wrong test, failing mark—could cost you everything.

Then I noticed that Chen was telling us we’re suspended! All of us—me, Sarah, and Rob—until he finds out how we got last year’s test.

I protested, saying, “That’s not fair! Why should I be suspended? I don’t have a clue where Sarah got the stupid test! Ask her!”

Rob kicked me in my shin. Ouch! But if he wants to be a hero, that’s his business. They can leave me out of that noise!

Chen looked at Sarah.

She shrugged, calm, cool, no tears. “Dan’s right,” she said with a sigh. And I coulda kissed her.

So Chen lessened my and Rob’s punishment. Now we’re just on probation, meaning the least little screw-up and we’ll be off the team. And he told us we have to write some essay thing about cheating. And then it was over. Not so bad, really. We even got the rest of the day off.