Lucas thought his friend might cry. Lucas felt as if he’d just finished a pop quiz he hadn’t known was coming. And wasn’t sure he’d gotten all the answers right.

“If I were you, Ryan,” Mr. Collins said, “I’d get out of here and get to work. “Lucas? You hang around for a minute, I want to have another word with you.”

What now?

After Ryan had shut the door behind him, it was just Mr. C. and Lucas.

“I believe you were just trying to help out a friend you thought was in a bad spot,” Mr. Collins said. “Except you do him no good if you do his work for him, even if you didn’t see it that way, or even intend it that way. He really does have to do this himself, whatever kind of paper he turns in now, and whatever happens after we all get back from Christmas break.”

“Okay,” Lucas said.

“I know you were just trying to do a teammate a solid,” Mr. Collins said. “But sometimes that can lead you to a bad decision, no matter how good your intentions were.”

He wanted to tell Mr. Collins that it was Ryan who had really made the bad decision, by not putting in the extra work. But he didn’t. Trying to be a solid teammate to the end.

“Glad you gave both of us a second chance,” Lucas said.

For the first time, Mr. Collins smiled.

“If I didn’t,” he said, “I wouldn’t be the guy you wrote about in your own paper.”

“How’d I do?” Lucas said.

“You’ll find out your grade along with everybody else after break,” Mr. C. said.

“I feel a little bit like I got an F in here today,” Lucas said.

“Let’s call it an incomplete grade for now,” Mr. Collins said.

“But if Ryan messes up on this paper now and gets a lousy grade, I feel like that’s partially going to be on me,” Lucas said.

“You know that commercial on TV where they say that life comes at you fast?” Mr. Collins said. “It happens all the time in our own lives when other people’s choices affect ours.”

Do they ever, Lucas thought.

Man, do they ever.

“You look like you want to say something,” Mr. Collins said.

There was a lot Lucas wanted to say. But he felt as if everybody had said enough today. He just stood up, shook Mr. C.’s hand, thanked him again for giving Ryan a do-over, and walked out of the classroom.

Ryan was waiting for him in the hall.

“You still have to help me,” he whispered to Lucas.

As low as Ryan had kept his voice, Lucas’s head still whipped around, afraid that Mr. Collins had followed him out of the classroom and had somehow heard.

But it was just the two of them.