“Kiddo,” she said. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

She sat next to him on his bed and put an arm around him.

“But if he is still in town,” she said, “isn’t he supposed to be at your last practice before Christmas tomorrow night?”

“He said he wanted to have one last practice before our break even though there’s no game next Saturday,” Lucas said. “That was after the Jefferson game. He said he wanted to have us be together one more time before we went on vacation.”

She kissed him and left his room, shutting his door behind her as she did.

Where was he?

What was he feeling, being in the newspaper like this all over again, like he was one more page in Lucas’s dad’s scrapbook?

Lucas was just finishing his homework when he heard the doorbell, and yelled to his mom that he’d get it. When he got downstairs and opened the door, he saw Ryan standing there.

“Sorry I didn’t call first,” Ryan said.

“No worries,” Lucas said. “I just finished my homework.”

“Wish I could say the same,” Ryan said.

“You finish your paper?”

“No,” Ryan said.

“Dude,” Lucas said. “You know it’s due the day after tomorrow, right?”

“You think I don’t know that?” Ryan said.

They headed up to Lucas’s room. As they passed his mom’s room, they heard her say, “Hey, Ryan.”

Ryan said, “Sorry about everything that’s happened with Coach, Mrs. Winston.”

“Not as sorry as we are,” Lucas’s mom said.

When they were inside Lucas’s room, it was Ryan who closed the door. And got right to it.

“You have to help me finish my paper,” he said.

“You know I can’t do that,” Lucas said.

Ryan sat at Lucas’s desk. Lucas was on the bed, cross-legged.

“If you’re really my friend, you’ll do this,” Ryan said.

“We already talked about this,” Lucas said. “You know you have to do this on your own.”

“I know what Mr. Collins said,” Ryan said. “I want to know what you say.”

“I can’t help you,” Lucas said, “not this time.”

“If you don’t,” Ryan said, “I’m going to get a bad grade. And when I do, I’m off the team. You always say you’ll do anything to help the team. Well, you can help the team now by keeping me on it.”

“If I do what you want,” Lucas said, “it won’t just be us who know. Mr. C. will know.”

“It won’t be like last time,” Ryan said. “I’ll change things, I promise. Dude, I’m, like, begging you.”

He thought Ryan might cry.

“I can’t,” Lucas said.

“You mean you won’t,” Ryan said.