It was just Lucas and his mom. She got him a new pair of Stephen Curry Under Armour sneakers that she told him to have broken in for the last few games of the season, or else. There were some new school clothes, too. And a Celtics hoodie. And two Chip Hilton books Lucas had never read.

Lucas used allowance money he’d saved up to buy a new picture frame that Maria helped him pick out. Inside it was a photograph he’d found in the attic, one of his dad and his mom from high school, Dad in his Claremont High uniform, his arm around her, both of them smiling, as if they really were going to live happily ever after, forever.

She cried when she unwrapped it.

“I told Maria this was going to happen,” Lucas said.

“Good tears,” she said. “We’ve talked about them before.”

“I still don’t believe good tears are a real thing,” he said.

“Well, you’re wrong,” she said.

The Chens invited them for Christmas dinner. After dinner was over, Maria watched the second-to-last NBA game on television with Lucas and Neil before it was time for Lucas and his mom to leave.

When they were back home, Lucas said, “I can’t ever remember having a Christmas without him.”

They both knew who he was talking about.

“It’s because you’ve never had one without him,” she said.

“Where do you think he is?” Lucas said.

“I wish I knew,” she said.

“You think he’s gone for good?” he said.

“Even after everything that’s happened,” she said. “I don’t thing he’d leave for good without saying good-bye.”

It wasn’t just Gramps who had disappeared. Ryan had done the same thing, pretty much. Lucas hadn’t seen him, or talked to him since last Wednesday, when Ryan had delivered his paper to Mr. Collins.

Lucas had asked Ryan about the paper, but he said he didn’t want to talk about it. When Lucas pressed him, and asked if he was happy with it, Ryan just said, “All that’ll matter is if Mr. Collins is.”

Then he’d sat by himself on the bus ride home. Maybe he was still angry at Lucas for not going against Mr. Collins’s wishes, and helping him out. Maybe he was already expecting the worst when he got the paper back, and was already starting to blame Lucas if he didn’t get to finish the season, as if somehow this was all Lucas’s fault.

Somehow, in a season where his team hadn’t lost a game, Lucas felt as if he’d lost Gramps and his best friend, too.

His two best friends.