Lucas turned and led the team back on the court. Before the ball was in play, he took one last look back at Mrs. Moretti, who smiled and shook a fist at him.

Ryan didn’t quit. Nobody did. Lucas and Ryan ran a sweet pick-and-roll, the kind they’d been running all season. When Ryan got away from Alex, Lucas hit him with an even sweeter bounce pass. Ryan made the layup. At the other end the Pelicans tried to run some clock. They finally swung the ball to Alex, who stepped back from Ryan, creating space, probably sure he was going to hit one more jumper. But Ryan timed his move at him perfectly, moved in on him without fouling him, and blocked the shot cleanly.

And he didn’t just block it, he directed the ball to Lucas, who fed the ball up the court to Billy. But instead of driving the ball, he stopped and kicked the ball out to Sharif, who hit a wide-open three.

The game was tied.

Maybe this game was different. Maybe this time they had managed to turn the ocean liner back around.

Ryan got another stop against Alex. Richard made a short jumper for the Wolves. They were back ahead by a basket. Ryan managed to bottle up Alex in the corner. Lucas ran in there to double-team, stole the ball cleanly. Ryan took off. Lucas got himself out of traffic, threw the ball as far as he could, watched Ryan catch it in stride, and drive the rest of the way for a layup.

The Wolves were ahead by four. They ended up winning by four. After the horn sounded, Ryan made his way straight for Lucas, putting out his hand for a regulation handshake.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You’re the one who made most of the plays,” Lucas said.

“I meant thank you for being my friend,” Ryan said.

Before they left the gym, Lucas asked Ryan if he wanted to hang out later, feeling as if things were finally back to normal between them. Ryan said he couldn’t even though he wanted to, he had schoolwork to do.

“Wait,” Lucas said. “It’s the end of break. Nobody has any work to do.”

“Well, I do,” Ryan said.

“Work on what?” Lucas said, but Ryan was already hustling to catch up with his mom.

Mr. Collins passed back their papers on Monday. Lucas was pleased to discover that he’d gotten an A. But that wasn’t the shocker in English. The big news of the day was that Ryan Moretti had also gotten an A.

The bigger shocker was that Ryan had thrown out his old paper and picked a new subject, even at the last minute. He hadn’t written about Mr. Nichols, his tennis coach. He’d written about Lucas, and how hard it was sometimes to understand what it took to be a good friend, and to count on your friends.