Gus stared down at the orange-plastic track. “Apparently my thoughts were ill formed, my grammar was sloppy, and my vocabulary didn’t rise to grade level,” he said.

“That doesn’t sound like the Gus I know,” Henry said.

“Well, it is,” Shawn said. “Your own son scored an A, and all you can do is whine about how bad Gus did. Way to encourage me to work hard in school, Dad.”

The anger in Shawn’s voice made Henry take a step back. Was he right? Did Henry reflexively discount his own son’s accomplishments? Was he actively sabotaging Shawn? He replayed Shawn’s sentence in his head. And then he knew he was being played again.

“That’s an interesting thought, Shawn,” Henry said. “Not particularly well formed, though. And it’s not grammatical to say ‘how bad Gus did.’ The adverbial form is ‘badly.’ Oh, and a vocabulary at your grade level would lead you to say, ‘Way to encourage academic excellence,’ not ‘to work hard in school.’ ”

Shawn glared at him, caught. “What’s your point?”

“I understand why you copied Gus’ paper and turned it in as your own,” Henry said. “What I can’t figure out is why Gus would claim yours.”

Gus seemed to be finding worlds of wonder in that orange track, because he refused to look up from it.

“It’s shameful enough to get a C minus when you’re capable of A work,” Henry said. “But if you don’t confess right now, I’ll take this to your principal and then you’ll both get an F.”

“But then Shawn will be held back!” Gus said.

Shawn slapped his forehead in frustration. “Falls for it every time.”

Henry ignored Shawn. He got down on his knees in front of Gus. “You helped Shawn with his homework so you’d both be in the same grade next year?”

Gus nodded solemnly.

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Henry said. “It’s wrong, but I can appreciate the sentiment. But why didn’t you just write two book reports and give one to Shawn? Why turn in his own lousy work as your own?”