Sounds like far too many group projects I was compelled to be involved in, in my youth.
When my daughter was much younger (we graduated her at age 16 so she could take as many JC classes as she wanted) she had to do a group project for her English Comp class. She didn't know to pick her group ahead of time, so she was in the
nobody-picked-them group. She wasn't the only group member willing to do the work, but a majority were shirkers and dopers, who chose "Industrial Hemp" as the topic for the group project. As might be expected, the shirkers and dopers did zero work and were not there for presenting the project. My daughter and one or two others did the work of research and writing and did the presentation. They also got the grade, while the shirkers and dopers got the
one-legged As they had earned.
ETA: Going way off-topic ... this daughter is the one who has passport stamp from three continents outside of the Americas. Pre-Covid, she had lived full-time in China for 5 years, was already fluent in Mandarin, and was the equivalent of a junior in a university there. Covid hit when she was here visiting for semester break and the Chinese New Year holiday, and she is still stuck here. She decided to complete her AA from that JC and started taking the remaining required classed. Among CA's (and probably most/all states) requirements for college graduation is a Foreign Language. No problem, right? She's high-school to college-level fluent in Mandarin, right?
Problem. That JC and all the JCs in the Bay Area do not offer courses in Chinese!
My daughter couldn't challenge the Chinese courses to fulfill the state requirement, because the courses don't exist to be challenged. Mandarin-speaking Chinese have been a proportionally large ethnic minority in Silicon Valley for decades. IIRC where Zathras lives, there are large plazas - modern, not old storefront strips - near his home that are entirely a mix of Mandarin, Korean, and either Vietnamese or Indian (or all of the above). Cantonese-speaking Chinese have been in the SF Bay Area and throughout California since the 1850s.