The Raven King (All for the Game Book 2)

The ride to Belmonte University was relatively uneventful. Neil had brought along schoolwork to pass the time, but he didn’t have enough homework to fill a six-hour drive. Luckily Nicky could talk for days once someone got him going, so Neil had someone to distract him from how long they were on the road. Renee joined them at one point to talk about possible plays and ask for advice. She’d already talked to Matt and Wymack, but she wanted to bounce ideas off the other half of the defense line.

Abby drove most of the way so Wymack could sleep. They were driving back after the game instead of checking into a hotel for the night. Wymack would drive that leg and hopefully wouldn’t send them off the road. They could have just hired a driver like most schools did, but Wymack was almost as leery of dealing with outsiders as his Foxes were. It was apparently better to be uncomfortable but safe than to trust a stranger with his fractured team.

They stopped for gas and a bathroom break, stopped again for a quick dinner, and crossed a time zone on their way to Nashville. First serve was at seven-thirty, but Neil’s watch said they reached the stadium at seven forty-five. There was no point in setting his watch back an hour just for one game, so he took it off and stuffed it in his duffel bag.

They left the bus in a fenced-in parking lot manned by a couple of dispassionate security guards. Two volunteers waited for the Foxes to unload their gear before leading them to the away team’s locker room. Neil trusted his feet to get him there and looked around. Belmonte University’s stadium was almost identical to the Foxhole Court in the size and build, but it was hard for Neil to see the similarities when the crowd swarming around them wore green. He looked for orange and couldn’t find it anywhere.

After four months at the Foxhole Court, Neil found the layout of Belmonte’s locker room disorienting. The rooms were larger, to accommodate the league’s bigger teams, but it felt smaller and backwards somehow. The changing rooms were right inside the door they came in, and the bathroom was separate. Neil guessed it was cheaper to have one unisex bathroom than install toilets in both changing rooms. There was a room Abby could use in case any of her players got injured. The last and largest room was for the Foxes to argue strategies between halves and meet the press after the game.

One of the volunteers took the back door into the stadium to find the referees and alert Coach Harrison to their arrival. The other went over a checklist of basic rules with Wymack and Abby. Wymack had to wait for the officials so he could turn in their paperwork and roster, so he sent the Foxes ahead to change out.

Neil carried his bag into the bathroom and locked himself in a stall. It was a cramped space to change out in, but he’d had a lot of practice. He pulled his shirt up over his head and draped it over the top of the door so he could get his chest armor on. He yanked the straps tight, twisted to check his mobility, and snapped the buckles to lock his gear in place. He strapped his shoulder pads on overtop and hooked them into his chest plate. Neil had to dig past the rest of his gear to find his jersey. The Foxes had two sets of uniforms: home and away. The former was orange with white lettering and the latter was reverse. Neil liked the white version better as it was a little easier on the eyes.

He didn’t need to hide to put on the rest of his uniform, so he stuffed his t-shirt into his duffel and headed to the men’s changing room. He only made it three feet inside the door before he realized he had a serious problem. An open, narrow doorway was all that separated the lockers and benches from communal showers. Even from here Neil could see there weren’t stall doors. Neil should have expected this, but he’d forgotten, lulled to complacency by the Foxhole Court’s setup. The only reason the Foxes had private stalls in the men’s room was because Wymack specifically commissioned them.

Neil forcibly focused on the task at hand. First he had to survive the game. Then he could worry about the showers. Neil relaxed his death grip on his duffel bag strap and found a spot to finish changing. His teammates were almost done already, since they didn’t have to worry about hiding while they dressed, and they filed out as they finished.

Neil toed out of his shoes, peeled his socks off, and traded jean shorts for jersey shorts. He had to sit down to tug his shin guards on and he kicked his legs a bit to make sure they were snug. Knee-length socks covered the guards and he put on his court shoes. His under-gloves were fingerless and buckled above his elbows. He fastened his arm guards around his forearms but wouldn’t need his armored gloves until he was stepping onto the court. He tucked them into his helmet for later. His neck guard was little more than an orange choker. It was uncomfortable but it’d hopefully keep an errant ball from crushing his windpipe. An orange bandana got his hair out of his face and he hooked it tight at the back. With that Neil was ready to go.

Wymack was waiting for them in the main room. Neil was the last to show up, but because he was a striker he was bumped to third in line. They were arranged by positions, but Dan was in front as their captain and Renee was standing with Allison as the substitute dealer. That was weird, but Neil was more concerned with his spot. Standing behind Kevin meant having Allison at his back. Neil didn’t look at her as he crossed the room, and she didn’t say a word to him when he stopped in front of her.

‘How long do you think you can keep that up?’ Andrew asked from the back of the line.

Neil grit his teeth at the mocking cheer in Andrew’s voice. ‘Can you crash already?’

‘All in good time,’ Andrew promised.

The Foxhole Court had an open path to the inner court. Belmonte was designed differently, and the hall they took from the locker rooms to the court was a tunnel. Neil couldn’t see the crowd yet, but he could hear them. The echoing roar of excited voices drowned out his footsteps as he followed Dan and Kevin into the stadium.

The stadium’s seats were rapidly filling with green-clad fans. Security guards and uniformed staff were posted around the inner court and on each of the stairwells that cut up through the stands. The first row started a few feet off the floor, and a railing kept any excitable fans from interfering with the teams. Railing couldn’t keep the noise out, but Neil let the jeers and shouts roll right over him.

Neil didn’t see the Vixens, the Foxes’ all-girls cheerleading squad, or their mascot Rocky Foxy. Belmonte’s Terrapin mascot was already hard at it, though. He skipped up and down the inner court to rile fans up. The oversized mask he wore kept him from seeing the Foxes’ arrival, but students pointed fingers and yelled warnings to him. He charged their direction as best he could in such a lumpy costume. He stopped a safe distance back from their benches to make a couple crude thrusts at them. Nicky was happy to return it until Wymack swatted him upside his head. The mascot ran off to triumphant cheers from students.

Andrew and Nicky had brought the stick rack with them at the rear of the line. Dan grabbed one end of it and pulled it between two of the away benches. She crouched to lock the wheels, then stood and snapped the tops open in rapid succession. Kevin was at her side before she was done. He pulled one of his racquets free, fingered the strings like they might have come loose on the drive, and went over to the court walls. He didn’t spare the crowd a single look; all he cared about was right in front of him.

Neil took his racquet and went to stand at Kevin’s side. The Terrapins were already settled on home benches on the far side of the court. They were smaller than Breckenridge’s team, but still easily twice the Foxes’ size. Neil twisted his fingers so tight around his racquet he heard it creak.

‘Any advice?’ Neil asked.

He didn’t think he’d get an answer, but Kevin glanced over at him. ‘You’re in for all of first half, so you have to pace yourself. I don’t want you to score in the first twenty minutes unless the goal’s right there in front of you. Pass, don’t shoot. Keep the ball moving. When Dan comes on for me, go as hard as you can until the break.

‘You’ll have halftime and the first twenty minutes of second half to rest. Get your wind back, get back on the court, and give me everything you have. If I think you’re holding back just because you’re tired I will throw you off the court myself. I want you dead on your feet when the final buzzer sounds.’

‘Okay,’ Neil said. He knew it was a touchy subject, but he couldn’t help asking, ‘Do you think Andrew’s going to take his medicine for second half?’

‘No,’ Kevin said sourly. ‘He pushed the last dose up thirty minutes. He thinks he’s going to ride it all the way to the end.’

Neil looked over his shoulder for Andrew. Last week Dan said Andrew timed his missed dose for a half-hour before serve. His energy started fading during warm-ups and he started the slow slide down right around when he hit the court. The slump lasted maybe an hour and fifteen minutes tops before he started getting sick. A game had two forty-five minute halves and a fifteen-minute break. Penalties and serves added a couple minutes to the clock. It didn’t matter that Andrew had pushed the missed dose to the actual first serve; the game was too long for him to hold out. Andrew had to know that, but he didn’t look at all concerned. He was still riding his medicine’s high and talking animatedly with Renee off to one side.

‘Bring it in, Foxes,’ Wymack called.

Orange moved in his peripheral vision as Neil turned toward Wymack. Neil looked over as the Vixens and Rocky filed into the stadium. The cheerleaders’ bench was only twenty feet down from the last of the Foxes’ three benches, but Neil couldn’t hear their chatter over the rest of the noise. A couple students shouted lewd remarks and gave wolf whistles. The girls completely ignored it in favor of checking each other’s skirts and hair. Because they were moving around so much, it was easy for Neil to see the one girl who was holding still. She turned her pompom over and over in her hands as she stared at the Foxes.

‘Hi Katelyn!’ Nicky yelled with an enthusiastic wave. Aaron elbowed him for that, but Katelyn smiled brightly and waved back. Nicky gave Neil a wolfish grin as Neil stopped beside him. ‘Katelyn is Aaron’s girlfriend.’

‘She is not,’ Aaron said. ‘Knock it off.’

‘She would be if you’d just ask her out,’ Matt said. ‘What’s the hold up?’

‘Oh.’ Andrew slapped his fist into his palm as if the answer had just occurred to him. He flashed Matt a wicked grin but answered in German. ‘Maybe he’s afraid she’ll die on him like the last woman he really loved.’

Aaron shot him a vicious look. ‘Fuck you.’

‘Christ, Andrew,’ Nicky complained.

‘I’m going to guess that was completely inappropriate,’ Matt said, looking between the cousins. ‘Do I want to know?’

‘Do you think we want to tell you?’ Andrew asked in English.

‘Stow that,’ Wymack said. ‘Last I checked this was a team meeting, not a gossip circle. We’re on the court for warm-ups in ten. Dan’s going to start you off with some laps. If any of you so much as look at the Terrapins on your way past their benches I’ll let you walk home from here. Good? Then get going.’

Dan set the pace with Matt at her side. The rest of the Foxes followed behind them in pairs. Neil expected to be alone in the rear, and he wouldn’t have minded, but they’d only gone a quarter of the way around the inner court when Andrew and Kevin moved. Andrew swerved to one side long enough for Neil to pass him. Kevin picked up speed to fall in alongside Neil. Neil looked over his shoulder at Andrew.

‘If you trip over your own feet I won’t pick you up,’ Kevin said.

Neil faced forward and decided not to ask.

It felt good to run after spending half the day in the bus, but Dan stopped them after two laps. They stretched by the benches until the referees signaled them to enter the court. They tugged on their helmets and gloves, gathered their racquets, and stepped onto the court for fifteen minutes of drills. The captains stayed behind when everyone else was kicked off the court. Dan met the Terrapin captain at half-court for a coin toss. Dan won their team first serve, so the Terrapins chose to start at home court.

The announcer read off team statistics when the captains left the courts. He called the Terrapin’s starting line-up with over-the-top enthusiasm and introduced the Foxes with polite detachment. Neil was impressed despite himself. The abrupt switch in tone was an effective reminder to the Fox team: they were far from home and friendly territory.

Neil was called onto the court second. He had to pass the Terrapins to take his spot at half-court, so he checked out his backliner mark on his way by. Herrera had half a foot on him, so he’d have a longer reach. Neil would have to settle for being faster.

Neil stood on the line and watched the rest of his team join him. Allison didn’t look at anyone as she went to the dealer’s spot. Matt tapped her racquet with his as he passed and settled onto far-fourth in a straight line back from Neil. Neil was glad to have Matt on his side of the court, but he knew what it meant. Matt was the Foxes’ strongest player, and Neil was the weaker half of offense. Matt was there to clean up behind Neil’s inevitable messes.

Andrew was the last one on court. He carried his massive racquet across his shoulders as he headed for goal. Neil couldn’t get a good look at his expression through the heavy grating of his helmet. Neil wouldn’t worry about him until second half, but he turned to watch Andrew’s progress anyway.

He expected Andrew to head straight for the goal, but Andrew stopped near Allison. Neil was too far away to hear if Andrew said anything to her. He didn’t linger long before continuing across the court. Allison didn’t watch him go, but she shifted on her feet and raised her racquet to ready position.

The head referee handed Allison the ball. A warning buzzer sounded; it was one minute until game time. The six officials split up and filed off the court on opposite sides. They closed and locked the doors behind, and Neil watched as they spread out to either side of the court. Neil could still hear the crowd’s noise through the overhead vents, but the walls helped muffle it. Neil tensed to run and tried to count seconds in his head. The buzzer sounded and Neil felt it sing through every nerve in his body.

Terrapins and Foxes broke formation at the same time, racing across the court toward each other. The Terrapin goalkeeper let out a wild war cry and banged his racquet against the floor to urge his teammates forward. Neil listened for a serve that didn’t come. For a second he was afraid Allison would lock up and refuse to move. He was halfway to Herrera before he heard the distinctive thump of a ball against Andrew’s oversized racquet. Allison had served it back to him, and Andrew smashed it up the court toward the strikers.

The game started rough and didn’t get easier. Neil tried to follow Kevin’s advice but it was frustrating holding himself in check. How Dan and Allison could stand being dealers and playing middleman all the time was beyond him. Neil liked outrunning and outsmarting the defense. He liked the rush of a perfect score. He liked the pressure and the triumph. The rest of his life was a frightening mess; Neil needed the power and control of a fierce game.

The only bright point was realizing his lessons with Kevin were paying off. Since June Neil spent four nights a week learning precision drills from Kevin. Passing wasn’t what Neil wanted to do in this game, but he could already see how he was improving. His shots were harder and more accurate, and it took him less time to figure out where to throw.

It didn’t take Herrera long to realize Neil wasn’t going to score, but Herrera attributed it to incompetence. He kept making snide remarks about Neil’s inexperience and spinelessness. Neil wanted to shove Herrera to the floor and charge the goal to prove him wrong. If he missed, Herrera would remind him the rest of the game. If he scored, Kevin would take advantage of the reset to scold him. It was a lose-lose situation and the rest of the game wasn’t going much better. The Terrapins were leading three to one until Kevin scored at the twenty-three minute mark.

Wymack used the possession to send out his substitutions. Neil wasn’t between Kevin and the door, but Kevin detoured past him anyway on his way out.

‘Destroy him,’ he said.

Neil felt like he’d been waiting for this all his life. ‘Yeah.’

Kevin, Allison, and Aaron filed off the court to let their teammates on. Nicky and Dan came first and jogged to their places. Renee gave Allison a hug at the door before taking her place on the court. She looked strange and small without her usual goalkeeper armor on. Neil hoped she knew what she was doing.

Coach Harrison took advantage of the lull to rotate his Terrapins. He didn’t replace either of the backliners, likely because the Terrapin defense hadn’t had much work to do so far, but put on two new strikers.

The referees locked the doors behind them. When everyone stopped moving, the buzzer sounded to restart the game. Renee was acting dealer, but she didn’t serve forward. She turned and heaved the ball at Andrew like Allison had. Andrew smashed it with a mighty swing that sent it all the way to the home court wall.

Neil and Dan ran up the court after it. The ball hit the wall near the ceiling, bounced up to hit the ceiling itself, and rebounded at a steep angle to the first-fourth line. The backliners who’d already started forward to keep Dan and Neil out of their space doubled back as fast as they could. Herrera caught the ball and threw it forward.

Neil didn’t try to intercept it. He was more interested in keeping Herrera on this side of the half-court line. He turned to watch the ball but pressed himself back against Herrera. When Herrera tried to move left or right to run toward half-court, Neil felt it and shifted with him. Neil couldn’t hold him back for long, but he just needed to buy his teammates time to gain possession.

Defense knew what to do; Renee had suggested this play on the bus. They hadn’t known which one of them would get the ball from the Terrapins after this kind of serve, but they knew what to do if they caught it. Matt was the one who won the fight. He hooked his stick around his striker’s and gave it a hard swipe to pop the ball free. Matt grabbed it and threw it. He didn’t even slow long enough to look, trusting Andrew to get it from any angle.

Andrew hit the ball to the left, smacking it off the wall in front of the Fox benches so it would rebound in Neil and Herrera’s general direction. Neil didn’t wait for it to reach him. He bolted for it the second he saw the angle of Andrew’s swing.

He knew Herrera was right behind him for a body check. If he got crushed between the wall and Herrera, he’d lose the ball in the fight. Neil caught the ball right off the wall but didn’t try to protect it. Instead he gave the butt of his racquet a hard pop with one fist. It sent the ball flying straight up out of the net. He dropped to his knees in the same breath.

He almost wasn’t fast enough. Herrera crashed into him at full speed a half-second later, but Neil wasn’t where Herrera expected him to be. He tripped over Neil’s body and, without Neil to take the brunt of the blow for him, crashed into the wall helmet-first. Neil pushed free of Herrera’s crumpling body and swore at the flare of heat in his shoulder. If it wasn’t for his shoulder armor, Herrera’s knee might have dislocated his arm on impact.

Someone pounded on the wall nearby. It might have been support from the subs for dropping his mark like that, but it was more likely Wymack or Kevin furious over such a risky move. Neil would worry about them later. Right now all that mattered was the ball, which was bouncing off the floor just a foot away.

Neil scooped it up and took off for goal. He didn’t look back to see if Herrera had gotten up or if Dan’s mark had dropped her to challenge him. He looked only at the goalkeeper and knew he was going to score. He put all of his first-half frustration behind his swing. The goalkeeper swatted at it and missed. The wall lit up red to confirm the point.

Dan whooped so loud it echoed off the court walls. Neil slowed to a jog and wheeled around. Dan ran over and gave him a quick, fierce squeeze. The buzzer overhead cut her off before she could say anything. They watched side-by-side as Coach Harrison called Herrera off the court. Because Herrera might be injured from that hard crash, Harrison had the right to pull him even though it was the Foxes’ serve. Neil watched his new backliner enter the court, but Dan pulled his attention back to her.

‘That was perfect,’ she said, then gave his shoulder a hard smack. Neil couldn’t hide all of his wince. Dan put her finger in his face. ‘But don’t do something that reckless again. We can’t replace you. Hear me?’

‘Yes, Dan.’

‘Good. Now let’s show these bastards what’s what.’

It was easier said than done, but they fought all the way to halftime. When the clock ran out they’d pushed the score to four-even. Wymack ushered his team off the court to the chaos of a riled crowd. Kevin had nothing to say to them, but Aaron went straight to Matt and Nicky to check on them. Allison was nowhere in sight, but neither was Abby, so Neil guessed they’d stepped away from the noise together. Neil hoped Allison could hold it together for a little longer.

Wymack pointed them toward the locker room but stayed behind an extra minute to smile at cameras and secure the stick rack. Neil had his gloves and helmet off as soon as he reached the tunnel. He yanked his neck guard off next, needing a little extra room to breathe. He could barely feel his legs. He couldn’t feel his feet, but he assumed they were down there somewhere. The shoulder he’d hurt in first half was still throbbing thanks to the well-aimed blows of his new backliner mark.

The Foxes spread out into a loose circle in the locker room to shed extraneous gear and stretch. The others looked beat but sounded lively. They chatted about their comeback, sounding cautiously hopeful for second half. Dan and Matt were even laughing about something rude a striker had said to Matt. Neil looked around the circle at them, soaking up their enthusiasm, but his attention caught and held on Andrew before long.

Neil had seen Andrew go through withdrawal before, but not like this. It’d always been late at night when exhaustion had set in or down in Columbia with drugs and alcohol to soften the edge. In those sorts of backdrops Neil couldn’t really appreciate the dead stage Andrew went through.

Everyone warned Neil that Andrew didn’t care about Exy, but some part of Neil refused to believe that. The pieces didn’t add up right, especially when Andrew willingly came off his euphoric drugs for games. The fight with Kevin this morning proved something strange was going on. But Andrew stood a silent stone in their midst, looking a thousand miles away from all of this. He was a vacuum his teammates’ rowdy cheer couldn’t touch.

‘Stop it.’

He didn’t mean to say it. He didn’t even realize he’d spoken until his teammates’ conversations petered off. Dan and Matt sent him curious looks. Renee glanced between Neil and Andrew, whereas Aaron didn’t look up at all. Kevin put it together faster than anyone, since he felt the same nauseous anger toward Andrew’s apathy. The look he flicked Andrew was accusatory.

Andrew slid a bored look Neil’s way. ‘I’m not doing anything.’

‘Exactly,’ Neil wanted to say, but he knew it was a senseless argument. He didn’t have the right words for that gnawing feeling in his stomach and it was his fault for being so naïve. He gave a frustrated shake of his head and let it drop.

Nicky opened his mouth, hesitated as he reconsidered his words, and then clapped a hand on Neil’s shoulder in either comfort or encouragement. He left his hand there but directed his too-cheerful words at the rest of the team.

‘Hey, so we’re actually doing much better than I thought we would.’

Wymack chose that moment to walk in and he scowled at Nicky’s words. ‘This is horrible. This kind of game isn’t going to work for us, and today is the last time I’ll tolerate it. You have got to start creating point gaps in the first half. You need that cushion when it’s your second wind against their fresh line-up.’

‘He’s right,’ Dan said. ‘We need to push harder earlier. We hold back because we’re trying to pace ourselves for a long night, but playing catch-up is a killer. We need to play smarter and balance this out somehow.’

Wymack nodded and looked across the room. ‘Andrew?’

‘Present,’ Andrew said.

Wymack interpreted that unhelpful response however he wanted to and snapped his fingers at his team. ‘Come on, stretch it out.’ He walked a couple steps away and called down the hall, ‘Abby?’

‘Coming,’ Abby said from out of sight, and showed up carrying two jugs. One had water, the other a sports drink. She poured some of each for the Foxes and made rounds to pass them out. She came to Neil last and stayed with him, feeling the line of his shoulder armor through his jersey. ‘How are you doing?’

Neil drained both cups before answering. ‘I’m fine.’

Nicky fist-pumped in triumph. ‘Thank you for being so predictable, Neil. You just scored me ten bucks with two words.’

Matt looked up. ‘Are you serious? Who the hell bet against you?’
Nicky jerked a thumb at Kevin. ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’

Kevin looked furious, but that anger was directed at Neil. ‘You are an idiot. Do you see this?’ He brandished his left hand at Neil. Neil couldn’t see his scars from across the room but he knew what Kevin was referring to. ‘Injuries are not a joke. They are not something to gloss over. If you get hurt out there, you do something about it. You take it easy, you have Coach pull you, you ask Abby for help—I don’t care. If you ever say ‘I’m fine’ about your health again I will make you rue the day you were born. Are we clear?’

Neil opened his mouth, thought better of arguing, and said, ‘We’re clear.’

‘I did warn you,’ Dan said, unsympathetic. ‘I think Kevin’s threats are more effective though.’

Abby eyed Neil. ‘I’ll ask again, then. Are you okay?’

‘I’m—’ It was too automatic a response; Neil bit it off when Kevin took a threatening step forward. He huffed in annoyance and dug for a better answer. ‘It’s just sore. So long as I can keep my mark off my right side I’ll be—okay.’

Matt laughed at the near-miss. ‘I don’t see this experiment ending well, Neil.’

‘Some people are just hardwired to be stupid,’ Wymack said. ‘Now stop yapping and listen up. We have a lot to get through.’

Wymack started with the backliners and worked his way forward, pointing out missed opportunities and highlighting their scattered successes. He had a list of the second half’s starting line-up, so he spent the second half of the break going over their opponents.

The Foxes gave him their undivided attention, but they didn’t stop moving. Matt stopped stretching in favor of pacing the length of the wall. The others shifted, stretched, and jogged in place as Wymack spoke. Abby collected empty cups, tossed them in the trash, and handed out refills. Neil drank his so fast he barely tasted it. He was starting to get his second wind back, but he was glad to sit out part of the next half. He wanted to be fully recharged before he joined Kevin on the court.

A buzzer sounded overhead. They were due in the inner court in one minute, and Allison was still missing. Abby nodded at the look Wymack sent her and went in search of the missing dealer.

‘Let’s get ready to move,’ Wymack said.

Wymack shooed them into line and grabbed his clipboard off the floor. Neil looked down the hall to where Abby stood outside the bathroom door. She motioned at Wymack to go ahead, so Wymack opened the door and led the Foxes back into the stadium.

Neil wouldn’t need his gloves or helmet for a while, so he set them on the bench and helped Nicky situate the stick rack. By the time he straightened Allison was already on her way out. She was dressed to go and came straight for her racquet. Neil tried scooting out of her way without being too obvious about it. If she noticed, she didn’t comment. The dead look on her face said she’d narrowed all of her attention down to the task at hand.

Starting line-ups were called to the door shortly afterward. Neil stayed near the bench with Matt and Renee and watched his teammates file onto the court. He wasn’t ready to talk about Allison with either of them, so he focused on the other unsteady player on their team.

‘Why does Andrew do this?’ Neil asked, unable to stay quiet any longer. ‘If he doesn’t care about Exy, what’s the point of going through this every Friday?’

‘Would you want to be crazy high every day of your life?’ Matt asked.

‘He spends the entire time winding down and getting sick,’ Neil said. ‘Is it worth it?’

‘Maybe it is,’ Renee said with a smile. ‘You’ll see.’

The Terrapins served as soon as the buzzer sounded, and the court became a whirlwind of movement. Belmonte’s starting dealer got the half going with an aggressive move: he fired straight up the court at the goal. Allison could have stopped it, but she casually sidestepped like it wasn’t worth her time. Andrew reacted with the same calm arrogance and just watched as the ball missed his goal by a scant inch. The crowd’s reaction was instant and loud: they weren’t going to be mocked by a ragtag team like the Foxes.

Andrew gave the ball a small pop on the rebound to bounce it off the ground and smacked it right back the way it’d come. Allison watched it pass her again, let the dealer catch it uncontested, and then smashed into him. He didn’t lose his feet, but he lost the ball when he stumbled, and Allison was quick to take it from him. She passed it up the court and pushed forward after it.

The Foxes were notorious for their shoddy teamwork, so most people forgot they were a Class I school. Wymack culled his broken players from the same pool as any other Class I coach: the best athletes high schools had to offer nationwide. If the Foxes could get over their differences and learn to compromise once in a while, they would be a formidable force. Neil had warned Riko that at Kathy Ferdinand’s talk show, and Dan thought the team had a better chance now that Seth was gone. Neil watched his teammates for any sign she was right.

Because he was watching so closely, he could see it, but it came only in flashes. Nicky was the team’s weakest backliner, but Aaron knew how to compensate for it. Allison and Dan had never played together like this, but they’d been roommates and friends for three years. Dan was too far up to watch the court like she normally did but she could gauge the situation in a glance and adjust her play accordingly.

Neil wanted to get Matt out there and see what a difference it made. Matt was their best player. He could unite the court with his presence and control the game through his unapologetic aggression. Neil wanted to go out there himself and find out if he really deserved to play Class I. He wanted to be part of this evolution. He wanted to feel the team click into perfect synchrony, even if it only lasted for a moment.

By the time Wymack finally let him on the court, Neil was buzzing with equal parts impatience and need. He knew he clacked sticks with Dan as they passed each other at the door but he didn’t hear it. He heard only his heartbeat, thumping in his veins.

The buzzer sounded to get them moving. The Terrapins came as hard as they could, but the Foxes shoved back with a ferocity the home team wasn’t expecting. They were exhausted, but Matt rallied the defense around him and Neil had permission to run himself ragged on the offense. Neil was the least experienced person on their team, but he was the fastest and the most desperate. Every minute on the court brought him one minute closer to saying goodbye to Exy forever. He didn’t want to regret a single second.

Neil kept his eyes off the scoreboard but he knew when the Foxes pulled ahead by the reaction from the crowd. The Terrapins almost scored a few minutes later, but Matt threw his striker into the wall. A second later they were fighting. Renee was closest, so she ran to break it up. Matt threw his hands up and retreated the second he realized she was there, but the Terrapin striker was too fired up to care. He went after Matt again and got in a couple good hits. Matt struggled with him a bit and managed to shove him away.

Renee took the opening. She caught the back of the striker’s jersey and drove her foot into the back of his knee. He fell to his knees, and Renee put all her weight on his calf to keep him from getting up again.

The referees separated them with angry words and exaggerated gestures. All three of them were given yellow cards for fighting. Neil thought it a stupid call, since Renee hadn’t technically been fighting anyone, but the crowd screamed approval. Because the striker initiated the fight, the Foxes were given possession of the ball near where the Terrapins lost it. Matt knocked sticks with Renee as they found their new starting places.

Kevin put them in the lead with one minute left on the clock. The last sixty seconds were a desperate push from both sides. A point from the Terrapins would put them in overtime, and none of the Foxes had enough energy left to play another fifteen-minute period. Eight seconds from the end a Terrapin striker got the ball. Aaron ran after him, but he was too exhausted to close the gap. The striker’s ten steps took him all the way to the foul line for his shot.

Disappointment was a sick lurch in Neil’s chest. The goal was too wide and Andrew too small; there was no way Andrew could stop a shot this close-range. The striker aimed for a spot as far from Andrew as he could and fired the ball at the bottom left corner. Even if Andrew could get there fast enough, the ball was too low to the ground for him to swing his massive racquet.

Except Andrew was moving before the striker finished taking his shot, as if he already knew where the striker was going to aim, and he didn’t even try to swing. He threw himself at the ground as far over as he could and slammed his racquet down between the ball and the goal so hard Neil heard wood crack all the way across the court. He was just fast enough; the ball hit the taut strings of his racquet and bounced off.

Andrew let go of his racquet and went after the ball himself. The striker raced for it, too, but he’d lost a precious second expecting his point to be good. One second was all Aaron needed to catch up with him, and Aaron crashed into him before he could scoop the ball off the ground. They narrowly avoided colliding with Andrew, but Andrew didn’t even look up. He grabbed the ball in one gloved hand and threw it to one side, clearing it away from the goal.

The final buzzer was deafening, but Matt’s triumphant roar carried through it. Neil looked up, needing to see the numbers to believe it. Relief was almost enough to take him off his feet, but the heady rush of victory put the breath back in his lungs. He looked across the court for Kevin, but Kevin was striding toward the goal. Neil turned a bit more so he could see Andrew again, but the sight waiting for him took some of the edge off his excitement.

Andrew was kneeling just inside the goal line with his racquet in his lap. Neil heard Dan’s excited voice as the subs were allowed onto the court, but he didn’t wait for his teammates to catch up with him. He ran after Kevin and reached the goal right after Kevin did. Kevin didn’t have to ask what was going on. He’d lied to cameras for years and he knew how to buy Andrew time. He crouched in front of Andrew and reached for Andrew’s racquet, adding to the illusion that Andrew was inspecting his racquet for damage.

Andrew let go with one hand and gestured. Kevin gestured back as if they having an actual conversation. The only sound either of them made was the desperate gasp of air through clenched teeth as Andrew tried not to get sick in front of the crowd. Kevin turned the racquet some and dug his gloved fingers into the head. Shattered wood split beneath the pressure, showing off an awful crack all the way down to the handle. Neil winced at the sight and checked the court floor for an indent.

The rest of the team fell in around them, bringing the celebration to their strikers and forming an impromptu barricade around their fallen goalkeeper. Matt smacked shoulders and helmets in excitement and bared his teeth in a jaw-breaking grin.

‘That’s how we do it! That’s how we do it, Foxes!’

Andrew let go of his racquet and got to his feet, but he was obviously unsteady. Neil expected him to fall, but Nicky slung an arm around Andrew’s shoulders and yanked Andrew close to him. It let him take some of Andrew’s weight without it being too obvious what he was doing. Andrew looked ready to say something about the unasked-for help, but Nicky didn’t give him a chance to argue. He pumped his fist and whooped.

‘That was awesome! We are going to own this season!’

‘That was sloppy,’ Kevin said as he stood. ‘We barely had it.’

‘Oh, shut up, sour face,’ Nicky said. ‘Save your grouching for the ride back and stop spoiling our moment of glory.’

‘Seriously.’ Matt gave Kevin’s helmet a vigorous rub. ‘Would it kill you to smile when no one’s paying you to?’

Matt didn’t wait for an answer but turned to Allison as she finally joined them. She was already clean and changed out for the ride back, and her wet hair was pulled out of her face in a tight ponytail. Neil saw how red her eyes were and looked away. Matt scooped her up in a hug that took her feet off the ground. ‘You’re amazing.’

‘Come on,’ Dan said. ‘Let’s give these guys our condolences and get out of here.’

They shuffled into line as fast as they could, and the Terrapins grudgingly formed their own line further down the court. They passed each other, slapping sticks and offering a chorus of ‘Good game!’ neither side fully believed. The Foxes filed off the court as quickly as they could and swarmed Wymack. Andrew broke away in the commotion and set off for the locker room.

Neil had never seen Wymack smile like this. It was small but fierce, as angry as it was proud. ‘That’s more like it. Draw straws and figure out who’s helping me fend off the press. The rest of you get your sticky, stinky asses to the showers. We’ll talk shop on the bus.’

‘Renee and I will handle it,’ Dan said as they headed to the locker room. ‘Neil, you can use the girls’ shower while we’re busy.’

Neil stared at her. ‘What?’

Dan frowned at him, so Matt explained. ‘There aren’t stalls here.’

Neil had noticed, but he hadn’t thought his teammates would. That they had, and that they were doing something about it, knocked the wind out of him. He tried to answer, but he didn’t know what to say. The best he managed was, ‘Is that really okay?’

‘Kid, you’re killing me,’ Nicky said. ‘Why do you always get that deer-in-headlights look when someone does something nice for you?’

‘It’s really okay,’ Dan promised. Neil tried to thank her, but she waved it off with a breezy, ‘Nope. None of that. Just don’t steal all the hot water.’

She, Renee, and Wymack plopped down on benches in the front room to wait on the press while the others went to clean up. Neil grabbed his bag from the men’s changing room and took it across the hall. The women’s shower room was a little more private. It didn’t have doors but it did have stall walls. Neil kept his back to the door and took a quick shower. He scrubbed dry so fast and hard he left his skin red in places, but he didn’t want Dan and Renee to have to wait any longer for him. He dressed in loose clothes, grabbed his things, and hurried out.

Animated voices from the end of the hall said the press was still around. Neil crept down the hall to look in, less to see what was going on and more so Dan or Renee would see him and know he was out of their way. Wymack was nowhere in sight, so Neil guessed he’d already given his piece. Renee glanced his way when she spotted movement in the doorway and smiled acknowledgment.

Neil retreated before anyone else spotted him. There weren’t a lot of places to hide from the press, but the door to the nurse’s office was open an inch. Neil gave it a cautious push and looked inside. Wymack was sitting on the pristine bed with a pack of cigarettes in his hand. Neil took Wymack’s nod to be an invitation and slipped inside. He was turning to close the door behind himself when he spotted Wymack’s silent companion.

Andrew was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the corner. He hadn’t bothered to change out yet, but he’d taken off his helmet and gloves. Abby’s travel bag was upended on the ground in front of him. His medicine bottle was open on its side near his hip. A handful of white pills were scattered on the floor around it. Andrew held his prize for the night’s efforts in a two-handed, white-knuckled grip: a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. In the ten or so minutes he’d been off the court he’d already inhaled half of the pricey scotch. How he had enough feeling left in his fingers to hold the bottle Neil didn’t know.

‘Abby and Allison went ahead to the bus,’ Wymack said. ‘You can join them or wait here for everyone else.’

Neil left the door open a crack behind him so he’d know when the reporters left and claimed the stool closest to the door. He put his bag on the ground at his feet, glanced again at Andrew, and looked up at Wymack.

‘Why did you pay for stalls, Coach?’ Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Find_Nøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Wymack lifted one shoulder in a shrug. ‘Maybe I knew you’d need them one day.’

Andrew smiled around the mouth of his bottle. ‘Neil is a walking tragedy.’

‘You’re a pretty pathetic sob story yourself,’ Wymack said.

Andrew laughed. It was weak, as his medicine hadn’t fully kicked in yet, but Neil knew from the sound of it Andrew would be bouncing before they left the parking lot. ‘I guess so, Coach. That reminds me. I’m staying with you this weekend.’

‘I don’t remember inviting you,’ Wymack said, but it didn’t sound like a no.

‘Kevin’s going to be so annoying to deal with after tonight.’ Andrew screwed the bottle closed and put it aside. He repacked Abby’s bag with quick efficiency, shoved it out of his way, and got to his feet. ‘I can stab him again or I can stay with you. The choice is yours.’

Wymack pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Andrew, I swear to God—’

‘Bye, Coach.’

Andrew headed for the door, but Neil put a hand in his path. Andrew obediently stopped and sent Neil a bemused look. Neil lowered his hand and said, ‘How did you do it? How did you know where to go?’
‘Coach said Watts always takes his penalty shots to the bottom corner. With the game riding on him he was bound to do the same.’

Neil stared at him, startled and disbelieving. Wymack mentioned that during halftime when he was giving the team a rundown of the second half line-up. It’d been an off-the-cuff remark amidst a lot of other information. Neil hadn’t thought Andrew was even paying attention to Wymack’s spiel. How he remembered that warning well enough to use it at such critical moment, Neil didn’t know.

‘But,’ Neil said, but words failed him. Andrew flashed Neil a bright grin and left. Neil turned a frustrated look on Wymack. ‘I thought he didn’t care. They said he didn’t, and I finally started believing them, but he couldn’t have saved us tonight if he didn’t. Right?’

‘You figure it out, you let me know,’ Wymack said.

The press left a couple minutes later, so Neil went to the main room to wait on his teammates. They came in straggling pairs with Dan and Renee the last ones ready to go. Loading the bus was quick work. Getting out of the parking lot was harder, even with police out in droves to manage the post-game traffic. The Fox bus was pelted with more than one crumpled beer can as it crawled through campus. Nicky pulled the window down to yell insults, but Wymack threatened him into silence. Nicky settled for flipping Belmonte students off.

The ride back felt half as long thanks to the heady rush of an unexpected victory. Allison stayed out of the celebration by dozing up front with Abby. The other upperclassmen moved to the middle of the bus so they could discuss the game with Andrew’s group. As soon as they did Andrew went up front, more interested in talking Wymack’s ear off than rehashing the night’s plays. Kevin’s tactless criticism was a necessary but unpleasant counterpoint to his teammates’ excited recap.

As he listened to them, Neil realized he was happy. It was such an unexpected and unfamiliar feeling he lost track of the conversation for a minute. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this included or safe. It was nice but dangerous. Someone with a past like his, whose very survival depended on secrecy and lies, couldn’t afford to let his guard down. But as Nicky laughed and leaned closer to talk about one of Neil’s goals, Neil thought maybe he’d be okay just for a night.