Palmetto State's Exy stadium was hard to miss, built to seat sixty-five thousand fans and painted with the brightest orange and white paints the school could find. Orange glinted at the edge of his peripheral vision. They'd lost their only fifth-year senior, and their remaining offense team consisted of an injured national champion and an amateur.

Now they were the smallest a team could be and still qualify to play. They were already the smallest team in NCAA Class I Exy. The Foxes had never had particularly good odds, but this upcoming year was looking bleak. They were only two days away from the second game of the season, though, and they had to pull together somehow. Neil hadn't seen the upperclassmen since Sunday morning and he knew the reunion was going to be rough. Allison wouldn't be at practice today, but the others would. Until he sorted that out he'd rather avoid Allison altogether. He still didn't know what to think about the role he might have played in Seth's death. Neil didn't know if she planned on burying it or keeping it in her dorm room the rest of the year. Allison Reynolds, Seth's onagain off-again girlfriend and the Foxes' defensive dealer, kept his urn instead. From what Neil heard, Seth's mother signed off on everything but didn't even show up at the crematorium to collect her son's ashes. Seth died Saturday night and was cremated Monday afternoon. Neil thought Wymack's concern was misplaced but he knew better than to argue. Instead Neil spent a couple nights sleeping on Wymack's couch. Neil would have stayed at the dorm, too, but Wymack didn't want him alone in the room he'd shared with Matt and Seth. The upperclassmen moved in with team nurse Abby Winfield, and the cousins and Kevin were banned to the dorm. Wymack forcibly separated the team after that. The team should have come together Sunday morning to grieve their loss, but Andrew and Matt got into an ugly brawl instead. An excitable Andrew confronted with theĭeath of his least-favorite teammate was a recipe for disaster. Generally Andrew's wild mood wasn't a problem, but Andrew's cheer didn't make him at all friendly. Andrew Minyard, Aaron's twin brother, had his weekly therapy sessions on Wednesdays. At least Coach David Wymack was calling them back to the court on a Wednesday afternoon.

None of them were looking forward to today's practice, but they could only take so much time off when the season was already underway. No one else answered him, but Neil thought they all agreed. Let it go.' 'I don't want to do this,' Nicky said, low and miserable. He pushed Nicky's hand away and said, 'It's fine. Kevin Day was sitting shotgun, so he saw Nicky move first. The cousins' relationship was a tangled mess he wouldn't live long enough to figure out. Whether it was admonition for trying to pretend things were okay or a silent show of support, Neil wasn't sure. Across the backseat from Neil, Nicky's cousin Aaron Minyard shoved the back of the driver's seat. Nicholas 'Nicky' Hemmick let his hand fall away from the dashboard with a quiet curse. Neil dragged his attention away from the streamers and looked up front. Rock music blared to life, temporarily filling the silence in the car, but it vanished as quickly as it'd come. Keeping himself alive was hard enough most days he had no time to linger over others' misfortunes. Seth Gordon's unexpected overdose Saturday night should have meant something more to Neil since they'd been teammates and roommates for three months, but Neil felt nothing. Death was unpleasant, but it was a familiar and tolerable ache in his chest. At eighteen years old, he'd seen more people die than he could comfortably count. Neil Josten thought it a cheap tribute, but that might have been his cynicism talking. It gave the impression the campus was in mourning. Over the weekend someone had replaced all of the white ribbons with black ones. Last week Palmetto State University was covered in orange and white streamers to celebrate the start of the school year.

It looked like Halloween outside, only two months too early. ALL FOR THE GAME The Foxhole Court The Raven King The King's MenĬopyright 2013 Nora Sakavic Smashwords Edition

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