Page 71 of Trick Play
Which has the added benefit of not pissing off everyone around me, including my coaches.
Coach Reese points out specific things he wants us to pay attention to, certain players and the way they move, their quirks and idiosyncrasies.
“They’re a solid team,” he says as he switches off the projector, signaling to Coach Bennett to turn on the lights.
A wave of murmuring goes through the team as we all blink, our eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness.
“We can beat them if we keep our head in the game,” Coach says, pitching his voice louder to be heard over our noise. “We’ve all gotta pull our weight. Be ready. That means no slacking off in the weight room or on the practice field, got it?”
Mumbled yesses echo around the room.
“We want to make this first season in Division I something to be proud of. Then you can tell your kids thatyoudid this. You changed divisions part way through your college careers and stepped up to the challenge of a tougher schedule and defeated it.”
Another round of agreement goes up.
“What was that?” he asks, cupping an ear like he didn’t hear us the first time.
We all chorus, “Yessir,” louder so that he’s satisfied.
Just as he dismisses us and we all reach down to gather our things, a loud groan goes up from one corner of the room.
We all turn to see what the problem is, and Gardner stands up, Piggy in his hand. “Seriously, guys? We’re watching game tape. We’re not supposed to be passing Piggy around.”
A round of laughter goes out.
“He has a point,” Coach Reese says, a hint of censure tempering his obvious amusement.
“Coach, I think it’s your turn to have Piggy,” Gardner says, obviously just trying to get out of finding a legal way to pass Piggy to the next player. He lobs Piggy through the air, and Coach Reese whacks Piggy away with his clipboard like he’s playing baseball.
“Wrong sport, Coach,” laughs Foster as the coaches file out, picking up Piggy and making a show of dusting him off. Then he turns to Gardner. “That’s not how we treat Piggy here. You know better than that. Tell him you’re sorry and take care of him until you can pass him to someone else.”
“Legally,” I stress. “Tossing him across the tape room isn’t how you give Piggy to someone else. We all know the rules.”
Kilpatrick glares at me. “Shut the fuck up, McAdam. No one’s talking to you.”
I jerk back, hands up, caught off guard by the wave of anger emanating from him, entirely directed at me. “Whoa, there, man. I wasn’t talking to you, for one thing. And what the hell is your problem? What’d I do to you?” I glance around at my teammates, wondering if any of them have any idea what his problem is.
“Dude,” Lancaster says, his hand on Kilpatrick’s chest as he tries to push past. “He’s not worth it, man. Leave it.”
I cross my arms and cock my head back, staring Kilpatrick down. He’s got a few inches on me, but I have more bulk. If he wants to fight, we can fight. I’m not the one that’s gonna be tossed out of a game, though. Not with all these witnesses able to articulate that he started it and I’m acting in self defense.
“I’m not worth it?” I question. “What the fuck did I do? All I said was that we don’t throw Piggy at our teammates. The game is that you sneak him into someone else’s things. This isn’t controversial.” I glance around for support.
Several guys nod. Piggy’s not new. We all know the rules, including Gardner. Kilpatrick’s the only one who might be forgiven for not understanding, at least at the beginning of the season.
I jerk my chin at him. “You feeling left out, man? Did no one give you a turn with Piggy this year?”
“Don’t fucking talk to me, asshole,” Kilpatrick growls, and I can’t help laughing, because how’m I the asshole here?
“Seriously, dude? You’re the one talking to me. You’re the one who came in here and took over, but you don’t get to tell me I can’t talk to my own teammates, who’ve been my teammates foryears, about our team game. Why don’tyoustop talking to me?”
He pushes past his friends, getting in my face. “Why don’t you stop talking to my sister? We all know why you’re sniffing around after her.”
My eyes widen, because shit. I didn’t even put that together right now. After everything that’s happened between Piper and me the last few weeks, I’d completely separated Piper from her brother. They exist in different compartments in my life. She’s my girlfriend, and he’s my asshole teammate, and I don’t even think about them as being connected anymore. Plus Kilpatrick and I have been spending time in the same spaces for the last two weeks without a problem, so for this to start now, so far removed from when she got in a fight with him about something she still won’t tell me about …
The penny finally drops.
They fought aboutme.
