The Raven King (All for the Game, #2)

by Nora Sakavic

Aaron and Kevin were rearranging the furniture when Neil walked in. Neil watched as they pushed the chairs and couches into a V-shape, then asked, "What are you doing?" "Finding a new way to make us fit," Aaron said, "unless you want to stare an empty chair in the face all season." "It's the same number of cushions," Neil said. "Four people barely fit on a couch. Five is out of the question." "Five?" Kevin looked at him like he was stupid. Neil was painfully familiar with that look by now, but even after four months working with Kevin he still didn't appreciate it. "You do know your place, don't you?" Kevin asked.

Andrew promised he could change that, but his protection had a price tag. Andrew would protect Neil from his past if Neil helped him keep Kevin at Palmetto State.

"You're on the couch with Kevin and Andrew. Sit down."

Wymack's obvious irritation made his reassurances less than convincing, but Neil knew he believed every word he was saying. Wymack didn't care if he had nine Foxes or twenty-five. He'd stand behind them until the bitter, bloody end.

Wymack looked at the empty chairs across from him. Palmetto State's Exy team was on its fifth year now. Wymack built the Foxes from the ground up and handpicked Seth for his first starting line. Between the players' personal problems, a faulty original contract that let players walk out, and the option to graduate in four years instead of five, Seth was the only one who'd made it to a fifth year with the team. Seth had been a lot of things, most of them unpleasant, but he'd definitely been a fighter. Now he was gone.

"One day I want you to look up 'insensitivity' in the dictionary," Matt said, annoyed. "I'm sure it'll do your ego wonders to see your picture printed there beside it."

"Andrew Joseph Minyard, what the flying fuck have you done this time?"

"I can't, Kevin? I'll show you what I can't do. Try and put me on your court today and I'll take myself off it permanently. Fuck your practice, your line-up, and your stupid fucking game."

"Yeah," Aaron said. "He's the one who told me I had a brother."

"You shouldn't be outside if you're coming down with something," Kevin said. "Such concern." Andrew grinned at Kevin's cool tone. "Don't cry, Kevin. It's nothing a nap and some vitamin C can't fix."

She even made them promise to not contact her ever again." Nicky finished his second drink and mixed a third. "But Aaron knew who was calling, and he was too excited to wait on his mom to hang up to find out the details. As soon as she picked up in the kitchen, he ran to her bedroom and listened in on the upstairs phone. That's how he found out the truth." Nicky looked down at his drink. "Aaron said it was the worst day of his life."

I kind of view Andrew's foster life as an off-limits topic. I don't bring it up until he does."

He tried to read his chemistry notes, but a few paragraphs in he started zoning out.

"Why is chemistry so awful?" Neil asked, reaching for the next assignment.

He's so real for that

Neil was more interested in the sleeping than the homework part.

"Renee and Andrew are sparring partners," Matt said. It obviously didn't sound as ridiculous to them as it did to Neil, but aside from flat-out asking what a sweet Christian girl was doing fighting the unofficial sociopath of the team, Neil didn't know what to say.

Neil pushed all thoughts of Andrew aside and followed Kevin onto the Foxhole Court.

For the first time in Fox history, the team was a unified force.

They were different kinds of heartless and Neil, for all his problems connecting with other people, didn't want to be a monster.

Allison Reynolds was a bewildering choice for Palmetto State. She looked like a picture-perfect princess, but she could brawl with the best of them on the court. She refused to bend to others' expectations of her and could be honest to the point of cruelty. She could have inherited her parents' billion-dollar empire, but she didn't want the restrictions that life came with. She wanted the right to be her own person. She wanted to prove herself on the court. And for some reason she wanted Seth despite his many issues and rude affection.

"Careful, Kevin. Your jealous streak is showing." "For eight months you've told me no. In eight seconds you told him yes. Why?" "Oh, that's easy." Andrew stuffed the last of his gear into his bag and zipped it shut. He slung the bag over his shoulders and got to his feet, standing up so close to Kevin he almost knocked Kevin back a step. "It's just more fun to tell you no. That's what you wanted, right? You wanted me to have fun. I am. Aren't you?"

"Kevin, Kevin. So predictable. So pathetic. How about a tip? A reward for all your hard work, or something. Ready? You'll start having more success when you ask for things you can actually have." "I can have this," Kevin said, voice thick with frustration. "You're just being stupid." "I guess we'll see, but don't say I didn't warn you!"

Some said Wymack recruited troubled athletes as a publicity stunt. Others thought he was a misguided idealist. Digging up talented wrecks and giving them the chance to turn their lives around was nice in theory and a disaster in reality. Truth was Wymack picked them because he understood firsthand how much they needed another chance. He looked the other way because he knew how badly some of them needed their escapes to survive.

Unlike their teammates, Andrew's group sat one to a row. Andrew had the very last row, with Kevin right in front of him. Nicky had been in front of Kevin last time, but now Nicky and Aaron were up a row to leave an empty spot in the middle. Neil didn't have to ask why. He dropped his backpack on the third seat and sank into the cushion. Leather creaked as Nicky turned, and Nicky grinned over his seatback at Neil.

The rest of his life was a frightening mess; Neil needed the power and control of a fierce game.

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."

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.

"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."

Lmao

"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."

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.

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.

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.

"That's how we do it! That's how we do it, Foxes!"

"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."

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."

"Why did you pay for stalls, Coach?" 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.

"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."

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.

"Your ignorance is endearing, Neil. You're nineteen and you've never looked at Allison's tits? There's no way you're straight. You and I really need to sit down and talk about this sometime."

It'll be easier if he remains heterosexual.

KEVIN BBY :(((((((

Andrew threw his hands up. "Newsflash, Nicky: Neil isn't normal!" "This is beyond abnormal." "I am standing right here," Neil said, "and I can hear you."

He'd saved their phones for last. Every time they moved they got new cell phones, prepaid burners they could ditch at the first hint of trouble. He wanted to keep hers. He wanted something real to hold onto in her absence. Even then he'd known better. He threw them into the waves before leaving the beach. He'd never gotten a new one for himself. He'd never seen a point; Neil had no one in the world he could call.

"You have this way of making people want to kill you," Andrew said.

Andrew leaned forward on his perch and smiled at Neil. "Hey, Neil. Honesty looks awful on you."

Andrew was straddling the bench as he waited for Neil, and in front of him was Neil's new phone. Neil glanced down at it instinctively and quickly jerked his stare up to Andrew's face. Andrew wasn't smiling anymore.

Andrew took his own phone out of his pocket and set it down beside Neil's. His was black but otherwise seemed to be the same model. He flicked both open and pressed a couple buttons. A few seconds later Andrew's phone started to ring. Neil expected a generic ringtone, but a man started singing. It didn't sound like something Andrew would assign to his phone until Neil listened to the lyrics. It was a song about runaways.

Who am I supposed to call?" "Nicky, Coach, the suicide hotline, I don't care." "I'm remembering why I don't like you." "I'm surprised you forgot in the first place."

"You could occasionally grow a spine," Andrew suggested. "I know it's a difficult concept for someone whose kneejerk reaction is to run away at the first sign of trouble, but try it sometime. You might actually like it."

There was silence, then the distant hum of Andrew's phone dialing out. Between them Neil's phone started to sing. The words were different than Andrew's ringtone, but the voice was the same. Neil knew it was from the same miserable song. The lyrics hurt just as much as Andrew's had. Neil stared down at the phone and let it ring. "Your phone is ringing," Andrew said. "You should answer it."

"Your parents are dead, you are not fine, and nothing is going to be okay," Andrew said. "This is not news to you. But from now until May you are still Neil Josten and I am still the man who said he would keep you alive.