Memories

XVIII

GOLDEN DAYS

'Oh don't you wonder when the light begins to fade?
And the clock just makes the colors turn to grey
Forever younger growing older just the same
All the memories that we make will never change'

⥎
⥐

"Hello Kevin," Jean had turned on his old teammate, who looked uncomfortable with the whole situation. Kevin was on Neil's other side, and was as close to Jean as Thalia was, and even closer to Riko.

"Jean."

Neither said anything more, but Jean looked angry covered in a sheet of ice, blurring the image to the rest of the world. Andrew reached across the table with a manic smile on his face and stuck his hand in Jean's face.

"Jean," he said. "Hey, Jean. Jean Valjean. Hey. Hey. Hello." Thalia snickered a little at their interaction - well, Andrew speaking and Jean making annoyed huffs at the nickname he'd been given. Jean was stupid enough to take Andrew's hand, and Thalia could see Andrew's white knuckles from clenching Jean's hand so tightly. He was making good on his deal to protect Kevin from these people, then, Thalia realised.

"I'm Andrew, we haven't met yet."

"For which I am grateful," Jean said, massaging his hand when he got it back. "The Foxes as a whole are an embarrassment to Class I Exy, but your very existence is unforgivable. A goalkeeper who doesn't care if he is scored on has no right to touch a racquet. You should have stayed on the sidelines like the publicity stunt you are."

"That's a bit out of line, don't you think?" Renee asked, her voice sweet as ever, though Thalia had figured out long ago that there was always a silent threat behind her words. The person to Riko's right snorted and commented that they'd make a drinking game out of one of the Foxes matches, but they'd get alcohol poisoning.

"Yeah, that'd be a real shame." Dan said sarcastically. Thalia hadn't particularly liked the captain of her new team, but today was making her warm up to the older woman more than Thalia thought she ever would.

"Fun is for children," Jean said, and Thalia looked up to see she'd missed part of the conversation, presumably about fun. The alcohol she'd had earlier was starting to kick in, as was the lack of sleep she'd gotten recently. "You have no right to play with us."

"Then you shouldn't have transferred districts," Matt said. Thalia's words to him those weeks ago hadn't been forgotten, it was clear, but Matt somehow understood the point Thalia had been trying to make, and didn't call Andrew a monster anymore. "No one wants you here."

"You took something that does not belong to you," A Raven who had not spoken yet said. "You brought this year's humiliation on yourselves." Thalia looked to Riko, who smiled coldly at her. She understood then that Seth's death hadn't been an accident. He hadn't overdosed, it had been forced. She'd never known him, but decided that he probably hadn't deserved Riko killing him to prove a point to the rest of the Foxes.

"We didn't take anything. Kevin wants to be here." Dan said in retaliation. Thalia glanced at Kevin then, who had been silent the whole time, except for that one word he'd said to Jean. She didn't blame him. These were the people who'd broken him and destroyed his opportunity to do what he loves and had been brought up to do.

"Please don't tell me you believe that. If he'd stayed on as assistant coach, maybe he'd have learned to stomach your failures. Now that he's playing with you, there's no way he'll last the season." the Raven across from Renee said. "We know Kevin better than you ever will. We know how much your incompetence must grate on him."

"Yeah?" Thalia said, looking at that particular Raven, who seemed slightly shocked that she had spoken again. "Well why don't you ask Kevin what he wants, yeah? Because since we're talking about him and he's right here, I don't see the harm in that."

"They know how I feel," Kevin said, clearly prompted by Thalia's words. "But words alone won't fix anything. A team that needs this much work requires a larger commitment than that."

"See, it's not like he's shy with his opinion," Aaron said as he brought a glass of water to his lips.

"You won't stay," Jean said. It was more of a command instead of a prediction. "Face the facts, Kevin. Your pet is and always will be dead -"

"Kevin, you have a pet and you never told us?" Andrew said, trying to get the topic off Kevin's return to the Ravens. "Where do you keep it?" Thalia smirked at that, knowing Andrew was getting on Jean's nerves now.

"Don't interrupt me, Doe," Nicky whimpered beside Thalia and Andrew's slight shift in mood let Thalia know exactly what Jean had just said. There was no way that Andrew and Aaron's mother would have entered him in the system with the surname 'Minyard' if she could ever help meeting him, so she likely entered him with a different name, or allowed for one to be picked for him. Doe must have been that surname.

"Oh, points for trying," Andrew said, smile only growing. Thalia concluded that it was only his drugs that were making him like that, but to be honest, she wasn't so sure anymore. "but save your breath. Here's a tip for you, okay? You can't cut down someone who's already in the gutter. You just waste your time and mine."

"Amen," Thalia said quietly, taking a discreet drink from the small flask she'd brought with her. Nobody really noticed, but Nicky elbowed her and she held it out for him, but he shook his head and looked slightly disgusted. Thalia shrugged and put the flask away.

"Enough," Dan snapped her fingers. "This is a district event and there are twenty officials on hand. We're here to get to know each other, not to start fights."

"Speak for yourself," Thalia mumbled as she slumped in her chair slightly. She was getting uncomfortable with the situation, but had lately realised that the Foxes took relaxation as a sign of being okay, and tensing even the slightest put them all on edge. So she tended to go through the rights and wrongs of a situation in her head, and plan all escape routes through slowly moving eyes across the room instead of frantically darting them around.

"If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all. That goes for both teams," Dan said and looked pointedly at Andrew, Neil and Thalia. 

"Is that why your child is being quiet?" Riko asked, obviously missing the most important part of Dan's speech. "He doesn't have anything nice to say?"

"Actually, I'm younger than Neil, so you can't really call him a child." Thalia interrupted, still in a tense but slumped position.

"He was very spirited the last time we met. Or was that all just an act for the media?" Riko said, looking at Neil.

"What, you mean like everything you do for anything, ever?" Thalia said, coming to Neil's defense once again. She realised with a start that she was doing for Neil what Andrew was doing for Kevin. That was, until, Neil put a hand on Thalia's knee. Neither sat up straighter, however, but Thalia's mouth remained shut, taking Neil's touch as the 'shut up' it probably was.

"Hello, I am talking to you," Riko said, and Thalia almost bit down on her tongue to stop herself from speaking, so instead she clenched her jaw tightly. "Are you just going to ignore me?" Neil still said nothing, but gripped Thalia's knee harder. She was unsettled by the action, but knew he was doing it to stop himself from lashing out on Riko like he did in that interview that Thalia had only watched to see what the Foxes were like in the media.

"What a coward," Riko said with exaggerated disappointment. "Just like his mother." Thalia knew then that Neil would snap, no matter what. His hand left Thalia's knee and was placed on the table. She wanted to reach out to stop him from what he was about to do, but also wanted to see where this was going to go, so Thalia let the rant roll out of Neil's mouth.