Memories

XXVI

BURY A FRIEND

'What do you want from me?
Why don't you run from me?
What are you wondering? 
What do you know?
Why aren't you scared of me? 
Why do you care for me?
When we all fall asleep where do we go?'

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The Ravens' game was the biggest Thalia had ever played. She guessed it was the biggest the other Foxes had played, too, because Dan seemed as nervous as Thalia had seen her before. There was nothing more frightening than seeing your captain, the one who was supposed to be in control and have everything going right, mess up and become a ball of nerves.

Unsurprisingly, Kevin was also a mess, though he spent most of his time training Thalia and Neil at night and teaching the Foxes some Raven dynamics during the day. After one of their night practices, he took Thalia aside. "I want you to play with both hands." Thalia frowned. "I know you can do it. I've seen it so many times before. You're better playing with both. It'll throw them off."

"Alright," Thalia agreed. "But as long as you don't take another sip of alcohol for the rest of the week." Kevin's jaw clenched, obviously unhappy with the arrangement, but knowing he needed Thalia to do the best she could, even though she was the subbing striker, and he and Neil were likely to play most of the game without her.

"Fine." Kevin muttered and Thalia nodded, happy with their agreement. He went downhill from there. The no alcohol rule Thalia had implemented only lasted because she'd talked to Andrew about it, and the two of them had hung around Kevin like a bad smell.

Sober Kevin was hard to deal with, and he got angry about all the little things that didn't really matter because Nicky wouldn't be able to fix his speed in two days, and Allison wouldn't be able to get enough power into her passes to make it as far down the court as they were needed. Thalia had to calm him down often, because Andrew wasn't any help with the Kevin situation. He seemed to only step in if Kevin was being attacked. Not if Kevin was attacking others.

By Friday, it was clear that Kevin wasn't going to be able to do well in the game without help from a little friend called vodka. Thalia brought his stash back to his room and poured him a glass. Kevin looked confused, but drained the glass nonetheless. Thalia filled it again and he drank the second helping. He reached for another, and Thalia held the bottle away.

"I thought you gave him a no alcohol rule," Aaron said, emerging from the bedroom. "What's with this?" They were due at the court in fifteen minutes, and the other boys were in their bedroom getting ready. 

"This is just a little helper for tonight." Thalia said to Aaron, then turned back to Kevin, who was just being affected by the substance he'd put into his body. "No more until after the game. Then you can have as much as you well fucking want." Thalia put the bottles on the bench, and helped Kevin into a standing position. She looked over to Aaron, who was waiting for his cousins to emerge. "We'll meet you down there." she said and helped Kevin out of the door.

Once they were in the parking lot, Thalia leaned Kevin against the door of Andrew's car. He was standing fine, but after not having anything in the past week it was taking some getting used to having the vodka in his system.

"I remembered something today," Thalia said. Kevin looked at her expectantly, and she continued. "I remember being with you and Jean, back at Evermore." she said. The memory was coming back to her even as she spoke it aloud. He hummed and Thalia cleared her throat, ready to continue her story.

"It was just you and me, and we snuck into Tetsuji's office," Thalia knew Kevin could tell where the story was going when his eyes darkened and he went tense all over. "You found a letter. It was from your mother." Kevin looked slightly feral.

"Don't say another word," he said, this time in French. His voice was low and threatening, but Thalia had dealt with worse than Kevin. "Don't you dare say another word."

"Why?" Thalia asked. "Are you scared of what I'll say? Because It's not that bad." she shook her head. "It's your choice, but I think he deserves to know. I know what it's like being kept in the dark about something. Not knowing things is a bitch, and nobody deserves that, especially him."

Kevin didn't answer, and the cousins and Neil approached them. Thalia climbed into the center of the backseat and waited for the others to take their place. Once they were all inside the car, Kevin turned from his spot in the passenger seat and looked at Thalia.

"Fuck you," he said in French. Neil was behind Thalia in the boot of the car, and his hand on the back of her neck was nothing but questioning, but she tensed up at the touch nonetheless. Kevin turned back around and Nicky drove to the stadium. Thalia shook off Neil's hand and looked out the front window between Nicky and Kevin's heads.

The Ravens were intimidating at the very least. Thalia had done as Kevin asked and played with both of her hands, switching between the two every so often. It threw off the Ravens, except for Riko, and, apparently, Jean. Perhaps since finding out about Thalia's real identity, Riko had remembered she was ambidextrous. He'd clearly told Jean but nobody else, because when Jean was trying to mark her, it wasn't as hard for him to predict what she was about to do.

The Foxes still lost, though when Thalia looked up at the scoreboard after the game, she saw that the Ravens had taken a total of 150 shots on goal, and Andrew and Renee combined had only missed thirteen of them. She flocked onto the court with the rest of the subs and made her way over to where the team was gathering around the goal. Nicky hauled his cousin up from the ground and put his arms around him. Thalia stood on Andrew's other side, who looked completely exhausted.

Andrew's withdrawal made him more composed and reliable, but it made him so tired that he'd crash at any moment. Thalia believed it a relief that he hadn't passed out or thrown up yet. They were herded off the court and into the locker room. Dan and Renee handled the press while Wymack gave the others a debriefing. Their loss was expected, but Wymack was still proud of them. He'd promised a party with an all you can drink buffet back at Abby's after the game, but Thalia just wanted to be by herself.

"Hey," she said to Andrew. He barely slowed on the way to his car. "Can you drop me off at the studio?" he didn't acknowledge her, but Thalia knew Andrew had heard what she'd asked. He drove to Thalia's art studio, confusing all the men in the car, and she thanked him before getting out and telling the others she'd see them tomorrow.

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"We're getting a new recruit tomorrow," Riko said. Nathalia looked up from the book she was reading. It was hard to focus, since Riko had trained her hard today. But she needed to get up to the right page or she'd be falling behind in her classes. It wasn't as if she had anyone to compete with - Nathalia was homeschooled, just like Riko and Kevin. 

"Oh?" Nathalia said, going back to her book. Riko hummed and let the subject drop. He turned around and started making a sandwich. He put one on a plate and cut it in half, handing it to Nathalia. She smiled and thanked him.

"You're welcome," Riko said. "His name's Jean. A little French bastard. He'll be fun, I suppose." Nathalia smiled quickly before taking a bite out of her food, knowing it was what Riko wanted her to do. She was only twelve, but heard a wide variety of curse words almost every day. Some were directed at her, others at Kevin or the other players on their team. Riko was violent, but not to Nathalia.

He brushed a stray hair out of her face and Nathalia looked up at him and blushed. Riko was fifteen, and relationships were forbidden, but Nathalia couldn't help that she got a warm feeling whenever she looked at him. He was just so nice. So kind. So..Riko. And she loved that.