Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

09. the fighter

give me scars, give me pain
then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me
there goes a fighter
― gym class heroes

[trigger warnings: references to past child abuse; use of ableist slur]

♦

THE FOXES' OFFICIAL PRACTICES didn't start until Monday, June tenth, but they were required to move into campus the day before so they had time to get settled in the athletes' dormitory.

Mara would be moving in with the other three girls on the team, though she figured she'd be spending more time with Andrew's lot in their dorm than in her own. As much as she looked up to Dan Wilds the Captain, Mara wasn't sure how she'd feel about Dan Wilds the Roommate.

The afternoon before move-in day, Wymack had given Nicky the p-card (a dangerous decision, in Mara's opinion) and sent them off to get whatever Mara needed for the dorms, seeing as she had approximately nothing. If Nicky had gotten his way, he would've meticulously planned out what her side of the bedroom she would be sharing with Renee would look like, but Mara had no patience for that. She grabbed the first of whatever she needed and let Nicky whine about the clashing aesthetics.

Really, most of Mara's concern was focused on making sure Kevin didn't lose it around Andrew. The first night after the news had been the roughest, both of them waking habitually from nightmares of the Nest.

Now, though, Kevin honed all of his stress into yelling at Neil every day on the court. If Mara had any empathy left in her, she might have pitied the boy. But he took everything Kevin hurled at him, seeming to barely restrain himself from fighting back. It was a bit boring, in all honesty.

Andrew's lot and Mara were the first to move into Fox Tower, which Mara was grateful for—she'd rather not have her new roommates gawking at her while Mara set up her side of the bedroom. The task only took her twenty minutes, so she was able to slip back out and head down the hall in time to watch Nicky and Aaron argue about what posters were and weren't appropriate to hang in the living room.

"We're not hanging a poster of a shirtless guy above our TV!" Aaron argued.

"It's Jason Momoa!" Nicky protested. "Jason Momoa!"

"I don't care if it's Ryan Reynolds, we're not putting a picture of a shirtless dude in the living room!" Aaron shot back. "Hang it over your bed so you can perv in peace!"

"I do not perv," Nicky said defensively. "I admire."

"Does everyone drool when they admire?" Mara asked, dropping down onto the couch beside Andrew, who had been watching the conversation with a vacant grin.

"You should be on my side, Mara!" Nicky whined. "It's Jason Momoa."

"You can say it as reverently as you want—doesn't mean I know who that is," Mara said.

Nicky blinked at her. "You... you don't know who Jason Momoa is?"

"Cult, remember?" Andrew quipped.

Mara rolled her eyes. "Fuck off," she told him. Then, to Nicky, she conceded, "He has a point, though."

Nicky made a show of unrolling the poster and showing Mara the subject. Mara tilted her head. He was, admittedly, very hot, but that pose definitely wasn't appropriate for a public setting.

She sighed. "Where's Kevin?" she asked, glancing around.

Andrew waved a bored hand in the direction of what Mara assumed was the bedroom he shared with Kevin. "Probably color-coding his closet by now. Last I saw he was making his bed with those stupid hospital corners."