Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

21. champion

If I can live through this
I can do anything
― fall out boy

♦

IT WAS ONLY AUGUST, but it looked like Halloween outside. Last week, the university had been covered in orange and white streamers to celebrate the start of the school year. Over the weekend, someone had replaced all of the white ribbons with black ones. It gave the impression that the campus was in mourning, though Mara doubted a majority of the students had even known Seth Gordon's name before it was printed in the obituaries. 

Rock music blared to life, temporarily filling the silence in the car, but it vanished as quickly as it had come. Nicky let his hand fall away from the dashboard with a quiet curse. 

Next to Mara, Aaron shoved the back of the driver's seat. Mara thought it might be a silent show of support, but she could never be certain when it came to the cousins. Sleeping with one of them hadn't changed that in the slightest. 

Nicky reached for the radio again. Kevin, sitting shotgun, saw him move first. He pushed Nicky's hand away and said, "It's fine. Let it go."

"I don't want to do this," Nicky said, low and miserable.

No one answered, but Mara figured they all agreed. None of them were looking forward to today's practice, but they could only take so much time off when the season was already underway. At least Coach Wymack was calling them back to the court on a Wednesday afternoon, while Andrew was in therapy. 

Generally, Andrew's mild mood wasn't a problem, but his cheer didn't make him at all friendly. An excitable Andrew confronted with the death of his least-favorite teammate was a recipe for disaster. The team should have come together Sunday morning to grieve their loss, but Andrew and Matt got into an ugly brawl instead. 

Wymack forcibly separated the team after that. The upperclassmen moved in with team nurse Abby Winfield, and the cousins, Kevin, and Mara were banned to the dorm. Neil had slept on Wymack's couch, where Coach could see him and make sure he didn't do something else stupid. 

Seth died Saturday night and was cremated Monday afternoon. From what Mara had heard, Seth's mother signed off on everything but didn't even show up at the crematorium to collect her son's ashes. 

Allison kept his urn instead. Mara didn't know if she planned on burying it or keeping it in her dorm room the rest of the year. She wasn't planning on asking. 

Allison wouldn't be at practice today, but the others would. Mara hadn't seen the upperclassmen since Sunday morning, and she knew the reunion would be rough. They were only two days away from the second game of the season, though, and they had to pull together somehow. 

The Foxes had never had particularly good odds, but this upcoming year was looking bleak. They were already the smallest team in NCAA Class I Exy. Now, they were the smallest a team could be and still qualify to play. They'd lost their only fifth-year senior, and their remaining offense team consisted of an injured national champion and an amateur. 

Orange glinted at the edge of Mara's vision. The stadium was never hard to miss—it was an orange and white monstrosity, covered in fox paws. Black ribbons were everywhere: every lamp post in the parking lot, everyone one of the twenty-four gates. The Foxes' locked entrance was covered in silent tribute. Pictures of Seth with friends and scribbled notes from teachers were taped to the door. 

Nicky pulled up to the curb but didn't kill the engine. Mara got out, counting the number of squad cars. Kevin's presence on the team meant the Foxes needed full-time security, but the numbers had doubled over the summer with Mara's recruitment and the Ravens' transfer into the district.