Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

23. it's alright

it's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay
you're not a demon, there's a reason
you're behaving that way
― mother mother

♦

THE RIDE TO BELMONTE UNIVERSITY passed slowly and uneventfully. Mara sat with Aaron again with the legitimate excuse that Kevin was fuming so much she thought he might actually blow a fuse. They didn't speak and no one seemed to pay the seating arrangement much attention, so Mara figured they were in the clear.

She passed the time with what little homework she had left to complete before the following week and sketching doodles in her notebook—the head of a fox, her water bottle, Laurel's cat Roger (Laurel had already sent her about a dozen pictures of the orange tabby in the week they'd known each other).

Abby drove most of the way so Wymack could sleep. The team would be driving back after the game rather than staying at a hotel for the night, which Mara was more than okay with. They could have hired a driver like most schools did, but Wymack was almost as leery of dealing with outsiders as his Foxes were. It was apparently better to be uncomfortable but safe than trust a stranger with his fractured team.

They stopped for gas and a bathroom break, stopped again for a quick dinner, and crossed a time-zone on their way to Nashville.

They arrived forty-five minutes before the serve, leaving the bus in a fenced-in parking lot manned by a couple of dispassionate security guards. Two volunteers waited for the Foxes to unload their gear before leading them to the away team's locker room.

Belmonte University's stadium was almost identical to the Foxhole Court in size and build, but the crowd here was covered in green. Mara looked for orange and found none.

Mara trailed behind the girls to the locker room, changing quickly into her white away uniform. She'd given up on the idea of hiding the extent of her scars from her roommate on the first day of practice—it was too much effort, and it wasn't like she was ashamed of them, per se. She wished they weren't there, but they were. There was nothing she could do about them.

Wymack was waiting for them in the main room. They arranged by their positions, but with Dan in front as their captain and Renee standing with Allison as the substitute dealer.

The Foxhole Court had an open path to the inner court. Belmonte was designed differently, and the hall they took from the locker rooms to the court was a tunnel. Mara couldn't see the crowd yet, but she could hear them. The echoing roar of excited voices drowned out her footsteps as they entered the stadium.

The stadium's seats were rapidly filling with green-clad fans. Security guards and uniformed staff were posted around the inner court and on each of the stairwells that cut up through the stands. The first row started a few feet off the floor, and a railing kept any excitable fans from interfering with the teams. Railing couldn't keep the noise out, but Mara blocked out let the jeers and shouts. She was good at that.

She didn't see the Vixens or the mascot Rocky Foxy. Belmonte's Terrapin mascot was already hard at it, though. He skipped up and down the inner court to rile fans up. The oversized mask he wore kept him from seeing the Foxes' arrival, but students pointed fingers and yelled warnings to him. He charged their direction as best he could in such a lumpy costume. He stopped a safe distance back from their benches to make a couple crude thrusts at them. Nicky was happy to return it until Wymack swatted him upside his head. The mascot ran off to triumphant cheers from students.

Andrew and Nicky had brought the stick rack with them at the rear of the line. Dan grabbed one end of it and pulled it between two of the away benches. She crouched to lock the wheels, then stood and snapped the tops open in rapid succession. Kevin was at her side before she was done. He pulled one of his racquets free, fingered the strings like they might have come loose on the drive, and went over to the court walls. He didn't spare the crowd a single look; all he cared about was right in front of him.