Rainbow Connection, AFTG ✔️

1.8

TW (RAPE SCENE AND GRAPHIC VIOLENCE FROM CHAPTER ELEVEN OF THE RAVEN KING)

PORTER
CHAPTER EIGHT

November wasn't anything much for Porter until Nicky bursted into Abby's living room with zero warning. He'd been officially accepted and registered by PSU, received his school schedule, continued his training, and start eating three meals a day. Things seemed to be evening out since he'd left Evermore.

Nicky was panicking when he came through Abby's unlocked front door, and he didn't even take a moment to register whatever recorded Telenovela Porter had paused on screen.

Andrew's group hadn't been near as welcoming as the upperclassmen, and he hadn't been out with Nicky and Aaron for two weeks at this point. It was a bit of a shock when Nicky invited him to dinner with his religious parents and the rest of Andrew's group.

Nicky was his first friend from PSU, and he knew plenty about his upbringing from Nicky's heartfelt moments of explanation. His dad met his mother on a missionary trip and converted her to Christianity. They were anything but accepting of Nicky's homosexuality, going as far as conversion camp. Needless to say, Porter wasn't a fan.

But Porter understood why he was going back, and Porter couldn't say anything without being a hypocrite. Instead of disagreeing with the entire concept, Porter nodded and told Nicky to pick him up on the day.

It was another long car ride with four people in a three-person row, and with Neil, Aaron, and Nicky in the backseat, Porter's face was practically pressed into the left window. Oh, to be Andrew in the front seat at that moment.

Before the Hemmick's house, Kevin forced the car to stop at Exites in Columbia. It was the best place to find racquets in South Carolina, and Kevin was insistent that Neil change to a heavy.

Larger sports stores around the state had sections for Exy gear, but Exites was the only store one hundred percent devoted to the sport. They handled everything from gear to custom uniforms to collectibles. It was a four-story shop on the far side of the capital from Eden's Twilight, and the parking lot was comfortably crowded.

"This is stupid," Aaron said for the fourth or fifth time since they'd left campus. "We just fixed the line-up. Now you're going to screw us over again."

Kevin ignored him. He'd argued the first time Aaron protested, and he wouldn't waste his breath repeating himself.

"This is the best week for me to switch," Neil said as he followed Andrew out of the car. "We're up against JD on Friday. You guys can take them without any help from me." Even with Neil's encouragement — or whatever that was — Porter could tell he was also nervous about his switch in racquets.

As the Foxes rose in the rankings, JD Campbell University fell. The JD Tornadoes had always sat near the bottom in the southeastern district but now they held the unenviable role of last-place players. They'd won barely half their games so far this season. Kevin could outscore them with one hand behind his back. The only question was whether or not Andrew would find them interesting enough to guard his goal against. In every game Andrew played, Porter was more convinced he was a brilliant goalie. That short attention span would be the death of him, Andrew, and this team if Andrew let it be.

JD was their last match in November since the next weekend they were off for Thanksgiving. There was one more game the first of December, and with that, the Foxes' fall season was over. They had a week off to study for their finals, a week of exams none of them were looking forward to, and an Exy Christmas banquet on December 16th. Though Porter was exempt from exams and classes and had been the whole semester, the thought of the banquet made his stomach churn. The last time he'd faced Riko, he'd been high off anger and overconfidence. He'd mellowed out since then, and his anxiety had only risen.