A Spell of Hate

Cal: Loyalty Bond

"Rutherford!" Coach Stout shouted. "You're going in after the break!"

"Yes, Coach," Cal answered automatically, trying and failing to force his mind away from the memory of Malikah's dejected face when her "puppy" didn't come back the night before.

She'd been more morose than usual on the bus, refusing to do more than roll her eyes at him when he made a cutting remark. All her fire had been gone, and for the first time, he'd noticed her squinting against the faint morning sunlight.

It had been a quiet ride, with him unable to forget the female he saw the night before, crooning over a puppy and looking so lost and alone when it wouldn't come back. It tempted him to--no. He couldn't keep going back to her house.... could he?

"Cal, come 'mon," Eddy, their team captain, grinned as he offered him a hand up.

Cal felt his lips tilt up as he took the other male's hand and got to his feet, joining his team at the sideline, waiting for the clock to tick down and signal the beginning of the next, and hopefully final, match.

"Cougar," Eddy said quickly, "I want you to go infield. We've been using you as a gate, but I think you're better suited as a sword."

"I've always been a gate, though," Cougar denied, eyes quickly flickering to the stands. "It's what I'm good at, and--"

"Do it," Eddy demanded before leading the way onto the field.

"But--"

Rodriguez elbowed him in the ribs, "Time to show off, man. Eileeeen is watching."

Cougar's face flushed red, his gaze shooting to the stands again, and Cal wondered who he wanted to show off for.  Cougar didn't date. Everybody knew that, and all the Weildon girls lamented that fact. So for Cougar to be worried about how he'd look for this "Eileen" was noteworthy, even to Cal.

"Ginny's watching too," Cougar shot back.

Rodriguez gave a wolfish grin as his eyes found her in the stands, sitting with Rodriguez's own family. He winked, and Cal saw the girl turn almost purple with her flush. At Rodriguez's mom's prompting, Ginny waved and blew him a kiss. Rodriguez acted like he caught it and pressed it to his heart.

Damn, what a play. Rodriguez is the man.

"Smooth," Cougar complimented.

"Maybe you should blow Eileeeen a kiss," Rodriguez teased.

Cougar's eyes flashed up to the stands and away, his stance turning uncharacteristically bashful, "I couldn't do that... she'd kill me."

Cal didn't have time to pinpoint the area in the stand Cougar kept glancing at because as soon as Alpha declared they "BEGIN!" Cal's entire focus narrowed to his team.

The game itself was a blur as he fought tooth and nail to keep the enemy players from taking his patch or getting the jump on his teammates. He was a good "shield", throwing himself into danger, watching his teammates' backs. Cougar and Rodriguez, though, they were "swords", cutting through the enemy line as easily as a tidal wave swept aside sand.

"Formation Gamma," Eddy demanded, and Cal fell into line next to Anderson, creating a near circle around the other team with Cougar and Rodriguez herding them into the trap.

Eddy gave a shrill whistle, and Cougar and Rodriguez went nuts, attacking with the furious intensity of rabid animals, completely capturing the other team's attention and forcing them into a tighter circle and allowing Cal and the rest of the team to close the trap. 

"Now," Eddy hissed, breaking away with another player.

They used the confusion to slink to the other team's mascot, capturing it without resistance, and were already halfway down the field to the other side before the enemy team realized what had happened.