Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

46. bad decisions

you said that maybe this is where it ends
take a bow for the bad decisions that we made
― bastille

♦

THE FOXES WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING to news of more vandalism. Wymack called them early to say the campus was defaced. Black paint covered buildings and sidewalks in thick sloshes and the pond was stained bright red from dye. Rude graffiti tarnished the white outer walls of the Foxhole Court. Wymack didn't want the team stopping by to see it but didn't want them hearing about it secondhand, either. The facilities department was out and about trying to restore everything as fast as possible. Wymack vowed to shred campus security as soon as he got them on the phone.

The second wave of vandalism brought the press running back, and a reporter finally got close enough to Wymack to put a microphone in his face. Wymack was too smart to go after the Ravens, so he settled for attacking the fans.

"I think it's pathetic," he said. "What good do these cowards think they're accomplishing by lashing out at us like this? All they're doing is bringing negative attention and publicity to the team they're trying to defend. It's past time the Ravens spoke out."

Edgar Allan's president, Louis Andritch, responded within the hour and made an obligatory appeal to Raven fans to cease such "unruly" behavior. Tetsuji Moriyama released a harsher statement shortly afterward, condemning the attacks as both insulting and unnecessary. It sounded suspiciously supportive until Moriyama finished with, "You cannot house train a dog by beating it a day late; it is not smart enough to correlate action and punishment. You have to discipline it the moment it misbehaves. Leave it to us to correct them on the court."

Dan seethed the rest of the day, but Moriyama's words got through to the fans. Monday dawned with no new disasters. Mara almost wished something else would happen, though, because without outside distractions, the team was free to focus on their internal problems again. Dan and Matt spoke to Neil but ignored the rest of Andrew's group. Allison acted like nothing had happened but noticeably stayed out of Andrew's reach. Aaron wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Nicky.

Not even Mara.

Kevin griped about the rampant discord for forty minutes of afternoon practice, then gave up chewing out his teammates and rounded on Neil. "If you cost us our game because you couldn't keep your mouth shut—" He didn't finish that threat, letting Neil fill in the blanks himself. His expression only darkened when Neil waved him off. "This is not the time for your attitude. Stop causing unnecessary problems before you ruin anything else."

"Fuck you," Neil said simply.

Kevin shoved him like he could push sense into Neil. Neil shoved back and sent Kevin careening into Matt. Luckily Matt had been paying attention. He stumbled under Kevin's sudden weight but didn't fall and grabbed Kevin to stop him from going after Neil. Neil pointed his racquet at Kevin in warning and strode for half-court.

Kevin tried to go after him but Matt and Dan got involved. It took several minutes of angry threats to calm Kevin down, but the questionable peace only lasted because Kevin and Neil resorted to ignoring each other.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fractionally better, and that was only because Dan's group was making an active effort to get along with everyone. Aaron was unmoved by their act, Nicky clung desperately to any hint of warmth he could get, and Andrew was his usual uninterested self on the outskirts. Kevin spent an hour tearing into the cousins, then directed all his angry energy at whipping the upperclassmen into shape. He spared only a few caustic words for Neil, and Neil wasted no words on Kevin at all.

Wednesday found Mara at the art studio with Laurel and a handful of their classmates, all working on the first project of the semester. The antics of the past week had put Mara and Laurel behind the others in finishing up, so by the time the last of the other students filed out, they still had about an hour's worth of work to do.