Aftg react

Part45

Foxes react: chapter 15

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How Neil was supposed to tell any of them his plans had changed, he didn't know. There was no way he could tell them the truth. None of them would let him go through with it. It was a small miracle Kevin was going along with this.

"Yea no shit" said Wymack with a sigh as he sunk dipper in his chair kicking his legs forward.
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Neil dropped his pillow again, then realized he had a way out. He grabbed his phone, flipped it open, and put it to his ear. When Nicky pushed the bedroom door open without knocking, Neil struck up a conversation with no one at all.
"Yes, I saw it," Neil said, glancing at Nicky to acknowledge his entrance.
Nicky had his mouth open on a greeting but went quiet when he realized Neil was on the phone. Instead of leaving, Nicky got comfortable against the doorframe to wait him out. Neil had counted on Nicky's curiosity. In the months since they first handed Neil this phone they'd never once seen him make a call on it. Neil signaled to Nicky that he was almost finished and half-turned away.
"What did you expect? You waited this long to figure it out. By now I've already made other plans. I—" Neil cut himself off, listened a moment, and bulled on. "But how long have you known he was coming? You could have said something. I don't know. I said I don't know. I'd have to—" Neil scrubbed a hand across his eyes as if the entire conversation was exhausting to deal with. "Okay. Goodbye."
He clicked his phone shut and dropped it off to one side.
For a minute, silence reigned.

"Come on it's not my fault that Neil is a good liar" said Nicky as a answered
to the looks he got from the rest, they weren't better they all had believed it.
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Facing Riko like this went against everything his mother taught him. He'd been raised to run, to sacrifice everything and everyone to ensure his own survival. His mother had never given him ground to stand on. Maybe that was why he hadn't been strong enough to save her in the end. A jumble of lies had nothing to fight for. But Neil Josten was a Fox. Andrew called this home; Nicky called him family. Neil wasn't going to lose any of it. If two weeks with Riko was the price to keep his team safe, Neil would pay it.

They were stunned but at the same time sad, they were happy to hear that they meant something to him but at the same time it felt wrong, they could only imagine how bad it would be there.
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"This isn't a team," Neil said. "It's a cult."

"No he is right it really looks like a cult" said Alison with a disgusted expression.
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"I have some bad news for you," Neil said. "I can't outscore Raven strikers."
"It is not them you need to outplay," Jean said. "You are not a striker anymore. You never should have been one in the first place. The master is moving you to defense where you belong. He will want to know why you abandoned your position. I hope you have a good explanation for him."
"It wasn't my idea," Neil said. "Coach Hernandez had a full defense line. It was offense or nothing at all and I just wanted to play."
Neil told Hernandez he'd never touched a racquet before because he couldn't give Hernandez the names of his past coaches and teams. When Neil was recruited to the Millport Dingoes, though, it wasn't his eight- year absence from Exy that made him so clumsy on the court. It was that Neil played little leagues as a backliner. He'd had to learn the game all over again from scratch.

It surprised them all but they wanted to know how he was as a backliner it would be interesting.
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"My family has belonged to the Moriyamas since before they came to the United States. There is nowhere else for me to go, just as there is no place for you but here. Kevin is not like us; he is valuable but he is not property in the same sense. He escaped because he had family to run to."
"Andrew?" Neil guessed.
"I said family, you hard-of-hearing imbecile," Jean said. "His father. Your coach."