an unkindness of ravens

dix-sept

— dix-sept ; seventeen —

THEY HADN'T EVEN LEFT the locker room yet, and Lucas was already smashed.

Henri had to admit, he wasn't entirely sober himself. The upperclassmen had been relentless with the shots, even when Loren was left gagging after her third shot and Lucas had to run to the sink because he thought he was going to throw up after the fourth. Kit had knocked five back without much fuss and Henri didn't find getting it down particularly hard either, so the two of them were given an extra one, "for fun". Not that there had been much of a choice there. Now Henri was already losing the feeling in his lips and his vision felt a little fuzzy.

But Lucas had clearly taken the alcohol straight to the head and could barely get his uniform on. The upperclassmen had already filed out, so Kit and Henri were left with the task of yanking his jersey on. "When I was told I was signing up with the Ravens, I did not think it would entail this," Kit huffed, trying to pull Lucas's arm through the jersey. "Putting clothes on men."

Henri snickered. "A little too gay for you, huh?"

"And not for you?"

Henri wasn't given a chance to respond, because Lucas groaned and slumped against the lockers with only half his jersey pulled on. "I can't do this," he whispered. "I've never played dealer before. I've only ever played defence, it's all I know and it's all I'm good at — I'm going to die!"

"Of course we're going to die," Henri said. "That's the point. They don't seriously expect us to go out on that court and play well in different positions while we're drunk."

"Drunk," Kit scoffed. "It'll take more than a few shots to get me drunk."

Lucas barely seemed to have heard them. "And my dad will kill me. I've never drunk before and he would never let me, not just because I'm underage, but because...Exy...how can I play? Like this? I can't feel my feet and I'm so sleepy. Just wanna sleep. It's too early for this."

Henri exchanged a look with Kit. "Look, you'll just have to get on with it," he said. "Another ten minutes and one of them will be in here wondering what's taking so long. You saw Jude choke me? Yeah, they don't hold back."

Apparently that was enough to get Lucas moving, because he became considerably more cooperative in wrestling his gear on despite how drunk he was. That was when Henri, only half-dressed himself, realised the mound of goalkeeper gear sitting on the bench was for him. He eyed it with some consternation. He saw how bulky goalies looked on court — Henri didn't think he could even stand dressed up like that when sober, forget with alcohol pumped into his system.

He picked up a piece of thick padding. "Uh..."

"Jesus," Kit groaned. "Not you too."

"I'd like to see you try and put all this shit on."

It took both Kit and Henri to strap every piece into place. Lucas tried to help, but after accidentally poking Kit in the eye and elbowing Henri in the side, he slumped to the floor and began filling the silence with his worried thoughts. An anxious drunk, Henri decided, wrestling on his oversized choker to protect him from a stray ball. Or maybe he was just an anxious person and the alcohol brought it to the forefront. When Henri was finally geared up, he had no idea how Benjamin or Loren managed this. He already felt like he was drowning and overheating.

The others were waiting on the inner court when they made their way out. Loren looked particularly small without the gear Henri was now wearing, her long gold hair braided back and her green eyes already a little unfocused from the alcohol. He was surprised to see one extra face among the upperclassmen — Soren was awake too. Henri let his gaze linger on him for only a second before looking away. He was still pissed off about the night before and didn't need to cloud that judgement now that he was a bit drunk. Whatever reason Soren had decided to come watch, he didn't care.