Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
"Move it, Foxes!" Wymack roared.
"Let's go, Foxes, let's go!" the Vixens called out further down.
The crowd picked it up and echoed the chant back to the cheerleaders. The other subs joined in, but Neil was numbed into silence by the speed and skill of the game.
He'd watched his teammates fall apart to in-fighting all summer long, but now he finally saw them as a whole. As much as the Foxes disliked each other at times, they disliked their opponents more. They were still too fractured to be truly great, but they were good enough to give him chills. Neil finally understood how the Foxes made it to third place last fall and scored a spot in championships.
Unfortunately, Breckenridge was better. Twelve minutes into the game they finally broke the Foxes' defense line. A Jackal striker caught the ball and carried it right into Aaron. Aaron was bulled over, giving the striker a straight path to the goal, and all of the Jackals crushed forward inside the firstfourth line. The striker got dangerously close to goal before taking a shot. Andrew snapped it right back at him, bouncing it off his helmet. The Jackal dealer caught the ball next, and Dan was a second too slow to stop him from aiming for the goal. Andrew deflected that shot as well, but the Jackals were pressed too close for him to clear the ball. He aimed high, but Gorilla was close enough and tall enough to snag it from the air.
"Get it out of there!" Wymack yelled at the wall.
Gorilla knocked aside two Foxes like they were nothing and ran for the goal. Matt threw himself into Gorilla like his life depended on it, taking them both out. Matt's unguarded striker caught the ball and fired, and the goal flared up red behind Andrew. Breckenridge's fans went crazy as the buzzer sounded first point. Wymack swore viciously and turned in an angry circle, looking for but not finding something to vent his anger on.
"Nice try, Foxes!" Renee called, clapping.
The Jackals pounded each other's backs in congratulations as they ran back down the court. Gorilla was the last to go where he and Matt were still picking themselves off the ground, and he stopped by the goal to say something to Andrew. Whatever it was, Andrew didn't seem impressed. He stood his racquet in front of him, folded his arms across the net, and perched his chin on his arms. Gorilla waved a hand at him in dismissal and jogged across court. Dan swung past Matt to give him a quick pat-down.
They almost made it to their starting spots without incident, but then Kevin's defenseman shoved him on his way by. Kevin shoved him back almost hard enough to knock him over. The Jackal backliner spun around to say something, and Seth gestured expansively as he joined in. Kevin ignored the Jackal to say something to Seth, and Seth answered by throwing a punch at him.
"I win," Nicky said. "It's only thirteen minutes."
"No one took your bet," Abby said, sounding weary as she watched Kevin and Seth fight.
"Don't you bet on these retards," Wymack said.
Dan caught up with the two and shoved them roughly apart. She stuck her finger in Seth's face as she chewed him out, then did the same to Kevin. Kevin and Seth finally spread out on half-court to take their spots. The referees by the doors waited to see if they needed to intervene, then decided Dan had handled it appropriately and let it go.
The game started up again with another Breckenridge serve, but the Foxes were fired up and angry from losing the first point. Kevin seemed to take that personally, and he played with a vengeance. As soon as Dan got him the ball, he laid his backliner mark flat and flew up the court unguarded for a perfect point on goal. The goal went red and the crowd surged to its feet at the Foxes' back. Neil couldn't hear his own triumphant yell over the sound of the excited students. Orange Notes blared the fight song and students screamed the words like a battle cry.
The fight song wasn't half-over before Kevin and his mark were brawling. It took Matt, Dan, and three Jackals to tear them apart. By the time they put a safe distance between the two the referees were there. The yellow card went to the Jackal for throwing the first punch, and the crowd cheered. Overhead on the screens a cartoon jackal got brained by an oversized hammer. The Jackal fans booed, but their anger was drowned out by the home crowd.
When the teams were set up in starting spot, the referees left. Dan served to get the game moving.
They were twenty minutes in when Gorilla crushed Seth up against the wall. Fans roared with hatred and excitement as Gorilla raced after the ball unguarded. Neil expected Seth to go after him, but Seth scrabbled ineffectually at the wall for a second and then crumpled to the ground.
"David," Abby said, but Wymack was already running down the wall to stand opposite Seth. One of the referees crouched beside him and gestured through the wall at Seth. Wymack hit the wall to get Seth's attention. Seth painstakingly pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Neil looked from him to the game in helpless frustration. Until Seth signaled the referees to call him out, the game was still going, which meant Kevin suddenly had two backliners riding him.
It didn't take Dan long to notice Kevin's predicament. She spun in a circle, wasting precious seconds and losing track of the ball to find her missing striker. Halfway across the court from her, Kevin got sandwiched between the Jackal backliners. He lost the ball and his racquet but somehow kept his feet.
"Call it, Seth!" Nicky yelled, kicking the wall.
Seth finally lifted his racquet, alerting the referees he was unable to continue the period. An alarm went off to stop the game. Matt had just caught the ball, so he passed it to Andrew for safekeeping. The crowd went silent to watch as Seth struggled to his feet. He stumbled sideways into the wall and leaned heavily against it, waiting to get his balance back before trying to walk. Dan ran to help him, and Allison kept pace with him on the outside of the court. Abby hurried ahead of her to the door.