Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
They were an exhausted, anxious mess by the time they were dismissed for halftime break. Nicky barely made it to the locker room before he started dry-heaving. Abby eased him off to one side and started foisting drinks off on him. Renee stood white-lipped and tense in the center of the room. They were sitting seven-and-three, and the Ravens would be out with a fresh line-up when the bell sounded. There wasn't a sure comeback like they'd had against the Trojans. The only way to go was down.
Renee opened her mouth but couldn't speak. Neil assumed from the guilt in her eyes that she was trying to apologize. He'd never seen her look so disappointed, but they'd never had so much riding on a single game. Renee closed her mouth, cleared her throat, and tried again. What came out wasn't "Sorry", but a quiet, "Are you sure?"
Neil didn't understand, but Andrew said, "Yes."
"Okay," Renee said. "Excuse me."
She walked out of the room, and a door closed behind her as she disappeared into the women's changing room. Dan looked ready to go after her, but Wymack shook his head and motioned for her to keep stretching.
"Leave her alone," Wymack said, subdued. "She didn't want to play goal tonight after how USC's game went. We talked her into it." He said "we" but he glanced at Andrew at that. "Andrew said he could control the score if she showed him how they played."
"You should have let her step down," Aaron said. "She'd've been more use as a fourth backliner. It's not a good gap."
"Whose fault is that?" Kevin asked.
Aaron and Matt bristled but stayed quiet. Nicky managed a shaky breath and said, "How are we supposed to stop them if they won't carry the ball?"
"You have to drive them back," Kevin insisted. "Keep them past the fourth-court line so they can't take those quick shots. Force them to shoot further out and Andrew will have a better chance of deflecting them."
"Great plan," Aaron said with heavy sarcasm, "except they're almost as fast as your mini-me is. Can't push them if we can't keep up with them."
"Find a way," Kevin insisted, and that was that.
The fifteen minute break was over far too soon. Renee rejoined them as they headed back down to the court. Dan gave her a quick hug but said nothing, knowing not even encouragement and comfort would be appropriate right now. Cameras were waiting by the court door for the Foxes' starting line-up, so Neil followed Kevin over. Kevin stood calm and quiet until a referee opened the door for them. Before he stepped on Kevin tapped the butt of his racquet against the floor and passed his stick to his other hand. He strode to half-court head high and left-handed, and the crowd went wild.
Neil wasn't the only one who'd forgotten what Kevin was like at his peak. The Ravens had written Kevin off when he broke his hand then learned his right-handed style when they realized they'd be facing him again. Even if they'd known this was coming they wouldn't be ready, because Kevin was no longer afraid of showing Riko up. He exploited his former teammates' weaknesses every chance he got and, without Jean around to overhear, used French to call warnings across the court to Neil. Kevin scored just three minutes into second half, and five minutes later he did it again.
The Ravens rallied like Kevin and Neil knew they would, and the game became a vicious fight. Again and again they knocked Matt and Aaron aside to fire on goal; again and again Andrew blocked their shots. Andrew rarely called out to the defense, maybe understanding they were halfway to running on fumes, maybe too focused on the Raven strikers to be distracted with his own backliners. Neil had never seen him play like this, so intense and fast and determined, but Andrew had promises to keep and a goal to defend.
With seventeen minutes down, the score was eight-six, and the Ravens finally lost their tempers. Reacher reacted to Kevin's third goal by punching him. He didn't stop with one blow but kept whaling on him. The referees opened the doors, but the teams were faster to converge on the fight. The only ones who didn't join the fray were the goalkeepers, who each stood at the lines marking their boundaries and watched. It took all six referees to break up the fight. Reacher was thrown off the court with a red card, and Kevin and Matt were handed yellows.
Kevin scored on the foul shot, and that did nothing to improve the mood. Instead of going after Kevin again, the Ravens turned their sights on the backliners and Andrew. Matt and Aaron were stumbling more than usual as their marks tripped them up at every turn. Irritation made Matt and Aaron push back a little harder and Neil knew it wouldn't be long before one of them snapped. For now Allison was the voice to their rage, yelling ugly threats and insults at every Raven on the court.
The next time Jenkins got around Aaron she fired the ball to rebound short of the goal. It was obvious Andrew would get to it first, but Williams went after it anyway. When Andrew cleared the ball, Williams should have veered off-course and wheeled back to regroup. Instead Williams crashed full-speed into Andrew and crushed him up against the wall. The goal went red as the embedded sensors mistook his weight as a point. The crowd outside was startled to temporary silence; fouling a goalkeeper was one of the worst offenses in the game. By the time they recovered their wits enough to roar, Andrew had already pushed Williams off him. He took a stumbling step away from the wall and rocked to a stop. Goalkeepers' armor was meant to protect them from high-speed balls, not racquets and bodies. Andrew had gotten the breath knocked out of him.
Neil closed the space between them like it was nothing. He didn't remember dropping his racquet but suddenly he had both hands free. He planted them against Williams' shoulder blades and shoved as hard as he could to throw him off his feet. Jenkins made a wild grab at her teammate but couldn't stop his fall, and Williams hit his knees hard. Matt hauled Neil back before he could go after him again.