WnW 3.12

The frontrunner of the group approached. He was tall with spiky red hair and wore a purple sports jersey emblazoned with a picture of a snake sinking its fangs into a basketball. I was frozen in horror, watching some kind of realization creep up his face, his mouth forming an “O”, his eyes darting between me and where I had jumped. Suddenly, he broke into a huge smile. He thrust an accusatory finger at me. “You!”

I backed up with my hands raised. “Hold on. I can expl-”

“Team!”

I stopped moving and dropped my hands. “What?”

“Join the team! That was great!” He let out an incredulous laugh and put his hands on his head. “What the f- How have you not been scouted yet?”

A different, much more minor horror replaced my fear of being found out. “No.”

He approached me. “I haven’t even said which team.”

“No. Not happening.”

He reached me and slung an arm around my shoulder. “You’re not thinking this through.”

“I am.”

“You’d be a starter.”

“Pass.”

He shook his head emphatically. “Not with those hops you wouldn’t. People would be passing to you. Look, what’s your name?”

I eyed him distrustfully. “Nick.”

“Nick. Picture this,” he said and extended his hand out in front of us as we stared at the blank white wall of the school. “Tens, if not a hundred fans roaring to life as you dunk the ball. The opposition falling to their knees in despair.”

A person with short black hair walked towards us. I recognized them as Bailey, the person that Kay had been smoking behind the school with. They had a lot of piercings, including a chain leading from their lip ring to their ear. “Don’t flatter yourself, Tom,” they said. “You’re lucky if fifty people show up to cheer for the basketball team.”

Tom rolled his eyes. “Okay, one: Way to just backstab me in front of the new guy. Two: I was being hopefully optimistic when I said a hundred.” He looked at me seriously. “Tens of people is a for-sure thing though.”

“Why am I the new guy,” I protested. “That makes it sound like you recruited me.”

Tom patted me on the shoulder and pulled a grossly exaggerated sympathetic face. “We were all freshmen at one point, Nick. It’s okay. You can lean on us.”

“I’m not a first year.”

Tom’s face froze and he blinked. “Really?”

The third person stepped into view. It was Kay, who gave me a strange look. “He’s not,” she said. “In fact, we were all in Basic Robotics last year.”

I stared at her. “How do you know so much about me?”

She shrugged. “I watch people when I’m bored.”

“Funny,” Tom said, scratching his head, “you’d think I would remember the guy whose legs were kissed by an angel.” He looked down and raised a foot to look underneath it. Broken pieces of antler lay scattered around the ground, remains of my failed Shaping attempt. “What’s all this garbage?”

Kay already had a piece in her hand. I started to sweat. Calm down. Calm downnnn.

Bailey took it and turned it over in their hands. “Is this an antler?”

You just found it here. “I just-”

“Woah!” Tom shouted from around the tree. I winced as he said, “Check this shit out.”

The three moved around the tree to see my makeshift bone ladder. I hadn’t really stopped to consider how it looked. It looked like a bunch of deer had headbutted the tree and snapped their antlers off, each one a little higher than the last, like it was some sort of competition.

Tom looked at me with suspicion written all over his face, eyes squinting. “Did you do this?”

Kay kicked him in the shin and shot me a look that told me she was wondering the same thing. “Yeah dumbass,” she said dismissively. “He’s been keeping his collection of mounted deer trophies here, but the heads all blew away in the storm.”

“Yeah you’re right, that sounds more like something you would do.”

“You sure about that?” Bailey interjected. “This lack of foresight screams Tom to me.”

Tom’s expression grew pensive. “Shit, you’re right. I wouldn’t have accounted for strong winds.”

Kay touched her glasses without really pushing them up, like she was just checking to see if they were still there. “You look kinda pale. Did those antlers freak you out?”

She was giving me an out and I gratefully took it. “Yeah.”

“You scared me a bit when you jumped. I just looked up as you were coming down and I thought you were gonna break something.”

Tom’s face lit up and my gratitude shrivelled. “Thanks for reminding me what I was talking about. Listen, Nick…” he struck a thoughtful pose. “It’s actually kind of selfish for you to not sign up for the basketball team. Think of the greater good here.”

“The greater good being this university’s underfunded sports teams?” I jabbed.

Bailey smiled and raised their hood a bit. “Now you’re getting it!”

“We have a mascot,” Tom said, speaking as if he was revealing a hidden truth.

I looked down at his jersey. “The snake.”

“Yes!”

“We don’t have snakes around here.”

“Did that stop Youthford from calling themselves the Dragons?”

“I can’t think of an animal that would be less capable of dribbling a ball than a snake.”

“Ah! You know the rules! That makes this even easier. I’ll see you at tryouts. Speaking of,” Tom looked at his watch, “I gotta go talk to coach before class. Later nerds.” Tom waved and jogged off around the building.

“Thank goodness he’s gone,” Kay said. “I was afraid you would actually cave to his coercion.”

Bailey held up two fingers. “This is the second time I’ve encountered you near the woods doing something fishy. You aren’t beating the woodland fae allegations. What was your major again?”

“Biology,” I responded automatically.

“So you can tell me what phylum this is?” they asked, hefting a white branch.

“Probably deer,” I said weakly.

“Sounds about right,” Bailey said and hurled the piece at the wall of the building. The antler shattered into small bits and disappeared into the grass.

“Hey, Nick. You doing anything after classes today?” Kay asked tentatively. “Tom and Bailey and I are gonna head to the arcade after. You’re free to join us if you’d like. You could even bring a friend.” Her tone made it clear who she was referring to. “We’re cool people, I promise. I’ll keep Tom in check.”

I looked down, a sour feeling in my gut. I felt guilty and I didn’t know why. “I…uh…”

Kay glanced at Bailey and then spoke gently, “You can say no. I won’t be offended.”

“Not today. Sorry.”

Kay nodded. Bailey grabbed her by the arm. “It’s cool bro. We’ll catch you some other time.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. Their footsteps faded away as I stared at the broken bits of me strewn around the grass.

Stupid. The close call had made my brain all panicky. I felt wrong, like I didn’t deserve to speak to people who were just being friendly. Why couldn’t I just act normal?

I dwelled on it as I went to my next class. It was only when the professor began their lecture that I forgot about it and started to daydream. About halfway through the class, my phone buzzed. I slouched and pulled my phone halfway out of my pocket. It was Mac.

“Are you in class rn?”

I typed a response: “Yes. Over in 30 min.”

A buzz followed shortly after. “Wanna grab lunch?”

“Yesssssss.”

I tapped out several S’s, my thoughts turning to the Cathrow children. I wondered how they were doing. Maybe I could cajole some answers out of Mac. And then, at night, Nell and I would investigate my dad’s old workplace. I won’t mention that part to Mac.