Smells like Team Spirit

by Zadien

Beyblade Ice Hockey AU. The Sharks have always won the league, each and every year, but this year will be different. Kai Hiwatari, the ex-captain of the Sharks, now captains the Tigers, the talented yet dysfunctional contenders for the trophy with all their emotional baggage, prank pulling and bitter resentment of change.

34. Where do we go from here?

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade

---

Previously on SLTS

Amber's mother had a baby boy, named Sam so Shahero, Amber and Bryan went home for the weekend. Nicolai had a meeting with Dicksinson: The ice hockey program will be removed from the curriculum next year, so Nicolai takes Kai and Tala camping for the weekend. After attacking Arista in a fit of rage, Arista left the team and Brooklyn was attacked on Preston grounds. Kai knows someone attacked him but doesn't know which of his teammates did it, nor how that will affect his team.

---

Chapter Thirty Four : Where do we go from here?

Tucked away in a quiet spot of the car lot — the one reserved for visitors, beside the football field — Arista sat curled up in the passenger seat of Ruin's car studying the quiet space beyond the windscreen. A thick mist had slithered up to the front of the school that morning but the rapidly climbing sun had already begun to burn away the fog, hinting at the heat predicted for later that day.

Still, the dense bank of fog pressing against the window had Arista reaching for a thin grey sweater to throw over her vest top, and now she curled her fingers around the sleeve as she chewed on her thumbnail. She glanced over at Ruin, who was calmly painting her nails a shimmering ruby, and wrinkled her nose.

"So I just phone and make an appointment?"

She looked at the phone in her hand, Ruin's phone, a thick brick of a device that looked like it could survive an apocalypse or three.

Ruin quirked a brow in her direction and blew on the nails of her left hand. "There's no pressure, remember. If you want to sit out here for a while, we can do that, or we can go into town. I have a few things I want to pick up later, we could even go prom dress shopping."

Prom dress shopping? Was Ruin actually going to prom? "I thought we were doing anti-prom."

"No," Ruin said with a confidence Arista envied — and her voice was so smooth and mellow, it made Arista think of smokey bars and burlesque performers. "We're going to prom. It's our final year, it'll be a good memory. And, I'm petty. I want to see Kennedie's face when she sees me with Tala in a suit."

Arista's lips twitched and she turned the phone in her hand, sniffing delicately before her eyes latched onto the little gel candle dangling from the rearview mirror. Vanilla Lime seemed like such an odd scent to find in Ruin's car — she almost expected deadman's blood or graveyard dirt or something equally gothic. Then again, Ruin didn't seem so gothic anymore, even her makeup, while still bold and sultry, lacked the Halloween edge.

Resting her chin on her knee, Arista studied her friend: the slight glow to her cheeks, the tranquility exuding from her as she concentrated on painting her nails and realisation slapped her. Arista wanted that. She wanted to be content like Ruin, someone who was happy in her own skin.

She tightened her grip on the phone. "What if I'm wasting their time?"

"They're getting paid."

Yes, fine, that was true but… "I'll be wasting your money."

Releasing a slow breath, Ruin screwed the top back onto the bottle of polish and angled herself to look at Arista. "If you get something from this, it's not a waste of time or money, but it has to be because you want to do this. I won't force you."

Which, again, was why Arista had come to Ruin over everyone else. Ruin never pushed her views on anyone, never belittled an idea or scoffed. She just listened, offered advice, and then let people do things their way. After all, Ruin had made her own mistakes, so she accepted others would make theirs.

"What do you think of this colour?"

"It's pretty."

"Mmm. So, you phone up, you make an appointment with one of the therapists you talked to yesterday afternoon. And if you feel awkward in any way, you can walk out."

"I just — the last one was terrible. The one in the hospital after…"

That one had made her feel greasy and sick to her stomach, questioning everything she remembered and blaming herself. Just the memory had a cold, heavy pool of dread settling in her belly, pressing down like a tonne weight.

"You walk out and find another one," Ruin repeated, voice firm, eyes cool. "If they make you feel bad or off in any way, you find another one. They offer a service, and you can choose who you want to deal with. Maybe the first one you go to is a dick, maybe the second one is too, but it's like anything in life, you have to find the one that's right for you. I never thought I'd be the one to say this, but talking helps — at least if you can't punch someone in the face." She sent Arista a wry smirk.

Arista laughed, a wet sound as she sniffled. She could never truly shake the lump in her throat, the feeling of chains binding around her ribs tight enough to break. "You did leave quite the bruise."

"It made me feel better for a bit, but talking to Tala, telling him how I felt about him leaving me felt better. I talked to Geraldine about it too, told her my issues with him and with the team and even with Amber. Things I could never say to anyone else." She studied her nails, rested the heels of her palms on the steering wheel. "I was angry, and with Geraldine, I could be angry and irrational and bitter without worrying about hurting anyone's feelings. It was all very confidential and cleansing. It felt so good, and I felt lighter after."

"What if I don't feel better at the end? What if it doesn't fix me?"

"Get that idea out of your head. You don't need to be fixed. You experienced a traumatic event, that will change you and you're entitled to feel different about things and people now. You're allowed to be scared and angry and everything else you feel. This isn't about fixing you, it's just about you doing something to empower yourself, to make yourself feel a little better. Maybe by getting up and going to talk to someone, you might feel productive, or maybe talking might make you feel less angry, or he or she might give you ways to function with the anger, to deal with it. And, maybe it won't work but at least you'll know you tried, that you took that first step on your own to deal with what happened."

Arista stayed silent, digesting that. The phone felt heavy in her hand. She could say no, maybe put it off for another day. Ruin wouldn't pressure her.

More mist burned away under the sun's rays; she could see the back wall of the gym and the tower lights that overlooked the football field. At this early hour on a Saturday the grounds of the school were predominantly empty. She could go back to her dorm, catch a few more Zs. No one would be the wiser.

Sucking in a breath, she closed her fingers around the phone so that her knuckles turned white. "I liked Geraldine," she admitted, "but she's your person."

"When we stand in line in the dining hall and I get served first, do you ask for another server?"

Arista huffed out a breath. "No, but it's different, Ruin."

Ruin opened her mouth, then closed it with a nod of concession. "True. All I can tell you is that Geraldine sees each appointment as a different person. She won't bring up our friendship or tell you anything about my issues, or vice versa. That's part of the reason I like and trust her. She's discreet. She knows my parents."

Arista snapped her gaze to her, eyes widening.

Releasing a chuff of laughter, Ruin jerked a shoulder. "I think they're on the same board for a charity or something. Of course, we didn't know that at the time. You can imagine the shock and fear I felt when I was out with my parents at a restaurant and there's my mother greeting Geraldine like they're sorority sisters. Maybe they were." Ruin ran her hands over the wheel and her lips curved. "Geraldine smiled cordially and greeted my father, and allowed herself to be introduced to me — acted like she'd never met me, never even hinted or made eye contact. She was professional. I, on the other hand, wasn't. I was a bag of nerves until we ran into each other in the bathroom and she told me that what I said in her office came from a client and had no bearing outside.

"I liked being referred to as a client, it made it more businesslike and, as my dad always says, you never bring business out of the office. I guess she knew me well enough to know that would resonate — my parents are great believers of the business sphere and the social sphere, the two never overlap. So to Geraldine, I was the daughter of acquaintances that she'd just met that night and when I was back in her office a week later, I was the grieving daughter of negligent parents."

Reaching down, Arista tugged on the lever and stretched the seat back, her body falling with it. "Did you ever tell your parents?"

"No. It would have hurt them. They don't see themselves as being bad parents and they're good people — they just should never have added someone else to their lives. I was fragile when I went to Geraldine. My grandmother had died, Tala had left, and I needed someone to say: yeah, you have a right to be angry and upset. You have a right to every emotion and when she did that, I was able to see things a little clearer. My parents are still terrible parents, but I can accept it as their failing, and not mine."

That. Arista wanted that. To be at peace, to feel stronger. Ruin always seemed so strong and if talking to someone helped her get there, Arista was willing to try.

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "Okay. So we make an appointment with her. If you don't mind."

Ruin shook her head with a snort. "She's good at her job, but if you don't click with her, we can try again. We'll phone other people, go through the questions we did yesterday again and then you pick another."

Arista rolled the phone between her palms, looked up at the wispy clouds drifting across the hard blue sky above them. "Is there anything I should prep before I go?"

"You could consider what you'd like to achieve. They usually ask what you'd like to get out of therapy."

What did she want to get out of it? Normalcy? Was that even an option? Or would she be broken forever? That's if she could even talk about it but she had to try.

Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes. "I know you said it wasn't about fixing me, but I want my life back. I want to be comfortable with everyone again and I just don't like feeling this gross way all the time, like something slimy has slithered in and taken over and I don't think I'll ever be right again."

Reaching over, Ruin opened the glove compartment and pulled out a small jar, screwing off the lid and offering the cream inside. "Try that."

"What is it?"

"Just a hand cream."

A bit bewildered and stung that Ruin hadn't tried to comfort her, Arista scooped out a minute amount, rubbing it between her hands. It felt good, warm and creamy without being greasy and — she lifted her hands to sniff — it smelled good, comforting and sweet. "It's nice."

"What's it smell like to you?"

Shaking her head, Arista propped a foot on her knee and sniffed again. "Like Sandalwood and something sweet? It definitely has a feminine fragrance to it."

Ruin pursed her lips. "Tala was right. I hate when he's right. He gets so smug. I'll have to maybe cut out the honeysuckle or — well tone down the flowers."

"Wait, you made that yourself?" She sniffed it again, impressed and a little awed.

"It's a little thing I'm working on. It helps calm me." Ruin popped the small jar back into the glovebox. "Thing is Arista, I can't say you will ever be the same again. Each experience we go through changes us, shapes who we'll become. You need to step forward, not back."

Flopping back in her seat, Arista folded her arms. "I'd at least like to be able to walk down a dark corridor without freaking out." Or be able to play with the boys instead of watching their hands and imagining them around her neck.

When Ruin sighed, Arista slumped. "Is that an impossible request too?"

Ruin's lips twisted as she shrugged. "I don't know, Arista. I think you can get to a stage where you choose to not confront the dark corridor alone, or choose to use a different route. It's just about time and working through things."

How did Ruin get to be so wise? Did therapy do that or was that the experience that Ruin talked about? Would she ever get to that stage or would she always feel like a floundering piece of lint being tumbled through the washer?

With her eyes stinging, Arista dropped her head to the window. Sucking in a breath, she held out the phone without looking at Ruin. "Can you phone for me and make an appointment?"

"I can."

Arista rubbed a hand over her mouth and tuned out Ruin's murmured conversation with the assistant. What if this was a mistake? What if she'd worked everything up in her head and she wasn't really someone who deserved counselling? There were worse people out there. People with drug habits and those who had lost children, those who were raped or lost family members. People faced hardships all the time and here she was crying because her ex-boyfriend lost his temper. It wasn't like he was in her life anymore, he never even contacted her after what happened. It was like he'd fallen off the face of the earth so why was she still allowing him to mess her up?

"Now."

She blinked and looked sharply at Ruin. "What?"

"They've had a cancellation for the next appointment. It'll take about forty minutes to drive there and some extra time to fill in some info, but Geraldine can see you in the next hour."

Today? She hadn't planned to go today. She needed time and she needed air. She closed her fingers around the door handle just as Ruin spoke softly, "Breathe Arista. Just breathe. Plenty of air in here."

"I need space. I can't go today. I have stuff on. I have stuff to do for class and… I have stuff to do." But she couldn't bring herself to open the door.

"Arista, it'll be fine. We'll go there now, get it done and then you won't be stressing over it."

"But - but - what - I need to think about what I'll say."

"Do that in there. She can't force you to talk. You can sit there and be quiet and think and she'll let you do that."

Breathing hard, Arista dropped her head to her knees and focused on slowing her heartbeat, her breathing. In and out and in and out. It was fine. Ruin was right. Get the first one over and done. She could leave early. It was fine.

"I'll be right there the entire time," Ruin soothed; voice coaxing Arista into agreeing. "I'll come into the reception with you, help you fill out your forms and if you need to leave early, I'll take you home. All you have to do is show up, take that first step."

Closing her eyes, Arista rubbed her arms and sat up. "Okay, okay. Let's go."

---

Rubbing her tired eyes, Hilary sipped her coffee and shoved yet another flash drive into the computer. The morning was wearing on, the sun filtered through the blinds shading the windows and there seemed to be no end in sight for her work. This was all Kennedie and Maye's fault. Mostly Maye. Hilary's ears still burned at the older woman's scathing words. The sooner Dickinson fired the mean cow, the sooner everything would be better.

However, because Maye refused to listen, Hilary had to endure more taunting from Kennedie and was stuck looking through the girl's thumb drives for pictures and articles for the Senior Yearbook. How, Hilary wondered, was a sophomore like her supposed to know what went into the Yearbook. She wasn't even on the Yearbook committee.

Scanning through pictures, she moved the ones she wanted to her own drive and kept the others on Kennedie's, though she wanted to delete them. Hilary was beginning to think that the photographer had purposely taken bad photos of certain people, especially those that Kennedie didn't like.

The door creaked open behind her and she squinted her eyes against the light spilling in from the hall. She felt the sudden shift inside when she immediately recognised Tyson's figure.

"Hilary? What are you… never mind. Stupid question."

That stung. It wasn't as if she wanted to be stuck inside on such a lovely day. She could have been outside reading one of her novels for English Lit or studying for the next Economics test. "Nice to see you too, what are you doing here?'

Tyson slid into the chair three computers up from her and dropped his backpack, an empty thing that crumpled at his feet. "I have to work on a Biology assignment for Monday."

Hilary's orderly heart spasmed. "Monday? This Monday coming? How long is it?"

"Only a thousand words, and then the diagram and an explanation of how the experiment works." He gave a laconic shrug that hurt her chest. Really? Two days to have all that work done? How would he find time to draft and redraft it? What about proofing and printing it out to go through it with a red pen?

"But -"

"Relax Hilary. It'll be fine. It's not like I could have worked on it sooner with April Fools being yesterday."

She dropped her chin to her palm and glowered at him, her chestnut eyes narrowing. "I'm sure you didn't get that assignment yesterday."

"Nah but not everyone's as prepared as you are."

She flinched but hid it with a scowl. "Is that how everyone sees me? As a boring, studious person?" She wanted people to see her as fun, to want to hang out with her.

Tyson rubbed the back of his neck. "Nah, you're not boring, you're just… goal orientated. I am too, but our goals are different. You're a good person Hilary."

Pressing her lips together, she tried to control the urge to smile. How was she supposed to not crush on him when he tossed off casual yet lovely compliments like that? He wasn't even trying to charm her, he was stating with sincerity what he thought to be true.

And it annoyed her because as lovely as Tyson was, he wasn't what she wanted in a guy… well, he was. But he was also infuriating and he drove her to distraction, she could never have a civil conversation with him without getting annoyed with his lazy ways and his constant need for attention and his lack of respect for authoritative figures. Her parents would consider a relationship with him to be a fit of rebellion and he'd eventually get bored with her and move on — which would leave her in a horrid state where she wouldn't even be able to be in a room with him, and he, naturally, would be fine, lauded even, for chancing his hand with Hilary Tachibana.

She scowled at the screen in front of her before yanking out the thumb drive and shoving in the next one, a neon pink that seared her eyes. She really was insane, melodramatically over analysing a relationship that only existed in her mind. Tyson probably didn't even notice her as anything more than a classmate or an acquaintance. He was a genuinely pleasant, friendly guy who talked to everyone. No, he couldn't consider her special in any way at all — he'd proved that when he'd tried to kiss her for a bet. God that boiled her blood. She'd nearly destroyed her corner of the dorm before Salima and Kirby calmed her. It was her own fault anyway, getting caught up in dreams of romance and the chance of kissing a boy before she entered senior year. She was so socially incompetent.

Opening a folder, she clicked on the first icon and muffled a yawn. She had just reached for her drink when her brain processed the lines she read. She scrolled down, her mind numb with horror. Closing her fist, her fingertips just brushing the styrofoam cup, she lunged away from the desk, knocking her chair back as she surged to her feet.

"Hilary? You okay?"

"I - I didn't…" She quickly grabbed the mouse and closed the window. She couldn't let Tyson see it. She couldn't let anyone see it and yet — "I didn't write this."

Rubbing a hand over her face, she drew the chair forward, sat down and stared at the screen. She opened the file once more to study it. That wasn't her article but it had her name on the byline. It looked professional, the grammar and spelling correct but the writing style was wrong. Anyone who knew her writing would find it odd but would probably chalk it up to her being stressed with work or distracted, that's if they noticed. Who really paid that much attention to her that they would know her writing that intimately? No one.

And that's obviously what Kennedie was counting on. People would take the article at face value. It said 'by: Hilary Tachibana' so naturally it was written by Hilary Tachibana and she would be the target of a lynch mob. Obviously, Kennedie hadn't realised her faux pas. She'd meant for Hilary to wake up the next day unaware that her head would be placed upon a chopping block. She would have had no clue about this until the damage had been done.

"Tyson," she whispered.

"What's up?" Tyson asked, looking up from where his fingers hovered over the keyboard, pecking at letters.

"Can you come here a second?" Because Hilary realised that she would need someone on her side and Tyson had a very loud voice, a voice she could use to help defend herself.

He heaved a grumbling sigh and then lumbered over, gait easy and unsuspecting. She pressed back into her chair and folded her arms, gesturing for him to look at the screen. Cupping the mouse, he leaned beside her as she forced herself to stare at the screen… until she felt something brush her hair and heard a sniff? She turned her head abruptly and saw Tyson quickly looking away, back ramrod straight.

"Just read," she ordered, flushing darkly.

Tyson rolled his eyes then began to read, mumbling under his breath.

"… Amber Benson… senior… Rumours… pregnancy… Kai Hiwatari… break up… shock labour outside changing room… Hospital…yesterday afternoon… Facebook last night… Congratulate her on her baby boy? Wait, what? Hilary, what is this?"

"I'm not quite sure," she whispered, but she had her suspicions.

"You wrote it."

"No, I didn't." She grabbed his wrist, made him look at her. Meeting those dark brown eyes, she forced him to see her sincerity. "I didn't write this. If I did, if I had any intention of slandering another student, don't you think I would have done it without showing you? I'm not trying to gloat, I'm telling you that I didn't write this."

"But… Where did you find this?"

Hilary leaned forward and tapped the thumb drive. "This is Kennedie's. All of these are hers. She wanted me to sort out the yearbook stuff for her but she mustn't have realised that she gave me the newspaper drive too." Heart beating fast, Hilary sank back into her chair. "Tyson, she's set me up. If I hadn't been doing this today, this would have gone to print and I would be enemy numero uno on Monday with the paper's release."

Tyson's lips whitened as he pressed them into a thin line. "Kennedie put your name on it? Why?"

Hilary squirmed uncomfortably. "Because she's angry with me." Though Hilary hadn't known how vengeful the girl could be. "When she wrote that article about Amber being pregnant, I reported her for a breach of ethics."

"You reported her?"

She nodded, her brown hair falling around her face. That whole incident kept her awake at night. It had been her first insight into how Kennedie could twist the truth and even convince Hilary it was important newsworthy stuff. It had been a severe wake-up call. Still, it wasn't important right now. "Yesterday evening, she caught me in the bathroom and she slated the article I wrote on budget cuts threatening the school curriculum. It was a decent, well-written article and I had backed up my sources, but she claimed it wasn't what she asked of me and that she wanted something else."

"Like?" He leaned closer to her and she tried not to notice the faint whiff of his aftershave, the flop of his dark navy hair that stuck out the gap of his backwards cap. It had always frustrated her, the itching urge to fix it for him.

"Arista. She wants to know what's happening with Arista, but I refused to find that out for her." Hilary raised her voice as Tyson paced away from her, hands fisted tightly at his sides. "I don't know what happened to her - I don't want to know, but she's your cousin and she's friends with your friends and I'm not going to besmirch my morals by doing Kennedie's dirty work. Not anymore. That's not why I joined the paper. I wanted to do some hard-hitting reports on school life."

"So because you wouldn't do it, Kennedie did this. This is bullying, Hilary, and there's no way to prove you didn't write this."

"I know it's my word… wait, what about the properties? Couldn't Kenny find what program was used and who it was licensed to?"

Tyson considered that for a moment, then a lightning grin flashed over his face, something pinged in her chest. "You know, he might be able to. We should check it out. Come on."

Hilary jerked to her feet and quickly ejected the drive only to pull up short. "Wait, what about your Biology assignment?"

He jerked a shoulder, rubbed his thumb over his upper lip and quirked a brow, mischief warming his eyes. "I can do it later. This is more important." He shoved his stuff into his bag, then waited for her by the door, holding it open. She quickly swung her own bag over her shoulder and slipped past him.

Biting her lip, Hilary turned to him and bowed her head gratefully. "Thank you, for believing me."

"Hey, it was nothing. You'd do the same for me and besides, you might be a bit of a stick in the mud at times but you're not sneaky. That article just reeks of bitchiness. I gotta ask, why didn't you go to a teacher when she threatened you? I never really considered you the type to let yourself be bullied."

Hilary's shoulders slumped as she lifted her thick hair off her neck, her cheeks were burning, her skin felt clammy. She was an emotional wreck. And it was kind of embarrassing to know that Tyson was seeing her like this. "Well, I did tell someone," she said, firmly. She certainly refused to be bullied by anyone. Sure she could deal with typical high school hazing but bullying was something she was strictly against. "I told Maye."

"Oh. What did she say?"

They rounded a corner and light spilled in from the windows, the bright blue sky framed the buildings across the campus.

"That I should grow up and learn to fight my own battles and how I'd never get anywhere in life being such a crybaby. She didn't use the word crybaby but I felt her think it. She did tell me to man up. She wasn't very professional." Hilary knew her tone sounded sulky and she knew she was pouting but it hurt being talked down to by a teacher. Especially when she'd always respected the members of staff. She always handed her homework in on time, stayed behind class to clean up rooms, always volunteered to help, and then she was treated like… like muck!

Tyson sighed and suddenly his hand was on her shoulder. "Hilary, don't worry about it. Maye is getting a reputation for being worthless. Maybe you could tell Dickinson."

"I don't think Dickinson would help either. Teachers have to back each other up otherwise, students would play them against each other and there'd be anarchy."

"Yeah, but Maye can't be allowed to get away with her attitude either, Hils. People are supposed to feel comfortable going to a teacher about even the smallest issue and get honest and helpful advice. She just mocked your concerns and if I hadn't been there, would you have told anyone about what Kennedie had planned?"

That was the problem. Hilary couldn't know what she would have done. Even if she had told the Octopussies, why would they have believed her? "No."

"And then you'd have been on the Octopussy shit list. I know what happens to those people. I've helped dole out their brand of punishment."

Hilary flinched. "You'll tell them, right? That I didn't write it. I don't want them to turn on me. They're Kirby's friends and family and I consider Kirby a friend, and Mariah too… I don't want to fall out with any of them." Especially since Kirby and Mariah made her feel like she actually had real friends, not just study buddies or assignment partners.

"Once we get the evidence from Kenny, we'll show Miyami and… no, Ruin might be a better option."

Hilary blanched. Ruin was so cold and scary. "What if we don't get evidence?"

"Ruin is really level headed and hey, Sonia might still be around if she didn't go back with Ozuma and Daichi… maybe Ruin went back too. Look, I know the girls and they might seem really insular and petty but they're not. Not when it matters. They'll listen to you and hey, it's a valid reason to attack Kennedie."

"I can't believe she twisted such a story again. I know journalists tend to change things to create drama but didn't Amber do a pregnancy test in Sex Ed just yesterday?"

Tyson nodded but his expression said that it didn't mean much. "People like to drum up drama. Don't worry so much. Let's find Kenny and deal with this. And don't worry about Maye, we're handling her too."

Hilary stopped up short and frowned. "Wait, Tyson, what do you mean you're handling her?"

"Nothing to worry about," he said, as he turned around the corner.

Hilary shook her head, then chased after him.

---

Kane lunged through the two pylons and drew up fast. His skates ground into the ice, spraying it in front of him as he turned to Rei, breathing fast and laboured. "Well?"

Checking his phone, Rei skated to him. "Out of the three goes, your fastest stretch was six seconds."

Kane winced. "Six? Everyone else is five or below right? I can do better than six seconds."

Shit, Enrique could do the sprint in three-point-five seconds — he'd smack into the barrier face first after, but he could do it. Kane shifted on his blades, surveying the length of ice marked off by a pair of blue miniature traffic cones on both goal lines.

Above him, the fluorescent lights burned and reflected off the sheer surface as he caught his breath and waited for his legs to solidify under him. Sweat made his shirt cling to his back under his padding while his nose stung from the cold. The glorious opposites of ice hockey.

He turned to Rei to ask for another go only to be distracted by Ian's loud cursing from the right side of the ice. The shorter boy shuffled after his wayward puck, his skates scratching against the ice. "Ian's still doing the agility section?"

"Second attempt," Rei answered, leaning on his stick, closing his hands around the top. "He's over thirty seconds now. Did his first in twenty-seven but he got too aggressive this time round. Keeps hitting the puck off the pylons or catching on them and that slows - Ian! Second one, not third. Stop rushing!"

Ian tossed off his helmet, swept damp purple hair from his eyes and, catching the puck with the tip of his stick, guided it back up the ice to the second pair of pylons. As if sensing Ian's defeat, Rei clicked off the timer and began to skate over to him. Kane followed.

"Start again and take your time."

"You're supposed to be fast, that's why there's a timer." Ian scowled, pulling his helmet on and strapping it firmly under his chin — Nicolai was a fiend about their helmets and after hours of screaming, keeping their helmets on became a habit.

"No, you're supposed to be smooth, agile, accurate. Work on completing the course. There's speed involved, yes, but agility depends on getting your footwork right, seeing what movements you're going to make before you make them. Concentrate on getting yourself and the puck between the cones and then you can build up speed."

Ian groaned and passed the puck back and forth with his stick. "Why do we have to do this?"

"It's called practice," Kane said, playing with the velcro on his gloves as he studied the set-up. For the nimble and quick on their feet, the cone space was perfect but for heavy skaters like Spencer or Ian, they were possibly too narrow.

"Where are the others, if it's practice?"

"They finished their drills, so they left."

"But why do I have to do this? I play defence, I don't need fancy footwork. I just bash into anyone who gets in my way."

And he'd lose the puck in the process. Ian was damn good at defending, he could pick out someone's weak spot and use his own height to take down bigger opponents but his stick work and footwork failed him. He preferred brute force when a bit of subtlety and care would work.

Rei huffed out an exasperated laugh and lowered his chin to the top of the stick, gold eyes dull with exhaustion. "Ian, the more you complain, the longer we'll be here. Kane, if you want to head on to the changing rooms, that's fine. I'm going to finish up with Ian and that'll be us."

He could leave, but catching Ian's petulant look, he dug in his skates and moving backwards, he began to kick the cones apart. "How about we widen these and you can get your rhythm, then when you've done it, we'll narrow it again?"

"That's gonna take longer!"

"But," Rei replied cheerfully, rolling his shoulders, "you'll be a better skater because of it. And we need all the good skaters we can get to take down the Sharks."

That was an understatement, Kane mused, as he finished widening the cones and headed back to Rei's side. Even though it was the last weekend before the showdown with the JV team, only a handful of the team had shown for practice. Heck, only a handful were on campus. It would be a miracle if they even got to the finals.

Ian pushed off, this time at a slower pace, carefully weaving between the cones.

"Shit," Rei cursed softly, looking at his phone.

"What's up?" Kane asked, crouching down and studying Ian's footwork. He was becoming sluggish. His disinterest in being here and his exhaustion were beginning to show. Nicolai would have called a halt to the training session if the entire team were showing the same symptoms, but the entire team wasn't here.

"I forgot I'm supposed to meet Mariah in the library. I told her that I'd help her with an essay."

"Go. I'll keep Ian company, make sure he finishes his exercises."

Rei shuffled on his feet, clearly torn between what he felt were his duties and his promise to his girlfriend. But Rei wasn't their captain anymore and he had no more reason to be there than anyone else. Their actual Captain was off in the wilderness somewhere with their coach roasting marshmallows and communing with nature. Kane understood Ian's bitterness and resentment well. It perfectly matched his own.

"Just go, Rei."

Rei sagged with a relieved smile. "Thanks, Kane, I'll get you back later."

"No need," Kane said, casually brushing off the offer. Rei would do something nice anyway because that was the kind of him but Kane didn't need it.

With a slight wave of his hand, Rei skated off the ice and Kane meandered over to pick up his cones while Ian rounded the bottom pair and headed back to the top again, his skates scratching up the ice.

"Dammit!"

He looked up just as Ian toppled onto the ice with a thud and rolled onto his side like a groaning boiled shrimp. Setting down the cones, Kane skated to his side and nudged Ian's foot with his own. "You dead?"

"No." Ian's reply was surly and short as he glowered at the ice. "I'm pissed off and I'm sick of doing these same stupid exercises when everyone else is off doing something else."

"Fine. We're done." Kane skated off to pick up the cones again.

Ian scrambled to his feet and warily watched him. "I'll do the damn exercises in a minute. Just let me catch my breath."

Kane studied him for a moment and the belligerent set to his face said Ian would do the exercises but he wouldn't retain a damn thing. He was too frustrated. Kane had taught enough swimming classes during the summer to know exactly how ineffective these moods could be.

"I said I'd do it," Ian snarled.

With a nod, Kane stacked another cone and slid a look at him. "Practice isn't over. We're just going to change it up."

Ian paused mid-stride, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Change it up how?"

"You don't want to work on your agility, fine. We're going to go into town."

With a godawful sound Ian all but collapsed to the ice again. "I hate running."

"You hate everything but we're not running. Go get changed and grab your blades. We're going to work on your stamina and if you're good, I'll treat you to a pizza since you were griping about not getting your favourite topping yesterday." And boy did Ian make sure everyone knew about it.

With a snort, Ian got to his feet but already there was more energy to his movements. He skated off to grab the last of the cones and after handing them over, he skated just as quickly off the ice, telling Kane not to leave without him. Kane hefted the cones under his arm and after depositing them in the alcove where most of the training materials were kept, he pulled out his phone and texted Aspin with a rain check for their plans. Relieved when the reply came back with a smiley face and no judgement, he silently promised to make it up to her later.

---

"I'm not so sure this is a good idea," Hilary muttered, jogging along the corridor to keep up with Tyson's long strides that easily ate up the tiled floor.

The large square windows passing them by showed the campus spread out below, lush and green with heavily boughed cherry blossom trees and long stemmed daffodils adding much-needed bursts of colour. Hilary wanted to be out there with the few diligent students taking shade under the trees or sitting on the benches and walls soaking up the sunshine and catching up on their studies.

Instead, she was looking for Octopussies.

She grimaced. She never thought she'd ever have to do that. They weren't exactly the most inclusive of girl clubs at Preston, not that they'd ever appreciate being referred to as a club, but that's what they were. Hilary didn't want to be on their bad side but she wasn't going to ignore the truth of the matter.

Their initial plan to find Kenny screeched to a halt when Jim had casually informed them that Kenny and Max went into town to catch a matinee movie and then they planned to check out Max's dad's hobby shop which meant they wouldn't be back at Preston for a few more hours.

Tyson had suggested following them but Hilary quickly busted up that idea with a solid whack to his upper arm. If Tyson went into town, he'd get distracted and then he would never complete his biology project and it was only fair for her to keep him on track. After all, he was taking time off to help her out and he wouldn't have been distracted from his project if she hadn't called him over to show him the article that was now burning a hole in her pocket.

With every corner she turned, she half expected to find Kennedie waiting for her, ready to take the USB drive back.

"This is the only plan we've got," Tyson replied easily.

Hilary fumed. It was fine for Tyson. He was friends with those girls, as Miyami's cousin and a former Varsity player, he was part of their little clique. She did not have that honour and she wasn't sure she wanted it. It was on the tip of her tongue to suggest they work on his biology project while waiting for Kenny to return but she knew he'd catch on to her fear and she didn't want to be teased about it. She needed the girls on side after all, especially since the article was about one of them.

They turned a corner into an open lobby with comfy couches strewn around small coffee tables, and a barista style coffee machine and boiling water dispenser set upon a rolling countertop. Tyson stiffened beside her before lengthening his stride. "There's Russia."

Hilary's stomach dropped as she watched him cut through the seating area to reach the girl with blood red hair. Why couldn't it have been Ruin? Not that Ruin wasn't scary, but she was rational. Russia always struck Hilary as slightly demented with no warm feelings for anyone outside of her little social group. As Tyson talked to her, Russia's gaze picked her out and her brow furrowed.

Sucking up her courage, Hilary tilted up her chin and strode over to them, plucking the USB from her pocket and presenting it to Russia. "The article on there has my name but I didn't write it."

"Okay? So wha'? Y' wan' me t' find ou' who wrote it?"

Tyson nodded. "We thought maybe Kenny could find out from looking at the properties…"

He trailed off as Russia shook her head and began to lead them off to a quieter corridor where pebble-dashed walls stretched as far as the eye could see, finally punctuated near a corner by a thick wine red door with a universal girl symbol.

Hilary raised a brow. She hadn't realised there was a bathroom down there. It would either be the cleanest bathroom ever due to the lack of knowledge around it or the most unhygienic for the same reason.

Glancing around to make sure she wasn't overheard, Russia held up the USB and said, "Dis will 'ave been written on a computer in a lab somewhere, probably the media room and all computer content dere belongs to the school."

Hilary slumped. Great. All her hopes of proving she hadn't written the article flew out the window. Catching her gaze, Tyson squeezed her shoulder and damned as she was, she couldn't help but feel a little warm and fuzzy inside. He could be so sweet at times. It really didn't help her get over her thing for him.

"Look Russia, I can guarantee you it wasn't Hilary."

Russia dismissed his claim with a wave and Hilary's hackles rose before Russia silenced her with a look. "Do I look stupid? Of course y' didn' write it. Y' wouldn' have shown Tyson if y' did and even if dis was some kind of double bluff, I'd catch y' out. No, dis reeks of Kennedie and Clover. It's jus' a matter of proving it."

"And Maye didn't listen to Hilary when she tried to tell her that Kennedie was being unethical with the paper."

"So wha'? Am I supposed t' get revenge on 'er too?"

"No!" Hilary shook her head, eyes round. She turned to him with indignation splashed across her face. "You can't take revenge on a teacher. That'll get you expelled for sure." And then what would his team do?

Rounding on her, Tyson stepped into her space. "Well, someone has to do something. Maye isn't doing her job." He turned to Russia in an appeal for reason. "Even Hitoshi is a better teacher than she is and he's not being paid to be a teacher."

"No one likes Maye," Russia mused, snapping the bracelets against her inner wrist. Hilary wondered if that was some kind of pain aversion therapy? Rumour said Russia had dabbled in drugs once, was this part of going cold turkey? "She's annoyed a lo' of people. If something did 'appen t' her, no' sayin' it would, but if it did, no one would even blink at you two."

"Except you'd risk getting expelled." Why was no one seeing the flaw to this plan? Was this how they always worked? Plan first, consequences later? No wonder they were constantly in trouble. It was a miracle they hadn't been struck off the team yet. It was the perfect revenge that Maye could bring out at any time against them. It would certainly bring an end to their actions.

She pressed her lips together tightly.

"Not if dere's no proof - anyway, never mind," Russia said, then stepped back. "Let's head to my dorm and I'll see wha' I can do abou' dis article you were talkin' abou'. Y'll have to give dis USB back t' Kennedie, eventually, righ'?"

Hilary nodded. "If she was hoping to print it for tomorrow, then she'll come looking for it tonight. I also have to get the photos for the yearbook sorted out too before she comes because she'll wonder why I took so long."

"Yearbook? Oh, Hilary, you really need t' grow a pair."

Hilary flinched, stung by the words and the derision behind them. A solid touch against her lower back had her leaning into Tyson's hand. Surprised, her eyes flew to his. He smiled faintly, brown eyes warm and encouraging as he used his hand to nudge her along behind Russia, before dropping it to place it in his pocket again. Hilary flushed and looked away, scolding herself for reading too much into Tyson's actions. He was just being friendly. She saw him hug Kirby all the time and he was always pretty comfortable with Emily too. She really needed to stop reading into things. It wasn't fair to either of them.

---

The puck dinged off the crossbar and skittered across the vacant car lot before rolling to a halt and falling flat on the hot tarmac. Kai skated after it, scooping it up with his stick and whipping it back down the court. Tala, who'd been off grabbing a drink of water, shot after it, ditching his water bottle so it bounced along the surface. Lifting it, Kai set it on the cross bars and grabbed his own, took a slug. He kept an eye on Tala as he wheeled around the bottom of the car lot playing with the puck.

The sun was beginning to set behind the trees, casting long black shadows across the camp site. An RV chugged along the road beside them, swerving around the long corners that circled copses of trees. The sky had settled into a frigid blue that deepened to sapphire directly over him, the first spark of a star winking periodically. Night would soon fall and Nicolai had promised campfire chilli. The idea of it made Kai's stomach rumble.

And when they were gathered around the campfire, he'd tell his father about Brooklyn and the threat to the team.

He felt a cool breeze touch his cheek and then heard the dull thud and chink of the water bottle smacking against the chainlink fence. He scowled at Tala who offered him a grin in response before he rolled behind the net to collect the puck. Kai tossed his own bottle to the side and reached out with his stick to snag the puck away from Tala. He flipped the bright orange disc into the air and caught it with the flat of his stick.

"Show off," Tala muttered, as he studied the setting sun.

It always got darker at the campsite before anywhere else as the sun set behind the mountain that towered over them. Below, the small seaside town of Camden had already begun to light up; a bright string stretched along the promenade for a good three miles. When his mom came with them, they often took a night to go into the town for a meal at Bella & Luigi's, sitting on the porch overlooking the beach, sipping drinks, and watching people perform karaoke until closing time. Sometimes if the music was terrible they'd walk along the promenade. His mother loved the walk, so Kai figured his father would bring her up to Camden sometime during the summer to make up for leaving her behind.

"Hard to believe the last time we were here was almost a year ago."

Kai nodded. "You didn't even want to come."

"Annie Banks was a sure thing. All I had to do was be in Clonmel that weekend."

Kai snorted. "Annie Banks was leading you on. She had Clint Morris convinced she was a sure thing that weekend too and she did nothing with him. She had no intention of touching either of you. She's not into guys."

"What?"

Shrugging, Kai dropped the puck and poked it with the end of his stick. "She made three passes at Autumn last Spring Break when their whole group went to the beach."

For a moment there was nothing but silence and Kai risked a glance at his friend to see that Tala was nodding his head. "What, you knew?"

"Nope, but that could have been embarrassing. Good thing Nicky took us away that evening."

No kidding, Kai thought with a smirk as he grabbed his jacket and tugged it on. With the sun hidden, the temperature had dipped. Despite the heatwave temperatures of the day, the night still carried hints of winter.

"So what's going on with Nicolai?"

Kai paused and glanced towards the camp site where they'd set up their tents. "What do you meant?"

"Really, Kai? I know you guys. Something's up. Did you tell him about Brooklyn?" There was a bite to the question as if he couldn't imagine Kai telling his father without him present.

"No. No, it's not that. It's… look you can't tell anyone. It's not been announced yet but the school is closing down the ice hockey team next year."

Tala backed up, eyes wide. "What? They can't do that."

"They can and they are. Dickinson told dad about it yesterday. That's why we're here. He couldn't be in the school another second."

"Fuck." Tala ran a hand over the hair he'd tied back for the game, dislodging strands. "Fuck."

"Yeah." Hollow, Kai slumped back against the fence and folded his arms against the rising chill. "Dad's pretty pissed but there doesn't look like there's much he can do."

"What about the JV team? Miguel will be pissed. And what about Nicolai's job? He transferred specifically for it."

All valid questions that Kai just didn't have a good answer for. "They JV team… I don't know. Dickinson acts like it's just an extra credit subject they're taking, like they'll be glad to give it up. And Dad, well the school made noises about moving him to coach something else. But that won't suit him. He coaches ice hockey, that's his thing."

Tala blew out a breath and wrung his hands around the top of his stick as if slowly throttling it. "Fuck them." He tossed his head back to look at the sky for a long moment before turning to Kai. "Are you still going to tell your dad about Brooklyn?"

"After this, yeah I'm going to have to. It'll be better coming from us so that he has time to plan, to spin something than coming later out of nowhere. But it's shit timing and I'm still not…" He trailed off and jerked a shoulder at Tala's questioning look. "We should head back."

"Kai."

"Don't you think it's suspicious that Mystel passed on that message? If they were going to go to the police about us, why even mention it? And why pass it on to Amber?"

Tala straightened, a wolf sensing a trap. "She's the only person on our team that he knows. As for telling us, maybe it's psychological warfare? Let us know they have something on us, let us stew?"

Maybe, but Kai wasn't so sure. "Sure, but why tell her? It would have had more impact to tell one of us, to gauge our reaction."

"What are you thinking?"

Kai's lips twisted and he watched the sweep of headlights as another batch of campers arrived and headed towards the reception. Two people on bicycles raced by, their bells ringing cheerfully. Further into the woods, smoke rose in a listless plume towards the night sky. "What if he told Amber to turn her against us?"

"How would he even do that?"

Out loud it sounded stupid but he couldn't help the niggle of worry that was squirming around the back of his mind. "I don't know. She's not on the team anymore and maybe he's trying to undermine her trust in us. If we're capable of beating up poor Brooklyn, what else could we do?"

Tala's responding smirk was a little lopsided and he patted Kai's shoulder. "Your jealousy is cute but I don't think Amber would turn against us that easily."

Gathering his bottle, Kai shoved it into his pocket and hooked his stick over his shoulder as they left the car lot and headed back to the camping grounds. Amber had turned on him pretty quickly. The right poisonous snake whispering in her ear and she could turn on them all. "But how do we even know if it's true? We're just going on his words alone. Why get all worried about something that might not have happened?"

"And how do you propose we find out? Ask the team?" Tala shook his head and shrugged on his jacket. "They'll immediately jump on the defensive. Something must have happened."

Kai sobered. "Doesn't mean it was one of us. We both know how that school can be."

Tala slowed, his blue eyes narrowing. "Balkof." He stepped back to allow a group of joggers by, before gliding into step with Kai. "He always seemed uncomfortably interested in Brooklyn."

"Yeah but rarely did anything when dad was around. Without dad…" He'd never even considered that element to his father leaving. Who protected the boys now? Who asked the awkward questions about why practises were being extended or offered to attend a meeting with them when they were summoned to Balkof's office. His father had tried his best, but the school backed Balkof implicitly and eventually the frustration of being unable to protect the boys must have worn away at Nicolai enough to prompt him to leave. And now Dickinson was threatening to remove the Ice Hockey team from the curriculum next year? What was his father supposed to see in that? That he'd thrown away a perfectly good job because of his nobility and was now being punished for it? Fate was a cruel and bitchy fucker.

"We need to contact the Sharks, talk to them about this. It's no use going by secondhand accounts."

Kai nodded. "Right. But we still need to tell dad, give him fair warning just in case."

"And if it turns out nothing happened, he'll just be relieved. No harm done."

"Right. And we work on getting evidence and maybe find a way to stop them going to the police if it is true, that's if they even plan to."

"They could manipulate us another way," Tala pointed out.

"If they try, we tell dad. Our team has come too far to have our hands tied. I want evidence that something actually happened to Brooklyn on our campus, not something playing on the coincidence that he was here." Kai tilted his head to the breeze gusting through the tall conifers and felt his hair ruffled by invisible fingers. "I'll talk to Amber and find out what she knows."

Tala stiffened. "Maybe I should talk to her."

Kai met his gaze squarely. "I'm the captain. It's my job."

Tala opened his mouth, then closed it with a shake of his head. They turned the corner to their section of the camp. Around the glowing embers of the fire, Nicolai had set up a trio of collapsible chairs and over the fire, the chilli bubbled and popped.

Nicolai appeared around some trees with an armful of logs. "Can one of you get the candles and the other help me stack these?"

Kai rolled his eyes to the sky as Tala quickly moved to help Nicolai. Shadows danced over the walls of the two tents and insects buzzed around as Kai stepped over a log and grabbed the lighter near the fire. He caught a fragrant whiff of the food cooking as he lit the citrine candles that his mother swore repelled all sorts of insects. Kai wasn't so sure he believed her but he would take any help he could get. The creatures seemed to have a fondness for his flesh and he didn't like the adverse effects of their biting, such as the swelling and the itching.

"So what's been bugging you two all day? You were suspiciously quiet during our hike."

Kai and Tala exchanged a sharp look before Kai took a seat and grabbing the ladle, began to fill the trio of plastic bowls sitting on a stump within easy reach. "The upcoming matches and how off kilter the team is."

Nicolai sighed and stretched out his legs, letting the bowl Kai passed to him, sit on his lap. "Yeah, that's an issue."

"More than an issue. We're going to lose if we don't get it sorted."

Tala scooped up a spoonful of chilli and blew on it. "Fact is, we don't have a goalie, we're down a sharp shooter, Russia thinks she's temporary and none of us are a cohesive unit."

"We'll get there. It's just taking time."

Kai held up a finger and swallowed his mouthful of chilli before saying, "We don't have time. We need to up our game. The JV match is this weekend coming and we're in a worst state than January."

Amber no longer played with them. Arista, while still technically still on the roster, rarely showed her face at practice. He didn't like to think it but it really might be time to call quits on the team. Maybe Dickinson could put them on early retirement. His gaze landed on his father's face, strained and looking more tired than a weekend away should have left him. No, they couldn't retire the team. His father needed them. And Kai selfishly needed them if he wanted to have any chance of getting noticed by the scouts. His dream rested on them now.

The Sharks would have been a sure thing.

He clenched his fist around the spoon, feeling the metal dig into the flesh of his palm. That kind of thinking wouldn't help. He had made his choice. Now he had to make sure it worked for him.

"The JV team have their own issues. Kirby left the team for a bit, Joseph is in the process of leaving and Max has only been a goalie for" —Nicolai paused and counted his fingers— "six months or so."

"That's six months more than our non-existent goalie."

Kai had to agree with Tala's point. "Mariah can't be pulled from Cheerleading every time we fuck up. We need to have a goalie that actually shows up to practice to cover for Arista while she's… MIA."

"She's not MIA. She's dealing with something traumatic. We have to respect that."

Kai did respect it but, at the same time, as a captain, he needed to have players that fucking played. Mariah couldn't be their yo-yo. She was a damn good goalie, no doubt about it. Second only to Arista in terms of talent but her heart seemed to lie in cheerleading and their own competitions would be starting up soon. She could only pick one sport.

The shadows grew longer, creating dark spots between the trees and the fire brightened, casting its warm orange light over their campsite. Smoke funnelled into the night sky now scattered with tiny stars. The temperature cooled and the small lanterns Nicolai had placed strategically near the tents drew the fluttering shapes of moths.

Setting his empty bowl aside, Kai zipped up his team jacket and slid down in his seat. Could they find someone to replace Arista at such short notice? If so, who? No one knew the team like they did. They didn't have a group of reserve players, partly because the sport wasn't popular enough at Preston but mostly because the team was so cliquey, no one wanted to join. It wasn't easy to be part of that team. He knew that better than anyone. And it wasn't like they could rejig a player like Hitoshi did with Max; they didn't have another goalie.

Rubbing a hand over his mouth, he angled his head to watch Nicolai stare into the fire. "Is there any way we could talk Arista into coming back?"

"Perhaps, but I'd rather let her come back on her own."

"We can't afford that. We need a goalie otherwise we're going to have to forfeit the games."

"Never mind the fact that if we don't beat the Warriors, we don't face the Sharks."

Kai's stomach swooped. His team needed to face the Sharks. There was too much riding on that game. If they didn't play… he didn't think they'd ever come back from it. They'd go off to university having that great disappointment looming over them forever. How would he ever show his face in the hockey arena again? The venerable Sharks' Captain who left them all to join a team that didn't even make it to the finals. All his dreams hinged on that game. More, it would be the final nail in the coffin of Preston's Ice Hockey team. The JV team would be scattered to the wind.

A sober quiet descended over the camp. A log broke in the fire and sent a shower of sparks into the sky like a firework.

"There's also the Brooklyn issue," Tala said, breaking the silence. He glanced pointedly at Kai.

Nicolai huffed out a breath and sat forward in his seat, resting his forearms on his knees. His navy hair fell into his eyes as he looked directly at Kai. "What Brooklyn issue?"

Running a hand over his own hair, Kai told him everything he knew: the fact that Brooklyn had been on campus, the phone call to Amber and the fact that they weren't sure if it was true or not.

When he finished, Nicolai slumped back in his seat and rubbed his face. Kai could actively see him praying for patience. "Fuck." The word summed up exactly how Kai felt. For a long moment Nicolai hid his face behind his hands, then he finally dropped them to look at the sky. "And do we have any idea who the players could be?"

"No. And Mystel is being cagey about it. Makes me think they want to shake us up. Why else haven't they gone to the police about it?"

"Of course." Nicolai closed his eyes and sat up, straightening his shoulders. "We need to know more. Is there any way you can ask Amber to find out more?"

Kai bristled. So they were just going to pimp Amber out now? "I still have a few contacts in Clonmel, I might be able to find something out."

"We're going to look into that," Tala said, quickly backing him up.

Silence fell again as they tried to examine the problem from every angle.

"Hey Nicolai," Tala said, shifting in his seat."Why didn't the police charge Brooklyn? You mentioned it to them, right? That he attacked Arista. She's probably terrified about running into him and she won't want to face him on the ice and have him gloat —"

"Arista asked me not to pursue the matter. I respected her decision. And she's dealing with it as best she can."

What did his father mean by that comment? He seemed far too relaxed about Arista being off the team and their lack of a goalie. He knew something, Kai decided. At least something they didn't know.

Kai could understand Arista's reluctance to bring charges against Brooklyn. She would have to tell everyone what happened and then she'd have to deal with everyone staring and talking about her behind her back but more, she'd have to deal with those who would blame her. He certainly didn't want to see her go through that. She was entitled to her privacy.

But another part of him couldn't help but think of how much easier it would be if Brooklyn were away for good. There wouldn't be this axe swinging over their heads right now. Maybe that's what they could use to get Brooklyn to talk. After all, Arista had chosen not to call the cops on him, maybe they could persuade him to not call the cops on them. A quid pro quo kind of thing.

It was definitely something to think about.

"From Monday on, we'll have morning and evening practices. I know you've got your exams and assignments coming up but you signed on to join the team with the implicit knowledge that it would eat up your time. It's up to you guys to find the time to get everything done. Support each other, inside and outside the arena. Because it's crunch time, if we want to defeat the Sharks, we need to be at our best."

"And what about the goalie situation?" Kai demanded.

"I'll sort it." Nicolai set his bowl on the ground. "Now, I made the dinner, you two can clean up. I'll see you both in the morning bright and early for our run."

Kai watched as his father rose and headed for the tent leaving Kai and Tala to sit by the campfire in silence.

---

A warm breeze drifted in the window as Amber scanned the open textbook in front of her, tapping her highlighter off the side of the desk. The more she studied the information about the Somme, the more she realised that she should have narrowed down the topic. Or maybe it needed to be broader.

Or maybe she just needed to focus.

Except it was a Sunday and she wanted to be outside. She'd sat down at her desk an hour ago and had so far written very little in her notebook. Outside the blistering heat of the sun baked the street between her home and the Hiwatari's. Birds chattered loudly on the gable overhead and she could hear the delighted laughter of children playing in the culdesac. She could smell barbecue. Someone down the street was definitely cooking food. All huge signs that summer was finally here and she was stuck in her dull room trying valiantly to be a good student.

Her phone beeped and she reached for it, glad for a reason to procrastinate further.

Sorry for not texting back last night. Johnny took me out for a meal after my massage. We should go to a spa sometime. Awesome birthday present. Johnny's gone for a swim so I have some time to myself. What did the doctor say?

Amber curled her feet up under her and leaned into the back of the chair as she carefully considered her words. Her trip to the doctor had been a spontaneous one, one her mother had pushed her into just to give her peace of mind.

Couldn't give me an exact diagnosis but thinks it might be nerves. Every time I get worried, I get nauseous. I don't eat, so my stomach ends up cramping from hunger.

She set the phone aside just as the floorboard on the stairs creaked. Shit. She was not in the mood to entertain. Hence why she'd locked herself up in her room that afternoon. After yesterday's disaster when she'd almost poured tea into a neighbour's lap, she'd distinctly told her mother she was not dealing with any more guests.

She pulled her textbook closer as if it could ward off the intruder and focused so hard on the words that they swam in front of her.

The door behind her eased open and she pasted on a tight smile as she turned only to sag and genuinely smile at the sight of Shahero slipping inside with a mug of tea. "Figured you could do with a break. How're the notes coming?"

Amber groaned and pushed away from the desk accepting the hot mug of tea. Regardless of the weather, hot tea was always appreciated. "Slow. I don't know what I'm supposed to be writing and I can't focus. It's too nice a day. I keep wanting to get up and go outside but the minute I go downstairs someone's going to snag me and ask if I'm pleased about the baby."

Shahero nodded. "I got the same questions. From what I heard dad saying, after Mrs Glenn and Ms Goldberg go home, he's just going to tell everyone that it's family only for the rest of the day. Treasa looks so tired," Shahero said, around a mouthful of chocolate cookie.

"Yeah because she just pushed a baby out of her vagina two days ago. Like give her a break and don't come looking for a free tea service." As it was, Amber was making a note of all the neighbours who had slighted her mother with their insensitive attitude. How hard was it to just wait until a woman recovered before coming to coo over a baby? Babies weren't even that interesting when they were newborns. They just slept and ate and shit. Nothing more, nothing less. They could come see Sam when he finally learnt how to sit up or started to babble or when he graduated. All very suitable times to come visit the baby. Damn sure none of them would be offering themselves up as babysitters.

Shahero nodded and dusted the crumbs from her lap. "Well, I'm heading out for dinner with Hitoshi. He said he'd pay and he's going to Gordo's."

Amber raised a brow and sipped her tea. "You traitor."

"Yes, but chocolate pie. Besides, what Annie doesn't know won't hurt her."

"She'll ban you from the Friar's Rest forever."

"For chocolate pie, it would be worth it." A bug flew too close to the window and they both stopped to watch it hover outside, as if waiting for an invite before drunkenly flying off. Relaxing, Amber plucked her lip balm from the desk and offered it to Shahero who shook her head in response.

The phone beeped again and Amber flicked a quick glance at the lit up screen.

"Is that Miyami?"

"Yup, enjoying her break with Johnny for her birthday. She said with the whole Arista thing and everything else" —including her leaving the team— "it didn't seem right that we have a party."

Shahero pursed her lips then nodded. "Yeah, that would have been tacky. It's not really the time to celebrate anything and after the last birthday party…" She shrugged. "Besides, when would she have fit it in? We're here this weekend, we're playing the JV babies next weekend, then Spring Break and everyone's either studying or procrastinating studying and stressing about it." She indicated to the notebook and highlighter on Amber's desk. "Which is why I am going to go and enjoy my last weekend of freedom with my… whatever before we become mortal enemies."

Amber winced and cupped her hands around her tea. Shahero was right, the last party, Amber's eighteenth, had been an utter disaster. Miyami had definitely made the right decision. "Good luck dating the Coach of the team you're playing next weekend."

Shahero got to her feet with a grim snarl and stretched, revealing the swatch of denim beneath her Devil's jersey. "We've decided not to talk hockey until it's all over."

"Hmm, well good luck with that." Though Amber figured they'd be fine. They bickered over many things but, after the Selena incident, she knew they'd consider it dishonourable to use each other to further their teams. Their relationship meant more than that. Hitoshi would put Shahero before hockey. She knew that without a doubt.

She picked up the phone again as Shahero opened the door only to glance up when Shahero jolted and sent her a wary look.

"Shahero, is Amber in?"

"Uh, yeah. Hi, James. I'm just going."

Amber's stomach dropped as Shahero darted out of the room and her father stepped inside, dressed in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and dark jeans, his version of casual wear. He lit up at the sight of her and Amber pressed her hand against her stomach as it began to churn. He always looked so happy to see her and despite being on better footing, she always felt like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop with him. He never sought her out for good things these days.

"Your mother told me you'd be up here. I came to see the baby. He doesn't look much like Treasa."

And he didn't find that odd at all, visiting his ex-wife just after she'd given birth to another man's child. Amber would never understand her father. She'd be giving them a wide berth, but no, her father seemed to consider Sam a nephew of sorts. It was weird.

James sat on the bed and braced one leg on top of the other, clutching the knee nearest to him. "So how are you?"

"Fine. Busy," she replied, indicating her textbook as she slid her phone under her leg. Her mouth went dry and sour. She grabbed for her tea.

James nodded and they sat in silence for a while until she began to wonder what he wanted. He sucked in a breath, catching her attention. "I was thinking." And there it was. "This house is quite crowded now. Maybe you'd prefer to move in with me for a time."

Amber froze, her fingers tightening around the cup. Surely he wasn't being serious. Live with him? She couldn't live with him. Why was he suggesting that? He'd never suggested it before. "Um… I mean, I'm going back to school tonight."

"Of course, but this summer. You could stay with me and work in the office, get some experience in the real world before going off to college. Where've you applied? I tried asking your mother but, well, baby brain."

The smile he sent her made her insides shrivel. It was so full of hope as if he couldn't even imagine her saying no. And why would he? He had it all logically thought out. She would stay with him. She would work for him. It would be perfect. But everything inside her screamed no. She did not want to live with James and Pricilla and their new baby. She did not want to work with him. She didn't want to be a lawyer anyway. She hadn't even thought about her next step. She still had to the end of the month to apply for uni because of some agreement Preston had with the Universities. This was just too much. Moving out was way, way, way down on her list of things to worry about and she certainly hadn't thought about moving in with him!

Did her mom know about this? She couldn't, could she? But he must have mentioned it to her. No, her mother would never do that to her. This was all James. How did a man go from a tentative agreement to go to a hockey game next season to moving in together?

"No. I don't…" She rubbed her temple, trying to soothe away the beginnings of a headache. She didn't want to hurt him, he was just being her dad but she definitely didn't want to give up her home for him.

"You want to think about it. I understand."

No, he didn't. "I-I…"

"But you should make a decision soon and uni is important Amber. I hope you have made a decision there. You can't keep expecting us to make the decisions for you. You're eighteen now."

Her spine shot ramrod straight. Make decisions for her? Like when he just upped and left them in the middle of the night? When he got into a relationship with Pricilla and decided to have a child with her? When he decided the best way to tell his daughter was through a letter?

"And Pricilla would love to get to know you better. She's going to be your stepmother after all, you should —"

Wait, stepmother? "You're engaged now?" Because again, something he might have wanted to tell her. What the fuck was wrong with this man?

James stood and awkwardly slid his hands into his pockets, refusing to meet her gaze. "No. No, I mean not yet but eventually. We are having a child together Amber. It's only —"

"You don't have to marry to have a —" She sucked in a breath and blew it out, raising her hands in defence. Her stomach was squeezing itself into slippery knots and she could feel her lungs clogging up.

"Right, fine. I'll think about it," she said quickly. Anything to make him get out.

"Amber?" His eyes narrowed and she quickly sat up a little straighter. He needed to leave. She needed to make him think things were fine. She'd deal with everything later. Once he was gone and she could think straight.

"No, seriously. I'll think about. Just please go." She curled her fingers into her palm, pressing hard enough to dig her nails into her flesh and counted to ten, trying to stop the shaking in her limbs. "We'll talk about it later. I have work to do. If I want to get into a good uni, I need to do my work."

Her mouth was dry and she was babbling but that was the best she could do with her blood pounding in her ears and her thoughts flying a mile a minute.

James's wary expression melted into a smile. "Well, that's very mature. Thank you. I'll phone you later and we can discuss the details."

Amber nodded jerkily, teeth biting into her inside cheek in her struggle not to betray her shaking. She was terrified to blink, afraid the emotion welling up tight in her chest would spasm and tears would fall. She just needed him to leave. She froze as he ruffled her head and sauntered to the door, keeping the bright and brittle smile on her face as he turned once more. She knew he meant well. That was the heartbreaking thing. He did mean well but fuck, he was the worst.

He let himself out and she waited a few moments after the door clicked before breathing out a sobbing breath from her lungs, her body shuddering from the release. She gazed at the floor, struggling to control her breathing, to get a grasp on her emotions but the air in her room was too thin, the suffocating heat a brand against her forehead and cheeks. She needed to get out.

Her stomach lurched and she grasped it, swallowing back nausea. Scrambling to her feet, she turned to her bedroom window, pushing the sash frame up. Trembling, she climbed out onto the flat porch roof that circled the house. Standing unsteadily, she gripped the side of the wall for balance. The ground swam below her and she closed her eyes against the plunging sensation of dizziness.

Gathering her courage, she shuffled to the edge of the roof and crouched down before sitting herself down on the warm slate and swinging her legs over the side. She couldn't think about this. Any minute someone could look out the window and see her. She needed to just go. Shifting to the edge, she stretched down with her foot to find the railing. Glancing around, she twisted her body to clutch the roof with one arm while the other wrapped around the column.

She could do this. She was nearly there.

Lowering herself further, her foot felt blindly for the ground. Once found, she planted her foot firmly and guided herself onto the ground, releasing the column and stumbling back.

"Amber? Is there something wrong with the doors in your house?"

She jolted and began to immediately walk in the opposite direction from Jean. She couldn't deal with anyone right now. She just needed to think. She broke into a run down the drive just as a car turned in.

She jerked to a halt, slapping her hands down on the bonnet as it stopped inches from her body. She swallowed hard, pulling her hands back as she found herself looking into Kai's wide eyes. Shit. She glanced at Nicolai and stumbled back from the car.

"I'm sorry," she said, hurrying past them and out onto the street.

Fantastic, the first time she'd seen Kai all weekend and she was in the middle of a breakdown.

She gulped in a breath, her legs burning from the frantic pace. No, she wasn't breaking down. She was just putting some space between her and her moronic father. Honestly, move in with him? Why would she do that? She was going back to school and then after the summer uni, when was she supposed to live with him? And he was always going on business trips, was she supposed to house sit for him? And what about Priscilla? Did she know about this plan? Damn, she should have asked him. He couldn't possibly believe they could coexist in the same space without murder being committed, could he? And it would be worse for her, she'd be adding baby murder to her crime.

She sniffled and hunched her shoulders. The sun couldn't seem to penetrate the chill in her bones and she regretted not grabbing a jacket before she'd left the house. Now she was going to end up roaming around the town in her peach tank top and denim shorts. At least her Allstars were comfortable enough for a few hours of time killing. She couldn't go back while there was still a chance of him being there and she'd have to avoid her uncle Seth for a while too. No doubt he'd want to have a chat with his brother if he saw her and then it would go back to her Nana… ugh. Her family was such a mess. All she wanted to do this weekend was spend time with her mother, see her baby brother, chill with Shahero and Bryan and yet she'd spent it catering to a bunch of over interested neighbours.

What was so fascinating about visiting a newborn baby anyway? Not like there was a time limit on them seeing him either. She, Shahero and Bryan only had this weekend and then there was so much stuff to do before the summer came. She hadn't even really planned any more weekends home before the summer holidays and she'd be in Ireland for the spring break.

Why couldn't her father just think before he spoke? He just assumed that he knew exactly what should happen but he never even entertained the idea that he might be off base. Fucker.

"Ember, wait up!"

She nearly tripped over her feet and blinked. Was she already in town? She hadn't even realised she'd reached the bottom of the hill and was heading blindly toward Mainstreet. Glancing over her shoulder, Amber groaned. Why had Kai followed her?

"I'm sorry about your dad's car."

Kai stopped in front of her, sunglasses pushed up over his hair so the blue and navy spikes stuck out at all ends. There was a flush of pink on his nose and cheeks that spoke of too much sunshine and not enough sunscreen. Clearly, he had enjoyed the weekend away with his dad and Tala. Nice for some.

"The car's fine. What's wrong?"

She shook her head and turned away. She couldn't go into town. "Nothing, it's fine."

"You're shaking like a leaf and your face is red."

She flushed darker and shielded her eyes to glower up him hating his height. If she stepped closer she could hide in the shadow of his shoulders but that was too dangerous. Better to keep her distance. "It's nothing."

"Amber." The determined way he said he name told her he wouldn't let this go.

"I'm not talking about it here."

"Fine, the Friar's then."

"Yes, of course, why not have a conversation in the most public location in town? No."

She began to walk towards the seaside walkway but he only fell into step with her, the pedestrian path forcing them to walk close enough that the skin of his arms brushed hers. She slid a quick glance in his direction. Had she ever seen him wear a sleeveless t-shirt before? Maybe, but she'd not seen that grey one before, she was nearly certain of it. The sinew and muscles flexed and rippled as he walked and she felt like a skinny preteen beside him.

They walked in silence for half a mile, descending the steps to the pedestrian path that wound around the coast, the ocean salt flavouring the balmy sea breeze. The pedestrian traffic was light, just a handful of children on skateboards, a couple of rollerskating girls and adults tugged along the bubbling tarmac by their dogs. On a nearby bench, an elderly couple sat on a bench eating ice cream. The sun warmed the back of her shoulders even as it began to descend for the evening though there were still hours to go before night fell.

Suddenly Amber couldn't wait to get back to Preston. She should have grabbed her bags and just caught the bus back, heck she should have left when Bryan did. Her cousin had looked at the cluster of old women hustling up the driveway, told her he loved her and then grabbed his bags and checked out. At the time she'd laughingly called him a coward, now she realised that Bryan was the true genius in their family.

"Do you want to go to the beach?"

She glanced at the gleaming teal ocean as boats bobbed and weaved in the distance and below them on the other side of the wall, nearly naked children ran over the sand with buckets and kites.

Amber shook her head. "I never go to the beach until the summer holidays officially start. That way I don't have any lingering guilt about studying or feel any rush to leave."

Though the beach wasn't as much fun during the day when everyone and their family seemed to fill the expanse of sand. At night, though, the beach became an ethereal place filled with familiar faces as they made bonfires, listened to music and ate food. As the hours wore on and alcohol began to make an appearance, she'd grab her gear and trek back to the house, usually with Tyson in tow. They hadn't quite reached that level of rebellion yet but the very odd time, she'd linger with Ruin and Tala as they sipped their beers and she drank her coke and just watched the world float by. She missed those times. This summer might be the last time to do that. She rubbed her sternum to soothe the strange burn there.

"I've never been."

She looked at him sharply. "To the beach?"

"We camp and there's a beach nearby but we usually just walk past it."

Oh. She angled off the path to where the railing jutted out over the ocean and braced her arms over the cold metal as the green waves lapped at the wall below. "Did you enjoy your weekend?"

Kai came to stand beside her, resting his chin on his laced fingers. "Sure. We needed the break." His lips parted, then closed before he seemed to make a decision. "Dad takes our phones off us to let us refresh. That's why I…" He trailed off and shrugged.

Why he hadn't texted or phoned. "Yeah, your mum said. Dad wants me to move in with him." The words dropped from her lips, almost tumbling out in a rush to be heard.

He tilted his head to frown at her. "Why? You go to a boarding school."

"He means in the summer because I might feel out of place in my own home."

Kai snorted. "Right, and Pricilla will lovingly embrace you into her home."

Amber gaped at him, then nodded enthusiastically. He got it! Why didn't her dad? "Exactly! That's what I should have said. I was just so stunned. Why is he doing this? Does he need a livein babysitter? He doesn't really want me there. I've never been enough for him because if I were, he wouldn't be having another child." She winced and shove her hands through her hair, tugging lightly. "Okay, that's not fair. He hasn't been the best father but he…"

Kai remained silent, attention on her.

She sagged and leaned into him, and his arm came around her with an ease that made her chest hurt. A boat bobbed out in the distance near a buoy while a man and his child cast a fishing line into the water from a craggy stretch of rocks. Seagulls called harshly as they circled over head as a car rumbled to life somewhere above them.

"All my life, I've comforted myself with every disappointment by saying that my dad wasn't the dad type, that he hadn't planned to be a father, that he was too young. Silly things but they were comforts when he didn't show for a game or pick me up from practice and Seth did it instead. When he made selfish decisions and never had the guts to tell me, I just told myself, he's not dad material but he tries. So what, he's decided now to be a dad? What's to guarantee he won't fuck this child over too?" She shoved her hair out of her face as the sea breeze played with it.

"And he's putting all this pressure on me to have this whole uni thing sorted and I don't. I don't know what I'm doing next. I just want to get to the end of the year and pass everything. And then he had the gall to tell me that he's probably going to marry Priscilla at some point but that sounded like something's he's planning soon, so not only did he try to make me second guess my family, he did it while pointing out that he's making a new one of his own. And I can be part of that, if I want. But I can't help feeling like Cinder-fucking-rella. Because that's what I'll be? Priscilla will be pushing me to clean the house and look after the baby and contribute to the finances, anything to make me feel like I don't belong there because that's what she's been doing this entire time."

Her eyes burned and she rubbed at her face hating her stupid weakness. She knew what her dad was like. Why did it always hurt so much? She tried to resist when Kai tugged her closer but she wanted the comfort, wanted to be held by him, so she stepped into his embrace and released a shuddering sigh. She felt the bump and weight of his chin against her head and clenched her fingers into the back of his shirt feeling the warmth of his skin underneath.

She buried her nose in his chest and breathed him in. "Why am I never enough for him?"

"Ember." Kai's voice thickened and his grip tightened on her. "I don't know what to say."

She shook her head and closed her eyes. If she hadn't figured out an answer, she couldn't expect one from Kai who barely knew the man. "It's fine. I'm just going to chill here for a while until he gets the message and leaves. I can't tell mum about it, though, she'll get upset and that can't be good for her in this condition." She nuzzled closer, listening to his heartbeat under her cheek. "Why didn't he just leave it for a while instead of showing up two days after she just squeezed out a baby? Like what even is his sense of timing?"

Kai snorted and his shoulders shook. She was pressed so close she could hear the vibration of his muffled laughter. "What can I do?"

She thought about it for a moment, before stepping back and patting his arm. "Phone Tala for me?"

His expression tightened. "Sure. But I'm staying with you until he arrives."

Well of course… Comprehension dawned. "No," he looked at her sharply and she rushed ahead, "I mean, get Tala to come here." She watched a family approach them with the mother holding the camera snapping pictures while the father pointed out the lighthouse and a boat. Her eyes narrowed and she glanced up at Kai. "Have you ever heard of tourist season?"

"No. Why do I feel I should be nervous?"

"Oh, Kai, you've lived here for a few months and you've not experienced tourist season? You're gonna want to call Tala and tell him the season has begun." She glanced at her naked wrist. "At seventeen hundred, we're going to move out so he better bring the artillery. I'll round up the Baby Bensons."

She paused and grabbed his wrist, turning it so she could see read the time on his actual watch. "Bus comes at seven so we could get an hour and a half in."

"Dad's going back tonight," he said casually, pulling out his phone and concentrating on it. "He's got space for a few more. You, Shahero, Bryan."

A thrill shot through her and she tamped it down. It was a ride home, it hardly meant anything. But an hour in the car with Kai was always one of her favourite ways to spend time, even with Tala and Nicolai there. It was just nice to sit beside him without any distractions. "Well, Shahero's getting back to school with Hitoshi after their date and Bryan went back already because he's a smart asshole. But I won't say no to lift back."

He nodded and held his phone up to his ear to pass on the message to Tala, lifting a brow at Tala's response. She quickly tapped out a message to her available cousins and surreptitiously used Kai's distraction to study him. The angle of his jaw, the way his brown eyes lit up with amusement, the twitch of his lips and felt her heart flutter. She was so pathetic. But she wanted to do something fun and she wanted to do something to burn off this restless energy and anger. She didn't want to be angry with her father, he just didn't understand. Once she'd figured out her own feelings, she'd explain to him just why she wouldn't move in with him. Hopefully, she would also have a uni plan worked out by then too.

Kai put his phone away and folded his arms across his chest. "Ember, how illegal is this?"

She tucked her tongue in her cheek and began to lead him towards the park. "Technically not illegal if you're smart about it. Just make it look like an accident, okay? And if questioned, you thought it was one of us. Always stick to the plan which will be explained when the others show up."

---

Tourist season was chaos. Whatever Kai had imagined, it was nothing like what it actually turned out to be. And he was definitely certain they could be arrested for this. So far most people had been amused or mildly irritated by the surprise blast of water from the hedges but after one particular outraged man threatened to call the police, tourist season had become outright warfare. Lines had been drawn, teams were decided and now Kai hunched down in a cluster of shrubbery waiting for any sign of Kirby or Amber, even Daichi. He knew Ozuma was off somewhere to his left making enough noise to lure the trio to him for the trap set up but so far they'd be surprisingly quiet.

A twig snapped behind him and he spun levelling his water pistol — from the stash in Tyson's grandfather's dojo (he also apparently sharpened skates there too, Kai hadn't tried him out yet) — at Tala. He blew out a breath. "Sneaking up on me is not the best idea?"

Tala made a face, scratching his arm as he ducked under a low hanging bough and stepped into the small clearing. "I don't know where they are. It's like they've discovered a set of new hiding places since I was gone."

"They probably did." A dog barked loudly in the distance where a girl was throwing a ball for it to fetch. They'd retreated to the farthest corner of the park to give the park goers a break. "Is this something you did every summer?"

Tala propped himself against a large oak, plucked a stem from a branch and began to strip it. His water pistol lay across his chest via a black strap he'd slung over his shoulder. "Since we turned ten and could take our bikes to the park without supervision. It's an age-old custom handed down from previous generations harking back to probably the 80s."

"And no one's got arrested?" Kai asked, stretching up from his crouched position to look through the gap in the shrubbery. Every breath was filled with the sweetly green scent of conifers while remnants of curled up leaves from the previous winter crackled under his knee and the dry clay clung to his skin. His shirt had finally begun to dry though it retained a certain dampness in patches.

"A slap on the wrist and that's about it, but it's kind of a town ritual. The hotels warn their guests that it could happen and some get annoyed if nothing happens."

Kai studied Tala trying to work out if that was a joke. Tala spread his hands. "I told you, it's not just an us thing, it's the other kids here. The town embraced it, use it to bump up their tourism rather than try to throw half the teenagers in jail for playing with a water gun."

That made some sense, strange though it might be. There was no movement across the patch of grass now darkened by the shadows spreading as the sun set behind them. He eased to his feet and brushed down his board shorts. Wherever Amber and the baby Benson's were, they wouldn't show themselves until they were ready.

"So did you ask Amber?"

Kai tensed and lifted his water pistol from the ground, absently noting from the sloshing sound that it would need a refill soon. "No."

At Tala's surprised look, he braced himself. Tala was right, he had the time and the opportunity but all plans to ask her had fled when he'd seen that wild-eyed look as she'd slammed her hands on the bonnet of his dad's car. That decision had been further compounded when she'd all but cried into his shirt and told him about her dad and his new bright idea. Sometimes he wanted to hurt James, physically wring his neck. How was he so apathetic towards his daughter? "You didn't see her. James is breaking her heart and I didn't want to add to that by telling her I think another guy in her life is trying to use her."

And would she have even believed him in that state? Because the more Kai thought about it, the more it might sound like he was jealous. She couldn't think that. It would have an adverse affect on everything.

Tala stared at him for a long unnerving moment and then he coughed out a laugh, rubbing the back of his head.

Kai's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Nothing."

"No, that's very much a 'something' reaction from you. I shared a dorm with you for years, I know you." Something dangerous crawled up Kai's spine, a warning that he was treading on thin ice.

Tala stood slowly, slipping his hands into the pockets of his navy shorts as he squared his shoulders and met Kai's eyes. Just from that look, Kai knew he wouldn't like what Tala said next but he had to hear it.

"Okay. You're a fucking hypocrite."

Birds scattered from a nearby tree in a sudden rush, swooping up and along the darkening blue sky.

"Explain."

"You claim that James is breaking her heart, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Tala caught himself and backed up, hands raised. "Look, forget it. I said I wouldn't get involved."

Something tight and hot unfurled in Kai's chest and he pressed his fist against it. "It's different." They'd made a decision together. It was for the best. They were friends now.

"Is it?"

"James makes her feel like she's worthless," Kai hissed, glancing around the tent of thick shrubbery surrounding them. The last thing he needed was Amber to overhear this conversation or worse one of her cousins to misinterpret and run tattling to her. "We broke up for a reason."

"Right. You need to focus on your hockey career. The one you don't have yet."

Kai wished he could sear him with a look, just burn him to ashes. He didn't need Tala poking holes in his relationship with Amber. They were in a good place. They could talk more openly than they ever had while together. He didn't feel that betrayal whenever she took comfort in another or turned to them first. He accepted being her friend. "We're fine as we are."

"You're dating without the fun bits," Tala snapped. "You're leading her on. She can't move on while you're phoning her before bed and being her shoulder to cry on."

So what, he was supposed to just ignore her when she was having a meltdown? Kai glowered at his friend, then his simmering temper chilled as realisation dawned. "Jealous, Valkov?"

Tala snarled before huffing out a breath and dragging his hands over his face. "Hardly. I'm just saying, she's not enough for you so maybe you should back off and let her find someone else."

"Like Mystel?"

"Like anyone." Tala stepped close, eyes serious and dark in the dimming light. "Look, James is messing her around, we both know that. He wants her as a daughter but he doesn't want to put the effort in, so he gives her breadcrumbs, just enough to keep her affection. So think about it, when you fuck off to whatever hockey uni you go to, what will happen to her when she realises you don't care enough about her?"

"She'll understand," Kai gritted out. She would. She supported him. She wanted him to achieve his dreams."

"And what happens to you? You are so set on being a NHL player and I have no doubt you'll make it, but then what Kai? Do you just date in the off-season? Or will that be too hard when you have to break it off to train again? Do you just wait until you're retired to find someone? All the good ones will be married off by then. You'll just have the weird cat ladies or the divorced ones with a tonne of baggage and you won't have the experience to match them. Here's the thing Kai, hockey won't warm your bed at night and keep you company when your hair is turning white. So you need to just think about what you want."

Tala backed off as he heard a bush rustle to their left. He reset his water pistol and sighed. "I just don't want to see either of you hurt. You're my best friend but so is she."

"And what, is she supposed to just wait for me to find some time to be with her?" Kai demanded softly, aware of the approaching footsteps.

Tala shrugged looking tired. "Isn't that what you — Never mind, I think you just need to live in the moment a bit more." He hefted his gun and pursed his lips. "If you got hit by a bus tomorrow morning, what would you regret most?"

"Not getting to play pro."

Tala smiled sadly but it held a tinge of bitterness. "Well, there's your answer. Look, I'm gonna call it a night. Tell Nicolai I'll be over in an hour or so. If I'm not at your house by then, I'll be next-door seeing the baby. See you later."

Kai watched him walk off as Ozuma stepped into the clearing and raised a brow. "I take it the game's over?"

Kai nodded. "Yeah. Grab Amber and the others."

"They're on their way. They were over in that other copse creating traps but Daichi got stuck in one so I had to help them get him out."

The image almost made him smile but Tala's words circled in his head. He rubbed his chest to dislodge the knot sitting right beneath his sternum. Maybe Tala was right, maybe he needed to think some more about things.

---

A.N. Sorry isn't even enough. I have no excuses. I tried and tried to write this chapter but it just was never right, never good enough. And I can't publish a chapter I'm not happy with anymore. I'm so sorry. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and that there's still some readers out there. Let me know what you guys think. I'm really eager to hear your thoughts.

Also if you want to read a bit of not quite safe for work Amber/Kai stuff, check out my sporadically updated one shot series called the Phoenix and Ember Reunion.

I also owe a huge thank you to Sarah, Kacie, Sasha, Courtney, Hailey, Imani (you guys will individually know why), and those who messaged me and reviewed in between last updates. Thank you so much for your support. This chapter wouldn't be here without it. It's so appreciated, you guys have no idea.