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"Hey, that wasn’t my fault."
Her gray eyes flashed. "It couldn’t have been more your fault if you unscrewed the pipes!"
"That’s hurtful, ice princess."
"You might have everybody else on this campus wrapped around your finger—" Piper stopped herself and swallowed, sitting back in the chair. Suddenly, she wasn’t interested in addressing me anymore. "Coach Lawson, I think Adam can make up for this, but I never said—"
"I think it’s a wonderful idea," he boomed.
Both of us jerked up to stare at him. There was no way I heard him correctly.
I grinned. "You do?"
Piper’s voice dropped. "You do?"
"Yeah. I do." Coach ran a hand over his beard again, nodding to himself. "But I’m going to fix it up a bit. Russell, she’s not going to be following after you. You’re going to be following after her."
"I’m doing what?"
"Ms. Fontaine, I think you’re exactly what we need here. Reliable…what was the other—dependable. Yeah, dependable." Coach Lawson dropped the folder to the desk. "I’m thinking, Russell follows after you for a semester. He’s got spring training but when he’s not on the field, every RA event, every meeting, every one of those door—the goddamn door picture party things. I don’t know what they’re called. All of those. In exchange, we’ll—how much do you want? We’ll pay you."
"Pay me…?" Piper didn’t seem to know what to say.
"Coach, that’s not what I said."
"You know what, Russell? I don’t give a damn. And, Ms. Fontaine, I understand the reservations. Believe me, I do. But I want you to know you’ll get my personal phone number. If he steps a toe out of line, that’ll be it for him. He’s off the team."
Off the team.
None of my thoughts worked in order. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. You shut off one building’s water supply…or accidentally set fire on the field after a prank on Ryan goes wrong…or smash a hole in the parking garage doors…or the firecracker incident…
But none of that shit was my fault. And I was getting needlessly pointed at for it.
"Coach." I tried to laugh. "You can’t expect me to go to RA crap."
"You’re wrong, Russell. That’s exactly what I expect you to do."
He couldn’t be serious. I took a look around the room, trying to find my people, the ones on my side. Up top, Ryan, my team captain, rubbed his temples with his eyes closed, not even bothering to look at me. Kassie, Zariah, even King, the defensive end on the team, were silent. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke up to say what a bullshit decision this was. Some friends.
"Um…Coach Lawson…" Piper took a deep breath. "I don’t think—"
"What do you want, Ms. Fontaine?" Coach shifted to the side.
"What do I—?"
"He’s buying you out, Piper." I smiled at her with the most humorless smile known to man. "Because he’s waiting for a price and he’ll up it so I can’t counter. It’s a good strategy he’s got here."
Piper took a slow glance between the two of us and settled on me again. Those wide gray eyes of hers watched me. The uncomfortable lines eased away from her face. She bit her lip and turned back to my coach. "I want more money for the dorms."
Nobody said a word. You could’ve heard somebody sneezing from the hallway.
Piper swallowed, not backing down. "I want more money for the buildings and not just Roman Villa. I want athletes treated the same as all the other residents. It’s—it’s ridiculous…" She swallowed hard. "It’s ridiculous that athletes get to—get to skirt around the rules."
I threw her a thumbs-up. "Good luck with that."
"Alright, Ms. Fontaine." Coach nodded. "You have a deal."
No fucking way.
