king up from the folder spread open

ll hammering from the twenty-minute drive spent bracing for the worst.

raced herself for, it wasn't the almost-sheepish look on his face. "We got move

conflict on

hat's it? That'

el said, gesturing at the folder like it explained everything, which, to be fair,

ia said, relief and irritation fighting for control of

time there was no mistaking the small, s

rive convinced this was about the photos convinced he'd found the same grainy image she had, convinced this was the conversation whe

d, actually looking at her now instead of

exactly the way she'd said it

ush. "Well. Since you're here early anyway, help me set the cones for

ormation across the wet grass, the sky still doing that pale gr

ay he squared each cone, like precision mattered even for something this

ng?" Mia said, before

iel said, not looking up

ing vaguely at the whole exhausting operation around them, the cones, the early mornings, the t

second, longer than th

usual, like he was reading it off a card instead of remembering it

happ

much." Daniel said, and there was something in the way he said didn't even ma

ack if I wanted to fight for it. Physical therapists

u fight

d I grew up with four brothers who thought competitive

aniel almost smiled, the corner of

t playing somewhere smaller, somewhere nobody cared if I was eighty percent instead of a hundred

u chos

x months, and then it didn't. Turns out I like this more than I ever liked playing. I like watc

it landed somewhere real in her chest. She'd assumed without ever really exam

uilt for themselves after watching the thing they loved get taken away onc

o..." Mia started, se

, deadpan, echoing her own wor

y strict." Mia sai

"I don't bend the rules because bending them once meant I'd probably bend them again. And again. Until there wasn't a rul

xhausting." Mi

mine. Nobody can take discipline awa

avel, the moment closing itself the way these moments always seeme

coach-face sliding back into place like a mask he

ster. "Schedule change. Extra fitness work today to compen

t him, and this time they both actually laughed, quiet and

felt since the anonymous account first sent its photo, honestly, like something in her chest had loosened just fr

om the edge of the pitch, arms crossed, expression

ning without thinking, that her phone had lit up twice more since she'd arrived with the

es. Both unrea