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By mid-october, everybody was just about sick of Catherine. I'll be honest, she was starting to wear on my patience, too. She was probably the worst ball-hog I'd ever played with, and it was really darkening what was supposed to be a fun part of my day. I still ran to make it to the court after school, but not with quite as much urgency as I used to. Hell, I even started waiting for the walk signs at intersections.

Even the slight satisfaction I took from watching Garet's growing rage soon dried up. It didn't take long for him to start complaining to me, and demanding that I do something about her. He still seemed to think that I would be able to get through to her better than anybody else. I'd already told him that it wouldn't work, and that she didn't want to listen to me. It wasn't that I wasn't trying; for the first week she was playing with us, I talked to her every day before she left. I was always met with the same cool wall of dismissiveness and condescension.

Those talks as much as anything else were making me lose my patience with her. She had a way of talking that just made it clear that she thought I was... less than her. It was an attitude that I really didn't have the patience for at the time. Especially after long games of her being a ball hog and not thanking anybody else for their contributions, even a short discussion of her stonewalling me and frequently flaunting her wealth was enough to put me in a foul mood on my way home.

I remember the day it all changed pretty clearly. I can't remember the exact date; sometime in mid to late october. I do remember that it was already starting to get a bit chilly. Catherine wasn't there when I reached the court; she was normally one of the last to show up. Garet and three of our other regulars were standing around, passing the ball back and forth and chatting. Garet looked over when I showed up, and then broke off from the others to approach me.

I tried to pretend I hadn't seen him as I pulled my sweatshirt off over my head and tossed it to the side of the court. He reached me just as I crouched to change my shoes.

"Make any headway last night?"

"I haven't made any headway in the past month." I tried to keep the edge out of my voice as I stood back up. "What makes you think last night was any different?"

"Well try harder," he replied. He kept speaking as we moved over towards the other three. "I swear. It's either be on her team and barely touch the ball, or be on the other team and lose."

"Well get used to it or get better," I muttered. It had become my mantra over the past month, and it normally did a good job of shutting Garet up. I stepped in with the other three gathered, thinking that the conversation was over.

It seemed that Garet was ready for me this time, though. As one of the others threw the ball towards me, Garet abruptly stepped in around me. He caught me completely off-guard, so I didn't even try to sidestep. He didn't actually tackle me, but he was close to twice my size, so it didn't take much to send me stumbling away. I rounded on him as soon as I caught my balance, feeling my feathers beginning to prick up in anger.

He was facing me squarely, holding the ball casually in one hand. Before I could snap at him, he spoke. "You try getting better when you can barely get your hands on the ball."

With that, he passed the ball back to me, hard. I caught it, but it still pushed back until it thumped against my chest, forcing an undignified squawk from my beak. I glared at him, but he was already walking away. The other three were all looking at me, waiting for my reaction.

After a long moment, I sighed, and then tossed the ball back to them. I headed over to the edge of the court and started stretching. In the five minutes that followed, a plan started coming together in my mind. Two more of our regulars showed up, and Catherine pulled up not long after. Nobody turned to look directly at her, but I could feel everybody getting tense as she stepped onto the court.

The eight of us gathered in the center to decide on teams. I volunteered to be one of the captains, and everybody else backed down when Garet demanded that he be made the other captain.

As the two of us stepped back from the others to choose our teams, I leaned over to Garet, and muttered just loud enough for him to hear, "Let me pick Catherine."

I felt him tensing. "Are you joking? You want me to just hand you the game?"

"Just let me take her."

Something in the way I said it must have gotten through to him, because when he made his first choice, it wasn't Catherine. Everybody looked somewhat surprised, but that quieted down as I immediately picked her next. I could feel my pulse beginning to pick up with nerves, and I did my best to control my breaths. This might not go well.

The two teams separated to opposite sides of the court. A mouse on our team stepped into the middle, where Garet and our center, a big horse, were waiting. There was a moment's breath as the mouse held the ball, waiting.

We started. The ball was up in the air. Garet managed to grab it easily, and the other team rushed forward.

I kept back at first, watching both teams fan out. Garet sent the ball out to the right, to a cheetah that was far out and forward. She dashed in, slipping around the rest of my team.

I stepped in close with her. She tried to slide around me, working desperately to slip her body between the ball and me. I quickstepped in front of her, and she stumbled awkwardly to change her direction. As she struggled, I stepped forward and scooped the ball out away from her. I dashed forward, getting clear of the cheetah and casting around for my teammates.

My eyes instantly found Catherine. Even in the time since I'd stolen the ball, she'd managed to rush deep to the other side of the court, somehow keeping herself open. It was an easy pass, and guaranteed points.

Our eyes met from across the court, and she gave a twitch of a nod, holding her hands up to catch. I just caught the stunned look on her face as I turned and instead passed the ball to our center. The horse looked just as surprised as Catherine at having the ball. By the time he'd recovered from his surprise, he barely had time to bounce the ball once before Garet bowled forward and stole it from him.

I ran to intercept him, but I already knew he would score. As the other team congratulated him and our team regrouped, I turned to find Catherine's eyes fixed on me. It was a look I recognized. There was all that normal outrage she had whenever I stole the ball from her. That I was used to. There was something else to it, though. She looked... confused? It shook me for some reason, and I turned away. I told myself that it was just because I'd seen Catherine off-balance so few times. Something about it still made me feel off, though.

The game went forward. The entire time, I tried even harder than usual on defence, doing my best to intercept as many passes and block as many people as possible. Most of the time when I got the ball, Catherine was off somewhere, setting herself up perfectly for a pass. I knew that any of those times, if I'd passed to her, we would've scored.

I never did, though. Each time, I found somebody else to throw the ball to. If there was nobody else, I would make a rush on my own. I'll be honest; those times never went well. I'm far better on defence than I am on the attack. Even the times that I passed to other players, we rarely scored. Occasionally, the other members of my team would throw the ball over to Catherine. I was our main guard, though, so the opportunities for them to pass were few and far between. It was like we were playing one man down.

Predictably, Garet and his team walked all over us. At first, Garet and the others kept sending me small, questioning looks, not sure what I was doing. As the game continued, though, and my passing embargo against Catherine wore on, everybody started understanding.

After about an hour, people started getting tired and slowing down. The cheetah that I'd stolen the ball from early on in the game announced that she had to get home, and that wound up being our unspoken agreement that the game was over. We all disbanded, everybody going to collect their bags.

It was as I was bending over to change my shoes that I felt her stepping up behind me. I didn't make any comment at first; I just kept quiet and continued with what I was doing, ignoring her. Catherine didn't say anything either, and so our silent battle of wills went on.

Finally, after I'd carefully tied on my street shoes and shoved my basketball shoes in my backpack, I stood up, shouldering it. I started tying my sweatshirt around my waist, and finally turned sharply on my heel to face her.

"Did you need me for something?"

The look on her face didn't change. The normal hot, seething hatred she wore whenever I blocked her was slightly cooler than usual, tempered by even more of that confusion from earlier. Her beak parted slightly, and her voice, tight with frustration, jumped out. "What in the hell were you doing?"

"Exactly what you do every single time we play." It came out slightly hotter than I intended. Oh well. I'd long since learned that I couldn't win in a passive aggressive war with a girl. Best to be direct.

"What, throw the game?" she demanded.

"No. Guarantee that other people don't ever get to touch the ball."

She raised an eyebrow at that, the black feathers of her crest prickling upwards slightly. "So? If it means we win the game-"

"Yeah, at the cost of nobody else getting to actually play."

"But we could win the game."

"It's a game. People are okay with losing. They want to play."

"Well that's stupid. Why would you play to lose?"

I stared at her for a few seconds, a bit too stunned to speak. The girl was like a character from a kids' tv show. There was no way that she actually thought like that, was there? The oddest thing about the whole situation was that I was sure she was looking at me in the exact same way. The two of us were speaking completely different languages.

After what felt like a long time, I cleared my throat, and then spoke. "Why do you even come here?"

She eyed me evenly at that, taking her own time to measure me up. "The school basketball season doesn't start until winter. I need somebody to play with."

There was something about the way she said it that put me back on my heels. I almost wanted to just walk away at that moment. Still... it was the first time that I'd felt like I was almost even, or maybe even slightly in control of a conversation with her. I steeled myself, and pushed forward.

"Well. Here's how this is going to work, then. Show up early, like the rest of us. Join in with the passing drills, and while we're playing, actually pass the ball. If you don't, then I'll make sure the others stop passing to you, too."

She didn't react at first; she just kept her eyes trained on me. Normally, I lost these staring contests that she liked to hold. This time, though, I held her gaze, keeping my eyes cold and steady. She was reading me again, like she always liked to do. This time, though, it felt different. Normally she read you looking for flaws or hesitation. Normally it was a challenge. This time... I don't know.

It wasn't until her eyes flicked away from me to look around that I realized most of the others were still there, hanging around as an excuse to watch the two of us. They'd all heard my ultimatum. When I'd said it, I wasn't sure if it was an empty threat or not. Now, though, feeling all of them standing around and watching us, I knew they would do it. The realization made me feel strong. Very strong. If I'd asked all of them to just completely ignore her the next time she came, they would. So long as all of them were there, I held all the power between Catherine and me. The best part was that she knew it.

"Well, my ride's here." I was almost surprised when I heard her voice again. She was looking down at me again, the taller bird's crest still pricked up in aggression. When I didn't respond, she muttered, "I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded. "See you then."

I didn't move as she stepped around behind me. I stayed where I was, listening to her receding footsteps. They stopped, and I heard the door to a car slam shut. A few moments later, another car door opened and then shut, and a vehicle pulled away.

I finally let myself sigh, and my shoulders drooped. I hadn't realized that I was holding them rigid. I looked up, and saw that everybody else was relaxing too. All of them still had their eyes on me, though. Garet started walking towards me, and suddenly I felt my cheeks flush.

Before the crocodile could reach me, I shouldered my backpack, and turned away. I started walking, my pace quick. I kept my head down as I stepped through the chainlink fence surrounding the court, and then I started on my way home. The hot flush of embarrassment I'd felt at first drove me on for a few minutes, keeping my pace fast enough that any of the others that might have followed me would have had to have fallen away.

It was as I started slowing down to a normal pace that my embarrassment started giving way to something else. I thought back to how Catherine had looked when she told me about why she'd come to play with us. She just wanted to play. Just like the rest of us. Her motivations for wanting to play might have been a bit different, but... Well.

She hadn't looked lonely. No, not possibly. But she did look... no, not desperate either. What was it? I couldn't place my finger on it, but I knew deep in my guts that it wasn't something she was comfortable sharing. She didn't like showing it to me, and I'd used it. I'd turned it and my influence over the others against her. There was a sharp pang deep in my chest, and my steps faltered a bit. Maybe I'd...

"Hey."

I looked up sharply at the sound of Catherine's voice, all of my feathers pricking up in surprise. I glanced over to my left, to the road, and saw that expensive car that Catherine's wolf... butler? chauffeur? always drove. The back window was rolled down, and Catherine was looking out of it at me as the car rolled along slowly, pacing me.

I was too stunned to respond as she called over. "I can still dribble circles around you. Have fun walking home, ass."

The window rolled up, and the car rolled away, leaving me standing on the sidewalk with one or two onlookers staring at me in surprise.

I took a deep breath, and lowered my head. I started walking again, trying to coax my feathers into going back down so I didn't look like a puffball. She'd probably had her chauffeur circle the block for a good ten minutes. My fingers balled into fists, and I took a few deep breaths. I had to stop underestimating her.