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I think the next day was the only time in my life I've ever wished for slush. I wanted there to be a storm, a frigging deluge of ice and rain. Anything that would keep everybody but Catherine away.

When I stepped out of school, though, it was sunny. It was fucking sunny in Vancouver in late February. That isn't supposed to happen. Any other day, I would've run to the court at the chance to play in that kind of weather. Today it just made the gnawing pit I'd been feeling in my gut all day sink lower.

As I walked, or more like plodded to the court, I went over Catherine's schedule for her school team's practices in my head. I'd done it a dozen times the night before, and I knew that it was one of her days off. Barring any act of God, she would show up today.

About halfway to the court, I noticed a few people on the street looking at me. It wasn't until I stopped at a traffic light that I realized I was shaking. There was an older human man waiting for the walk signal next to me, and I could see that he was preparing to ask if I was alright. I immediately turned my head away, pretending to be very interested in a window display. Using the reflection in the window, I watched the man keep eying me for a moment, and then shrug and look away.

I let out a breath I didn't know that I'd been holding. That was when I caught sight of myself in the reflection. It was difficult to make out most of the details, but I could tell that all of my feathers had fluffed up. The grey of my neck ruff was even sticking up past the collar of my coat.

The walk sign blinked on, and I turned back to the road and kept walking. After a moment's thought, I tugged the hood of the coat over my head and started counting out my breaths. I had to calm down. Had to gather myself. I couldn't let Garet know just how much he terrified me.

I was the last one to reach the court, aside from Catherine. It looked like we were going to have a full crew today. There were eight others there, including Garet. He was leading the rest of them in a few simple drills, getting everybody warmed up. I tried to act casual as I stepped onto the court, my hood still up over my head. A few of the others glanced over and waved or nodded to me, and I smiled back as best as I could.

I quickly put on my old basketball shoes, then hesitated with my hand on the fob of my coat's zipper. It was still cool enough out for me to play with it on, but it might get in the way...

"Hiro!"

I jumped, then glanced back to find Kim standing just behind me. The cheetah was holding a ball, glancing at me with a curious look. I shook my head and responded.

"What's up?"

"Wanted to know if you needed a practice partner."

"Sure," I said hurriedly, turning back away and undoing the coat. I was all too happy to have the opportunity to practice with somebody other than Garet.

"Are you alright?" I wasn't looking at her, but the concern was clear in her voice. "You seem flustered."

"I'm fine."

"Ralph and I noticed you leaving with Garet yesterday. He doesn't normally go home with you. Did anything happen?"

My brain froze up for a second as I went to hang my coat off of one of the fence's posts. I recovered quickly, though. Had to change the subject. "Ralph? Was he the echidna from yesterday?"

"Yeah. He's here again today. So what did Garet say to you?"

"Good that he's back. We can always do with more people that can play centre."

"I guess so."

"Do you want to start?"

I held out my hands for the ball. Kim gave me a look. Alright, I hadn't done the best job covering up what happened last night. Eventually she shrugged, though, and passed me the ball.

The two of us went through a few shooting drills, giving each other pointers. I was surprised again to find out how much I'd improved. Kim normally played shooting guard; she had been much better at actually scoring than me before the break. Now, though, I was just about matching her, shot for shot.

I was starting to feel a bit better for myself when Kim suddenly looked up, and sighed. To my questioning look, she just said, "The witch is here."

I stared at her in confusion for a second before it clicked. I whirled on my feet and saw Catherine's car pulling up alongside the court and slowing down.

I just stared at the car for a few long seconds, feeling that pit in my gut stretching wider. This wasn't going to go well. I already knew it. How in the hell was I supposed to convince her--

"Are you sure you're alright, Hiro?"

I blinked, then glanced back to Kim in surprise. She had her arms crossed this time, and her eyebrow was raised.

"You just seem off today."

I opened my mouth to respond, but something in the corner of my eye stopped me. I could just see Garet, across the court from me. He had stopped what he was doing and was glaring at me. Even from there, I could almost hear his steady breath and feel that hard grip on the collar of my coat.

I swallowed. "I'm fine. I need to go talk to Catherine though."

I turned away from Kim before she could respond, and headed over towards the edge of the court. I could feel Garet's eyes on me as I stepped up towards Catherine.

She was just stepping through the gap in the fence. Her face was neutral as she glanced at me. "What?"

I blanked for a moment, not quite sure how to begin. Then I cleared my throat and started talking. "We need to talk. Right now."

"I thought that that was what we were doing, or do you have another word for this?"

Great. She was in a difficult mood. That wasn't going to help. "I'm being serious."

She rolled her eyes, and muttered, "You're wasting my time. Spit it out."

Well. No other way to say it. "I need you to hold back today."

There were a few moments of silence as Catherine stared at me blankly. Behind me, the others kept practicing. I knew that Garet was still watching me; waiting.

"Excuse me?" she finally demanded.

"Just listen to me. You have to hold back today. If you don't--"

"You mean my personality? Or my playing? Because you aren't getting either."

"Both. You have to try to just--"

"This is fucking ridiculous."

"Listen to me! It's Garet."

"What about him?"

"He said that if you kept..."

"Being myself?"

"Whatever you want to call it. But he said..."

"What?" I kept stumbling for words, and Catherine kept glaring at me. Then, quite suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she actually laughed. "Oh, don't tell me he's trying to bully you."

"...what?"

"Did he threaten to shove you into a locker? Give you a swirly? Maybe steal your lunch money?" I probably would have been fine to just stare at her incredulously if she hadn't added, "Not that you'd have any to steal."

"He threatened to hurt us. Both of us. So if you wouldn't mind, tone down the whole, 'I'm better than you because my daddy makes a shit-tonne of money,' bullcrap and stop showing off all the time."

There was a long moment of silence after I finished talking. I kept my eyes locked on her, refusing to give this one up. Those red marks under her eyes were growing darker, and that big crest of feathers on top of her head was going up. The feathers around my neck that I'd so carefully calmed down earlier were puffing up, too.

At length, she muttered, "So let me get this straight. The two of us hold back just for today and he leaves us alone forever?"

I faltered at that for a moment, and it must have shown on my face, because she didn't wait for my response.

"Right then. Let's go."

She walked by me, brushing her shoulder roughly against mine as she went. I didn't follow at first. I had to catch my breath after the exchange. I was afraid. Very afraid.

When I turned around to face the court, everybody was getting ready to pick teams. I walked over with my head down and lined up with the others.

"I pick Kim."

I glanced up at that, stunned by both the voice and the choice. It wasn't until that moment that I noticed who the two captains were. Catherine and Garet. I could only stare as Kim walked over to stand with Catherine, who appeared to have gotten first choice. Catherine never chose to be one of the captains. Not to mention... well, at the risk of sounding conceited, without Garet and Catherine in the pool for choices, I was the obvious first pick.

"Well? Are you going to pick, or are we just going to stand here for the rest of the day?" Catherine didn't even look over at Garet as she spoke. I suddenly realized that I wasn't the only person who'd noticed how strange the situation was. All of others were looking at either Catherine or I, probably trying to figure out why she hadn't picked me.

It took Garet a moment to react after what Catherine said. The surprised look on his face darkened, and his eyes narrowed. "Hiro." He almost spat my name.

I walked over, knowing that everybody could see how puffy my feathers were. The rest of the team selection went mostly normal, but that feeling of tension in the air never faded. Something was going to happen. I didn't want to know what.

We all got into position. Catherine had gotten first pick for players, and so we got the ball first. Garet squared off in the centre with the big horse that was normally our other centre.

Garet passed him the ball. He passed it back.

Everything started at once. We came forward, slipping into our normal positions. Garet sent the ball over to me, and then headed towards the net. I brought the ball forward, moving quickly but cautiously. It had been a while since I'd played with full teams. It felt like the court was full of people.

One of their guards, a clumsy tiger that had been playing with us for a while, came forward. I sidestepped easily, slipping around behind him. My eyes scanned the rest of my teammates in that moment, and I sent the ball out to the side to a wolf who'd managed to slip away from her defender.

I took off around the other side of the box, just in case they needed me there. I kept track of everything happening on the court, trying to figure out where I would be most useful. The wolf I had passed to was squaring off with the horse. He was far too tall for her to get a shot by. As I watched, she feinted, then ducked around the other side of him to send a bounce pass over at Garet just in front of the net.

The next few seconds were hard to follow. Garet reached out for the ball. In the same moment, Catherine seemed to just appear in front of him in a flash of black and blue feathers. She was already turning as she intercepted the pass, and then she was off. Garet didn't even have a chance to try and block her before she was gone, and then she slipped past our other two players. I was way out of position to block her, but I still ran, trying to catch her.

It was over in a couple seconds. She reached the far end of the court, she shot, and the ball went through the hoop.

Before the ball had even hit the ground, she had turned away from the net. She let her cold eyes fall across all of us for a moment. Then, she actually tilted her head back a bit so that her beak was turned up at us, and walked back over to her team's side of the court.

There were a few seconds of silence. Everybody else's eyes were fixed on Catherine. I had quickly turned to look at Garet, trying to get a read on him. His hands were clenched into fists. I could almost see steam rising from his head.

I cleared my throat as sharply and loudly as I could, and walked over towards the ball. The other members of my team followed a moment later.

I grabbed the ball, then turned and called, "Garet." The crocodile finally looked away from Catherine and towards me. I passed him the ball as hard as I could, and then moved forward. He caught the pass, and reluctantly moved forward with the rest of us.

I knew that my only chance to stop Garet from doing anything would be to keep him constantly distracted, and also... well, and to stop him from squaring off with Catherine. If Catherine had decided that she was going to be an ass today, then I was probably the only person that would be able to effectively block her.

We reached the other end of the court, and both teams fanned out around the net. The wolf from our team had the ball again, and was holding back a bit, watching all of us. I kept letting my eyes wander over to Catherine, just in case she made another run and tried to steal. Oddly, though, she was barely moving. Much like me, she was keeping out of the way and watching everything.

It didn't make sense. If all she wanted to do was show off, then why didn't she go for the wolf? Catherine could easily reach her and steal the ball before the wolf even noticed. Why was she waiting--?

The wolf passed the ball over towards Garet again. Catherine tensed, and then sprang forward. Quite suddenly I understood, and an instant later I was tearing across the court, ducking around my confused defender.

Before I could reach them, Garet had caught the ball. He turned, and got ready to shoot. As he was going up onto his toes, Catherine just seemed to appear in front of him. She jumped hard, and reached for the ball as it left his hands.

Her fingers just managed to cup around the front of the ball, and she knocked it away from the net. Kim was the first person to actually grab it up, and the cheetah took off down the court with the ball, everybody else following her.

Well, almost everybody. As I was turning to follow the cheetah, I just managed to catch a couple small snippets from Garet and Catherine.

"What in the hell?"

"Are you even trying?"

I pointedly didn't look back at either of them. I didn't want either of them to think I was involved. Didn't want either of them to think that I was a pawn that could be used in this game. Of course, all three of us knew that I was just as much a part of it as either of them. I just didn't want to admit it.

At the other end of the court, Ralph, the echidna from yesterday, had managed to intercept Kim. The two of them squared off for a moment, Kim trying to dodge around him as the rest of the players, excepting myself, Garet, and Catherine, showed up.

By the time I reached the other side, our team had managed to steal back the ball. Everybody started coming back across the court, and somehow the ball wound up in my hands again. I turned towards the other team's net, and Catherine was in front of me.

I had one moment of stunned surprise at having her right there, in my face. Her hand came forward towards the ball, and I started moving. I turned, putting my back to her and shielding the ball with my body. I listened for her footsteps, constantly turning myself slightly to keep her from reaching around me. I moved slowly back, forcing her further closer to the net.

I risked a glance over my shoulder, and checked where everybody else on my team was. I turned on my heel, pushing my shoulder out to the side to keep Catherine from slipping by me. I bounced the ball over towards Ralph. The echidna caught the ball and moved forward.

Catherine remained by me, blocking me out from passing. I was fine with that; I wanted to be near her in case she tried anything. I eyed her, watching how she was reacting to everything. She seemed to be fine just letting the others play. I knew if the ball went to Garet, though, that would change.

The ball got passed around a bit, before the wolf on our team finally managed to catch the ball in the open. She dashed in, and threw an easy layup into the net.

Our team came back over to our side, and the horse on Catherine's team picked up the ball. They started coming forward.

As we started spreading out to meet them, Garet stepped over closer to me for a moment.

"Spending a lot of time with Catherine there."

I chose my response as carefully as I could. "I'm the only person on our team that can block her. It makes sense."

"Oh? I thought we agreed she would hold back." His voice was too level. I felt those feathers puffing up again.

"We didn't agree on anything, Garet."

"Or maybe you're just enjoying the limelight a bit too much."

"What?"

"You like being the only person that can match her? Showing off in front of everybody else?"

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing." There was a tense silence for a moment. The other team was coming forward. As he stepped away from me, he spoke over his shoulder. "Doesn't matter anyways. I can always force her to slow down a bit."

I stared at his retreating back. It took until the other team started running by for me to remember that we were still playing.

The next ten minutes were stressful for me. I just gave up on watching the rest of the game and instead focused on Catherine and Garet. I made sure that I was constantly the one blocking her so that I could get in her way whenever she started towards Garet. Whenever anybody passed me the ball, I made sure to get it to somebody else as soon as possible. I was playing terribly, and the result of all my work was basically just that Catherine was unable to do much on defence, which was making her more and more frustrated. At first, she just glared at me like she normally did whenever I stopped one of her plays. After the first few times, though, her glares became accompanied by small grunts. Eventually, she started letting out exasperated sighs every time I came close to her.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew that everybody else was noticing how I was playing. I was noticing the small glances that people were sending my way, and picking up the half-muttered comments some of them were making when they though I couldn't hear. I ignored them. I focused on Catherine and Garet, and kept telling myself that if I could keep this up, everything would be fine.

We were just heading back onto the attack. We reached the other team's side of the court, and Ralph had the ball. With me basically out of the picture, the echidna had sort of taken point on our team, setting up and making most of plays. He dodged around Kim with relative ease, and sent the ball down the middle towards Garet, just in front of the net.

I started moving, already figuring out where to place myself to get in Catherine's way. Catherine was moving, too, hoping to get by me for once. I wasn't too worried, though. By this point I'd settled into a bit of a rhythm for this, and it didn't take much to throw her off en--

I stepped full tilt into a six and a half foot wall of horse. I was caught completely off-guard, and stumbled back clutching at my stinging beak. The horse turned as I started falling, looking shocked.

"Oh shit, sorry."

I didn't even pay attention to his apology. I was trying to scrabble up to my feet, looking over towards Garet. He had caught the ball, and was turning towards the net. Catherine was rushing eagerly towards him, no doubt looking forward to another opportunity to show him up. It must have been that eagerness that kept her from noticing how slowly Garet was turning, or how he was deliberately taking a long time lifting the ball up and lining up his shot.

She came up behind him, and started sidestepping to slip around him. In response, Garet released the ball with one hand, and then drove his elbow back into her stomach. Hard.

Quite suddenly everything seemed to go quiet. Everybody on the court just stared as Catherine's momentum abruptly stopped and she stumbled back. Her back was turned to me, so I couldn't see her face. She started balling up, and I heard a ragged gasp for air as she clutched her stomach.

I finished scrabbling up to my feet, and had just taken a step forward when Garet moved. He turned sharply, and as he did that long, thick tail of his went out rigid. There was an audible smack as it hit Catherine in the face, sending her sprawling. Garet finished his turn, and looked down at Catherine casually. He raised an eyeridge, and then slowly crossed his arms.

"What's wrong? Having trouble standing up?"

Again, I couldn't see Catherine's face. All I could hear were her heavy breaths. She was still clutching at her stomach a bit on the ground. I don't think she had caught her breath enough to respond.

I tried to speak, but my throat was so dry that my voice came out as a croak that I could barely hear. I swallowed again, and then tried again. "Garet."

The crocodile turned his head to look over at me. He still had that forced casual look on his face, but I could feel the aggression boiling barely-concealed under the surface. He waited a very long moment for me to go on, and then said, "Yes? Do you have something to say?"

Fuck yes I had something I wanted to say. Over the time that I'd known him, I'd played out fake confrontations between us a hundred times in my head. Thought of all the things I could say to him, all the ways I could point out what an ass he was and how stupid his decisions were. I could hear every one of those arguments echoing in my head, wanting out. What did I do?

I stared at him like an idiot and didn't say a word.

After what felt like an eternity, Garet just nodded, and turned away from me to look at Catherine again. She had gotten a hand underneath her, and was breathing a bit easier. That blue crest of feathers was fully raised, and even from where I was I could see her shaking. She turned to look up at Garet.

The crocodile asked again, his voice terrifyingly soft. "I asked what was wrong."

The cockatoo kept staring at him for a few seconds that felt like a few hours. Then, very slowly, she stood up. Garet didn't back off; he just squared his shoulders as she stood up straight and faced him.

Then, she turned, and walked away from him very quickly. Her head was down so none of us could see her face. She walked by me, not even acknowledging I was there.

I turned to follow her, and opened my mouth to speak, but her whispered voice drew me up short.

"Fuck off, Hiro."

I just watched her walk away, through the opening in the chainlink fence, and then down the street. All the while, she kept her head low.

When I finally turned back around, I took a step back. Everybody was looking at me. Garet's face still held that deceptively calm, inquisitive look. The others were just... watching. I couldn't get a bead on any of them.

They were waiting for my reaction. It hit me very hard, very suddenly. Catherine had been right. She and Garet were two of the best players. I was the leader, though. All of the others were looking at me because they wanted to see what I would do. I was going to decide how this was going to play out.

I worked my beak for a bit, searching for breath. Then I looked at Garet again. He had narrowed his eyes now, and dropped the calm demeanour.

I turned away without a word. I headed over to the fence and grabbed my raincoat. I slung it over my shoulders, and then walked away as quickly as I could, never turning to look at any of the others.