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It felt odd not rushing to get to the court after school that day.

At the beginning of that september, I'd started at East Vancouver Collegiate Institute: Catherine's high school. EVCI was a decent sized school closer to the edge of Vancouver. I'd heard of it, in the vague way that you learn the names of all the schools in your city. It was way too far away from my own neighbourhood in the heart of downtown Vancouver for me to know much more about it than its name, though.

It was too far for me to walk, and there weren't any routes to the school on the school bus system. Technically, I shouldn't have even been able to go to the school, because of the school zoning. Mr DeMille had said he'd managed to get them to make an exception for me based on a 'loophole.' There was little doubt in my mind that this loophole had been just the right size to fit a bribe through. Regardless, it wound up meaning that I got rides with Laurence to school, which also meant getting a ride with Catherine.

I felt uncomfortable on that first day. Of course I did. I wouldn't say that I'd really had friends back at José María Narváez High, but I'd at least known people. I'd been there for two years, and I'd been comfortable there. I really didn't relish going to a completely different school. It also felt very weird thinking that I was going to be at the same school as Catherine. Admittedly, she was a year behind me, so we weren't sharing any classes together. Still, the concept of running into her in the hall was strange.

The two of us were quiet during the entire ride to school. My eyes kept flicking over to her, expecting her to say something; anything, really. She kept quiet, though, and just ignored me. Eventually we pulled up in front of the school, and I glanced out the window at it. It didn't look too special or menacing; maybe a bit bigger and cleaner than JMN, and fewer students standing out front smoking.

I turned to ask Catherine something, but she already had the door open. She hopped out with her backpack, and then just walked away as though she didn't even realize I was in the car. I watched her go, then shook my head. I shouldn't have expected any different.

I bid goodbye to Laurence, and then got out, heading for the doors. As I made my way inside, I reflected on my summer. It had been very strange, just like everything lately. True to his word, Mr DeMille had arranged for my dad to go to the private clinic in Washington. The apartment felt empty without him around. He'd always been quiet, but his presence in the space had always been an anchor for me. I comforted myself by knowing that he was getting help, and distracted myself with basketball.

With the summer, Catherine and I had upped our training regiment. I trained and practiced with her during weekdays before getting rides with Laurence to the court to play with Garet and the others. Those games generally started and ended later during the summer, seeing as we didn't need to do homework or worry about school the next morning. Of course, this also meant that people's attendance was a bit more sporadic, so we had fewer chances to play with full teams.

Garet and I lengthened our workouts on the weekends. I still felt uncomfortable being there and knowing that he was dealing during our breaks. I tried to just ignore it, though. Despite the tension, we were getting closer, and becoming more and more able to talk during both the workout sessions and our games. He and I were the only two that never missed games, so we had more than enough time to talk.

On the other hand, things with Catherine had only grown more uncomfortable as the spring and summer had gone on. The first time we trained together again after the meeting between our parents, she was cool and standoffish. Things had stayed like that for a couple weeks, and then a new issue had made itself very apparent.

My mom and I had been right. I had grown. The issue that started making things awkward with Catherine was that I didn't stop growing. Over those five or so months, I'd grown four inches. On top of that, the extra meals with the DeMilles and the longer workout sessions had given my body the opportunity to put on some serious mass. Whereas I'd been a short twig of a shrike before, I was now average height for somebody my age, and only a bit thin for it. I'd taken to occasionally flexing in the mirror just to look at how much my muscles had developed, and I could only shake my head and stare every time.

Catherine didn't take well to me beginning to approach her in height. Her size had been one of her major advantages whenever we played against each other, and she didn't like seeing that advantage vanishing before her eyes. It didn't help that I wasn't slowing down. It seemed that after spending so long waiting, my body was going mad with its growth spurt.

That first day of school was a blur of navigating unfamiliar hallways and showing up moments late for the bell. I didn't see Catherine at all, and I was exhausted when the final bell rang. Catherine looked surprised when I asked Laurence to drop me off near the court as opposed to at home, but she made no comment.

It was later that week that I ran into Catherine at school for the first time. I'd finally managed to arrive at the overcrowded cafeteria in time to get a seat. I was just starting to get my lunch out of my bag when she came in. I heard the doors opening, and suddenly a rumble of voices talking all at once flooded into the room. Catherine stood at the head of it, her face cool and disinterested. At a glance, I could see that that the students following her were 'the cool crowd.' The clothes they wore were all slightly nicer than the average, and worn with more care.

Even from there, I could see that they were all fawning over Catherine. She took a seat at an empty table, and the others immediately started sitting around her, speaking to each other and directing questions over at the palm cockatoo. She mostly ignored them, occasionally lifting her head to make a comment or two. I watched it all, fascinated. Clearly they knew that Catherine was rich, and that surprised me. Sure, I didn't doubt that anybody that understood clothes and such would be able to tell that Catherine was wealthier than average. I didn't see how they could have figured out just how wealthy-

That was when the doors to the cafeteria opened again. I glanced over, and my beak fell open as I watched Laurence's tall form back into the room, pushing the door. The wolf turned back around as soon as he was in the large room, his posture perfectly straight and his face neutral. There was a covered platter balanced on his right hand, and as soon as his eyes picked out Catherine, he made his way over. A few of the other newer students were staring with me, but most of the students in the cafeteria just ignored it.

Once he reached Catherine, he lifted the cover off of the platter, and then set it in front of her. I couldn't see what was on the dish from there, but I could only assume that it was still piping hot, and far nicer than my own lunch of an apple and a peanut butter sandwich.

I kept watching for a few more moments, then shook my head and focused back on my meal. Well, that answered my question. How did all the students at the school know that Catherine was wealthy? She had made it as entirely clear and obvious as possible. She'd flaunted it. I didn't know why I'd expected anything different.

The rest of those first two weeks were much of the same. Outside of school, Catherine and I had settled back into our old routine. I was finding myself less tired now that I'd had the time to get used to working out that much. I was also a bit more relaxed now that I wasn't lying to my parents and my dad was getting some help. The lying to Garet still made me uncomfortable, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

Then, one day, during morning announcements, things changed. Everybody was surprised when the announcement came on that tryouts for varsity basketball were going to be starting that day after school. Apparently tryouts didn't normally begin until mid-November, seeing as the season itself didn't start until the new year.

I knew that I was expected to go to those tryouts, though, and so I prepared myself mentally all day. I was going to have to come up with an excuse for why I was missing the game with Garet and the others at the court, but I pushed that out of my head for the time.

There were quite a few people waiting in the gym when I showed up after school; maybe about fifty in all. Most of them looked to be in the tenth grade, but there were a few older students there, too. I quickly figured out who had been on the team the previous year. They were all grouped off to the side, looking comfortable amongst everybody else's nervousness.

I kept my head down as I went to the locker room to get changed, and then headed back out. I took up a spot not far from the door and waited with all the others. A bit of a murmur went through the gathered students when Catherine walked in; apparently she'd already made a reputation with the junior varsity team.

Everything fell quiet as the doors opened, and an old, greying housecat walked in. All eyes were turned towards him as he strode forward, stalking like a hunting cat half his age. Though weathered, his triangular ears flicked about sharply on top of his head. My guess would've put him in his late 50s, maybe early 60s. His long, bushy tail lashed behind him as he advanced towards the centre line.

He turned abruptly, and his eyes scanned over all of us. I felt myself unintentionally gulp as his vibrant green orbs passed over me. I'd known that Mr DeMille was hiring a new coach for the team; I'd known little else.

"Hello, everybody." His voice was raw and wheezy. "Some of you may have already heard, but I'll be replacing Mr Harrison as the basketball coach this year." I saw the group that I'd assumed were on the team last year exchange a few unsteady looks. Apparently the news hadn't been quite as widespread as this new coach had assumed. "My name is Chuck Kimmitt. You will refer to me as Coach Kimmitt, or just Coach, if that suits you better. To those of you that were on this team last year, don't expect things to go the same. Mr Harrison, for all his enthusiasm, was lacking in the experience necessary to properly coach and train a team. I intend to bring this team up to a level that is properly competitive. As such, our practices will begin the first week of October, three evenings per week. As we get closer to the actual playing season, this number will increase as I see fit, potentially including weekend practices."

There were a few incredulous looks passed between people, especially the team members from last year. I just nodded. I was used to playing that much. Hell, even when we moved up to the more aggressive schedule, I knew that Catherine and I would be doing more practicing and training in what little free time we had. All I had to do was come up with an explanation so Garet wouldn't expect anything.

"Now, we will begin with basic drills and practices this evening. Those that impress me will be asked back next week for the next round of tryouts. Is that understood?"

There were a few sullen nods. Apparently nobody had been expecting somebody who was quite so... military. I'll be honest; I wasn't looking forward to spending the next year or two learning from the curmudgeonly cat. There was something about him, though. He was old, certainly, but I could easily see the tight corded muscle under his thick fur. The way he moved kept throwing me off, too; slowly, but seeming ready to explode with movement in a heartbeat.

We started with some simple warmups; stretches, a few sit-ups, crunches, and pushups. All the while, I tried to ignore everybody around me and just calm my thoughts. I didn't know how good everybody else was. For all I knew, they could dribble circles around me. I had no doubt that Catherine would be able to outperform most of them, but I couldn't look at my own position with the same confidence.

We spent the evening just running drills. I immediately felt like an idiot when they started explaining them. Back at our court, we hadn't had pylons to set up for dribbling around, and any drills we ran we made up ourselves. Sure, I'd learned quite a few that were useful for just practicing with two or three people. I'd never actually done large group drills. Everybody else moved with an almost machine-like efficiency, forming into lines and cycling through simple exercises. I kept feeling awkward.

That said, things seemed to go well. Coach Kimmitt never felt the need to belt out angry instructions or advice for me, as he often did for the others. The few times I looked over at him after finishing a drill, he would just give a curt nod.

It was getting late into the evening when we got to doing shooting drills. It was quite simple. Coach Kimmitt had us line up off to the left and back from the key, and he stood off to the right with a cart filled with basketballs. He would pass a ball to each person as they ran up, and they then had to do a layup. Coach Kimmitt threw with impressive precision, always sending each ball perfectly to where its recipient was headed. I felt momentarily jealous, thinking about how long I'd been chasing down Catherine's awkward passes.

My first time through the cycle, I caught the ball with ease, and had no trouble scoring the layup. Layups had gotten much easier for me over the summer, as my body grew taller and the net got closer. I went and recovered my ball, and put it back in the cart before jogging around to join the line again. I took the time waiting for my next turn to catch my breath and gather myself. I wasn't paying any attention to how the others were doing; they didn't matter at the moment.

My second turn came up, and I ran forward, expecting the pass. Coach Kimmitt rose to his toes, and instead of throwing the ball directly towards me like he normally did, he tossed it high and far out to the side of me.

There was one breath where I was surprised, my eyes flicking over to the ball. Then, I sidestepped, took a few hard steps, and jumped for the ball. My arm stretched out, my fingers straining. The very tips just bumped against the ball, slowing its momentum and making it drop some. I landed in a crouch, and just managed to awkwardly grab the ball on its way down. More on reflex than anything else at that point, I turned back to the net, and finished the layup. I was out of position, so I won't pretend it was the prettiest layup, but the ball still managed to go through the hoop, so I didn't care.

As I jogged over to return the ball to the cart, Coach Kimmitt muttered, "Sorry, my bad."

I glanced at him, but I couldn't get a read on him. After seeing all of those consistent and perfect passes, I doubted he could've thrown quite that wide without trying. I pushed the distracting thought away, though, as I ran back to the line.

The rest of the evening flashed by. When we finally reached the end of the day, Coach Kimmitt gathered us in the middle of the gym. His speech was brief.

"I'll post lists on the bulletin board outside the gym tomorrow. Those that have made the cut will be asked back next week. You'll be divided into 5 fur teams, and compete in a round-robin of games. I'll decide on who makes the team based on performances in those games. I'll see you all then."

Everybody made their ways over to the locker rooms. I was surprised to see that most of the other guys were exhausted; many of them were still panting. My feathers were sweaty from the drills, but that was about it. A few of them were dodging glances at me, but I tried my best to ignore it. It was probably because of the faded and worn clothes that I was putting back on.

I was just stepping out the doors to the gym when Coach Kimmitt's rough voice drew me up short.

"Hiroyuki Matsuura, right?"

I glanced over my shoulder at him, and tried to hide my surprise. He was right behind me; I hadn't even heard him. "Yea- yes, coach."

The grey cat measured me up for a long moment. "James and Catherine told me that you were short."

"I was."

"Growth spurt?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, those bright green eyes betraying nothing. "Well then. I'll see you next week, Matsuura."

I blinked, surprised. That easy, then? I was through the first round? He was already walking away from me. I gave my head a shake, and finally walked away, already planning my lie to Garet for tomorrow.

The next time I stepped into the gym, the mood was different. I was one of the last ones to show up. I'd been dreading this evening all that week, ever since I'd read the lists posted outside of the gym.

It was an interesting, but odd setup. Thirty of us that had tried out were asked to come back the next week. We'd been broken into six teams of five, and been assigned positions to play. The instructions on the list were simple. The six teams would play a series of four roundrobin games, and the final team would be decided based off of how well everybody performed.

That in itself would be interesting. I knew that playing with people I'd barely even met before would be challenging. Playing against potential future teammates would be even stranger. Naturally, Catherine and I weren't on the same team, so I also had the prospect of a potential game against her team to look forward to.

What was making me most uncomfortable was looking at where my name was listed on my own team. I was listed as a shooting guard. I had just stared at that detail for a few moments when I'd first looked at the lists. Shooting guard? I'd always played point guard. Always. Sure, some might say that bumping from the 1 guard to the 2 guard wasn't that big of a deal, but I didn't like the idea.

I did my best to push that feeling away as I stepped into the gym. A few eyes turned to look at me, but I ignored their looks. I had more important things to worry about. I got changed as quickly as I could, and then went to join my team. The other four were already there, all looking as nervous and uncomfortable as I felt. I recognized our centre, a tall and bulky rabbit, from the group I'd assumed were on the team last year. She looked even more panicked than the others. I noticed that a few members of that group hadn't been asked back.

I let my gaze wander to the other teams. Catherine was standing slightly separate from her team. Lots of people were darting looks over at her; I was growing more certain that everybody knew her reputation for basketball as well as her wealth.

Coach Kimmitt arrived soon after, and we started our games. I didn't know anybody on the first team we faced, but I quickly realized that none of them were amazing. Some of them had some alright skills, but none of them stood out. After all my time practicing and training with Catherine and Garet, I was used to far more talented opponents.

Still, I won't pretend I was perfect, either. I felt off balance not taking point. I did my best to keep out to the side and let our point guard call the shots, but I always felt myself wanting to take over, to show him what to do. More than once I had to correct where I was stepping to keep from getting in others' way.

If my teammates noticed, though, they didn't seem to mind. It became clear that I was the strongest player on our team, followed by our rabbit center. The rabbit, Maddie, started off playing clumsily, and she managed to turn over the ball four times in our first twelve minute game. Once she'd overcome her initial nerves, though, she turned out to be a reliable rebounder, and quite decent at blocking, too. Most of our team's plays wound up with either Maddie or I having the ball, and the two of us anchored our defence.

We worked hard that evening. With only five players on each team, there were no breaks during games. We got five minutes to drink water and catch our breaths between each match, but Coach Kimmitt kept a close eye on the time. He demanded that we be in position and ready to play as soon as the five minutes were up, and all of us were too worried about not being picked for the final team to test him.

As such, we were all exhausted by the time the third game ended. It was our third win, though the second game had been quite close. As the five of us sat down to catch our breaths, Kimmitt called out the fourth and final rotation of games. I listened carefully, and let out a long, low sigh as I heard our opponents for the next and final match. Catherine's team. Of course Kimmitt would put us up against Catherine after we were already exhausted.

I glanced over to the rest of my team, and was surprised to find all of them staring over at Kimmitt, their faces a mixture of horror and disbelief. I cleared my throat, drawing the others' attention over to me. Well. I guess it was time to find out just how much everybody else knew about Catherine. "What's wrong?"

Maddie replied after a moment's hesitation. "I guess you weren't here last year. Catherine's unreal. You can't stop her on defence. She carried the entire JV team last year. We don't stand a chance against her."

"She can't be that good..." I feigned ignorance. I wanted to know exactly what they thought of her.

"Are you joking?" This was our power forward, a solid if somewhat slow moose. He was leaning forward, glancing back and forth at all four of us. "She scored over forty points during a game last year. Forty. The only reason Coach Harrison they didn't bump her up to the varsity team last year was because the school board wouldn't let him."

The others started talking as well, exchanging stories about Catherine. I was quiet, thinking. I'd been dreading having to eventually play against Catherine. It had been possible that the two of us wouldn't face each other, but the odds were against it. Besides, I got the feeling that Kimmitt was doing this intentionally, just to test the two of us.

I took a deep breath, and then started speaking. The others fell silent and looked to me. "Alright. Catherine's going to force them to only use isolation plays focusing on her. You guys pair off against them like normal, and I'll take Catherine. I probably won't be able to stop all of her plays, but she's weak on passing, so anytime I manage to stop her we've got a good chance at a steal. Maddie, I'm going to be distracted, so you take over all of the offensive planning. I'll help out where I can, but don't expect much from me off of the defence." I paused, letting all of them digest what I'd just said. They were all staring at me, stunned that I was so confident about facing Catherine. I let my eyes wander over them, and noticed Kimmitt out of the corner of my eye. The cat was watching me, his tail lashing slowly behind him. I waited another breath before saying, "Sound good?"

They nodded. We spent the little remaining time in our break to grab some water, and then we gathered at the court we would be using. We took up our positions for the tipoff, and waited for Coach Kimmitt to come over. I was standing slightly back from Maddie, who was waiting at the centre line. Normally, I would've been preparing to pair off against the shooting guard on the other team. Instead, my eyes were locked over on Catherine. She was crouched off to the side, ready for the game to start. She was looking back at me, her eyes hard and her beak clenched tight. I kept my gaze steady, but I knew that both of us were uncertain. Sure, we'd played against each other quite a lot. This would be the first time in almost half a year that the two of us had played against each other with teams to back us up, though. I was nervous to see how that would change things.

Kimmitt started the other two games first, and then came over to our court, dribbling the ball with casual grace. Finally, he stepped up between the two centres, and held the ball out. Catherine and I finally looked away from each other to watch the ball, waiting, waiting...

It went up.

Maddie jumped, her powerful legs carrying faster than the other team's centre. She scooped the ball out of the air, and back to our point guard. Our team moved forward, and Catherine's moved back. We were slower than we'd been in previous games, but what we lacked in energy we made up for in practice. We'd had the time to iron out the kinks in playing with each other, and now we had a better idea of how each of us played.

The possession went quickly, with the ball getting back over to Maddie. The rabbit had little trouble scoring, and we returned to our end of the court. I felt the others' eyes on me, waiting to see what I would do. I pushed them out of my head, and watched Catherine.

Her team came forward, and I moved to pair off with her. I had taken maybe three steps before her point guard passed her the ball. She turned, already dribbling, and I met her.

It was just like it always was. We moved, so used to each other that we didn't even have to think. Whenever she stepped, I was already moving to be in her way. Whenever I made a grab at the ball, she was already turning to shelter it. For a few long seconds, the two of us just stepped and feinted around each other, our squeaking footsteps and the pounding of the ball punctuating our odd, aggressive dance.

It ended when she managed to get one step ahead of me, and just pressed by me to make a shot. I winced as I heard the ball swish through the hoop's netting behind me, and gave my head a shake. I should've been able to stop that. If I hadn't been so tired...

Catherine flashed me a look; not quite victorious, but certainly gloating. That tall crest of feathers was fully raised, a sign I'd long since learned meant that she was pleased with herself. She turned before I could respond, and retreated back to her end of the court.

I sighed, and turned to apologize to my teammates. They were all staring at me, their eyes wide. A few of Catherine's teammates were staring, too; they hadn't even remembered to go back to their end of the court yet. I was frozen for a breath, caught by their stares. It only took a second for me to understand. None of them were used to anybody being able to measure up to Catherine. They'd expected her to run over me, like she did with everybody else.

In that second, I knew what my job on my team would have to be.

I cleared my throat, then snapped at the few members of Catherine's team still standing there. "Get back to your end. We're still playing." I turned to my teammates without waiting for the others to obey. "Don't just stare. You guys need to be alert and ready in case she tries to pass. Got it?"

They nodded, though they all still looked a bit stunned. I turned away, and prepared to go back onto the offence. I tried to stand a bit straighter, too. It was just like back at the old outdoor court with Garet and the others. They were following me, now. They knew that even if I couldn't match Catherine, I could at least slow her down. That was enough to make them feel a bit less hopeless.

We pressed hard for the rest of the game. I did my best to guard against Catherine, but time and time again I found her slipping by. It was only the rare exception to the rule when I managed to get the ball away from her, or force her to try a clumsy pass out to one of her teammates. I spent most of our possessions just hanging back, trying to catch my breath and not show my team how exhausted I was. My muscles ached more and more as the minutes crawled by. The pain turned into a steady burn as I pushed myself to keep up with Catherine. She could tell I was struggling; the cool look on her face was tempered by a slight hint of a grin.

I was relieved when Coach Kimmitt finally blew the whistle to end the games. All of the play stopped at once, and faces turned to look at the housecat as his raw voice echoed through the gym.

"I'll post a list of those that have made the team outside the gym tomorrow. Practices will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after class starting on October 1st. That's all."

With that, he glanced down at his clipboard, and seemed to lose all interest in us. Everybody stood around, stunned by how quickly he'd dismissed us. After a few moments, though, people started trickling over to the locker rooms, and the spell was broken.

I was bent over, my hands on my legs and my chest heaving. A few of my teammates came over and made half-hearted comments about how nice it had been to play with me, and I just nodded to them in response. I needed to catch my breath before I could actually think about answering any of them.

Once our respective teammates had headed over to the lockerrooms, Catherine glanced over at me. I tried to just ignore her as I caught my breath.

"Not your best game." To her credit, her voice didn't sound smug; it was cool and matter-of-fact as usual.

"Not used to playing that hard for that long." I finally stood up straight, and wiped sweat out of my headfeathers. "Just practicing and running drills is one thing. Actually playing for 48 minutes straight without a break, though? I don't even know what the score was."

"Oh, you lost." Catherine's voice was matter-of-fact. I didn't have to wonder whether she was lying or not. If her team had lost, Catherine would've been furious. "As for playing for so long, it wasn't that hard for me." I intended to roll my eyes, but stopped as she added, "Of course, I was holding back for most of it."

"What?"

"I knew I didn't have to give it my all to beat the other teams. There wasn't really anybody worth going all out against. I saved my energy in case I had a game against you."

My beak dropped open at that. Before I could respond, she had turned away, and started walking towards the locker rooms. She glanced over her shoulder to call back.

"I'll meet you at the car.