Lineup Changes
#15 of Catherine and Hiro
Hiro faces the fallout of his deal with Garet, and the team heads into the finals.
It was a few days later that Kimmit pulled me aside after practice. He'd spoken privately with me once or twice since he'd made me captain, mostly just to get my impressions on how the team was doing. Whenever he split the team up to run different drills, he would get me to help run any drills we'd done before so he could focus on newer ones. The talks were always a bit intimidating; he never dropped that sharp, predatory look of his. I felt like he was sizing me up every time I was around him, but the feeling was much stronger when we were alone.
For all his gruff demeanour, though, I loved talking with him. Everything was always out on the table when we spoke. I didn't have to worry about the passive aggression I always caught from Catherine, or question his motives like whenever I spoke with Mr DeMille. If he didn't like what I was doing, he told me so.
So on that day, I didn't have to wonder for too long about what he wanted to discuss. As everybody else headed to the locker rooms and I approached, the cat said, "I hear you've found us a new centre."
I suffered one moment of surprise, and couldn't help glancing back over my shoulder to make sure Maddie had already left the gym. The rabbit was nowhere to be seen, so I turned back to him and replied. "Did Mr DeMille tell you?"
"He did. Said you introduced him, this... Gavin?"
"Garet."
"Right. He can play?"
"Very well."
The cat's eyes were sharp as he regarded me for a long moment, and as always I had to resist the urge to back away. "Tell me how he plays."
"Biggest guy around my age that I've ever met. He's smart, too; he's good at positioning himself for blocks and rebounds."
"Flaws?"
He probably noticed the momentary hesitation before I replied. "Cocky. He likes being the centre of attention." I stopped, and he kept waiting. Eventually, the cat raised an eyebrow, and I sighed. "He's a bruiser. Good at intimidating, not always the best at knowing when it's appropriate to intimidate."
Kimmit nodded, seeming satisfied with that. I was just starting to relax when he asked, "So he's better than Maddie?"
I had to force myself not to check again if the rabbit was anywhere nearby. My voice sounded strained even in my ears. "I suppose yes."
"You suppose yes? Well which is it? Is he better or not?"
"He's better." I tried to meet his gaze, but had to look away. "Much better. Catherine and I have a lot of experience playing with him."
"So let's follow this through to its conclusion, then." I still couldn't force myself to meet his gaze, and so he kept talking. "You're proposing adding a centre to the team who's better than Maddie and who's already comfortable playing with two of our team members. So you're proposing...? Look at me and say it."
I swallowed, and forced myself to look up and meet his gaze. His eyes were narrowed on mine, but they weren't aggressive; just demanding. I opened my beak.
"I'm suggesting we bring Garet on to replace Maddie as our starting centre."
Kimmit didn't respond at first. Those bright green eyes almost felt like they were glowing among that dull grey fur. I didn't look away this time, despite how much I wanted to.
"Alright," he said at last. "We'll take a look at him once he's transferred. I trust your judgement, Hiro."
"Thank you, coach."
"What are you going to tell Maddie?"
I blinked at that. "Excuse me?"
"You're friends with Maddie, aren't you? What do you plan on telling her about all this?"
I kept staring at him, unsure how to respond. "Well... I don't know."
Kimmit's gaze shifted from sharp and inquiring to... I don't know how to describe it. Critical, yes, but there was something more to it than that. When he spoke, his voice wasn't angry.
"Hiro, I chose to make you captain of this team because you aren't like Catherine. You know how to make decisions that will benefit the team as a whole. You've decided to bring on this Garet because he'll improve our team. I agree with that decision. That said, Maddie is also part of this team." He let that sentence hang in the air. "This was your call, so it's your responsibility to deal with the fallout. Understood?"
My beak felt very dry when I replied. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Don't disappoint me, Hiro."
"I won't, sir."
Garet joining the team went smoother than I expected. I don't know what the full extent of the deal he made with Mr DeMille was, but I know that he was getting tutoring help on the side after practices. Regardless, less than a week after I introduced Garet to Mr DeMille, the crocodile showed up at EVCI and started attending practices.
Garet had no trouble fitting in with the rest of the team. It was odd; I'd never really seen him with any group other than the people we played with after school. There, he was such an intimidating, dominating presence that I just assumed he always played the bully. It was what he'd always been in my eyes, and the eyes of everybody else at the court. Why would it be any different at the high school?
But when he joined the team, he just... gelled. Whereas Catherine was aloof and standoffish, and I was was friendly but distant, Garet knew how to tease and joke. His physical dominance and casual mood drew others to him. It wasn't just on the team, either; he quickly became well-known at school, and I rarely saw him in the halls without a group around him.
There were still a couple problems, though. Predictably, they were Maddie and Catherine.
I don't want to get into too much detail with Maddie. After Garet showed up and it became clear that he was going to be taking the starting centre position, I talked to her. She didn't say much at the time. To be fair, she didn't say much to me after that talk, period. Our conversations became limited to what was necessary during our classes and practices. There was never a big blowup or anything; she kept coming to practice, and she was never rude to me. She didn't need to be. I got the message.
I wasn't totally sure what to expect from Catherine. When I first thought of bringing Garet onto the team, it had filled me with a malevolent glee that I couldn't deny. Fine, I'd thought, I would do exactly what Catherine wanted, but I would make sure she wasn't happy about it. After a few days had passed, though, I started to regret the decision. I found myself remembering that day on the court when she and Garet had had their final confrontation, playing it over again and again in my head. I kept telling myself that I had grown since then, that I wouldn't let anything else like that happen again. Besides, Kimmit would be around; it wasn't like Garet could lash out.
For all that, I couldn't get over the idea that in some way I was using their history together to bully Catherine.
When I told her that Garet was the replacement I'd found, it was after practice one day. We were driving home, and she'd been bothering me about Maddie again. When I told her what I'd done, and that the plan was already in motion, she'd gone very, very quiet. She barely spoke to me for the next few days.
But when Garet had actually shown up... well. It was odd. I noticed her watching him from the corner of her eye that entire first practice. The two of them didn't really acknowledge each other beyond that. She kept watching him for a few days, and then we played our first game with him. With Garet dominating in the key, me covering the perimeter, and Catherine ripping through the opposing team's defence again and again, we easily took home a 40 point victory. During the ride home after the game, she told me I'd made a good decision.
And so the rest of the season had gone along. We had already been undefeated before Garet joined up with us, but with him on the team our dominance in the league was cemented. It was a bad game if we won by less than 30. The three of us kept pushing ourselves, though; we all knew that the real target was the provincial title this year. This was all just practice for that, so we tried tightening things up, improving. Catherine and Garet rarely exchanged words, beyond the occasional discussion of plays. There was an unspoken agreement between the two of them, it seemed. It was uneasy, but at least they could play together.
Otherwise... things stayed mostly the same. I still went over to Catherine's every weekend to practice, and I worked out with Garet in the evenings. He seemed genuinely happy with the arrangement, after he'd gotten over the initial surprise. He kept going to 'fetch water' during our workouts, but that was just something I had learned to not think too much about.
I probably should have been more excited about the games heading into the city tournament, but I wasn't. We were undefeated. Sure, some of the other teams had very good players on them, but none of them had three that were as good as Catherine, Garet and I. We were just playing against the same teams we'd beaten with no difficulty during the regular season. It was a given that our team would win.
Even having Mai, Ken, and my mom there to watch wasn't that big of a deal. They'd come out to one or two games during the regular season, on the rare occasions when I was playing a game at a school that was close to our house. Having them be there for the weekend was great, but not exactly significant.
Besides, both the games and the rest of my family watching paled in comparison to my real source of excitement: my dad was there.
No, I wasn't excited for the games. I was excited to go over and see him after the games, and see how impressed he was. I could tell that he was impressed, but he was always reserved in what he said. He was able to point out every flaw in my game, but I ate it up. He hadn't given me any feedback since I was 13, so I was happy with what I could get. He also made sure to point out that the games were hardly fair, and that he was more looking forward to seeing me face a challenge. It wasn't meant as a compliment; he genuinely thought the games weren't fair, and I didn't blame him. I'm sure it was boring watching us roll over team after team.
I sat with my family between our games, and we watched other teams playing their preliminary rounds. Garet switched back and forth between sitting with us and sitting with the rest of our team. I could feel my mom's tension the first time he came over, but she eased up over the course of the day. It felt... odd. I mean, to be fair, the closest thing I'd had to having a 'friend' meeting my parents over the past few years was when Catherine and her parents visited a year earlier. Garet kept mostly quiet, but he joined in on little bits of conversation. He seemed most comfortable whenever my dad and I started in on talking about basketball.
Even as my mom got more used to having Garet around and he got more comfortable talking, things were at their most comfortable when it was just my family. That day was the longest single chunk of time I'd spent with my brother and sister for as far back as I could remember. My mom and dad didn't talk much, but I didn't miss how much more relaxed she was, or the many wordless looks they exchanged.
Late into the afternoon, a game we were watching ended earlier than expected. Our team was scheduled for a game just after, and given that it was our last game of the day, we decided to start playing early. We were hoping to finish up a bit early so we could all head home. Our team was gathered together, and Kimmit was just about to speak when he stopped and glanced about.
"Has anybody seen DeMille?"
Everybody stopped at that. There were a few glances cast about at our assembled group, but I was too surprised to do that. No, Catherine wasn't there. Of course she wasn't. If she'd been there, I would've immediately known. Having her around had a way of making everything feel more tense. I felt remarkably relaxed and confident.
"Whatever." Garet's voice drew everybody's attention over to him. He already towered over the rest of the team, so occupying the centre of attention was easy for him. His arms were crossed, and he was standing with his back straight. "We can play one game without her. We've got more than enough talent on the team to win the rest of the tournament without her help."
A few of the others on the team nodded at this. Despite how much talent she added to the team, Catherine was nobody's favourite; the idea of winning a game without her was probably attractive for them. Not to mention, Garet was right; we could easily win, and even if we lost a single preliminary game, we were guaranteed at this point to advance to the elimination rounds. I felt more than saw Kimmit's eyes flick over to me, and I swallowed a lump in my throat.
"How long do we have until we have to start playing?" Everybody's eyes turned to me.
"A few minutes at least." This was Kimmit. His face was unreadable. "We could always delay the game until the scheduled start time."
I nodded, then cleared my throat. "Fine, I'll go look for her. If I can't find her, I'll come back and we can start."
There were a few groans. Garet eyed me. "Oh come on. Does it really matter?"
I met his gaze. I knew exactly what he was trying to say. He knew that the two of us were more than enough to carry the team. Hell, even without Garet and I, the rest of the team would stand a good chance of winning after all of Kimmit's training. For a long second, I wasn't quite sure how to respond. Then I clenched my beak and spoke again.
"Is there anybody on this team that thinks Catherine doesn't deserve a fair chance to play in this game? That thinks she hasn't earned it?" I let my gaze wander over each of my teammates. Most of them didn't meet my gaze. Garet was giving me one of those barely concealed, intimidating looks he was so fond of, but I didn't let it faze me. When I met Maddie's face, I had to set myself. She was shooting a glare at me; it was the most openly aggressive she'd been towards me since I'd told her about Garet.
Nobody responded to me, though, so I turned away. I moved quickly, stepping out the doors to the gym. We weren't at EVCI; it was some other high school further south in Vancouver. I wandered through the deserted halls, glancing in through the windows on the doors of dark classrooms.
It was as I was wandering that I realized I hadn't seen Catherine at all outside of games that day. Of course I hadn't noticed at the time; I'd been too busy with my family. As I cast back over the day, though, I couldn't remember seeing her in the stands, be it with the rest of the team or on her own. I knew that her parents were away on business for the weekend, so it wasn't like she was off talking to them anywhere. I couldn't think of where else she might have gone, though.
I was just considering how shortsighted my plan had been, and what would happen if she was in a women's washroom or changeroom, when I came around a corner and saw her just sitting there. She was on the floor, with her back against one of the lockers. A couple thick books were spread out around her on floor, and a quick glance at them told me they were textbooks. Catherine was leaning back into a locker, and was holding a particularly thick book up in front of her face. I was so surprised to find her that I just stood and stared for a long breath or two.
She noticed me before I thought to speak. She stiffened, and then lowered her book. She looked up at me, and I looked back down at her. There was a very long moment of silence.
"Yes?" she finally asked, her voice leading.
I blinked, then spoke quickly. "Our game got moved up. We need to get back."
She nodded, and began gathering up her books. I watched her, not moving to help. I was trying to figure out what was so weird about the situation. "Homework?"
She shot me an exasperated look over her shoulder. "No. I've got a math textbook on me for light reading."
I didn't respond to that, and she went back to gathering up her books. Soon the two of us were on our way back to the school's gymnasium, walking at a quick pace. As I mapped out the school in my head, I realized that she'd been about as far from the gym as she could've been. It made some sense, I supposed. She probably didn't want to be interrupted, and the gym was the only part of the school being used. The further she was from there, the less likely it was that somebody would barge in on her while she was doing her homework.
It was around then that I realized what had been weird about the whole situation. In the year and a half that I'd known Catherine by then, I don't think I'd ever seen her studying or doing homework before. I didn't speak up about this odd observation; without a doubt, Catherine would have made some sort of sarcastic comment, and she probably would have been right to. Still, it was odd for me to see her in just about any setting that didn't involve basketball. Of course, she was still going to school, so she _must_have been doing homework as well. But given the intensity of the workout and practice schedule the two of us followed...
I guess I didn't like the image in my head of Catherine fighting to stay awake after our practices, just like me, struggling to finish her homework.
We made it back to the gym, and Catherine dropped her books off on one of the seats in the stands. We headed down to the court and joined our team. The rest of them gave Catherine some half-hearted nods, but otherwise they didn't acknowledge her. If Catherine noticed how lacklustre the response was, or if she noticed the response at all, she didn't show it. Garet shot me another annoyed look, and I could feel Maddie's eyes on me. I just kept my gaze fixed on Coach Kimmit as he gave a short pep talk.
When he finished, I joined the rest of our starters out on the court. Garet stepped up to centrecourt, and prepared for the tipoff. I breathed in and out, calming my mind as the ref stepped up with the ball. Last game of the day.
The ref tossed the ball up.