Mary Kate started jogging faster.

‘He was supposed to walk you around the lake, and he didn’t,’ I continued. ‘Now you’ll probably never walk around the lake with anyone.’

Her eyes narrowed. It was working.

‘I bet the freshmen in our dorm will walk around the lake before you do.’

Her jaw clenched.

I glanced at the team warming up on the field and saw the girl with the sprained arm take down two huge guys at once. Time to deal the final blow.

Gripping Mary Kate by the shoulders, I looked into her eyes and said, ‘I’m gonna walk around the lake before you do. And I think that shit is stupid.’

That was all she needed. Her shoulders tensed into tight knots of rage under my hands, and she tore off her sweatshirt. There she stood in her T-shirt, damn the cold and rain. She slammed her fist into her open palm. This was Mary Kate’s version of Hulking out.

‘It’s go time!’ she shouted.

‘Okay, so remember what you learned,’ Pat told her. ‘You are the quarterback. Your job is to throw the ball. Your worst enemies are the offensive linesmen. Their job is to tackle you before you can throw the ball. I mean, grab your flags.’ He glanced out onto the field where that giant Chicken Wings man was squatting in the grass, spitting blood. ‘No, probably tackle.’

‘Let them try!’ Mary Kate growled. ‘Let those offensive linesmen try to tackle me! I am a brick wall! I am a skyscraper!’

Okay, so the girl was quoting Demi Lovato songs, but whatever gets you pumped up. And she was definitely pumped up. When Football Michael ran over to join us, slung an arm around her shoulders and asked, ‘Hey, QB! You wanna run out there and toss me a few to warm up that killer arm of yours?’ she shook her head emphatically.

‘No need. I’m ready to kick butt!’

‘That’s the spirit!’ Football Michael gave her an enthusiastic high five, which had to have hurt her hand like hell, but my room-mate didn’t show it. She was too busy jogging in place, kicking her knees up and punching the air in front of her.

‘Oh look!’ Football Michael said. ‘Here comes the other team. Now they’re pretty tough. They’re first in the league right now. But I think we can take ’em.’

‘Hell, yeah, we can take ’em!’ Mary Kate said. ‘We’re gonna take ’em down! We’re gonna murder them! This is gonna be mass murder! This is gonna be like one of those serial-killer shows I’m too scared to watch by myself!’

‘We may need to work on her trash talk,’ Pat whispered to me.

‘Now show me the offensive linesmen,’ Mary Kate ordered Football Michael. ‘Show me those pathetic, sneering weaklings on that other team who think they can get me. As if!’