The bus explodes into laughter and jeers and shouts as Maddie swats away the girls’ grabby hands. There’s something fun about being young and in love. But I’ve learned that when you’ve done it once and staked everything on it, you can’t quite replicate the feeling ever again. At least not for anyone else.

We reach the Albuquerque Memorial Union later in the evening than we would have liked. It’s nine p.m., and we’ve been on the road since noon, with the game T-minus eighteen hours away, and a boatload of starving lacrosse players ready to demolish the welcome buffet. We immediately lug our bags up to the only room they’ve prepared so far, form a mountain of twenty-plus duffels, and head down to the buffet. By the time we return to the room, we’ve stuffed ourselves full, and many of us have our hands full with additional plates of pizza.

‘Keys are right here!’ Coach Dillon announces, with a stack of cards in hand. ‘I have Brianna, Jordan, Lexi and Maddie in 409; I have Nyla, Paige, McKinley and Kassidy in 11; Cameron, Johanée, Bea, Allison …’

The coach makes her way through the roster, and then she brings the hammer down. She extends a key card my way, and with a knowing smile, says, ‘May, we were gonna put you in one of the rooms of fours, but we had a booking situation with Colt traveling with us.’ She turns to Colt. ‘The school books us exactly nine team rooms of four girls each, covers all thirty-six of us, and then I get my single room. That gives us ten rooms total. But considering we have one extra coach now, I think it may be best you both share. Will y’all be okay with that? I’ll be in Charlotte’s room.’

‘You’re sure?’ Colt asks, ever the gentleman when it counts. We exchange a nervous look. This definitely wasn’t in the cards when we decided on this fake relationship thing. In fact, May’s Plays number one is to keep our distance. This is very much not keeping our distance.

‘It’s either that or put Colt in a room with three college lacrosse girls getting ready for a noon game tomorrow,’ she says with a shrug. ‘That’s a sort of chaos none of us are prepared to deal with. I know you guys have that entire press thing going on, but … our alternatives aren’t great. It makes the most sense for the rest of the team. It was Jordan’s idea, for the record.’

Damn it, Jordan. I’ll have words with her after she plays tomorrow. I grit my teeth and paste a smile on my face as best as I can. ‘Sure. We’ll make it work.’