Dan made a face at her but didn't deny it. "So Andrew's technically legally required to take his medication, right?"

Neil had a feeling he knew where this conversation was going, but he didn't believe it. "Yes. It was part of his plea bargain."

"He struck a bargain of his own with Coach," Dan said. "The only reason he signed with us is because Coach agreed to let him come off his drugs for game nights. Coach ran it by us first since we're the ones out there on the court with him, but no one else can know. Not even Betsy knows he does it. She's his doctor; she'd have to put an end to it."

"How is Andrew supposed to guard our goal when he's sick?" he asked. In Columbia Andrew softened his withdrawal with alcohol and cracker dust, but he couldn't do that here. Neil still remembered how violently Andrew shook as he puked on the roadside.

"He's not sick yet," Matt said. He put his hand up at eye level. "Andrew's withdrawal is a three-stage process. Imagine you're flying high all day. Then suddenly you stop drugging. First you crash." He smacked his hand down to waist height. "That's stage one. He doesn't get sick until stage two."

"Andrew adjusts his schedule on Fridays depending on what time our serve is," Dan said. "He misses his dose a half-hour before the game starts and always plays first half. Usually he can ride stage one until halftime. Then he takes his medicine again and spends the rest of the night on the bench."

Neil guessed that was how Andrew slept all the way to Columbia. He almost made it all the way to Sweetie's before getting violently ill. "What's stage three?"

"Give him his drugs or get stabbed in the face," Matt said dryly. "It's not fun. Luckily we've only ever seen him get that far once."

"He won't get that bad tonight," Dan said. "Besides, you'll be half the court away from him. We just thought you should have a heads-up, even if it's a couple months late. Are you going to be okay with this?"

"Is it going to jeopardize our match?" Neil asked.

"No more than anything else will," Matt said.

"Then I don't care," Neil said. "He can do what he wants."

It wasn't the complete truth, but Neil didn't know how to put his remaining reservations into words. Andrew said he hated this game, so why would he make it worse for himself by coming off his drugs for them? At least medicated he might find the matches entertaining. The only guess Neil had was that Andrew hated his medicine more than he hated Exy. That was interesting to consider, but Neil didn't have time to think about it tonight.