"Fear for your life," Nicky said. "He's not a forgiving tutor, and he doesn't know how to be nice. Kevin can piss anyone off on an Exy court, up to and including a drugged Andrew. Well, anyone except Renee, but she's not human so she doesn't count."

Neil looked at Andrew again. "I thought his medicine made that impossible."

"Spring was a learning experience." Nicky propped his racquet against his shoulder and started for the door. "Wish you'd seen it. Andrew would've taken Kevin's head off if Kevin hadn't already thrown Andrew's racquet halfway across the court. I can't wait to see how you handle it."

"Fantastic," Neil said, grabbing the balls bucket and following them off the court.

Andrew sat up as the court door banged closed behind them and tossed his ball to Nicky. He'd brought the whiskey with him and left it on the ground by his feet. Now he scooped it up and twisted the lid off.

"About time," he said. "Nicky, it's so boring waiting on you."

"We're done now," Nicky said, hooking his helmet over the end of his racquet so he could reach for the whiskey. "About time you stop that, don't you think? Abby's going to beat me senseless if she realizes you've been drinking."

"Doesn't sound like my problem," Andrew said with a brilliant smile.

Nicky looked to Aaron for help, but Aaron went ahead of them to the locker room. Nicky mimed blowing his own brains out and went with him. Neil meant to go after them, but he'd made the mistake of looking at Kevin. Once he met Kevin's eyes, it was hard to look away again.

Kevin's expression was indecipherable. Whatever it was, it didn't look particularly happy. "This is going to be a very long season."

"I told you I wasn't ready."

"You also said you wouldn't play with me, but here you are."

Neil didn't answer that accusation. Kevin got right in his face and tangled his fingers through the netting on Neil's racquet. When he started to pull it away, Neil held on tighter, silently refusing to let go. Kevin probably could have wrenched it away if he tried a little harder, but he seemed content just to hold on.

"If you won't play with me, you'll play for me," Kevin said. "You're never going to get there on your own, so give your game to me."

"Where is 'there'?" Neil asked.

"If you can't figure that out there's no helping you," Kevin said.

Neil gazed back at him in silence, pretty sure 'there' didn't apply to someone like him. Kevin must have seen that in the unimpressed look on his face because he reached up and covered Neil's eyes with his free hand.

"Forget the stadium," Kevin said. "Forget the Foxes and your useless high school team and your family. See it the only way it really matters, where Exy is the only road to take. What do you see?"

Imagining life in such simplistic terms was so ridiculous Neil almost laughed. He kept the vicious twist of his mouth off his face through sheer willpower alone. Something still must have shown, because Kevin gave his racquet a hard tug.