"Dan asked what they thought of you," Matt said before Neil could react. "Nicky thinks you need more time with us. Aaron says you have to be more aggressive. Kevin didn't say anything, which would normally be weird since Kevin's not known for mincing words, but I guess he's distracted. But Andrew bets you can outrun everyone on this team. Coach said you clocked a four-minute mile back in Arizona. That true? You're a little short to run so fast."

"I like running," Neil said.

"Fuck running," Seth said. "Learn to score. Word is you still can't score on Andrew."

"No," Neil admitted. "Not yet."

"When you do, you can talk to me," Seth said. "Until then, stay out of my way and try not to drag down my line too much."

"Welcome to the Foxhole Court," Matt added dryly as Seth grabbed his suitcase and stormed into the bedroom. "Hey, let's hit downtown for dinner tonight. We might as well enjoy ourselves before this blows up in our faces, and I don't want to be here when Andrew's between doses. Can you two handle each other while I check with the girls?"

"Probably," Neil said.

He and Seth managed to get along until Matt came back, but that was only because they ignored each other. Seth was busy moving in and Neil was happy to stay out of his way. When Seth was done with the bedroom and had moved on to the living room, Neil tidied up the mess he'd made earlier. Matt set up his computer at one of the desks and killed time online until it was time to rendezvous with the others.

"Downtown" referred to a long street of shops branching off the campus just a short ways from Fox Tower. Mostly the stores sold campus gear, but there were a couple bookstores and a half-dozen pubs. It was like a ghost town now with so few students around. Half of the places they passed had signs up that they'd reopen closer to fall. The rest stayed open in hopes of drawing in the summer school students and the athletes that would be filtering in over the next couple weeks.

They ended up at a place that was half-bar, half-pizza joint. The L-shaped corner booth was perfect for Neil, who could take an end spot on the bench and watch his teammates. He expected the same loud madness he'd seen at Wymack's house his first night in South Carolina, especially after seeing the tension Seth and Allison added to the team, but he was pleasantly surprised. Whatever their differences, the upperclassmen had had years to get used to them, and they carried a table-wide conversation for most of dinner. Even Seth and Allison made attempts to get along, though Neil attributed that civility to the beer.