Wymack pushed the door open. Dan threw her team a tight-lipped smile over her shoulder before leading them into the stadium. Neil couldn't see the stands until they were almost to the inner court, but the noise that crashed over him seemed twice as loud as it'd ever been. The roar escalated to screams when the Foxes finally stepped into view. The Vixens waved their pom-poms and bounced around in ecstatic greeting. The school's performing band, the Orange Notes, blasted the school fight song as loud as they could. Somehow it still sounded muffled by the rest of the chaos.

Neil looked up into the sea of orange. He could spot the out-of-towners by the neutral "1 – 2" signs they carried in tribute to Riko and Kevin. The Raven fans were even easier to find. They'd come all in black and took up an entire reserved section directly opposite the Foxes' bench. It was like a black hole had swallowed up part of the stadium.

With all of the noise, Neil missed the announcement that signaled the Ravens' entrance, but he couldn't miss the sudden heavy pulse of drums. The tune struck him as oddly familiar, but it took him a second to place it. It was the music that heralded Riko's arrival at Kathy's show: Edgar Allan's fight song. It wasn't upbeat and confident like any other song Neil heard at games. This was a dark and heavy tune, an intimidating message of death and domination. The Ravens took their image seriously. Neil guessed they had a lot of intensive counseling in their futures.

The crowd's reaction was violent. Palmetto-clad students chanted derogatory phrases and screamed hateful boos. Edgar Allan's section roared a battle cry. Fans who had traveled here just to see a good show cheered for the Ravens as fiercely as they had the Foxes.

The teams were sent on warm-up laps, but Wymack ceded the inner court to the larger Raven team. The Foxes ran their laps on the court itself, following the court walls and going the opposite direction as their opponents. Neil saw the Ravens pass as an endless line of black and red in his peripheral vision but refused to look at them. He kept his eyes on the orange and white jersey in front of him.

They followed laps with drills, but Moriyama only sent half his team onto the court. The Raven defense continued running laps while the seven strikers and five dealers took shots on goal. Even with only roughly half their team on the court they outnumbered the Foxes by several bodies.

The referees kicked them off the court long before Neil was ready to go, leaving only Dan and Riko behind. Somehow the captains managed a civil handshake at half-court. The head referee flipped the coin and signaled Edgar Allan for starting serve. He stayed where he was as Dan and Riko left the court.