"During class," Neil admitted.

She thunked Neil on the forehead. "Wrong answer. You've got a GPA to maintain."

"Dan's had a couple years to perfect this speech," Matt said over Dan's head. "If Court is your end goal, you're never going to need these classes. School is just a means to an end and an excuse to play Exy, so don't kill yourself over it. Here, I'll get my computer so we can log you into the school portal."

Neil stared at his schedule while Matt dug his laptop out of its bag and debated what to cut. It wasn't about which ones were time consuming, like Dan suggested, but ones he didn't need at all. Neil was only going to be at Palmetto State for a year, though he hadn't told his teammates that. Whatever he dropped, he dropped for good.

That made history and chemistry his prime choices, since he hated them. Neil wasn't a fan of his English or Speech classes, but those lessons might come in handy somehow when he had to run away. He needed his Spanish lessons for sure, and math was at least interesting.

Matt passed Neil his laptop when it booted, and Dan and Matt watched as Neil logged into his student profile. Matt reached across Dan to point out the appropriate links to follow.

"Better?" Dan asked when his modified schedule loaded. "Look here. You had a break between history and speech, right? Now you've got two open periods. You can squeeze your tutor hours in there if you want. You have one morning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you have all that time until practice for sleeping and homework. Works out perfectly, don't you think?"

Neil was more interested in the sleeping than the homework part. "Yes, thank you."

"Don't thank us, remember us," Dan said. "We're your teammates. We're here to help you with whatever you need, whether it's this or games or general stress. We've all got different experiences, but we're used to needing help. We're just not used to getting it. But you've got us now."

Neil didn't know how to respond. He wasn't sure what bothered him more: that he believed she meant it, or that he could never take her up on that offer regardless. The Foxes couldn't deal with his demons. The only one Neil quasi-trusted with the truth was Andrew, and that was only because he was desperate.

He was saved from answering when someone knocked at the door. Neil started to get up, but he had the computer in his lap still, so Matt beat him to his feet. Neil thought it might be one of the other athletes from their hall who'd known Seth for years, but Renee was waiting in the hallway. Matt stepped out of the way to let her in. Dan cursed quietly at Neil's side. Neil heard her tone but missed her word choice; he was distracted by Renee's new limp.

"I wish you wouldn't do this," Dan said.