"I'm Andrew. We haven't met yet."

"For which I am grateful," Jean said. "The Foxes as a whole are an embarrassment to Class I Exy, but your very existence is unforgivable. A goalkeeper who doesn't care if he is scored on has no right to touch a racquet. You should have stayed on the sidelines like the publicity stunt you are."

"That's a bit out of line, don't you think?" Renee said.

The woman now on Riko's right gave a loud snort. "If someone like that replaced you in goal, you must be downright terrible. I can't wait to watch one of your matches. I think it will be entertaining. We would make a drinking game of it but we don't want to die of alcohol poisoning."

"Yeah, that'd be a shame," Dan said with heavy sarcasm.

"This is the first time our teams have met," Renee said, sounding completely unruffled by such rude words. "Do we have to start off so poorly?"

"Why not? You're poor at everything else you do," the woman said. "Is it honestly fun to be so terrible?"

"I imagine we have more fun than you do, yes," Renee said.

Neil could hear the smile in her voice. He didn't know how she could keep up such a nice tone. His fear was an icy ball in the pit of his stomach, but listening to the Ravens' derision was eating a hole through it. Keeping his mouth shut and staying out of the conversation was taking more willpower than he thought he had. The longer he sat there in silence the harder it became. Neil fleetingly wished he'd inherited his mother's patience instead of his father's temper.

"Fun is for children," Jean said, looking away from Andrew.

If he'd been going to say anything else, he forgot it when he got a good look at Renee. Andrew let go of Jean's hand while he was distracted, but it took Jean another moment to withdraw it. Riko barely moved, but Neil was so attuned to his presence he didn't miss it. Neither did Jean, judging by how fast he found his tongue again.

"At this level it is supposed to be about skill, and your team is sadly lacking. You have no right to play with us."

"Then you shouldn't have transferred districts," Matt said. "No one wants you here."

"You took something that does not belong to you," a Raven said. "You brought this year's humiliation on yourselves."
"We didn't take anything," Dan said. "Kevin wants to be here."

The Raven across from Renee laughed. "Don't tell me you really believe that. Kevin went to you because someone had to teach you what Exy is supposed to look like on a court. If he had stayed on as an assistant coach maybe he would learn to stomach your failures. Now that he's playing with you there's no way he will last the season. We know Kevin better than you ever will. We know how much your incompetence must grate on him."