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“Shut your fucking mouth!” Aaron snapped. He shoved back his chair and rounded on Breckenridge’s newest backliner, an astoundingly tall freshman whose height forced the whole Fox offense to use side passes the entire time he was on the court. At 6’9” Darwin Pesch was the tallest player in the south and second in the NCAA. He was apparently extremely amused that the seating arrangement for this year’s Christmas banquet put him next to three of the shortest players, and had spent the majority of the dinner cracking jokes at the expense of Neil and the twins. Neil was relieved to have Katelyn and Aaron as a buffer between him and the irritating giant, he was attempting to set a good example as vice captain, but the man outdid Nicky in volume and persistence. The jokes had tapered off when food arrived, so Neil and Andrew had mostly ignored Darwin while Aaron occasionally leaned past Katelyn to shoot him an annoyed glare. Any hope Neil had of fulfilling Wymack’s wish to get through “one damn banquet without a fight” vanished when the Breckenridge backliner leaned into Katelyn, dropped an arm across her shoulders, and asked a rather lewd question about the mechanics of sex with a “midget.”
Neil, Andrew, and Katelyn had all stood at Aaron’s outburst. Katelyn stood in front of Aaron, trying to calm him down, but Aaron stepped around her and stalked towards Darwin. Neil moved away from his chair, but hung back several feet. Andrew stopped beside Neil and waited, eyes flicking between his brother and Pesch. Neil looked behind them to see Nicky and Kevin halfway out of their seats, craning to see around the other men. Further down the table, Dan sent Neil a pleading look and dropped her head into her hands with a sigh when all he could do was shrug in return. The rest of the Foxes and the Tornados opposite them had turned to watch. He looked back in time to see Darwin turn to face Aaron, eye to eye with the furious twin despite still being seated, and seemingly unconcerned about the angry man in his space.
“You don’t talk to her like that,” Aaron growled, “and you don’t fucking touch her!” He jabbed a finger at the younger man’s chest in emphasis.
“Oh?" Darwin said. He lowered his voice and spoke in a sultry tone, “How should I speak to her then? Like this? What do you think darling?” He directed the last bit at Katelyn, who glared back at him.
“Shut. Up.” Aaron said. Katelyn had a hand on his elbow, which Neil figured was the only reason he hadn’t thrown a punch yet. That, or Aaron realized the chances of winning against someone with over a hundred pounds and nearly two feet on him weren’t good. Neil glanced around the room. Andrew hadn’t moved from his side, but Nicky and Dan were missing. The raised voices from the other side of the room meant they probably went to get the coaches.
“You need to learn how to take a joke,” Darwin’s mouth curled into a grin. “Though I’m not surprised you have a short fuse,” he laughed. Aaron lunged at him and the bigger man finally stood, knocking Aaron back before twisting his right hand in Aaron’s jacket, pushing him off balance and balling his left into a fist. Neil stepped towards the two men, hearing the Foxes move behind him as he saw several Breckenridge players also move to back up their teammate. Behind them he could see Wymack storming his way towards the table, trailed by several other coaches and officials, but Neil knew they would be too late.
Andrew started moving as soon as Pesch did, and passed Neil to stand near his brother, just a step out of reach.
“Don’t,” Andrew said, expression neutral but body tensed for a fight. Aaron was still spitting insults, but he was held too far off balance and didn’t have the reach to hit the Breckenridge backliner. Darwin turned and looked down at Andrew, expression briefly uncertain enough that Neil knew he’d heard stories about Palmetto’s violent goalkeeper. Stories he dismissed with raised brows and a scoff after a quick once-over.
“Or what? The hell are you gonna do, stand on a chair and punch me in the kneecaps?”
“Let him go, asshole,” Matt said. The rest of the older Foxes spread out behind Neil and Andrew while Renee pulled Katelyn back out of the way. Neil didn’t turn to check, but he doubted the freshman had come with them to defend Aaron. Darwin sent a glare over Neil’s head at Matt then shrugged.
“Fine. Here,” he said, and shoved Aaron into Neil so hard they were both bowled back into Matt. Neil yelped when Aaron smacked into him, head catching him on the jaw and elbow digging into his ribs.
“Shit! Andrew!” Kevin reached for him, but Andrew was already gone. He ducked under Darwin’s startled swing, stepped up on an abandoned chair, and clocked the backliner in the face before he could get his hands back up to defend himself. The big man crumpled into teammates who were too stunned to retaliate before Andrew hopped down from the chair and Wymack arrived. He pushed Andrew back towards the rest of the Foxes, scowling at them all as Abby returned with Nicky and Dan. Several coaches and officials prevented the Jackals from going after the Foxes while Breckenridge’s coach helped his team pull a dazed Darwin to his feet.
“One banquet!” Wymack hissed, “You idiots couldn’t get through one banquet without fighting? Christ, the ERC is going to chew us out again.”
“Sorry Coach,” Andrew said without a hint of sincerity. He checked his brother then faced Neil, catching his chin and turning Neil’s head to see the new bruise spreading across his jaw. “I should hit him again.”
“Oh for-“ Wymack started.
“Probably. He was a dick.” Aaron grumbled, sending the retreating Breckenridge team a black look as he wrapped an arm around Katelyn. Wymack rolled his eyes.
“Newsflash dumbass, people are dicks. Try not to pick fights with the ones twice your size. You usually won’t win.” He pinned Neil with an annoyed look and asked “What about you? You were supposed to be keeping these idiots out of trouble.” Neil thought that being expected to keep one twin out of the fight while having the other thrown at him was a bit unrealistic. He echoed Andrew’s flat expression and tone.
“Sorry Coach. I was busy. To be fair, Pesch started it.” He looked at Aaron for a second and amended “Well, sort of.”
“Yeah, and Minyard finished it!” one of the Tornadoes players crowed from across the table. “Never thought I’d see that giant taken down by a pipsqueak! Shoot, sorry,” she backpedaled when the Foxes glared at her. Wymack looked from his Foxes to the other teams and officials gathered on the court and sighed. He looked to Dan.
“Keep them in line, Abby and I will straighten out this mess. Try to stay out of trouble in the meantime, would you?”
“We’ll try,” Dan said as she started herding the team towards the side of the court furthest from the regrouped Jackals.
“Aww, Coach, we’re not leaving yet are we?” Nicky asked. “We didn’t even get to dance! I wore my good dancing shoes and everything!” Neil grabbed his arm and propelled him after their teammates before Wymack could respond. He and Andrew brought up the rear, all too aware of the dozens of eyes watching them go. Both teams found new places at the tables on opposite ends of the court, though Dan still took the precaution of placing Matt and Renee on the ends of their group, stringing the more volatile members of the team between them with the twins in the very center.
The Foxes finished the event and got loaded back on the bus without any more issues. Wymack and Abby had stopped to speak with the Jackals coach, and returned with the news that Darwin admitted to antagonizing the Foxes, and that the man had some nasty bruising and possibly a mild concussion, but the only lasting damage he sustained was to his ego. They had been on the road home for around two hours before Neil’s curiosity got the better of him. He nudged Andrew’s shoulder with his own to draw his attention from the window. When Andrew turned to look at him, Neil asked “Was the chair really necessary? He’s going to be a nightmare to play against in the spring.” Pesch seemed to favor using his size and strength to cut down angles and prevent strikers from advancing over injury inducing body checks, but Breckenridge wasn’t exactly known for sportsmanship and Neil hadn’t seen him play enough to guess whether he’d use their next match to try and get even. He wasn’t looking forward to finding out. Andrew squinted at a spot over Neil’s shoulder for a minute before answering.
“Yes. I couldn’t figure out how else to reach him without jumping.” He looked irritated about it. An image popped unbidden into Neil’s brain, a tiny Andrew jumping straight up in the air to strike a taller opponent, like a character in one of Nicky’s fighting games, and he couldn’t help the smile that came over his face. As if able to sense what Neil was thinking, Andrew glared at him and turned back toward the window. “122%, Josten.”
Palmetto faced Breckenridge at home in the second round of spring death matches. As the Foxes lined up to head on to the court, Nicky emerged from the storage closet he had been rummaging through with a small stepladder. He handed it to a confused Wymack before getting back in line.
“Explain, Hemmick,” Wymack sighed.
“For Andrew,” Nicky sent his cousin a mischievous grin. “You know, just in case.”