The Foxes had just won a game against the Terrapins at home, 7-5. From where she was waiting for them to emerge out of the locker rooms Marion could still hear the crowd. She’d watched the game from the stands of course – she hadn’t missed a single game since arriving to Palmetto. She’d roared and cheered with the rest of the orange clad fans. Actually she’d even worn Neil’s team sweater in an additional show of support – she’d grabbed it from his dorm when he wasn’t looking. It was even almost her size with how tiny her brother was. It certainly fit her better than Minyard’s, who, despite his 5.0ft even had surprisingly broad shoulders. That didn’t keep Marion from regularly stealing it when neither him nor Neil were looking – she wasn’t the only red-head to ‘borrow’ it.
Marion had taken a habit in the previous week to snatch the Foxe’s team hoodies whenever possible. You could often see her around campus sporting one of the obnoxiously orange sweatshirts, different names written across her back. Some days it would be one of her roommates’ and other times on of the other boys. The fact that none of them were actually her size hardly mattered. They all made a good show of complaining about it too but no one was actually stopping her. Most of them were actually encouraging it, leaving the clothes in convenient places for her to find – Nicky kept ‘forgetting’ his on the couch in the girls’ room.
There was actually a running bet on whose she’d be wearing at each game. She made a point of choosing as randomly as possible because she didn’t want them to make easy money out of her own predictability. That day’s bet had been won by Matt.
After a few minutes the freshmen started trickling into the room, followed by the upperclassmen and the cousins; leaving only Neil in the locker room as usual.
“So, Monster. Taking your group to Eden’s to celebrate this week?” prompted Allison.
Marion’s blood boiled. She was half tempted to embed a knife in the wall next to Allison’s head in retaliation but finally opted for the more mature course of action.
“Don’t call him that.” She seethed “Andrew’s not a monster. I’ve heard Neil say that at least five times since I got here and you all keep ignoring him. How hard can it be to imprint this in your little heads?”
Everyone was now looking at her in bewilderment.
“Do you have any idea, what an actual monster is? Well, I do. And it’s not someone who would do literally anything to protect those he cares about. You might not know this but this included you assholes. And yet, here you are, calling him a monster every time you get the chance. Has it ever occurred to you that he has never hurt any of you? Scared the shit out of you? Sure. You keep bringing up the times he pulled knives on you. But he’s never actually stabbed you, has he?”
“He almost broke my arm last year. He would’ve if Neil hadn’t been there.” Allison piped up. Everyone else was silent. Some even had the decency to look embarrassed.
“That was over a year ago though. Your relationship has evolved since then. Besides he was defending Aaron at the time – it might have been an overreaction but it still doesn’t make him a monster. You can’t pretend you’re friends and say shit like that afterwards.”
Marion smirked at the guilty looks on the upperclassmen’s faces an exchanged a smile with Nicky who was grinning at her. The freshmen obviously didn’t give a shit about her rant but she didn’t give a shit about them so that was okay.
“I don’t need you to defend me.” Andrew deadpanned.
“Someone has to since you won’t do it yourself. Neil isn’t here so I’m stepping in. Consider this as me defending Neil’s interests if that makes you feel better.” Marion replied, nonplussed.
Andrew slightly raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue further. Conversations started again after a while and the rest of the evening went on without further complications.
No one ever referred to Andrew as ‘monster’ again after this. Not in Marion’s or Neil’s presence anyways. They counted it as a victory.