Chapter 4
Orla did not very much like being speechless. She did not do it often.
When she did, the circumstances were usually good enough to distract her from it. Like a good song or movie, or an interesting thought, or a girl or guy that was particularly good with their hands or mouth.
Being speechless in front of a woman she had been idolizing for years was a perfect example of when Orla did not like being speechless.
She had not spent months learning how to make candy rosebuds with fizzy filling like Persephone made once upon a time (when things were simple, and Persephone was alive, and Blue wasn’t leaving Henrietta, and Orla didn’t know what West Virginia was like and it didn’t seem a little better than home, and she didn’t know why Blue wanted to leave so much), and buy adorable miniature books and scry for months to fill up 426 pages of personalized advice to be speechless in front of Dan Wilds.
She had no time for it. It wasn’t supposed to happen. It was wrong. Yet, here she was, in the kitchen, after being rendered speechless.
She got an impression that Gansey would come in soon for a soda. Orla did not particularly want to watch a prissy boy drink coke from a glass, she most certainly did not want to do that after being embarrassed in front of her celebrity crush of four years.
Orla tried to figure out a way to exit the room without passing his royal highness in the hallway, but the closer he got, the harder it was. It was like waiting for the last bit of molasses to slide it’s way out of the container without helping it with a spoon. You knew it would happen, but it was agony to wait. Orla didn’t know why she was still waiting. She sighed and stood up to leave when, of course, the royal prick walked in. Orla did not know why she did his to herself.
“Hello Orla,” Gansey said, and went to get a coke from the fridge. Orla waited for him to get the dreaded glass. He didn’t. Oh thank god. He instead popped open the tab and took a swig right from the can. And damn, if she didn’t want to punch his pretty little face in for making that look dignified too. Gansey had a way of conforming to every environment and doing it a little better than herself that made her want to shove her foot in his face.
He didn’t do anything besides drink his soda, but Orla just knew he would start berating her any moment. She braced herself. He finished his soda and began to walk out of the kitchen.
“That’s it?” she said right before he left.
“What?” He asked.
“No, ‘some mess you made up there Orla’? No, ‘oh Orla you’re seeming awfully quiet today’? I know you think I’m a blinking idiot so just tell me and stop acting all Richard Campbell Gansey the Third at me, it’s rude and I won’t have it,”
There was a pause. Then, “has anyone ever told you that you're a lot like Blue?”
As a matter of fact, they had not. Most people said that Blue was a lot like her, the way Gansey worded it only made her angrier, as is she hadn’t been being herself first.
“Nevermind Gansey, this was dumb,” She tried to leave, but Gansey held an arm out to stop her.
“I know how you feel, or, well I think I know how you feel. I’m trying to be emphatic,”
“It ain’t working, you’ve never been speechless a day in your life,” Orla sidestepped the arm and he didn’t try to stop her again. She didn’t leave though.
“How would you know?” It wasn’t a challenge, but a genuine question.
Her answer was immediate, practiced “I’m a psychic,”
“That’s not how it works. I’ve spent some time among psychics you know, now and before arriving Henrietta as well, and if I know one thing, I know that’s not how it works,”
“See, no way you have ever been speechless in your life, not with the wit and the vocabulary and the rich-boy press practice,” Another thought struck her “And how do you know that’s not how my kind of psychic works, if you know so much about psychics, then you know that there are different types, mine might make me super-mind-sensitive,”
Gansey opened his mouth to answer. Orla braced herself for the rich-boy knockdown. It didn’t happen. Instead, Gansey closed his mouth and thought for a second. Then he shrugged, nodded, and walked out of the kitchen.
Orla had no idea what just happened. Then it occurred to her, had she just rendered him speechless? Orla thought on it for a second.
She burst out laughing, it wasn’t funny, and even if it had been, her timing had been off, but the ridiculousness of it all sent her into hysterics.. She was still laughing when Danielle fucking Wilds walked in with bed head, cute pajamas, and a sleepy look on her face. Shit. Orla felt the world go still and silent for a moment, then knew exactly what was going to happen. Dan was going to ask for a glass of water.
She opened her mouth to ask and Orla said “I’ll do you one better, how do you feel about some warm milk? Or hot cocoa?”
Dan nodded sleepily and Orla wondered if she knew what was going on. She opened the cabinet that had all the non-tea drink making items, she pushed past some tequila and vodka bottles to find the powdered hot chocolate. She pulled out the milk from the fridge and pulled a mug from a cabinet, then another, she wouldn’t have minded some hot chocolate herself.
She poured the hot chocolate powder into the milk before putting it in the microwave. The loud beeps from the device seemed to wake Danielle up a bit.
“How’d you know that I-,” She yawned “sorry, that I wanted a drink?”
“I’m a psychic,” Orla smiled
Dan laughed and Orla felt a little bit of her admiration slip away, it wasn’t like she expected Dan to believe it, but Orla had hoped, just a little bit, that she might have.
“Allison would kill me if I didn’t ask for a reading, or something else that would showcase your magical powers of sight,” And the admiration was back. Tenfold. Orla fought to keep a smile from breaking onto her face.
“Alright then, I’ll read your tea leaves,” Orla said.
“But we aren’t making any tea,”
“And thank god for that, I’d never subject you to the tea in this house, no, I’ll read your hot cocoa powder, when you’re done drinking it.,”
“Oh, okay, thank you,” Dan yawned the word okay so it sounded like “ooooohhhkay”
The microwave beeped and Orla moved to get the mugs from the microwave. She handed Dan her mug.
“So how does this work exactly? I just drink the hot chocolate and you read whatever’s left over?”
“That’s the idea, though we should probably do this in the reading room,” Orla said, gesturing to the adjacent room
Dan nodded and shuffled her way to the cat room, she plopped herself on the cream-colored loveseat in front of the table. Orla sat down on the burgundy armchair across from her. They drank their hot chocolate in silence.
“Okay!” Orla said “Let’s start,”
////////////
The next day, Kevin woke up to a knocking sound. Each knock at the door sent a pounding pulse through his massively-hungover head. Fucking Nicky. He grabbed his pillow and threw it in the general direction of the noise.
“Well that wasn’t very nice,” that wasn’t Nicky. Or Andrew. Or Neil. Or Aaron.
Kevin bolted to his feet, expecting a fight. What he had not been expecting was a tall, elegant korean boy, hair slicked back, makeup applied, and bloody mary in hand knocking at the door.
“All I wanted was to give you a little crutch for your undoubtedly large hangover, or breakfast, whatever you prefer, it’s not like I care, but Koh’s probably going to withhold sex for a month, and I can’t deal with that kind of ass deprivation, know what I’m saying? Not that I wouldn’t, like, totally love his company without the sex, but it’s nice, you know what I’m saying?” Kevin, in fact, did know what he was saying. Thea had never really withheld sex, but if she had Kevin would have loved her just as much. Besides, he didn’t need sex, he had exy.
The boy, Henry Broadway, Kevin remembered him saying, but everyone calls me Cheng 2, not that I care, but you might.
If Kevin remembered correctly, this boy had a propensity for repeating the phrases “know what I’m saying?” and “not that I care” and had both Koh (the overly bro-ey one who had challenged him to a drinking competition and lost), and Sick Steve (The one that reminded Kevin a little bit of a lost puppy) head over heels in love with him, not that he cared. Wait, not caring. A hundred plays popped into his head, if some players feinted, acted as if they didn’t care for the ball, then they could get to the edges of their zones, out of the other player’s reach, and then-
“Dude, get up, Ryang’s making pancakes,”
Kevin got up, and between brushing his teeth and sitting down at the breakfast table, created about thirty new exy plays with the theme “not that I care”.
He was just coming up with play number thirty one when Wymack came down the hall and sat by him. A small woman came up to him and poked his arm with a broom, Wymack was not amused. Kevin sent him a smile and started detailing play number 15.
“- and then, the defensive dealer, with enough room and arm strength, could hurl the ball halfway across court to the striker,” Kevin finished triumphantly.
“Now, that could be great, but the opposing backliner still poses a threat,” Wymack pointed out.
“Not if our mark is fast enough. And luckily for us, our mark is fast enough,” Kevin countered.
“Well, this would have been great, except you’ve completely forgotten about the second defensive dealer,” added a new voice. Kevin turned to see who had interjected, it was the short, stocky one who liked cosmopolitans. Lee Squared. “You were accounting for the other team having a second defensive dealer, right?”
“That’s what the second striker is for,” Kevin answered
“Ah, right,” Lee Squared said, and went back to making a political map of Virginia out of silverware.
Kevin and Wymack continued going over the flaws in his plan while the rest of the members of the house came to sit with them, occasionally butting in with suggestions. They were just on the verge of breakthrough when Ryang slammed a plate of pancakes on the table.
Kevin felt himself flinch back, but if anyone besides Wymack noticed, they didn’t say anything, instead, they were all enraptured by Ryan Yang and his mile-high stack of pancakes.
“I’ve got it!” He said “We secede!”
“Secede? Secede from what?” Kevin asked
Ryang looked at him with a devilish glint in his eye “the nation,”
This caused riot down the table. Both the Henrys slammed their hands on the table.Though it seemed for different reasons. One did it out of pure genuine, amused shock, and one did it to snap Sick Steve out of whatever he was thinking.
“Oh come off it!”
“Dude, it'll never work,”
“No, it might,”
“Give one good example,”
And such calls came from everyone, Kevin thought they were going to break off into orderly political chaos (because these boys wouldn’t do anything if they couldn’t do it orderly or politically) until Henry Cheng raised a hand to silence them, at which they all quickly quieted.
Henry asked “On what basis should we secede?” with a curious smile on his face. Faces around the table grinned, as if morning debates were the highlight of their day.
Ryang, happy to oblige, grabbed a pitcher of orange juice and held it like a weapon before filling everyone’s glasses. “The current leadership of the country, for lack of better terms, sucks ass, and people who don’t want to put up with it should leave the country,”
Several of the boys perked up and Henry, as impromptu orchestrator said “Koh, Lee Squared, defense of Ryang’s policy, Ryang is leader,” Henry shot Kevin a devilish smile. “Sick Steve, MayDay, that’s you Kevin, flaws of Ryang’s policy, Cheng 2 is leader, I will mediate. Cheng 2, basis?”
“Seceding from the nation will cause more harm than good, and the resulting chaos will outweigh the benefits that seceding may bring,”
“Concession points,”
“Um, yeah, we concede the point that the country’s leadership sucks ass, but maintain that there are easier ways to deal with it besides leaving the fucking nation,”
“Ryang,”
“Okay, um we concede that leaving the country will cause fucking havoc, but maintain that, at this point, secession is the best way to go,”
Kevin had no idea how he got roped into this, debating leaving the country over whole-wheat, fairtrade blueberry pancakes (he had been assured profusely that there was no cruelty involved in picking and feeding the workers who picked the berries in between examples). But he liked it, he really, genuinely enjoyed the conversation, he caught his father looking at him from across the table and smiled at him, Wymack grinned back.
After breakfast, they moved the conversation to Ryang’s bright yellow bedroom, and continued there for a few hours.
He hadn’t even realized that they had all piled into the rented minivan and started driving until they were getting out of the car, he walked by Henry and the boys, Wymack trailing behind.
“Okay, Sick Steve was saying as they walked to an old-looking building. “But borders though, there are liberal and conservative members in each state, how are you going to get it all separated so that one physical part of the country wants to secede, and the other doesn’t, that’s forcing people out of their homes and surroundings,”
“Yeah, but it’s been done before, the separation India and Pakistan?” Lee squared interjected.
“Woah there,” Kevin interjected “You really want to use the forced exodus of the followers of Islam as an example? Because I’m pretty sure that that’s what we’re all against here,”
“Oh, wait, shit, you’re absolutely right, let the point fall Henry, drop it into hell,”
Henry nodded sagely. “The point has fallen,”
“Right, so borders?” Sick Steve reiterated while they reached the doors.
Kevin stopped. Henry bumped into his back. And looked like he was about to say something, but then got a better read of Kevin’s face and seemed to have reconsidered. He motioned for the rest of the group to quiet down. Kevin looked up at the door frame and placed a single hand on the door handle.
“Should we leave you two alone?” said a voice from behind the group. Every head turned to see who it was, a girl that Kevin had never seen before, she wore jeans with so many patches, Kevin didn’t think they could be considered jeans anymore, and a flowy black-and-white top like something Allison would wear, but with the strangeness level jammed up to 100%. Her hair flowed free in choppy waves, the smile on her face didn’t match her crass words. Her height, and the fact that Gansey, Neil, Andrew, and Dan followed closely behind her, signalled to Kevin that she was the waitress from the diner last night, Blue.
Kevin could feel himself going red. He opened the doors (while mentally apologizing for not giving them their due respect) and got it over with.
The court was beautiful.
Kevin, in his time in both places, had gotten used to Exy courts with bright, bold colors. Raven black, Fox orange, Trojan red. The aglionby court was neither bright nor bold. A muted navy blue surrounded them, wooden accents lined the bleachers, ceilings, and scoreboard. The plexiglass was tinted a cloudy blue, light enough to give a clear view of the players, but solid enough to give the sense of looking through a lake or a river at the court. The paned glass skylight took up almost the whole ceiling and sunlight streamed in in uneven beams. Even as Kevin breathed in the familiar smell of rubber, sweat, and wood, he got a sense that this place was fuller than the other courts, not with people, but with spirit. This court was something other, and Kevin didn’t think he had seen anything more beautiful in his life.
Neil seemed to have a similar view of the stadium judging by his sharp intake of breath when walking in.
Dan sighed, and moved to push them towards the bleachers, when a figure showed up at the door, then another, running at full speed and panting like a dog. Two boys, both in formal wear, though they looked quite disheveled from running to the court. Kevin wondered what they were doing here.
“Ha! Beat you!” said the blonde haired boy, straightening his tie and shooting the other boy a grin. Despite never having met him before, Kevin had the inexplicable urge to ruffle his hair and congratulate him.
The other boy ruffled his hair and congratulated him. Kevin realized it was Ronan Lynch, the smile on his face and the formal attire had thrown him off. It struck Kevin that he didn’t really know these kids. They had the same sense of otherness that the gym had. The sense that they were something else, something more. Henry’s head snapped to look at him. A second later, Kevin felt a buzzing around his ears. He raised his hand to swat at the insect, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared.
“Hi!” said the blonde haired boy. “I’m Matthew!”.
“That’s adorable,” he hears Dan whisper to coach, Matthew sent her an extra smile.
“Alright Foxes, go change,”
The foxes picked up their duffels and headed to the locker rooms. Kevin changed as quickly as he could, grabbed his racquet, and walked back to the others with Neil and Andrew.
“Alright, so what position do you play?” Wymack asked Blue on their way to the bleachers She had arrived carrying a duffel bag, and with much insistence on their part, she had given it to Gansey and Henry.
“Um, it depends. Mountain view’s got a small team, see? So I had to play a lot of positions. But mostly goalie. I’m good at goalie,”
Kevin and Dan’s eyes met behind Wymack’s back. They didn’t need another goalie, they already had two, which meant the girl had to be amazing at her other positions.
“What are the others?”
“Striker and backliner,”
That surprised Kevin. She not only played three radically different positions, but she had the confidence to ask for a place on an NCAA ranked team.
“Do you have a stat sheet? Well, stat sheets?” Kevin asked, she nodded and pulled three stat sheets out of her bag. Kevin took a look.
Her individual stat sheets were decent at worst. If she had been playing a single position, Kevin wouldn’t have chosen her on account of the fact that her stats weren’t what their team was looking for. But together, these sheets told the story of a hardworking and talented player that their team would be lucky to have. If he could focus all that talent into one position...
“You worked a job and managed to keep up these stats?” Neil asked when he saw the sheets.
“Uh, a few jobs actually. I walk dogs, and a few other things besides working at Nino’s,” Blue said.
Dan had a proud smile on her face, no doubt recalling when she had done the same. Though her own jobs were of a different nature, Dan seemed to appreciate the work it took to balance school, exy, and a job.
Kevin said nothing, only nodded.
“Right, so Blue and Dan, get changed?”
Dan looped an arm through Blue’s and dragged her off.
There was silence as they left and the boys used it to make their way to the bleachers.
Two last figures made their way to the doors, one tall and formally dressed, Declan, and the other looking twice as powerful as the former. Adam Parrish strode down towards the bleachers and no one said a thing. They were all too afraid to break the spell.
Kevin recognized something in the way Adam stood, the quiet triumph of the broken-then-mended. He recognized it in himself. Kevin decided that he liked Adam Parrish.
“So I missed Blue then?” Adam asked, with no regard for the spell he had unknowingly cast. Ronan, first to recover, said
“Yeah, she just went in to change,”
“I’ll see her when it’s over then,” Adam said.
“Not when she’s done changing?” Neil asked.
“Nah,” Adam replied “No use, she kind of gets hard to talk to before she goes on court,”
“I think she almost glared my head off at the game I went to!” Koh added, not unhelpfully.
“Oh!” Adam said, as if he had just noticed Henry and the Vancouver crowd were there. “Hey, y’all, what’s the issue today,”
“We’re A. trying to see if plaster has harmful qualities to children,” Ryang started.
“B.Trying to expand the borders of France,” Sick Steve added, emphasizing the word borders like he was still bitter about his point being ignored.
“C. Trying to decide whether paternity leave is positive or not,” yawned Cheng 2, obviously tired but being careful not to smudge his red lipstick.
“Or D. Trying to secede from the nation,” finished Koh, getting to the truthful point .
Adam thought it over. “I’m going to go with C, since Cheng 2 has been strangely adamant about gender roles recently,” He moved to sit by Ronan and sidled up next to him
Cheng 2 made a buzzer noise and shook his head. “‘Fraid not,” he intoned “Alas, Ryang has decided that the only way to return to our former grace is to leave the country,” He explained the situation and the points that had been made. Kevin caught Neil and Andrew looking on in interest
Adam looked surprised. “Well that’s.. ambitious,” Ronan draped an arm around Adam’s shoulders. “You do realize you’re screwing over most of America’s lower class, right?”
Ryang jolted. “How so?”
Kevin watched as Neil raised a hand, Henry looked at him and gestured with a hand for him to make his point.
“Well besides all the document troubles, if people can’t afford to move, then they’ll stay where they are, bad leadership or not,” Neil said. “It’s easier to buckle down and deal with things for free than it is to risk all your money on a life you might not even do well in,”
Adam nodded. “Right, and housing, I assume you’re keeping the economic system about the same? Unless you’re rebelling against capitalism too,”
Lee squared nodded “Naturally,”
“Okay then, so housing, while still being a problem, is a manageable one,” Henry said, “Point refuted,”
“Objection,” Adam replied “You didn’t specify which economic system would be used,”
“That’s enough of that, I think,” called Blue from the direction of the locker rooms, she and Dan walked out from the direction of the locker rooms, helmets under arms, racquets in hand. “Let’s play,”
Kevin noticed that Henry and Gansey perked up when they heard her voice, he hoped this wouldn’t be a distraction, especially since Gansey would be coming with them.
Blue walked onto the court and placed her helmet on, Kevin recognized the calm stillness in her limbs, he had seen it multiple times before. It was the mark of someone who played like it was the only thing keeping them from sinking under.
“Okay, so for the first round, we’re testing you as a striker, try and make as many shots past Andrew as you can, don’t be afraid to use your teammates, Dan and Neil, you two will play against Kevin and Blue,” Coak said, calling out orders, Kevin strode out onto the court, he caught Dan and Neil bumping fists before walking on court. He said nothing to Blue, he didn’t need to.
As the players got into position, a tense silence settled across the court. One. Two. Three. The whistle blew and the players exploded into motion. Dan immediately went for Blue, who had the ball, Dan went for a small, legal, but effective check that would have incapacitated Blue for a few moments if she had not feinted to the right and passed the ball to Kevin. Kevin had already sidestepped Neil in anticipation of it, he caught the ball and carried it the ten paces he was allowed. But Neil was fast, he, instead of racing up towards Kevin, had ran in between Blue and Kevin’s path, blocking any free throws. Blue had no choice but to move away from the goal and closer to Kevin, abandoning her advantageous position. Before she could get very far, Kevin charged Neil.
Neil, instead of moving out of the way, moved toward Kevin and collided with his chest in an unsuccessful attempt at getting Kevin to drop the ball. The ball, did in fact leave Kevin’s racquet, and in an enviable arc, flew straight into Blue’s. Blue caught the ball and slammed it towards Andrew.
The ball missed Andrew’s racquet. by a fraction of an inch.
There was the whack of the ball hitting the plexiglass and then deafening silence.
“Okay,” coach said, ignoring the still atmosphere “that's one, let's see if you can-,”
“No,” Kevin said, “I've seen enough, we're signing her,” Or at least, that's what he tried to say, his mouthguard stopped the words from being coherent.
“What?” Coach called.
He removed his helmet and mouthguard and repeated his earlier statement.
“But you didn't even see-,” started Blue.
“We don’t need to, you’ve got a full ride, but you’re playing as a striker, no ifs ands or buts about it,” Kevin finished.
“A full ride,”
“Yes,”
“To PSU?”
“Yes,”
“You know I’m worth it with only one practice game?”
“I knew it before the game,”
“From the stats?”
Kevin simply said “No,” and walked off the court. If the girl was going to deny her talent, that was fine by him, but she could leave him out of it.
Henry rushed up to him, fingers interlaced with Gansey's, as soon as he had stepped through the plexiglass doors. He had not heard what had happened on the court.
“What happened? Is everyone okay? Did Blue not make it?” Henry asked, peppering Kevin with questions.
Kevin sent him a smile, “Ask her yourself,” .
Henry’s face burst out into a grin and turned around. Adam was the first to catch on, and he threw his hands in the air, triumphant. Ronan let out a loud, sharp, laugh, and Gansey whooped.
When Blue walked off court, she found herself covered in a mountain of extremely happy boys.
///////////
“Sure,”
“What? You didn’t even hear the best part yet!” Scarlet was sitting in the passenger seat of the mitsubishi, applying a fresh coat of lipstick.
“I’m in this if it means I’ll never have to go into this business again, then I’m all for it,” The Gray Man replied.
At that moment, three beeps came from Scarlet’s pager.
“You should be proud of that girl Gray, she got in, ahead of schedule too,” two more beeps “And with a full ride too, goddamn, now that’s talent,” She popped open the glove compartment to find a pair of white sunglasses. She put them on.
“Huh,” she said, “The tint’s off,”. She looked at herself in the side mirror and apparently found the image so ridiculous that she burst out laughing.
“Is that them?” The Gray Man said, pointing outside the window. A tall, dark boy walked next to a short, fair boy. The dark one was talking the light one’s ear off about something or the other, they were the only ones the parking lot. Luckily, Scarlet had a talent for closing car doors silently. She tailed the two boys closely from behind. Far enough not to be noticed, but close enough to hear their conversation.
“Right, yeah, but there’s a cheat on that level if you go through the third door on the right,” said Aaron Minyard gesturing with his hands. So nothing important then.
Scarlet walked up to them and tapped Nicky on the shoulder and put on her best perky adult face. “Hi!” She said, trying to keep her accent as non-New-York as possible “Um, I’m sorry to bother you, but could you point me to the athlete’s dorms? My sister’s on the basketball team and I was supposed to meet her there, but I’ve been having trouble finding it?”
“Oh!” Said Nicky in the same tone. “We were just headed there now, would you like to join us?”
“That’d be great, thanks,” She replied. Aaron didn’t say anything, but sent her a small, fake, but polite smile.
“I’m Gina, by the way, Gina Carmichael, you might know my sister, Susie?” Scarlet babbled, trying to seem as vapid as possible.
“Yeah, Susie Carmichael on the basketball team, I think I’ve seen her around,” Nicky mused
“She’s in some of my classes, I think,” Aaron added.
Scarlet knew for a fact that there was no such person, but people would believe what they wanted to, and a believable lie was better than an unbelievable truth.
They made their way to a series of large buildings, chatting all the while. A rather large boy waited outside, Matthew Boyd. Scarlet sent him a smile. He didn’t send one back. Jiang had no doubt contacted him by now to warn him off. She set a mental note to send him his payment.
“The basketball dorms should be over that way,” Nicky pointed away at the other side of the building.
“Okay then, thanks soooo much for your help boys,” Scarlet gushed, and when Aaron and Nicky turned their backs, she sent a wink a Matt. She turned around and walked away. She had almost gotten out of earshot when she heard Matt say
“So, who was that?”
Scarlet smiled to herself, everything was falling into place.