Page 136 of Forever Relentless

“Are you questioning me?”

“Yeah.” He stood with his hands on his hips, and I caught Dustin’s eye as he looked between them like he wasn’t sure whether to step up or keep quiet.

“This is my team. I call the plays. You sit there until I tell you to play.”

“That’s good, Coach,” I said as I went over to Dante. “Keep us fresh for the new plays.”

Coach Sutherland looked between the two of us. He sniffed and walked away.

“I had it.”

“I’ve just been benched, don’t recommend it.”

He glanced at me. “I’m dressed up like a banana for no fucking reason.”

I choked back a laugh. Dustin wandered over, Moore at his heel. “We’re sitting it out too.”

“Great. Four skins on the bench.” Dante realized what he’d said, but it was too late, and we’d already burst out laughing.

“How can you guys laugh?” Whittaker asked grimly. He wasn’t allowed to play, and his shot at making the first team was fading. For now. “Have you seen the stuff they’re posting? My mom’s hysterical.”

Moore was the first one to sober up. “Yeah, my girl too.” He shared a look with us, and I gave him a slight nod. “It’s sick, but there are too many comments saying they know it’s true.”

Mike looked around. He stepped closer. “I heard the NCAA contacted the dean.”

I barely held back my reaction, but Dust’s eyes were wide. “How’d you hear that?”

Whittaker shrugged. “My dad’s friends with one of the board members. He called him last night to ask what was going on. When he called me to ask if I knew anything or had seen anything, he said it was probably going to get investigated and to keep my head down.”

“Wow.” Dante looked at me, and I gave a slight shrug.

Had we known we had a route straight to the board? I don’t think we did. Hadley — and Briar, when she found out — would need to be scraped off the ceiling.

“You’ve not seen anything?” Dante asked him quietly.

“No.” Mike didn’t make eye contact.

“What’d Benoit hit you for?” I asked quietly. “What did you hear?”

Mike looked up at me and then around at the busy locker room. “Nothing.” He walked away quickly.

“Huh.”

“Well, that’s not suspicious.” Dustin nudged Moore with his elbow. “You holding up?”

Jason shook his head. “No. I keep thinking that picture will be posted, I don’t know why.”

Dustin snorted. “Yeah, I know how you feel.”

I wanted to tell them it wouldn’t, but how could I?

“We’ll just have to hope TruthHurts is on our side,” Dustin consoled him.

“Yeah.” Jason didn’t look convinced, and I turned away when he eyed Dante and me.

“Let’s go, they’ll be calling us out soon.” Dante led us all down the tunnel, and sure enough, even though it wasn’t an actual game day, the smoke was blowing, the cheerleaders were in yellow and navy, and waving navy pompoms.

It was a whole show. The only thing missing was the opposite team. Oh, and our normal uniforms.