— quatorze ; fourteen —

THE DAY THE THREE new Ravens freshmen arrived started much the same as any other day — early practice that had them all up at 6AM.

Henri was half hoping they would get a later start to meet their new teammates, but he forgot who was their coach. The Master had them running drills the moment they were all on court and the only reason any of them knew the freshmen were joining was because Soren had mentioned it in passing that morning. Henri was equal parts relief and dread — relief, because the upperclassmen could bully someone else now, and dread, because their arrival meant more hazings. And he didn't think he'd be lucky enough to escape these ones just because he'd already had his fair share.

Xander told him they'd be mild and watered down. "The fact that you were Jean Moreau's secret brother, younger than all of us and given a promise of starting line up by the Master pissed more than a few of us off," he explained, when Henri asked one day why the hell he had to go through an extreme version. "Then you had to go and piss Benjamin and KJ off even more. They were all more than happy to go all out to try and get you sent home."

Joke was on them then, Henri thought. If he had things his way he wouldn't have even come here in the first place. If he had a home to go back to, he'd be on the first plane out of here.

"What a delightful bunch of self-centred assholes, picking on the new kid," Henri said sarcastically. "I remember why I hate all of you now."

Except Henri wasn't so sure he hated Xander anymore and he wasn't certain when that change had happened. It might have started with their conversation about Soren and Jude, maybe when Xander has revealed his pickle juice secret (which, surprisingly, had gotten rid of the hangover), or maybe even when Xander had first apologised for the swimming pool trial. Henri had refused to let himself like anyone here and yet he'd forgotten how much he missed a normal conversation where the other person wasn't trying to insult him.

In his bid to survive, he'd lost that human interaction which he actually really needed.

None of the upperclassmen were particularly pleased about Henri's budding friendship with Xander, but the one who was least happy about it was Benjamin. In the fucked up world of the Ravens, they were probably as close as you got to best friends — Xander spent most of his breaks with Benjamin, shared a room with him, and Benjamin actually listened to him. It was as good as friendship got around here. Now that Henri was intruding on that friendship, Benjamin grew more hostile towards him. Henri couldn't be bothered to deal with his antagonism so just kept his distance.

"Not bad, rookie," Matthias said, clapping a gloved hand to Henri's shoulders as they came off the court after their scrimmage. He'd managed to score a goal and was trying not to look too pleased about it, because Soren would probably start listing off all the mistakes he'd made if he saw it.

"You can't call me that anymore," Henri pointed out. "We have three new people on the team. They're the rookies now."

"You've only been here for a month," KJ scoffed, tipping his head back to squirt water into his mouth. "You don't lose the rookie status until you've played on our team for a year."

"What about Soren?" Henri asked. "How did he get the title of captain while he was still technically a rookie?"

That was clearly still a sore spot for some, because Alixis's lips thinned to a narrow line and she slammed her racquet into it's case with a little more force than necessary. Soren himself wasn't there, as he'd been called off court by the Master around an hour ago — no doubt to go collect the new members from the airport.

"Too soon," Matthias said, smart enough to lower his voice so only Henri would hear. He grinned when Henri glanced at him. "She still wants to steal the title from him."

"She won't," Henri shrugged. "He's better than her."

He wasn't saying it out of misplaced favouritism or spite against Alixis. It was the honest truth — Alixis was a good dealer, she wouldn't have made it onto the Ravens starting line-up if she wasn't, but Soren was something else. He had natural talent combined with relentless dedication, which made him an unstoppable force on court. Henri wondered how powerful the offence line must have been when Soren and Riko played side-by-side, and how strong the Foxes' goal must have been to shut them out long enough to win the Championships.

"Still sticking up for your roommate, huh?" Matthias rolled his eyes. "They always like him, the pretty golden boy."

"I'm just telling the truth. Not my fault people don't want to hear it."

The sound of voices approaching from the Nest caught his attention and he wasn't the only one to turn around at the approaching people. The Master stepped on the inner court first, walking cane in hand, and Soren was close behind him. Henri was more interested in the three people following him — two guys and a girl. Henri knew the guys played the positions of backliner and striker, but his attention was drawn to the girl. With long curling blonde hair and sharp green eyes, she bore striking resemblance to Soren. Henri realised why at Soren's next words.

"Kit Willoughby, striker," he motioned to the guy with bright auburn hair, "Lucas Jackson, backliner," a gesture towards the dark-skinned guy, "and Loren Solberg, goalkeeper."

Henri wasn't the one only shocked at the name. Benjamin spat out the swig of water he'd taken and Jude looked incredulously between Soren and the new goalkeeper. "Solberg," he repeated, putting the dots together immediately. "Solberg?"

"Your cousin," Henri said, realisation dawning.

Soren had mentioned having a cousin he'd grown up with. He hadn't mentioned she was joining the team for the new season. Henri studied her with interest, picking out the similarities and differences between the cousins. Their colouring was awfully similar, same golden tone to their hair and shade of green for their eyes, but their features and bone structure was where they differed. Soren was all sharp angles and definition where Loren had softer and rounder, decidedly more feminine, features.

She's pretty, he thought, not sure where that had come from. She glanced at Henri, as if sensing his gaze, and offered up a hesitant smile. He saw behind the smile that she was nervous.

"Most of you are leaving tomorrow for summer break," the Master said, not elaborating on the team's obvious confusion. "Those of you that remain, I entrust you will make sure the new members are up to the standard expected of Ravens by the start of the season. That is one month before the school year, and matches, begin. You now have four freshmen that must be good enough."

"Four?" Kit said, puzzled. "Who's the fourth person?"

Soren indicated towards Henri with an unreadable expression. "Henri Moreau, dealer."

"Wait," Kit exclaimed, staring at Henri with wide blue eyes. "Moreau, as in Jean Moreau?"

Henri figured he might as well get the disbelief and shock out of the way. "I'm his brother."

"Jean Moreau doesn't have a brother," Loren said, a little uncertainly. She looked at Soren as if expecting him to declare it was all a giant practical joke, as if Soren had ever made a joke in his life. "Right?"

"He has a brother, I am that brother, and no, he doesn't know I exist," Henri said, a little bored as he listed off all the possible questions that could come his way. He didn't know how he'd survive the start of the season dealing with this a hundred times over from press and nosy students, and was glad he still had a month of peace. "Is there anything else you want to ask?"

Soren waited a beat to see whether there were any takers to Henri's question and continued when no one said anything. "As of right now, Henri's identity is a secret from the public," Soren told the freshmen. "The ERC is willing to keep it quiet due to the backlash it will cause, not just to protect us but to protect Jean and the Trojans. None of you must let spill the name of the final recruit, understand?"

It was the same speech Soren had given a month ago when Henri first joined and there were no protests. "Okay," the Master said, his black gaze lingering on Henri. "A scrimmage to test our new blood. The four freshmen will play against Soren, Xander, Benjamin and KJ."

"Can't wait to see you get your asses handed to you, rookies," Jude said snidely, as they filed into the court. The other three looked caught off-guard at the rude comment but Henri had had plenty of time to acclimatise himself to this and respond appropriately.

"Good thing you aren't on court with us," Henri returned coolly. "Or your ass would be the one getting handed off."

Jude narrowed his eyes but didn't get a chance to reply. Henri pulled his helmet on as he stepped onto court and made his way towards the half line, while his new teammates spread out along their side of the court behind him. As much as Henri disliked Jude, he knew he was right. Not only were they fresh from high school and against seasoned Class I players, they were all strangers who had never played together before. Henri had as little clue as to their playing styles as they did to his and it would be a fractured mess, inexperience aside. The Master had pretty much set them up for failure but Henri wasn't going to let them slow him down.

Toss-up gave KJ first serve and he smirked at Henri from behind the grating of his helmet. "You don't have any of us to hold you up now," he muttered, picking up the heavy Exy ball in a gloved hand. "Hope you enjoy falling apart at the seams."

Henri rolled his eyes. "Save the pathetic taunts for someone who cares."

The trill of the whistle signalled the start of the scrimmage and it was aggressive from the get-go. The Ravens didn't hold back, as expected, and Henri's side was falling apart faster than he expected. There were holes in the defence large enough to let the strikers through, time and time again, and Henri couldn't pass the ball often enough to do anything useful. He'd learnt the hard way that holding onto the ball while playing against Ravens would lead to inevitable defeat — they were too fast to keep out of reach, and you'd lose possession. You had to pass within a few steps to get the ball to your side of the court but the freshmen weren't accustomed this level of precision, and Henri was consistently checked before he could get the ball to Kit or Lucas.

He gritted his teeth when KJ slammed his racquet against Henri's before he could pass to Lucas because he wasn't in the right position for a rebound, and the ball went flying. "On your feet, rookie," he taunted, already having passed off to Soren by the time Kit had run to steal possession.

When Soren's side scored once again, Henri wheeled around and strode towards goal. He gestured for Lucas and Kit to follow, meaning to take advantage of the brief time it would take the other side to regroup. "They're good," Lucas panted, bending over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Really, really good. They're destroying us."

"No shit," Henri said, irritated. He had to remind himself he was exactly the same when he first came here — struggling to even keep up, forget play well. "Look, they're destroying us because we're letting them dominate this end of the court."

"Not on purpose," Kit grumbled.

"If we can get the ball to far court, we're at least buffering the score instead of letting them make more goals," Henri continued, ignoring Kit's comment. "Here's what we're going to do. When me or Lucas get the ball next, we're going to pass down to Loren. She'll hit the ball down the court to Kit where you'll be much closer to the goal. Benjamin's weak point? The left corner. He has a habit of veering slightly to the right and you have to take advantage of it. We're still going to lose, badly, but I'll kill myself if they bag anymore points."

"Sounds like a plan," Kit said, to which Loren and Lucas nodded.

Henri was the one who gained possession of the ball next, spotting the pass Xander made to Soren and checking him before he could even take a single step. Soren was considerably taller than him, so Henri made sure to catch his side rather than using brute force, throwing him off balance long enough for Henri to pop the ball from his net and steal it. He spun around and threw straight back to Loren, who slammed it down the court to Kit, who was already waiting. Henri didn't even have to run to make himself available for a pass — Benjamin hadn't been expecting the ball to come to his goal so quickly, and Kit made full use of the advice to score on the left corner.

It was the first point they'd managed to score and Henri allowed himself a satisfied smile, despite the fact they were still trailing by far too many points to ever catch up. "You planned that," Soren said, not quite a question.

"This is Exy, not a blind guessing game," Henri replied. "You use tactics and you win."

He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn Soren smiled behind his helmet. "Not that you're winning."

"Not this game," Henri said, tapping his racquet against Soren's helmet, "but I will, one day."

They couldn't use that play again since the Ravens had seen it now and naturally, they lost the scrimmage 8-2. It was an abysmal score and Henri had never lost that badly before, but considering the unbelievably uneven odds, it was decent. He would take the one point he'd managed to bag even if it meant nothing to the other Ravens. He was also pleased to find that despite the fact he was the youngest player, his brief time with the Ravens meant he was better than the three newest freshmen — they were good, obviously, but he could tell they all felt out of their depth here after high schools where they would have been top of their teams.

"8-2," Kit repeated, looking mildly horrified when they all made their way to the locker room after practice. "I can't believe we lost so badly. I only made one goal, and that was only after you told me what to do."

"Scoring at all on your first day is impressive," Henri said. "I was too busy being smacked into the floor with checks to even think about that when I first came here."

"A month ago," Loren said, and waited for a nod of confirmation from Henri. "Why did you come so much earlier?"

Henri considered all the possible answers to that and settled with a vague, "Extenuating circumstances."

"Are you really Jean Moreau's brother?" Lucas asked in a hushed voice.

"Give me one good reason I'd lie about that," Henri said, glancing ahead of them. He had been expecting some kind of bullying from the upperclassmen but after the expected taunts they'd received after the failed scrimmage, they let the freshmen fall to the back of the group. "Jean might have a lot of publicity right now, but not all of it is good. I'd be much better coming into this with no connections."

"Like you," Kit said, looking curiously at Loren. "Sorry, did you say you were his cousin or sister?"

Loren lowered her gaze. "Cousin."

"Wow, you two are going to have a lot of pressure to live up to," Kit commented, looking between Henri and Loren with a thoughtful gaze. "Famous brother and cousin you have to live up to."

Henri rolled his eyes. "Thanks for reminding me."

The ambush Henri had been expecting came in the locker room. The upperclassmen ushered the rest of the team out when they were finished and Henri knew what that meant, so wasn't stupid enough to try and leave. He leant against the lockers and waited. Kit, however, didn't know this and made the mistake of trying to walk past Jude.

"Hold up there," Jude said, holding a hand out to block his path. "And where do you think you're going?"

Kit glanced around uncertainly. "Out?"

"I don't think so," KJ said, grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him back into the locker room. "Not until we've all had a little chat. You and the two other rookies, while the girls deal with Soren's new little cousin."

Soren was still packing his things away, the last one left who needed to leave, but he turned around slowly at those words. "You better not hurt her," he said, but he was looking straight at Jude. Henri wasn't the only one surprised by this direct address — Jude's eyes widened, the first hint of anything more beneath his asshole exterior. Henri couldn't really blame him. This might have be the first time Soren had looked him directly in the eye during Henri's time here. "I'm serious, Jude."

Henri hated the guy but even he couldn't help feeling a little sorry for him at the look on his face as Soren brushed right past him, out of the locker room. Seeing that crack of vulnerability told him just how much power Soren still held over him, whether he liked it or not. Any hint of sympathy Henri felt vanished when Jude's alarm faded to rage, and his furious blue gaze sought out Henri. He knew exactly who he was going to take his anger over Soren out on. He didn't bother trying to move out of the way when Jude stalked forward and shoved him up against the lockers. Lucas made a shocked sound and Henri felt a little gratified that someone was reacting appropriately for once.

"You three are new and untested. Even you, Moreau," Jude said in a dangerously low voice. "I don't give a shit what Alixis says or if the others suddenly like you now. Me? I still think you're a useless little piece of shit."

"That's funny," Henri said, keeping his voice steady. "I'm pretty sure that's what Soren told me he thinks of you."

Matthias laughed in disbelief from across the room. "Jesus, low blow."

It was a bald faced lie, but Jude took it hook, line and sinker. He pulled Henri away from the lockers only to slam him back against them, hard enough that his vision crackled with black. "Don't fucking talk to me about him," he growled, curling loose fingers around Henri's neck. He didn't tighten his grip but Henri knew he was walking the fine line of Jude's rage. "Don't you dare fucking — "

"Jude," Xander said quietly. "Don't."

Henri knew he should probably shut up, that his next words would probably cost him precious life, but he wasn't scared of Jude and this would be too easy. It could be the revenge for all the shit he'd pulled. "Hey," Henri said, lowering his voice to a quiet murmur so only Jude would hear him. He leant up so his mouth was next to his ear. "That thing Soren told me, about you? That you're a useless piece of shit? He said it while I was sucking him off."

Henri saw murder in his eyes and then Jude's grip tightened around his throat, hard enough to choke him. Henri brought his leg up to knee him in the crotch, and only managed to hit him on the third attempt when he was running out of oxygen. Jude's hands loosened just enough for Henri to wrench away from him, but the lockers were the only thing he could back into. Henri was too breathless to block when Jude punched him in the face, and he managed to get another two hits in before someone yanked Jude away from him. Henri didn't mean to but he slumped to the floor against the lockers.

"Fucking hell, Jude," Matthias said, gripping one of his arms while Xander held the other to hold him back. "Chill out, yeah? You need to lay off."

"Lay off," Jude growled, straining against their hold. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

KJ pushed him back by the chest before he could make it any further. "Get him out of here," he said, directing the words at Matthias and Xander. "Now. Before he does something he regrets."

It took all four of the upperclassmen to practically shove Jude out of the locker room and left the freshman behind. Henri wondered if Loren's induction had gone any better — this was supposed to be for Lucas and Kit, but of course he was the one who'd ended up being choked. Kit crouched by Henri, his blue eyes wide and anxious.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine," Henri said.

"Did he seriously just choke you?" Lucas hung back by the benches but he looked freaked out. "What the hell did you say to him?"

Henri rubbed his sore throat. "I've been here long enough to know what hurts them most and it doesn't even matter that it wasn't true. I don't regret it. Prick had it coming for him."

Lucas sank down onto the benches. "My god," he muttered, rubbing his curly hair. "This place is crazy. These people are crazy. I can't do this."

"You are aware you signed up for the Ravens, right?" Henri asked.

"I know there's been a lot of bad press around the Ravens," Kit admitted. "Especially with...recent events. People think they need to rehabilitated and assessed mentally."

Henri gave a humourless laugh. "They're not wrong."

"But they're still number one ranked in the country. Yeah, they lost to the Foxes, but they're still the Foxes. Gutter rats with a shoddy concept of teamwork. They had Kevin Day," Kit said with emphasis. "Now we're ready for that secret weapon. I want to play Exy for my life and I'm willing to do whatever I can. I'm willing to risk a little roughhousing to make it."

"A little roughhousing," Lucas repeated incredulously. "That was more than a little. He tried to fucking choke him."

"Kit's right," Henri said, earning a startled look from both of them. "All these Ravens, they probably went through shit from older teammates to get where they are now. But no one can deny they're talented and deserve their place, even if they're jackasses. If you don't think you can hack it, leave."

Lucas blinked. "I — I never said I wanted to leave."

"Then you need to accept this is how it's going to be." Henri stood up and pushed away from the lockers. "At least for a few months. Just comfort yourself knowing they won't fuck you over as badly as they have me."