Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
It'd be hard to spot his teammates on a good day. With the lights flashing overhead and everyone in costumes it was impossible. That smear of red might be Renee's Red Riding Hood cloak and the silver that kept sparking like a sequin was probably Nicky's space cadet uniform, but there was no way to be sure. He had to trust that they were all there, safe and having fun. He was content to watch and imagine.
Lonely, too, but there was nothing he could do about that.
CHAPTER TEN
Neil went looking for Renee after his math class on Monday. He'd had a couple months to learn the gist of his teammates' schedules. He didn't want that kind of knowledge taking up space in his head, but he spent too much time with the Foxes to not know where they were everyday. He knew Renee's schedule was like his: she had two back-to-back classes, then a free period before her next lesson. The trick was getting to her before she got too far from her classroom, but luckily Renee was only one building over from him. That proximity was why she'd been chosen to walk him from math to history the day of their opening game.
He took the stairs down to the sidewalk as quick as he could, dodging students who were in no particular hurry to get anywhere and neatly avoiding those who were in as much of a rush as he was. He caught the edge of a vending machine to help whip him around the corner of the building and spotted Renee's distinctive hair maybe twenty feet away. Neil squished his reservations and unease deep and set off after her.
Renee glanced over when he finally caught up with her, and Neil didn't miss the way her eyebrows shot up. "Neil, hello. This is rare."
"Are you busy?" Neil asked. "I wondered if we could talk for a couple minutes."
Renee laughed. "I should stop betting against Andrew when it comes to you," she said, then explained when Neil frowned at her. "He told me you'd come see me but I didn't think you were ready yet. But to answer your original question: no, I'm not that busy. Do you mind talking as we walk?"
Neil didn't have another class for two hours, so he followed her on an easy stroll across campus. Between campus, Perimeter Road, and downtown was a grassy park referred to as the Green. If it had an official name Neil hadn't seen it on any brochures. He assumed Renee wanted to sprawl and soak up some sun like so many other students were doing, but she cut a path around the dozing co-eds toward the downtown shops.
"Did Andrew say why I wanted to talk to you?" Neil asked when they were halfway across the Green.
"He was a little vague on the details," Renee said.
"I asked you this once and you didn't really answer," Neil said. "Now can you tell me why Andrew likes you?"
"Last year Andrew took a few of us out to Eden's Twilight one at a time," Renee said. "You know now why Andrew invited Matt. He invited Dan to see if she was a woman worth following on the court. He asked me because he, like you, didn't buy into this front." She gestured at her face and rested her fingertips on her cross necklace. "He wanted the truth, so I told him.
"Andrew found out he and I have a lot in common." Renee glanced at Neil as they stopped at a crosswalk on Perimeter Road. "The only differences between us are luck and faith."
"And psychosis," Neil said.
Renee smiled. "Maybe not. I am a bad person trying very hard to be a good person, but I would not be trying at all if not for the outside interventions in my life. I grew up with my mother and her string of heavy-handed boyfriends."
She seemed unbothered by her words and turned a calm stare on the crosswalk as she spoke. "Maybe it is inevitable that I got into trouble myself. I started working as a lookout and runner for one of Detroit's gangs. It took me a couple years to work my way up to harder work. I did anything they asked me to and didn't care who I hurt.
"Fortunately for me, I was not as smart as I thought I was. When I was fifteen the police caught me, and my lawyer traded my testimony for a reduced sentence. My words got a lot of people in trouble, including my mother. My lawyer explained my home life so the court would understand my lack of positive role models. His findings sent both my mother and her then-lover to prison on assorted charges. They were beaten to death by angry members of the gang I helped put away."
"I'm sorry," Neil said, when in reality he was a little jealous. Both she and Wymack lost their parents to prison violence, but no one dared attack his father. It would solve a world of problems for Neil if a few inmates could just work up enough aggression and courage.
"I'm not," Renee said, jarring Neil from his thoughts. Renee started across the street but it took Neil a couple seconds before he could follow her. Renee smiled at him when he caught up. "I know I should be, but that's still something I'm working on. I know I was directly responsible for the circumstances that led to their murders, but to be honest I hated them. On top of that, without my mother's death I never would have ended up here.
"With my mother dead and my biological father in the wind, the courts had no choice but to release me into foster care after my year at a juvenile facility," Renee said. "I made life as difficult as I could for my foster families and jumped eight homes in two years. Stephanie Walker found out about me from one of my foster mothers at her high school reunion. She put in a request for me, pushed until it was approved, and moved me to North Dakota as soon as it was finalized. She gave me a new name, a new faith, and a new chance at life."