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Go fav the original here http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13948068/
This is a story about a weekend that took place back in May with FBA Characters Julian Cross-Kiraly and Edwin Griega. Written by Ratiphex with input by me.
Part of BuckHopper's FBA Universe
The characters of Julian Cross-Kiraly, Genesis Azocar, Jean-Michel Duc and Coach Aubret were created by me.
Edwin Griega and AUH Staff and alumni property of Ratiphex
Trent St. Croix belongs to chainscoyote
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Chapter 1: Great Expectations
The exhibition game between the Universite Canadiennes de Fauna and the Avian University of Hamilton started out friendly enough. Both teams had been defeated by Heritage River Riparian College in the Canadian Furry Intercollegiate Sports Basketball Tournament - UCF in the semi-finals, which sent HRR to the finals, where they defeated AUH.
Coach Martin Aubret, the dalmatian coach of UCF wondered what would have happened had they advanced to the finals to play AUH, so an invitation was sent to the school located south of Toronto for them to visit for a friendly exhibition before their respective graduations and losses of key players to the real world took place. One player from each school - Julian Cross-Kiraly (G) from UCF and Edwin Griega (PF/SF) from AUH had already declared themselves eligible for the FBA draft.
The AUH team had put the loss to HRR behind them and were preparing for the last days of the school year when they were shocked to receive an email from their coach advising of the invitation. Two key players, Team Captain Ramsey Kemper (SG) and Assistant Captain Moses “Modie” Hammel © responded to all that while they wished their team every success should they choose to do this game, they were going to bow out. Arnold Datz, the penguin coach of AUH pondered how to make this work with a sudden upending of his team’s chemistry.
A text to his phone from Kemper later that day made his blood boil as he pondered the situation. “Don’t worry,” the message read, “Suck Griega’s dick a little more n maybe he’ll do it - glad 2 b done w/u n that fuckin’ bitch ass goose.”
It was no secret that Kemper had nothing but contempt for Griega. It was only due to Griega’s refusal to take the assistant captainship in junior year that Kemper was selected as the assistant and became the captain the following year. The albatross felt that he should have been given the nod before Edwin was even offered it and not after he had refused the role - after all, his stats were better, but no matter his on-court performance, it just seemed that Coach Datz liked the goose better, and it came down to old ties: Arnold had played with Edwin’s father, Paul Griega (who later went on to a career with the Tucson Demons in the FBA) in High School, a fact that neither the elder Griega nor the coach let on to anyone.
And, so the offer was made to Edwin. It wasn’t so much of an offer as it was the penguin pleading with the goose to lead the team for this exhibition match, which after a ten minute conversation in which the senior Forward pointed out other teammates who would be a better fit to lead, got the goose to finally relent.
The match was set for May 10 in Montreal. Edwin had been looking forward to this match, until he ran into a scheduling conflict with another event. One of his fellow draft candidates, Trent St. Croix, the polar bear forward from Havaardwak University was planning a graduation party and had made an invitation to fly any of the draft candidates to his estate in Martha’s Vineyard. Edwin responded that he would be interested in attending, thinking that the bear of privilege was surely jesting. He was surprised to receive a direct message on Twitter asking for his email address, and even more so to receive an email from a travel agent, detailing a trip from Toronto to Boston on May 9 and asked him to confirm the details.
Edwin shook his head and sent a message to Trent that he already had something planned that weekend and would not be able to make it. It was a bit of a disappointment - if there would be other draftees there, he could size them up before the FBA combine that was going to happen later in the month.
This news didn’t seem to phase the player who had taken the Twitter name “BlueBloodBaller” and commonly flaunted his upper-class status. Trent responded simply, “When’s the game and where’s the arena?” It was no secret that Trent and Julian didn’t get along, and while Edwin wished it could be chalked up to a misunderstanding, he understood the event that caused Trent’s dislike of the saluki. To Trent, doing something to drive a wedge between the canid and the goose seemed to the polar bear like a good chit to cash in.
Meanwhile in Quebec, Julian Cross-Kiraly was discussing the team’s affairs. Genesis Azocar (PG) had recently been removed from the team after Aubret became aware of a Snoutbook post that she had made criticizing the school and some of her teammates, and threatening to start a physical altercation with one teammate whom she had a special distaste for. While she was a key player - a starter with good numbers, the Persian was also considered very divisive to the team’s dynamic. While she came from modest roots, she tried to present herself as upper class, and looked down quite frequently on her teammates, who largely came from similar backgrounds. The majority of her ire was reserved for the saluki, who hailed from France.
Jean-Michel Duc © was their other teammate who would be absent, but his situation was out of his control. During the CFIS playoffs, the moose had been complaining about pain under his arms, which was diagnosed with a clinic visit in Toronto as axillary intertrigo - a large, very painful rash. Despite feeling better thanks to a course of anti-fungal medication, he wasn’t feeling up to another game, and so they now had to find replacement starters.
“[Ugh, we extend the invitation and then Azocar has to go and do something stupid like that, It’s bad enough that Duc won’t go near the court right now - he’s our best Center.]” said Samuel Blanc in french to Julian.
The saluki shook his head and responded, “[Yeah, that’s terrible about Jean-Michel, but did you see that rash he got? I don’t blame him for wanting to get better. And as for Genesis, I think you can tell that I’m horribly torn up about this. Not sure what I did that got me on her bad side, but, whatever. I’m sure we’ll be just fine with who we’ve got now.]”
Blanc, a freshman forward on the team shook his head, “[I don’t think she liked any of us, but, I think she saw you as competition since you’re both guards. Remember, she didn’t get really bad until you declared for the FBA. Anyway, yeah, good riddance to toxic garbage.]”
They shared a laugh, while Julian pondered, “[The less we talk about her, the better - I can still taste the ipecac she put in my water bottle. I think after her meltdown, that just proves she’s mental. I do worry about our visitors from Toronto, though. Most of Montreal speaks both English and French, but if they encountered a snooty Quebecois… that wouldn’t be good.]”
Samuel chuckled, “[I’m sure they’ll be okay,]” the stoat said with a shrug, which caused Julian to laugh, and switch to English, “I talk on Tweeter with one of their players - the one going to the draft with me. One night, he thought that you ask “Where’s the bus station?” as “S'il vous plaît caresser mes fesses.””
The stoat snorted and shook his head, responding also in English, “He was doing a Monty Python bit, Julian. I dunno, maybe we should give them a sheet of phrases to use or tutor a few of them with some common stuff.”
The saluki rocked his head from side to side on his shoulders, “Couldn’t hurt, right?” he said with a grin.
Chapter 2: Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
The Avian University of Hamilton basketball team touched down at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, and found themselves surprised by the presence of the UCF team standing there as if posed for a team photo, wearing their brass and black uniforms, replete with a large fleur de lis on the front. The team members at the front were holding a banner which read “Bienvenue Les Avianes d’Toronto.” Edwin caught Julian’s eye and the two of them exchanged a smirk as Coach Aubret approached the penguin, “Ah, Bonjour! Welcome to beautiful Montreal! We are thrilled to have you with us this weekend.” The penguin smiled, “It’s a pleasure to be here, Merci. We’re looking forward to this friendly little rivalry.”
The dalmatian nodded back, “Wonderful. We know your journey may not have been long, but we wanted to show you our hospitality. If you will come with us, we have a bus waiting to take us all back to the University. Our culinary programme has prepared a selection of native and French delicacies for you to enjoy.” The rest of the team murmured, suddenly glad that they had raided the sandwich and donut shops just inside the gate before they went out to get their luggage.
The bus was a chartered two-decker, and the members of each team sat mixed, while the coaching staffs discussed specifics for the match. Edwin ended up next to Blanc, who extended a paw to shake with Edwin, and as the bus was making its way through the streets of Montreal, the stoat leaned over and murmured, “Je vais pisser sur votre tête, vous pitre stupide.”
Edwin shot the weasel a glance, “Beg your pardon there?” Blanc just smiled, “Oh, I was just telling you how glad I was to be playing you. You know, things could have been different and all in the tournament.”
The goose chuckled, “Oh, I guess you’re right there. And thanks, it’s good to be here.”
Blanc stretched out, “Don’t worry about what you’ve heard about Quebec - we’re going to make sure you know just a little Francais to get by.”
Edwin glanced at his seat-buddy for a moment, then reclined into the high-back seat, looking a touch dour for the rest of the trip.
The reception center for UCF was built in the style of a traditional French chateau. The team walked in and found themselves gawking at the large entrance hall. It was a stark contrast to AUH, which had largely been built in the 1960’s, and was comprised of small brick and cinder block buildings with ceilings that in some places cleared barely eight feet, and doorways which even the goose at six foot nine found himself having to duck his head to clear. If he weren’t getting a full ride, he probably would have chosen a different school based on comfort alone.
They were treated to a brief presentation on the history of the area and the University’s founding, dating back to 1710, when settlers began to find the need for greater education for the children of the immigrants who founded the city. The teams were soon lead into a large dining room, where waitstaff of all species moved quickly to pull out chairs and fill wine glasses.
The maitre ’d called out, “Excusez-moi, qui sont les herbivores ici?”
The assistant coach pointed to Edwin and two of the other team members and said, “Raise your hands, guys.” While the screech owl was born in Toronto, her family lineage was rooted in the Laurentides of Quebec, so she knew French and would act as the unofficial translator for the team.
Edwin was relieved to see that four players of the UCF team and the coach all signaled. Small flags were placed on seats, and Edwin and his teammates were seated across from the UCF players who had signaled that they too did not eat meat. He found this a bit strange to be sorted by diet, especially when pescetarian players were seated next with different colored flags.
To his surprise, Edwin found himself seated across from Coach Aubret, who leaned forward, “You are Griega, right?” The goose looked over at the dalmatian and nodded, “I am, yes.”
He smiled, “Julian was telling me about you both declaring for the FBA.”
The goose nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Aubret chuckled, “Excellent. I hope you two will be excellent representations for Canada. Well, I know Kiraly’s technically French, but… he’s been here long enough, right?” The canid didn’t possess an accent which pegged him as being from the area. In fact, the more he spoke, the less he came off as being Canadian.
“Pardon me if this question seems rude, Coach, but where do you hail from?”
Aubret smiled, “I’m from Pennsylvania down in the states, but, my wife’s from up near Mount Gabriel, and we met at college. She didn’t want to stay in the states, so, I came up here.” The dalmatian lifted his head as waiters in white gloves set down dishes on both sides of the table.
Domes were lifted to reveal a simple stew of Eggplant, Zucchini and Tomatoes. Down the table, players from AUH were looking relieved to see that there was not a snail to be seen, and the dishes looked quite appetizing. Conversations ceased as they ate, Edwin even breaking his rule about not drinking alcohol to have a small glass of wine with his meal. He seemed to forget about what Blanc had said to him on the bus, and relaxed chalking it up to one bad player who was talking trash and thinking he was being clever by doing so in another language.
Chapter 3: Drawing the Line
After lunch, the team was shown to a practice gymnasium, and then to their rooms in one of the campus dormitories. It put his small apartment outside of the campus in Hamilton to shame with the amenities already there - while this university appreciated its heritage, it was not about to live in the age of its founding. The bed was comfortable, there was a large-screen television mounted on the wall, and the wireless internet worked flawlessly.
Edwin was mildly relaxed when a text came in from Coach Datz. The team was to be dressed and ready for a short practice in 45 minutes. A second message arrived, apparently just to Edwin, “You’re leading this one - let’s see how you do.”
He got up from the bed and pulled out his tablet. Since he had been made captain, he was thinking about each player at this game and their strengths and weaknesses. He took the stylus and drew a few other ways to utilize the available players - they were down a guard and a center. He debated having David Moritz, the current starting Point Guard primarily cover Shooting Guard, with he and the goose trading in covering the One.
He had gotten so entranced in this theory that he lost track of time, and was shaken out of his concentration by a text message, and jumped up as he saw that practice started in five minutes. He threw on ran down two flights of stairs and covered the kilometer and change distance to the gymnasium in what he felt was a record time. He arrived, seeing the entire team standing there, and coach Datz tapping his foot, “Ten minutes late, Griega.”
The goose swallowed, “Sorry about that. Since I’m Captain, it’s double on me; I’ll do four laps, then the rest of you join me.” The rule on the team was that you started the team run, doing one extra lap for every five minutes late you were to practice, and it was rounded up. The goose stretched, “Everyone start getting limbered up,” he said, finding his voice and leading the team through the avian-specific stretches, including a few yoga positions the goose had persuaded the team’s then-captain to include.
Finally, he stood up, “Continue stretching,” he said, and started to jog around the court. As he passed the team, he would call out the lap or an instruction, “ONE! TWO! JOIN ME ON THE NEXT PASS. FOUR.” The rest of the team followed in step behind him, as thirteen avians began to jog around the court, the sound of sneakers on hardwood filling the space.
Aside from the rough start, things seemed to click for the goose in his new captainship. Plays were executed, and tweaked or scrapped based on how they worked out in the session. When Coach Datz gave four sharp blasts on his whistle, the team huddled around him, “That was good, guys and girls. Hit the showers and be ready for dinner.
The members of AUH retreated to the locker rooms specified for the genders of the visiting teams. The goose showered quickly and got dressed, deciding to explore the arena for a quiet place to relax and meditate before dinner. Edwin turned a corner to see Scott Michaud and Samuel Blanc standing there with their phones out, talking to Tori Ahrens, his teammate who played Small Forward. They grinned as they spoke to the hummingbird, “C’mon, just like we told you.”
Tori pondered for a moment, before speaking, “Je suis une pute qui fera tout.” The two UCF players grinned, “Bien! And that’s how you tell someone that they’re handsome.”
Tori let out an excited chirp and fell down as a blur of black and white feathers blurred past and slammed the stoat into the wall, while Michaud let out a yelp and jumped out of the way. Samuel looked up into the face of the very angry goose, who barked out sharply, “Que pensez-vous que vous faites?”
Michaud recovered from his shock and grabbed Edwin’s shoulders and pulled him off of Blanc, “[Ahh, so the goose speaks our language].”
The goose didn’t back down as he glowered, “[Yes. And you will delete that video].”
The wolverine laughed coldly, “[or what, bird]?”
Not breaking his gaze with the player in front of him who stood near his height but easily had 50 pounds of muscle to his advantage, Edwin responded, his tone low and even, “[Or I will make that elbow injury you got during the tournament seem like a scratch].”
The wolverine finally exhaled and said, “[Alright. Don’t want any trouble],” in English and tapped on his screen, “See? Gone. Dead.”
Forcing a hard breath from his nostrils, the goose nodded, “[Make sure it doesn’t come back from the dead.]”
Edwin helped his teammate up, who was trembling, “What… what did they really have me saying?”
Shaking his head, the goose responded, “Not now. We need to talk to coach.” He glanced over his shoulder at the two with a scowl on his beak as he lead the crying hummingbird out of the hallway.
Michaud looked at Blanc once they were sure the coast was clear, “[Well, that’s a twist we weren’t expecting].”
Blanc just shook his head and smirked, “[You can recover the video, right]?”
The wolverine laughed and nodded, “Oui.”
Chapter 4: What Happens Now?
The goose and hummingbird went directly to Coach Datz and informed him what had transpired. The penguin rubbed his forehead, “Oh dear. I’ll talk to Aubret tomorrow morning and see what we can do. But, he said he deleted the video?” The hummingbird was on the verge of tears again after Edwin told them the translation of what Michaud and Blanc had her say.
Griega shook his head, “He did, but we can only hope it stays that way.” Aubret helped Tori compose herself enough that they could join the team for a rather subdued dinner, where the coach gave out a new edict: don’t talk to any of the UCF players.
When Edwin got back to his assigned room, the first thing he did was grab his phone and saw Julian had sent him a direct message through Tweeter.
“Courtyard. 9:15 PM. We need to talk. It’s important.”
Sighing, he threw on a hoodie and left the room, pulling the hood up to try and hide himself as best he could. The saluki was waiting when the goose approached. He cocked his head, and murmured to Julian, “We gotta make this quick, Datz doesn’t want us talking to anyone on UCF’s team.”
The first thing he uttered took the goose by surprise. “Je ne savais pas que vous parliez français,” he said, to which Edwin snorted and responded, “Je suis plein de surprises. Vous m'avez entendu crier à vos collègues?” The canid laughed, before switching back to English, “Just so you know, the team is talking about you nearly punching out Michaud and Blanc.” Julian fidgeted before continuing, “And I didn’t hear it when it happened, but… Michaud pulled up a video in the locker room he made of your teammate.”
The passion and fire reignited in the avian as he attempted to keep his voice subdued, “He WHAT? Son of a bitch! If I didn’t have so much riding on what I do from here on out, I’d flatten him.”
Julian rubbed his temples, “First, yes I am. But I assume you meant that in regards to Michaud.” He grinned, but saw that his attempt at levity had failed, “This is my fault. I suggested that the team help you guys out with some basic stuff, but I didn’t mean they should do that dirty French phrasebook merde. But Michaud and Blanc have always been like this. I’m so sorry.”
Edwin looked around and groaned, “Well, I now have the unpleasant task of going to let my coach and Tori know that it’s escaped, punishment be damned.”
Julian put up his paw, “Coach heard about the altercation and the video. He’s not happy. Not with you, with those two. They’ve been benched and probably will be cut next season. Aubret is gonna drop by and talk to you guys in the morning, just a heads up. Do me a favour though, when he shows up, play dumb about this conversation, alright?”
Edwin regarded the canid for a moment, and nodded, “Right. Best not going to admit to defying my coach if that’s going to happen. Thanks, Jules. I’d better get back, though.”
The majority of the team gathered the next morning to go over last-minute strategies for the game. To no one’s surprise, the team’s sole female player had sequestered herself in her room and refused to come to the meeting and said she wasn’t feeling well enough to play, which meant that the team was now down three players.
A knock on the door of the meeting room disrupted the animated chatter among the avian team. Looking over as Coach Datz cracked open the door, he could see a white canine with black spots. The penguin dipped out of the room, returning several minutes later, “Griega.”
The goose walked out of the room and saw that the canine was distraught, “First of all,” he said, “I wanted to offer my apology to your team for what my guys did. I felt you should know that I caught Blanc and Michaud showing that video around last night to the rest of the team, including where you tackled Blanc and told Michaud to delete it.”
Edwin looked up and groaned, “Great,” suddenly thinking about what would happen if that video were to be sent to a media outlet - his FBA career would already have a taint against it, and he was worried about being branded the avian version of Julio Onca.
The dalmatian continued, “I questioned them, and they told me that someone else on the team put them up to this. They didn’t want to tell me, but after a bit of yelling at them, they pointed the finger at Julian Kiraly.”
Edwin snorted, “I don’t think he’s the type that would do something so mean-spirited.”
The canid held up his hand, “I questioned Kiraly after. He told me that he merely suggested some basic French to help your team - not what they did.”
The goose shrugged, “Yeah, he mentioned something like that on Tweeter before we arrived.”
Aubret sighed, “So, anyway, Kiraly is playing, but Michaud and Blanc are benched - they’re not even welcome in the arena today, and I don’t know if they’re going to have a spot on my roster next season. I warned the rest of them that I’d clear the team if I got wind of that video being played by anyone. I made it clear that I’m about this close to declaring a forfeit.”
This caught Edwin off-guard, “Well, we were kinda looking forward to the game, so I’m not sure you need to do that, right, Coach?”
Datz looked to the goose, “I suppose he’s right. The least we could do is play this out.”
Chapter 5: The Sky Moves Sideways
Game time approached quickly later that day. Both the goose and the penguin had tried to convince Tori Ahrens to play the match, but her embarrassment led to anxiety, and she refused to play, or even come out of the dorm room. So, with this seemingly settled, the team headed into the locker rooms to get ready.
They could hear a small crowd make their way through the doors and into the stands. The arena easily held 30,000, but for an exhibition match, the turnout would likely be smaller. At fifteen minutes before the tip off, a small weasel knocked on the locker room door and told them that they’d be expected at the mouth of the arena in five minutes. A last minute team huddle, and they headed out the door to the arena doors, where the UCF team was already standing. Edwin caught the glance of Julian and nodded his head curtly once, brow furrowed. The saluki returned the nod and took a breath as music began to play over the loudspeaker and a voice announced in French:
[Ladies and Gentlemen, we welcome you to this special exhibition match between your UCF Monarchs and the Wings of the Avian University of Hamilton, Ontario. First, the starting lineup for the Monarchs.]
The AUH team could hear cheering as names were called for each position and the players walked into the arena, followed by the rest of the team. Michaud and Blanc were noticeably absent from the line-up. The avian team looked at each other as they heard, in English, “And now, the starters for the Avian University of Hamilton Wings. At Power Forward, Team Captain Edwin Griega.” The goose said, “Go time, eh?” and walked into the arena to a mixture of applause and jeers from the sparse crowd.
UCF struck and struck hard from the tip off to the end of the first half. Passes were flawless and nearly every shot found its mark despite the player losses. The AUH team struggled, with players having to adjust to positions they rarely played or that were completely foreign to them. By the end of the first half, UCF lead by 8 points Edwin had been fouled by different members of the team, sending him to the charity stripe for easy points. By his third trip to the free-throw line, it was obvious that this game had turned into a personal vendetta.
In the locker room, Edwin paced as Coach Datz gathered the team, “Okay, it’s obvious they’re playing dirty, but we can come back from this. He looked around and said, “I never suggest this, but Edouard’s been their chief playmaker. I want Griega and Smith screening him constantly. I want you two to try and foul him out.”
Letting out a deep breath, Edwin nodded. He hated stooping to such a low tactic in order to gain the upper hand in a game - he was aggressive on the court, a byproduct of his species’ natural instincts, but he always craved a fair match and went out of his way to play fair, even when those around him wouldn’t. A familiar knock on the locker room door signaled that the team was due to return, and they proceeded out of the locker room toward the arena door.
If the first half was rough, the beginnings of the second were grueling. UCF came strong out of the gate, winning the tip off and racking up 11 additional points in the first seven minutes.
While Edwin and Johan Smith, a robin did everything they could to draw fouls on Edouard, it wasn’t working - the fox shook his head and kept his distance from the two. With that strategy failing, they reverted to their original plays, which proved successful in closing the gap. UCF was also finding itself on a sudden defense, and did their best to keep the point gap as wide as possible in return.
There was a whistle, and the AUH players looked over to see the penguin coach call a time out. Hurrying over, they were surprised to see Tori, fully dressed for the game. The coach exhaled hard through his nostrils, “Okay, Smith, you’re sitting this next play out. Griega, let Munson lead this one with Tori here.” Everyone nodded their agreement and bumped fists as they broke off and returned to the court. Munson, the sophomore mallard Center won the tip and got the rock into Griega’s hands.
The goose ducked and weaved around Julian, and got the ball over to Ahrens. Ahrens took the ball down the court, a determined look on her beak as she avoided the traffic. The hummingbird got past the three-point line, where she executed a perfect no-look pass to Moritz, who ran and leapt, taking the one-flap advantage given to avians for extra height, and brought the rock squarely down through the hoop. This began the Ontario team’s second attempt at a rally, as they brought the score within 5 points of tying it up.
Through the minutes of hard-scrabble play, they brought UCF’s lead to three - 82 to 79. Edwin managed to break through traffic and come up to the three-point line on the right hand side of the court. Moving the ball to his weaker right hand, he launched off a shot, but it went wide and bounced on the rim. Seconds were ticking down on the clock as he saw Julian take possession of the ball. With a pump-fake around Moritz, he streamed down the hardwood while the rest of the UCF team put up screens to keep the avian team from pursuing.
With a small jump, the saluki launched the ball and made an easy layup to put the advantage back at five points. A quick glance at the clock revealed nine seconds left in the game. Moritz took the ball down the court, but found himself rolling on the hardwood after a flagrant charge by Jacques Edouard. The whistle blew, and the teams could hear the jeers coming from the arena seats - whether they were against the fox or against the referees for calling the foul and ejecting the fox was unknown.
Moritz needed to be helped up, the gull gripping his chest where the fox had made contact. The referees came over as the avian team assembled, “You get two free throws, but since your player’s injured, the Monarchs pick the player that takes it.” With that, the raccoon referee handed the ball to Tori Ahrens, who had the worst percentage when it came to free throws. She grimaced and took the ball, “Here goes nothing, right?”
The teams lined up as Ahrens took her place at the charity stripe. Edwin looked across to see the UCF team glaring at her, some mouthing what looked to be the word ‘whore’ at her repeatedly. Trembling, she launched the first shot, which fell short and bounced off the rim. The referee signaled that it was no good and gave the ball back to her for the second shot.
The second attempt was no better than the first, and the UCF team grabbed the ball and started passing it as if to taunt the opposing players as the clock ran out.
Chapter 6: Feel So Low
For Julian Cross-Kiraly, this was not how he wanted a friendly exhibition match to go against someone whom he was going to be in the same draft class with. He showered and changed into his street clothes, putting the snake-bite piercings back into his bottom lip, and picked up his phone - no reception in the bunker-like locker room. Sighing, he shook his head at the teammates chattering animatedly about the game, and excused himself.
Outside, he attempted to call Edwin, but the call went straight to voicemail. He left a hasty message, “Edwin, it’s Julian. Call me.” When no reply came within minutes, he sent a few texts, hoping at least one of them would get through to the goose, “Call me, we gotta talk,” “Ed, that was disgusting. I’m so sorry they did that.” He looked up and startled as three figures approached from inside a service alley - a white feline, a stoat, and a badger. Genesis Azocar smirked as she approached Julian, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the little freak. Trying to make a call to your goose boyfriend on the other team?”
The saluki furrowed his brow and glared at the persian cat, “You were behind this?” She laughed, “Of course I was, you stu-pid lee-tel chien,” her voice mocking Julian’s French accent, “I’m just sorry that it wasn’t effective. I wanted to get you knocked out. We’d be down three players and then Aubret would have to put me back on the team if they wanted a shot.”
Julian shook his head, “You’re delusional, Genesis. After what you said…” He could feel his temper rising and his tone of voice escalating, each syllable he spoke becoming crisply enunciated, “After you threatened me to my face and then posted online about how you’d sink your fangs into my throat if you had a chance. If there’s any sense of rightness with the world, you’ll be off the team as long as you study here. Wait, you’re on a scholarship, aren’t you? Kiss that goodbye.”
The persian shook her head, “That’s trivial, and I’ll manage without it. I just wanted to give you a parting gift, Julian. You know, before you went off to the big time and showed off just how much of a freak you are, with those piercings and those disgusting tattoos of yours. Pointless, tacky window-dressing on a mediocre guard. And even after that… you think anyone’s going to take you seriously doing PR with those things hanging off your lip? And you’re proud of looking like a sideshow attraction, I mean, who tattoos a fucking clock onto their hip?”
The service door to the arena swung open, startling the four. They saw the spotted muzzle of Coach Aubret poke out as he said, “Julian, you’re needed in the locker room. The team is making plans for celebrating.” The saluki, still in a state of shock from the sudden intrusion, snapped to, “Oh, uh, yes. I will, uh, just be going.”
Stepping out and holding the door open to let Julian in, the saluki heard the beginning of the dalmatian speaking to the non-playing members of the team, “So, Genesis, this was your idea, was it? Oh, and how nice to see you as well, Scott, Samuel.”
In the AUH locker room, the mood was heavier than when they had experienced the narrow defeat at the CFIS final mere weeks before. The team got dressed, and Tori had joined them afterwards for a final meeting.
Coach Datz shook his head, “Guys, and lady. I want to apologize to all of you for what transpired here. We thought this could be a friendly match, and it turned into you guys experiencing things that no one should ever go through.” He turned his beak toward Tori, acknowledging that she suffered the most, “But, I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of you. For a third of you, this will be the last time we play together - I know that I gave this speech at the CFIS final, but, wherever life takes you; whether it’s leading a company or being the FBA’s next superstar,” as he nodded to Edwin, who flushed and dipped his neck into his shoulders, “Never, EVER forget that what we did on the court together was incredible. Now, we’re going to be having dinner at a restaurant near the airport, and we’re on the 9:30 outta here. The bus will be here in an hour, so if you left anything in your rooms, run back and grab it.”
A few members of the team filed out right after, and the rest trickled out to leave to enjoy the mild Montreal weather and explore the campus. Edwin pulled his suitcase out of his locker and tucked his sweat-soaked uniform into a laundry bag. He got out his messenger bag and put it on his shoulder, as he turned to see Tori standing there.
The hummingbird looked up at the goose and exhaled, “I… wanted to thank you for sticking up for me.” Edwin smiled and responded, “Of course. They can’t do that to my teammate like that and expect to get off scott free. I’d have done it for you or anyone else.”
This drew a chuckle from Tori, “I just wish we could have made it work.”
Edwin smiled, “Yeah, I think Julian’s going to be a bit of a rival for me going into this, but, he’s an okay guy, and UCF, we weren’t expecting what happened today.” The smaller avian shook her head, “I don’t mean today, Edwin. I mean that I wish, you know… us.”
The goose could see tears forming in her eyes, and he reached out and pulled her against him. She turned her head and savored the sound of his heartbeat, as the goose spoke, “I know, Tori. But, I had to be honest with myself, and, I was just going to end up breaking your heart, so, it was better to get it over with, than to let things go on and end up making it worse.”
Exhaling and sniffing twice, she turned her head up, “I think I’d have an easier time with this if it turned out that you were gay, you know? I could have set you up with other guys I knew. Remarked what a cute couple you made and all that.” She stopped and sighed, “I thought that was going to be what you told me after you broke it off and I asked why. I wasn’t prepared for… what you told me.”
Edwin bumped his beak gently against her forehead, “Yeah, I can see how you’d think that. I don’t exactly do the most manly of things to prepare for this game.” The hummingbird laughed, “And I think that’s why you’re going to go far, you’re so unconditional that you’re going to rock the league. I hope you get picked by Albany or Lorain, so I can come watch you often.”
The goose sighed and leaned back to take in the smaller bird’s face, “You never know. I’ve got the Combine coming up in a couple weeks. We’ll see where I land after that.”
A final embrace, and the hummingbird pulled back, “I’ve gotta go grab my stuff. I’ll see you on the bus, okay?” Nodding, Edwin let her go as she left the locker room, the door clattering shut, the echo making the goose realize that he was the last one left. He picked up his suitcase and his messenger bag, and walked out, the last words of his university chapter written, with a new page of his life waiting to be turned on the horizon.
This is a story about a weekend that took place back in May with FBA Characters Julian Cross-Kiraly and Edwin Griega. Written by Ratiphex with input by me.
Part of BuckHopper's FBA Universe
The characters of Julian Cross-Kiraly, Genesis Azocar, Jean-Michel Duc and Coach Aubret were created by me.
Edwin Griega and AUH Staff and alumni property of Ratiphex
Trent St. Croix belongs to chainscoyote
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Chapter 1: Great Expectations
The exhibition game between the Universite Canadiennes de Fauna and the Avian University of Hamilton started out friendly enough. Both teams had been defeated by Heritage River Riparian College in the Canadian Furry Intercollegiate Sports Basketball Tournament - UCF in the semi-finals, which sent HRR to the finals, where they defeated AUH.
Coach Martin Aubret, the dalmatian coach of UCF wondered what would have happened had they advanced to the finals to play AUH, so an invitation was sent to the school located south of Toronto for them to visit for a friendly exhibition before their respective graduations and losses of key players to the real world took place. One player from each school - Julian Cross-Kiraly (G) from UCF and Edwin Griega (PF/SF) from AUH had already declared themselves eligible for the FBA draft.
The AUH team had put the loss to HRR behind them and were preparing for the last days of the school year when they were shocked to receive an email from their coach advising of the invitation. Two key players, Team Captain Ramsey Kemper (SG) and Assistant Captain Moses “Modie” Hammel © responded to all that while they wished their team every success should they choose to do this game, they were going to bow out. Arnold Datz, the penguin coach of AUH pondered how to make this work with a sudden upending of his team’s chemistry.
A text to his phone from Kemper later that day made his blood boil as he pondered the situation. “Don’t worry,” the message read, “Suck Griega’s dick a little more n maybe he’ll do it - glad 2 b done w/u n that fuckin’ bitch ass goose.”
It was no secret that Kemper had nothing but contempt for Griega. It was only due to Griega’s refusal to take the assistant captainship in junior year that Kemper was selected as the assistant and became the captain the following year. The albatross felt that he should have been given the nod before Edwin was even offered it and not after he had refused the role - after all, his stats were better, but no matter his on-court performance, it just seemed that Coach Datz liked the goose better, and it came down to old ties: Arnold had played with Edwin’s father, Paul Griega (who later went on to a career with the Tucson Demons in the FBA) in High School, a fact that neither the elder Griega nor the coach let on to anyone.
And, so the offer was made to Edwin. It wasn’t so much of an offer as it was the penguin pleading with the goose to lead the team for this exhibition match, which after a ten minute conversation in which the senior Forward pointed out other teammates who would be a better fit to lead, got the goose to finally relent.
The match was set for May 10 in Montreal. Edwin had been looking forward to this match, until he ran into a scheduling conflict with another event. One of his fellow draft candidates, Trent St. Croix, the polar bear forward from Havaardwak University was planning a graduation party and had made an invitation to fly any of the draft candidates to his estate in Martha’s Vineyard. Edwin responded that he would be interested in attending, thinking that the bear of privilege was surely jesting. He was surprised to receive a direct message on Twitter asking for his email address, and even more so to receive an email from a travel agent, detailing a trip from Toronto to Boston on May 9 and asked him to confirm the details.
Edwin shook his head and sent a message to Trent that he already had something planned that weekend and would not be able to make it. It was a bit of a disappointment - if there would be other draftees there, he could size them up before the FBA combine that was going to happen later in the month.
This news didn’t seem to phase the player who had taken the Twitter name “BlueBloodBaller” and commonly flaunted his upper-class status. Trent responded simply, “When’s the game and where’s the arena?” It was no secret that Trent and Julian didn’t get along, and while Edwin wished it could be chalked up to a misunderstanding, he understood the event that caused Trent’s dislike of the saluki. To Trent, doing something to drive a wedge between the canid and the goose seemed to the polar bear like a good chit to cash in.
Meanwhile in Quebec, Julian Cross-Kiraly was discussing the team’s affairs. Genesis Azocar (PG) had recently been removed from the team after Aubret became aware of a Snoutbook post that she had made criticizing the school and some of her teammates, and threatening to start a physical altercation with one teammate whom she had a special distaste for. While she was a key player - a starter with good numbers, the Persian was also considered very divisive to the team’s dynamic. While she came from modest roots, she tried to present herself as upper class, and looked down quite frequently on her teammates, who largely came from similar backgrounds. The majority of her ire was reserved for the saluki, who hailed from France.
Jean-Michel Duc © was their other teammate who would be absent, but his situation was out of his control. During the CFIS playoffs, the moose had been complaining about pain under his arms, which was diagnosed with a clinic visit in Toronto as axillary intertrigo - a large, very painful rash. Despite feeling better thanks to a course of anti-fungal medication, he wasn’t feeling up to another game, and so they now had to find replacement starters.
“[Ugh, we extend the invitation and then Azocar has to go and do something stupid like that, It’s bad enough that Duc won’t go near the court right now - he’s our best Center.]” said Samuel Blanc in french to Julian.
The saluki shook his head and responded, “[Yeah, that’s terrible about Jean-Michel, but did you see that rash he got? I don’t blame him for wanting to get better. And as for Genesis, I think you can tell that I’m horribly torn up about this. Not sure what I did that got me on her bad side, but, whatever. I’m sure we’ll be just fine with who we’ve got now.]”
Blanc, a freshman forward on the team shook his head, “[I don’t think she liked any of us, but, I think she saw you as competition since you’re both guards. Remember, she didn’t get really bad until you declared for the FBA. Anyway, yeah, good riddance to toxic garbage.]”
They shared a laugh, while Julian pondered, “[The less we talk about her, the better - I can still taste the ipecac she put in my water bottle. I think after her meltdown, that just proves she’s mental. I do worry about our visitors from Toronto, though. Most of Montreal speaks both English and French, but if they encountered a snooty Quebecois… that wouldn’t be good.]”
Samuel chuckled, “[I’m sure they’ll be okay,]” the stoat said with a shrug, which caused Julian to laugh, and switch to English, “I talk on Tweeter with one of their players - the one going to the draft with me. One night, he thought that you ask “Where’s the bus station?” as “S'il vous plaît caresser mes fesses.””
The stoat snorted and shook his head, responding also in English, “He was doing a Monty Python bit, Julian. I dunno, maybe we should give them a sheet of phrases to use or tutor a few of them with some common stuff.”
The saluki rocked his head from side to side on his shoulders, “Couldn’t hurt, right?” he said with a grin.
Chapter 2: Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
The Avian University of Hamilton basketball team touched down at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, and found themselves surprised by the presence of the UCF team standing there as if posed for a team photo, wearing their brass and black uniforms, replete with a large fleur de lis on the front. The team members at the front were holding a banner which read “Bienvenue Les Avianes d’Toronto.” Edwin caught Julian’s eye and the two of them exchanged a smirk as Coach Aubret approached the penguin, “Ah, Bonjour! Welcome to beautiful Montreal! We are thrilled to have you with us this weekend.” The penguin smiled, “It’s a pleasure to be here, Merci. We’re looking forward to this friendly little rivalry.”
The dalmatian nodded back, “Wonderful. We know your journey may not have been long, but we wanted to show you our hospitality. If you will come with us, we have a bus waiting to take us all back to the University. Our culinary programme has prepared a selection of native and French delicacies for you to enjoy.” The rest of the team murmured, suddenly glad that they had raided the sandwich and donut shops just inside the gate before they went out to get their luggage.
The bus was a chartered two-decker, and the members of each team sat mixed, while the coaching staffs discussed specifics for the match. Edwin ended up next to Blanc, who extended a paw to shake with Edwin, and as the bus was making its way through the streets of Montreal, the stoat leaned over and murmured, “Je vais pisser sur votre tête, vous pitre stupide.”
Edwin shot the weasel a glance, “Beg your pardon there?” Blanc just smiled, “Oh, I was just telling you how glad I was to be playing you. You know, things could have been different and all in the tournament.”
The goose chuckled, “Oh, I guess you’re right there. And thanks, it’s good to be here.”
Blanc stretched out, “Don’t worry about what you’ve heard about Quebec - we’re going to make sure you know just a little Francais to get by.”
Edwin glanced at his seat-buddy for a moment, then reclined into the high-back seat, looking a touch dour for the rest of the trip.
The reception center for UCF was built in the style of a traditional French chateau. The team walked in and found themselves gawking at the large entrance hall. It was a stark contrast to AUH, which had largely been built in the 1960’s, and was comprised of small brick and cinder block buildings with ceilings that in some places cleared barely eight feet, and doorways which even the goose at six foot nine found himself having to duck his head to clear. If he weren’t getting a full ride, he probably would have chosen a different school based on comfort alone.
They were treated to a brief presentation on the history of the area and the University’s founding, dating back to 1710, when settlers began to find the need for greater education for the children of the immigrants who founded the city. The teams were soon lead into a large dining room, where waitstaff of all species moved quickly to pull out chairs and fill wine glasses.
The maitre ’d called out, “Excusez-moi, qui sont les herbivores ici?”
The assistant coach pointed to Edwin and two of the other team members and said, “Raise your hands, guys.” While the screech owl was born in Toronto, her family lineage was rooted in the Laurentides of Quebec, so she knew French and would act as the unofficial translator for the team.
Edwin was relieved to see that four players of the UCF team and the coach all signaled. Small flags were placed on seats, and Edwin and his teammates were seated across from the UCF players who had signaled that they too did not eat meat. He found this a bit strange to be sorted by diet, especially when pescetarian players were seated next with different colored flags.
To his surprise, Edwin found himself seated across from Coach Aubret, who leaned forward, “You are Griega, right?” The goose looked over at the dalmatian and nodded, “I am, yes.”
He smiled, “Julian was telling me about you both declaring for the FBA.”
The goose nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Aubret chuckled, “Excellent. I hope you two will be excellent representations for Canada. Well, I know Kiraly’s technically French, but… he’s been here long enough, right?” The canid didn’t possess an accent which pegged him as being from the area. In fact, the more he spoke, the less he came off as being Canadian.
“Pardon me if this question seems rude, Coach, but where do you hail from?”
Aubret smiled, “I’m from Pennsylvania down in the states, but, my wife’s from up near Mount Gabriel, and we met at college. She didn’t want to stay in the states, so, I came up here.” The dalmatian lifted his head as waiters in white gloves set down dishes on both sides of the table.
Domes were lifted to reveal a simple stew of Eggplant, Zucchini and Tomatoes. Down the table, players from AUH were looking relieved to see that there was not a snail to be seen, and the dishes looked quite appetizing. Conversations ceased as they ate, Edwin even breaking his rule about not drinking alcohol to have a small glass of wine with his meal. He seemed to forget about what Blanc had said to him on the bus, and relaxed chalking it up to one bad player who was talking trash and thinking he was being clever by doing so in another language.
Chapter 3: Drawing the Line
After lunch, the team was shown to a practice gymnasium, and then to their rooms in one of the campus dormitories. It put his small apartment outside of the campus in Hamilton to shame with the amenities already there - while this university appreciated its heritage, it was not about to live in the age of its founding. The bed was comfortable, there was a large-screen television mounted on the wall, and the wireless internet worked flawlessly.
Edwin was mildly relaxed when a text came in from Coach Datz. The team was to be dressed and ready for a short practice in 45 minutes. A second message arrived, apparently just to Edwin, “You’re leading this one - let’s see how you do.”
He got up from the bed and pulled out his tablet. Since he had been made captain, he was thinking about each player at this game and their strengths and weaknesses. He took the stylus and drew a few other ways to utilize the available players - they were down a guard and a center. He debated having David Moritz, the current starting Point Guard primarily cover Shooting Guard, with he and the goose trading in covering the One.
He had gotten so entranced in this theory that he lost track of time, and was shaken out of his concentration by a text message, and jumped up as he saw that practice started in five minutes. He threw on ran down two flights of stairs and covered the kilometer and change distance to the gymnasium in what he felt was a record time. He arrived, seeing the entire team standing there, and coach Datz tapping his foot, “Ten minutes late, Griega.”
The goose swallowed, “Sorry about that. Since I’m Captain, it’s double on me; I’ll do four laps, then the rest of you join me.” The rule on the team was that you started the team run, doing one extra lap for every five minutes late you were to practice, and it was rounded up. The goose stretched, “Everyone start getting limbered up,” he said, finding his voice and leading the team through the avian-specific stretches, including a few yoga positions the goose had persuaded the team’s then-captain to include.
Finally, he stood up, “Continue stretching,” he said, and started to jog around the court. As he passed the team, he would call out the lap or an instruction, “ONE! TWO! JOIN ME ON THE NEXT PASS. FOUR.” The rest of the team followed in step behind him, as thirteen avians began to jog around the court, the sound of sneakers on hardwood filling the space.
Aside from the rough start, things seemed to click for the goose in his new captainship. Plays were executed, and tweaked or scrapped based on how they worked out in the session. When Coach Datz gave four sharp blasts on his whistle, the team huddled around him, “That was good, guys and girls. Hit the showers and be ready for dinner.
The members of AUH retreated to the locker rooms specified for the genders of the visiting teams. The goose showered quickly and got dressed, deciding to explore the arena for a quiet place to relax and meditate before dinner. Edwin turned a corner to see Scott Michaud and Samuel Blanc standing there with their phones out, talking to Tori Ahrens, his teammate who played Small Forward. They grinned as they spoke to the hummingbird, “C’mon, just like we told you.”
Tori pondered for a moment, before speaking, “Je suis une pute qui fera tout.” The two UCF players grinned, “Bien! And that’s how you tell someone that they’re handsome.”
Tori let out an excited chirp and fell down as a blur of black and white feathers blurred past and slammed the stoat into the wall, while Michaud let out a yelp and jumped out of the way. Samuel looked up into the face of the very angry goose, who barked out sharply, “Que pensez-vous que vous faites?”
Michaud recovered from his shock and grabbed Edwin’s shoulders and pulled him off of Blanc, “[Ahh, so the goose speaks our language].”
The goose didn’t back down as he glowered, “[Yes. And you will delete that video].”
The wolverine laughed coldly, “[or what, bird]?”
Not breaking his gaze with the player in front of him who stood near his height but easily had 50 pounds of muscle to his advantage, Edwin responded, his tone low and even, “[Or I will make that elbow injury you got during the tournament seem like a scratch].”
The wolverine finally exhaled and said, “[Alright. Don’t want any trouble],” in English and tapped on his screen, “See? Gone. Dead.”
Forcing a hard breath from his nostrils, the goose nodded, “[Make sure it doesn’t come back from the dead.]”
Edwin helped his teammate up, who was trembling, “What… what did they really have me saying?”
Shaking his head, the goose responded, “Not now. We need to talk to coach.” He glanced over his shoulder at the two with a scowl on his beak as he lead the crying hummingbird out of the hallway.
Michaud looked at Blanc once they were sure the coast was clear, “[Well, that’s a twist we weren’t expecting].”
Blanc just shook his head and smirked, “[You can recover the video, right]?”
The wolverine laughed and nodded, “Oui.”
Chapter 4: What Happens Now?
The goose and hummingbird went directly to Coach Datz and informed him what had transpired. The penguin rubbed his forehead, “Oh dear. I’ll talk to Aubret tomorrow morning and see what we can do. But, he said he deleted the video?” The hummingbird was on the verge of tears again after Edwin told them the translation of what Michaud and Blanc had her say.
Griega shook his head, “He did, but we can only hope it stays that way.” Aubret helped Tori compose herself enough that they could join the team for a rather subdued dinner, where the coach gave out a new edict: don’t talk to any of the UCF players.
When Edwin got back to his assigned room, the first thing he did was grab his phone and saw Julian had sent him a direct message through Tweeter.
“Courtyard. 9:15 PM. We need to talk. It’s important.”
Sighing, he threw on a hoodie and left the room, pulling the hood up to try and hide himself as best he could. The saluki was waiting when the goose approached. He cocked his head, and murmured to Julian, “We gotta make this quick, Datz doesn’t want us talking to anyone on UCF’s team.”
The first thing he uttered took the goose by surprise. “Je ne savais pas que vous parliez français,” he said, to which Edwin snorted and responded, “Je suis plein de surprises. Vous m'avez entendu crier à vos collègues?” The canid laughed, before switching back to English, “Just so you know, the team is talking about you nearly punching out Michaud and Blanc.” Julian fidgeted before continuing, “And I didn’t hear it when it happened, but… Michaud pulled up a video in the locker room he made of your teammate.”
The passion and fire reignited in the avian as he attempted to keep his voice subdued, “He WHAT? Son of a bitch! If I didn’t have so much riding on what I do from here on out, I’d flatten him.”
Julian rubbed his temples, “First, yes I am. But I assume you meant that in regards to Michaud.” He grinned, but saw that his attempt at levity had failed, “This is my fault. I suggested that the team help you guys out with some basic stuff, but I didn’t mean they should do that dirty French phrasebook merde. But Michaud and Blanc have always been like this. I’m so sorry.”
Edwin looked around and groaned, “Well, I now have the unpleasant task of going to let my coach and Tori know that it’s escaped, punishment be damned.”
Julian put up his paw, “Coach heard about the altercation and the video. He’s not happy. Not with you, with those two. They’ve been benched and probably will be cut next season. Aubret is gonna drop by and talk to you guys in the morning, just a heads up. Do me a favour though, when he shows up, play dumb about this conversation, alright?”
Edwin regarded the canid for a moment, and nodded, “Right. Best not going to admit to defying my coach if that’s going to happen. Thanks, Jules. I’d better get back, though.”
The majority of the team gathered the next morning to go over last-minute strategies for the game. To no one’s surprise, the team’s sole female player had sequestered herself in her room and refused to come to the meeting and said she wasn’t feeling well enough to play, which meant that the team was now down three players.
A knock on the door of the meeting room disrupted the animated chatter among the avian team. Looking over as Coach Datz cracked open the door, he could see a white canine with black spots. The penguin dipped out of the room, returning several minutes later, “Griega.”
The goose walked out of the room and saw that the canine was distraught, “First of all,” he said, “I wanted to offer my apology to your team for what my guys did. I felt you should know that I caught Blanc and Michaud showing that video around last night to the rest of the team, including where you tackled Blanc and told Michaud to delete it.”
Edwin looked up and groaned, “Great,” suddenly thinking about what would happen if that video were to be sent to a media outlet - his FBA career would already have a taint against it, and he was worried about being branded the avian version of Julio Onca.
The dalmatian continued, “I questioned them, and they told me that someone else on the team put them up to this. They didn’t want to tell me, but after a bit of yelling at them, they pointed the finger at Julian Kiraly.”
Edwin snorted, “I don’t think he’s the type that would do something so mean-spirited.”
The canid held up his hand, “I questioned Kiraly after. He told me that he merely suggested some basic French to help your team - not what they did.”
The goose shrugged, “Yeah, he mentioned something like that on Tweeter before we arrived.”
Aubret sighed, “So, anyway, Kiraly is playing, but Michaud and Blanc are benched - they’re not even welcome in the arena today, and I don’t know if they’re going to have a spot on my roster next season. I warned the rest of them that I’d clear the team if I got wind of that video being played by anyone. I made it clear that I’m about this close to declaring a forfeit.”
This caught Edwin off-guard, “Well, we were kinda looking forward to the game, so I’m not sure you need to do that, right, Coach?”
Datz looked to the goose, “I suppose he’s right. The least we could do is play this out.”
Chapter 5: The Sky Moves Sideways
Game time approached quickly later that day. Both the goose and the penguin had tried to convince Tori Ahrens to play the match, but her embarrassment led to anxiety, and she refused to play, or even come out of the dorm room. So, with this seemingly settled, the team headed into the locker rooms to get ready.
They could hear a small crowd make their way through the doors and into the stands. The arena easily held 30,000, but for an exhibition match, the turnout would likely be smaller. At fifteen minutes before the tip off, a small weasel knocked on the locker room door and told them that they’d be expected at the mouth of the arena in five minutes. A last minute team huddle, and they headed out the door to the arena doors, where the UCF team was already standing. Edwin caught the glance of Julian and nodded his head curtly once, brow furrowed. The saluki returned the nod and took a breath as music began to play over the loudspeaker and a voice announced in French:
[Ladies and Gentlemen, we welcome you to this special exhibition match between your UCF Monarchs and the Wings of the Avian University of Hamilton, Ontario. First, the starting lineup for the Monarchs.]
The AUH team could hear cheering as names were called for each position and the players walked into the arena, followed by the rest of the team. Michaud and Blanc were noticeably absent from the line-up. The avian team looked at each other as they heard, in English, “And now, the starters for the Avian University of Hamilton Wings. At Power Forward, Team Captain Edwin Griega.” The goose said, “Go time, eh?” and walked into the arena to a mixture of applause and jeers from the sparse crowd.
UCF struck and struck hard from the tip off to the end of the first half. Passes were flawless and nearly every shot found its mark despite the player losses. The AUH team struggled, with players having to adjust to positions they rarely played or that were completely foreign to them. By the end of the first half, UCF lead by 8 points Edwin had been fouled by different members of the team, sending him to the charity stripe for easy points. By his third trip to the free-throw line, it was obvious that this game had turned into a personal vendetta.
In the locker room, Edwin paced as Coach Datz gathered the team, “Okay, it’s obvious they’re playing dirty, but we can come back from this. He looked around and said, “I never suggest this, but Edouard’s been their chief playmaker. I want Griega and Smith screening him constantly. I want you two to try and foul him out.”
Letting out a deep breath, Edwin nodded. He hated stooping to such a low tactic in order to gain the upper hand in a game - he was aggressive on the court, a byproduct of his species’ natural instincts, but he always craved a fair match and went out of his way to play fair, even when those around him wouldn’t. A familiar knock on the locker room door signaled that the team was due to return, and they proceeded out of the locker room toward the arena door.
If the first half was rough, the beginnings of the second were grueling. UCF came strong out of the gate, winning the tip off and racking up 11 additional points in the first seven minutes.
While Edwin and Johan Smith, a robin did everything they could to draw fouls on Edouard, it wasn’t working - the fox shook his head and kept his distance from the two. With that strategy failing, they reverted to their original plays, which proved successful in closing the gap. UCF was also finding itself on a sudden defense, and did their best to keep the point gap as wide as possible in return.
There was a whistle, and the AUH players looked over to see the penguin coach call a time out. Hurrying over, they were surprised to see Tori, fully dressed for the game. The coach exhaled hard through his nostrils, “Okay, Smith, you’re sitting this next play out. Griega, let Munson lead this one with Tori here.” Everyone nodded their agreement and bumped fists as they broke off and returned to the court. Munson, the sophomore mallard Center won the tip and got the rock into Griega’s hands.
The goose ducked and weaved around Julian, and got the ball over to Ahrens. Ahrens took the ball down the court, a determined look on her beak as she avoided the traffic. The hummingbird got past the three-point line, where she executed a perfect no-look pass to Moritz, who ran and leapt, taking the one-flap advantage given to avians for extra height, and brought the rock squarely down through the hoop. This began the Ontario team’s second attempt at a rally, as they brought the score within 5 points of tying it up.
Through the minutes of hard-scrabble play, they brought UCF’s lead to three - 82 to 79. Edwin managed to break through traffic and come up to the three-point line on the right hand side of the court. Moving the ball to his weaker right hand, he launched off a shot, but it went wide and bounced on the rim. Seconds were ticking down on the clock as he saw Julian take possession of the ball. With a pump-fake around Moritz, he streamed down the hardwood while the rest of the UCF team put up screens to keep the avian team from pursuing.
With a small jump, the saluki launched the ball and made an easy layup to put the advantage back at five points. A quick glance at the clock revealed nine seconds left in the game. Moritz took the ball down the court, but found himself rolling on the hardwood after a flagrant charge by Jacques Edouard. The whistle blew, and the teams could hear the jeers coming from the arena seats - whether they were against the fox or against the referees for calling the foul and ejecting the fox was unknown.
Moritz needed to be helped up, the gull gripping his chest where the fox had made contact. The referees came over as the avian team assembled, “You get two free throws, but since your player’s injured, the Monarchs pick the player that takes it.” With that, the raccoon referee handed the ball to Tori Ahrens, who had the worst percentage when it came to free throws. She grimaced and took the ball, “Here goes nothing, right?”
The teams lined up as Ahrens took her place at the charity stripe. Edwin looked across to see the UCF team glaring at her, some mouthing what looked to be the word ‘whore’ at her repeatedly. Trembling, she launched the first shot, which fell short and bounced off the rim. The referee signaled that it was no good and gave the ball back to her for the second shot.
The second attempt was no better than the first, and the UCF team grabbed the ball and started passing it as if to taunt the opposing players as the clock ran out.
Chapter 6: Feel So Low
For Julian Cross-Kiraly, this was not how he wanted a friendly exhibition match to go against someone whom he was going to be in the same draft class with. He showered and changed into his street clothes, putting the snake-bite piercings back into his bottom lip, and picked up his phone - no reception in the bunker-like locker room. Sighing, he shook his head at the teammates chattering animatedly about the game, and excused himself.
Outside, he attempted to call Edwin, but the call went straight to voicemail. He left a hasty message, “Edwin, it’s Julian. Call me.” When no reply came within minutes, he sent a few texts, hoping at least one of them would get through to the goose, “Call me, we gotta talk,” “Ed, that was disgusting. I’m so sorry they did that.” He looked up and startled as three figures approached from inside a service alley - a white feline, a stoat, and a badger. Genesis Azocar smirked as she approached Julian, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the little freak. Trying to make a call to your goose boyfriend on the other team?”
The saluki furrowed his brow and glared at the persian cat, “You were behind this?” She laughed, “Of course I was, you stu-pid lee-tel chien,” her voice mocking Julian’s French accent, “I’m just sorry that it wasn’t effective. I wanted to get you knocked out. We’d be down three players and then Aubret would have to put me back on the team if they wanted a shot.”
Julian shook his head, “You’re delusional, Genesis. After what you said…” He could feel his temper rising and his tone of voice escalating, each syllable he spoke becoming crisply enunciated, “After you threatened me to my face and then posted online about how you’d sink your fangs into my throat if you had a chance. If there’s any sense of rightness with the world, you’ll be off the team as long as you study here. Wait, you’re on a scholarship, aren’t you? Kiss that goodbye.”
The persian shook her head, “That’s trivial, and I’ll manage without it. I just wanted to give you a parting gift, Julian. You know, before you went off to the big time and showed off just how much of a freak you are, with those piercings and those disgusting tattoos of yours. Pointless, tacky window-dressing on a mediocre guard. And even after that… you think anyone’s going to take you seriously doing PR with those things hanging off your lip? And you’re proud of looking like a sideshow attraction, I mean, who tattoos a fucking clock onto their hip?”
The service door to the arena swung open, startling the four. They saw the spotted muzzle of Coach Aubret poke out as he said, “Julian, you’re needed in the locker room. The team is making plans for celebrating.” The saluki, still in a state of shock from the sudden intrusion, snapped to, “Oh, uh, yes. I will, uh, just be going.”
Stepping out and holding the door open to let Julian in, the saluki heard the beginning of the dalmatian speaking to the non-playing members of the team, “So, Genesis, this was your idea, was it? Oh, and how nice to see you as well, Scott, Samuel.”
In the AUH locker room, the mood was heavier than when they had experienced the narrow defeat at the CFIS final mere weeks before. The team got dressed, and Tori had joined them afterwards for a final meeting.
Coach Datz shook his head, “Guys, and lady. I want to apologize to all of you for what transpired here. We thought this could be a friendly match, and it turned into you guys experiencing things that no one should ever go through.” He turned his beak toward Tori, acknowledging that she suffered the most, “But, I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of you. For a third of you, this will be the last time we play together - I know that I gave this speech at the CFIS final, but, wherever life takes you; whether it’s leading a company or being the FBA’s next superstar,” as he nodded to Edwin, who flushed and dipped his neck into his shoulders, “Never, EVER forget that what we did on the court together was incredible. Now, we’re going to be having dinner at a restaurant near the airport, and we’re on the 9:30 outta here. The bus will be here in an hour, so if you left anything in your rooms, run back and grab it.”
A few members of the team filed out right after, and the rest trickled out to leave to enjoy the mild Montreal weather and explore the campus. Edwin pulled his suitcase out of his locker and tucked his sweat-soaked uniform into a laundry bag. He got out his messenger bag and put it on his shoulder, as he turned to see Tori standing there.
The hummingbird looked up at the goose and exhaled, “I… wanted to thank you for sticking up for me.” Edwin smiled and responded, “Of course. They can’t do that to my teammate like that and expect to get off scott free. I’d have done it for you or anyone else.”
This drew a chuckle from Tori, “I just wish we could have made it work.”
Edwin smiled, “Yeah, I think Julian’s going to be a bit of a rival for me going into this, but, he’s an okay guy, and UCF, we weren’t expecting what happened today.” The smaller avian shook her head, “I don’t mean today, Edwin. I mean that I wish, you know… us.”
The goose could see tears forming in her eyes, and he reached out and pulled her against him. She turned her head and savored the sound of his heartbeat, as the goose spoke, “I know, Tori. But, I had to be honest with myself, and, I was just going to end up breaking your heart, so, it was better to get it over with, than to let things go on and end up making it worse.”
Exhaling and sniffing twice, she turned her head up, “I think I’d have an easier time with this if it turned out that you were gay, you know? I could have set you up with other guys I knew. Remarked what a cute couple you made and all that.” She stopped and sighed, “I thought that was going to be what you told me after you broke it off and I asked why. I wasn’t prepared for… what you told me.”
Edwin bumped his beak gently against her forehead, “Yeah, I can see how you’d think that. I don’t exactly do the most manly of things to prepare for this game.” The hummingbird laughed, “And I think that’s why you’re going to go far, you’re so unconditional that you’re going to rock the league. I hope you get picked by Albany or Lorain, so I can come watch you often.”
The goose sighed and leaned back to take in the smaller bird’s face, “You never know. I’ve got the Combine coming up in a couple weeks. We’ll see where I land after that.”
A final embrace, and the hummingbird pulled back, “I’ve gotta go grab my stuff. I’ll see you on the bus, okay?” Nodding, Edwin let her go as she left the locker room, the door clattering shut, the echo making the goose realize that he was the last one left. He picked up his suitcase and his messenger bag, and walked out, the last words of his university chapter written, with a new page of his life waiting to be turned on the horizon.
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