‘You know, you don’t have to come,’ Ty said. He and Megan stood outside their home, waiting for Coach Long to pick them up for another road trip to the Dons’ away game.

‘I know but I want to. … Do you not want me to come?’

Ty looked back at the house. No one else was coming, of course. He gritted his teeth then faced Meg. ‘I didn’t say that.’

“But you didn’t deny it,” Meg thought.

The car pulled up and the two piled into the backseat. Meg thanked Coach Long and the others on Ty’s behalf, and they took off towards Salesian High School, the home of the Dons’ next victim—the Mustangs.

They arrived at the open little stadium, some decently sized stands surrounding the bright green field.

Ty and Megan found seats behind the Dons bench and got comfortable. Coach Hoang turned back to Ty. ‘Are you going to keep your mouth shut this time, or do you need to start running?’

‘Fuck you.’ Ty lowered his head, staring at his shoes; the start of his game couldn’t come fast enough.

‘Maybe I should start bringing a book for you when we go to these games,’ Meg said.

‘Thanks. But I don’t think I could concentrate on a book before a game.’

‘Just a suggestion … the offer still stands.’ Meg buried her nose back in the pages of her book.

Once again, as the JV players arrived bit by bit until the full team was there, Coach Long took a back seat for most of the coaching and let Bella hold the reins instead. Coach Hoang and Norman were still there to give support as well.

When the game began, it was a back-and-forth affair. The Dons started with the ball after losing the toss, and failed to score during their first drive.

The Mustangs then opened the scoring with a field goal, but thankfully the Dons were able to respond with one of their own, and with a couple more field goals by the end of the first quarter, the game was tied with a score of 6–6.

The Mustangs’ pass defence was stifling, and offensively, they had the Dons on the back foot, struggling to hold their passing attack in check, whilst the Mustangs were trying to utilise their size advantages to establish dominance.

Fortunately, the Dons had managed to hold them back in the first quarter, and in the second, they were the ones who struck first when they scored the first touchdown.

They did so on the ground, with a powerful, determined run up the gut from close range. And with that, they took their first lead of the day.

However, the Mustangs wouldn’t take that lying down, and came out angrily. They stormed back and answered the touchdown with one of their own, and before the half was up, they scored ANOTHER touchdown to take back the lead and push the score out to 20–13 as the game came to its major break.

The Dons entered their locker room with a deficit, but high spirits also.

‘Them Receivers are big, huh?’ JJ said, taking a seat next to Ty.

Meg looked up from her book, smiling. ‘Hi, JJ.’

‘Hola, chica.’

Ty was leaning back in his seat, hands behind his head. ‘Yeah, I guess they’re a bit bigger than the others down there. Not like they’re any good though, just big.’

‘Remind you of someone?’ JJ asked with a grin.

Ty smirked. ‘What, someone big and dumb?’

‘I heard that,’ Steven said, dumping his bag down by JJ and taking up a couple of seats.

‘How’d you know I was talking about you?’

‘You better watch your mouth before I smack you in front of your girl.’

‘That’s my sister.’

Megan blushed deeply and covered her face with her book.

‘Oh… uhh… well shut up before I beat your ass in front of your sister then.’

Meg stared daggers at Stephen from over the top of her book. Then she looked to the scoreboard and decided it was time to get the topic of conversation off her. She cleared her throat. ‘Um, so, we’re losing right now. Do you think they can still win?’

‘No,’ Ty said.

JJ thumped him on the shoulder. ‘Always so negative.’

‘Why wouldn’t he be? These freshies are always losing,’ Stephen said.

‘That’s not true.’

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‘Well, don’t they have more wins than losses?’ Stephen and Ty stared hard at JJ.

‘Uhh… well I wouldn’t know off the top of my head, but, that’s beside the point. You should have more faith in your hermanitos. They’re going to take over after we’re gone’—Ty shuddered violently—‘we need to support them. And also, they’re not all freshmen.’

‘That just makes it worse.’

Ty nodded in agreement, he couldn’t imagine how embarrassing it would be to still be on the JV team after your freshman year.

JJ sighed. ‘You guys can be real pendejos, you know that?’ He stood up. ‘I’m gonna go support my hermanitos, like a proper senior should.’

‘Yeah yeah—ow!’ Stephen kicked at JJ in retaliation to the whack JJ had given him with his bag whilst going past.

Ty snickered and Stephen scowled at him.

Stephen looked over Ty and at Megan. He shuffled closer, taking JJ’s seat. ‘So, you’re Ty’s little sister? What was your name again?’

‘M-Megan.’

‘I’m Stephen.’ He extended a hand across Ty. Meg gently shook it.

Ty’s brow furrowed deeply as he stared at the handshake, then his eyes slowly traced along Stephen’s arm to his face.

Stephen just grinned at him.

Meg lowered her hand and watched JJ follow the JV team into their locker room. ‘Maybe it’d be good if you went and offered some advice to the others too.’

‘Tch, as if. They wouldn’t even get it.’ Ty sat up more, trying to make himself a bigger wall between Stephen and Meg.

JJ made his way to the Dons’ locker room where Coach Long was addressing the boys and at the same time, Bella too.

‘You’re doing great out there. Don’t fret about the scoreboard, there’s still plenty of time to get those points back and take control of the game, it’s just one touchdown, that’s it. One play is all it takes to make the game even again. And I know they’re bigger than us, but that’s alright too, it’s not nothing we can’t overcome.’

JJ posted up by the doorway, listening to the tail end of the speech as Coach Long reminded the boys to keep playing to their strengths, to believe in themselves and each other, and that victory was assured if they continued to play as a team.

As Coach Long raised his fist, the whole team came together. ‘Remember, we’re a family, right? Family on three. One, two, three—’

‘Family!’

As the huddle dispersed and the team made their way back out of the locker room, Coach Long pulled Bella aside, giving her some personal words of encouragement with his arm around her.

‘You’re doing great sweetie, just keep it up, keep positive. You’ll get them in the second half when they lose steam.’

JJ searched for a familiar face.

He waited until that uniquely bad moustache came close enough to the door, then he grabbed Jamie’s arm and began walking with him. ‘Hola hemanito, how’s it going?’

Jamie’s role for the JV team was MLB, the same as what JJ did for the varsity team, though, of course, there were huge differences between their levels. ‘Eh, you’ve seen the scoreboard, haven’t you?’

‘Yeah, so what? Like Coach said, it’s just one touchdown, one play. Even YOU could even up the score again.’

‘I guess…’

‘Anyway, I’ve been watching, you guys aren’t doing bad. I know they’re big but, you guys can still win, they aren’t impassable mountains.’

‘Yeah but how—’

‘I’ll tell you.’ JJ put an arm over Jamie’s shoulders. ‘They like going over the middle, yeah? They use high passes, making the most out of their size. Well, that’s a weakness too. You see how they catch it, they’re always stretched out like this.’ JJ stepped back and raised his hands above his head, acting like he was catching a pass high in the air.

Jamie nodded.

‘Do that for a second.’ JJ nudged Jamie’s arms up and Jamie took the same pose. ‘Now, see how exposed you are. When they make that catch, all this is unprotected.’ He patted Jamie’s chest and stomach. ‘So, when they come down with a pass like that, that’s when you hit them right … here!’ He lowered his shoulder and GENTLY thrust it into Jamie’s midsection. ‘Boom, either they drop the ball, or even if they do catch it, they’ll have to think twice about coming through the middle. That’s YOUR area, remember? You have to protect it with everything you’ve got, whether you're against a pass or run.’

‘G-Got it. Thanks.’

JJ clapped Jamie on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry about it, just go out there and give them hell.’

Jamie nodded and grinned, hurrying over to the bench.

JJ smiled and returned to his seat, finding Stephen chowing down on a hotdog whilst Ty watched him closely. ‘You shouldn’t be eating that crap before the game,’ JJ said.

Stephen scoffed through his mouthful, blowing out crumbs. ‘Alright, DAD. It’s just a damn hotdog.’

JJ shook his head but took his seat.

As the second half unfolded, it didn’t take long for JJ’s advice to bear fruit. On the second play of the Mustangs’ opening drive, they tried a pass over the middle, but Jamie was there to meet the Receiver, and after a bone-crunching tackle, the ball sprung free and bounced right into the hands of another Dons defender for an interception off the deflection.

JJ jumped out of his seat excitedly. ‘Woo! That’s what I’m talking about! Just like that!’

Ty, ever the downer, wasn’t impressed. ‘Hmph… shouldn’t even let them catch it in the first place.’

But that was the turning point for the game, and the Dons continued their strong start to the second half. Thanks to the excellent starting position after the interception, they scored the first touchdown of the second half as Rabbit broke a run to the outside of the field and scampered into the end zone, tying things back up.

After that, the Dons started to run away with the game—quite literally—as their rushing attack carved up the Mustangs’ defence, whilst the renewed fierce defence, led by Jamie had the Mustangs’ Receivers constantly looking around for the potential big hit that awaited them.

The Dons kept their opponent scoreless in the second half, and ended up scoring another touchdown and a field goal to finish the game, giving them a ten-point victory with a final score of 20–30.

‘Hahaha, I told you they’d win, didn’t I?’ JJ punched Ty on the arm, grinning from ear to ear.

‘Hmm, yeah, yeah. Everyone can get lucky once in a while.’

JJ shook his head. ‘Luck didn’t have anything to do with it. Ah, come on, we better get ready for our own game. Can’t let the hermanitos down and make ourselves look bad by losing after their comeback win.’

‘Good luck, Ty, good luck, guys,’ Meg said.

Ty stood, muttering his thanks as he grabbed his bag. He started towards the locker room, following behind JJ. There was no way he would lose this game, especially after the JV team just won.

He almost felt sorry for his enemies today … ALMOST.