Page 49 of The Backup Plan

After a month?

“They said I should have known and they thought they made it clear, but I guess I just held onto some hope, and now I feel like a moron for doing it.”

They?

“Fields, I’m sorry. I don’t think I know what you’re talking about.”

“My brothers committed to play for Michigan. Formally, yesterday.”

Cam had been wrestling out of his pads and nearly dropped them. “You are shitting me.”

Isaac snapped his fingers. “Poof. One more Fields linebacker and a cornerback, gone.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“They wanted to go together.” Isaac shifted his glare to the ceiling. “Those two are stupidly enmeshed. I mean, there are twins, and there are these idiots. But the deal was better up there for both of them. We could have gotten ourselves some help at corner”—he looked around quickly—“which we really need. But we’re stacked for linebackers and he might warm the bench for two years. Michigan needed him, and we didn’t.”

Cam’s heart sank. Isaac’s twin brothers came to clinics in the spring and camps in the summer and were the slightly-crazier version of their brother, times two. The three of them were monsters on the field together, and Isaac always sounded certain they’d come.

Now, instead of joining their older brother, they were going to Cory, the lucky bastard. A thought struck him.

“Don’t transfer,” he demanded. “Please.”

Isaac finally met his eyes. “I’ve considered it a hundred times in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Well, thank fuck you can’t do anything yet.” Cam shoved his helmet in his locker as Isaac burst out laughing.

“What?”

“Do you know how strong your accent gets when you’re fired up?”

Cam winced. “I’ve heard reports.”

“It’s phenomenal. You were stomping down the sideline calling us ‘y’all fellas’ by the fourth quarter.”

“I was not.”

“And the way you just completely drawled ‘thank fuck’ was the best thing I’ve heard all day.” Isaac jumped from the bench and smacked Cam’s shoulder. “I mean it. That was so honest. It meant more than any other hype you yelled today. Thanks, buddy.”

“Whatever it takes, man. Glad to help.” Cam shuffled in his bag to busy his hands. “You and Avery going out to the thing tonight?”

“I don’t think so. She said she was behind on a bunch of assignments and wanted to get caught up today.”

“She wasn’t here?”

“Nope.” He stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “Man. Staying in sounds pretty good right about now.”

SIXTEEN

Thinking Ink

AVERY

Avery slouched over the low table, elbows on her knees, chin in her hands as she stared at her music theory workbook like she’d never seen a treble clef before. “This is ridiculous,” she mumbled to the empty lounge. What should have been a ten-minute assignment had already taken thirty, and was only half complete. She knew her major and minor scales inside and out, so plucking intervals from them shouldn’t be difficult.

After opening her tablet to her piano app, she rearranged her workspace and tried to clear her mind to run down a mental checklist. She tapped out an F-sharp major scale as she thought.

It would not affect her financial aid package.