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Coach ran us like greyhounds And just before practice there’d been a little cloudburst, so the grass was da by the time it was done, exhausted by the constant stop-start torque required to change direction as I dribbled the ball

By the time the whistle blew, it was too dark to see the ball

Bickley clapped a hand on my sweaty shoulder as alked into the locker room "What a lovely little stroll we’ve had this afternoon," he said "I feel so refreshed"

"Coach was in a mood, wasn’t he?"

"That he was"

My roo, just barelytiot back to our rooathered ain

"Where are you headed?" my roommate asked

"Uh, upstairs Bella and I are paired up on a project"

"Reeeally" He grinned "That could be just what you require She’s quite the slapper, I’ve heard"

My blood pressure kicked up several notches on Bella’s behalf "What’s that supposed to mean?"

Bickley spread his hands "It’s a shah Maybe she’d aoal Maybe she’ll let you put your round thing into her goal"

"Shut yourthe door slaer, I can’t say what I would have done to hi Bickley

I headed upstairs and knocked on Bella’s door I was more than a little surprised to hear her say "co the door open, I saw Bella on the bed She looked a hell of a lot better than when I’d walked in here a few hours ago Wearing clean clothes and a slick of lip gloss, she looked more like the Bella that I used to see "Hey," she said, her eyes flickering up intoquickly, and then I never want to speak of it again"

"Us over the side of the bed and braced her elbows on her knees "The reason I went into that frat house last Saturday night was that I needed to tell one of the guys soernails "My doctor told ht an, uious" She looked up to ot it within a short tih So that means I didn’t have it e, uh…" She crossed her arms