TWO
Neither beautiful, nor admirable.

For someone who travelled so much as a child, Juliette hasn't been in many public airports before. In fact, she can count on one hand the amount of times she has travelled through them, and still have some fingers to spare. The Anderson's always used private planes flying from private airport to private airport. She isn't sure how air transportation works in general—Henry's sister didn't live long enough to explain it to her—but now that she thinks about it, she wouldn't be surprised if some of the flights weren't even registered.

She finds that domestic flights are less of a hassle than international ones, though. Going through customs two years ago, when she moved back to the United States, was a pain. She gets that recently emancipated sixteen year olds flying one-way to a country of which they hold dual citizenship on their own might raise a few eyebrows, but there was still absolutely no reason for that one border agent to pester her with questions for nearly fifteen minutes.

( Minors can't enter the U.S. alone, kid. / I'm emancipated. (Truth) ) ( Do you have family there? / Not anymore. (Half-truth) ) ( Where will you be staying? / I'm renting an apartment. (Lie, at the time) )

It was a pain, so Juliette is glad when she steps off the plane into Columbia Metropolitan Airport and can just head straight to baggage claim and then to the pick-up area without further questioning. Coach Wymack texted her a couple days ago to let her know Danielle Wilds—team captain—would be picking her up from the airport; whether he arranges that for every new player who doesn't get to PSU by car or he just picked up on the fact that Juliette could definitely use passing on the fare of a taxi, she doesn't know, and she doesn't care enough to find out.

Juliette had heard of the Foxes before Wymack came to find her; not necessarily because she was particularly interested in collegiate teams, but because her high school teammates were. She'd heard all about them being the laughingstock of Class I Exy, which she didn't care to listen to, but she did pay attention when her team captain went on a rant about a girl being named captain. She probably wouldn't admit it, were someone to ask her, but she did feel a tad curious about what kind of person could reign in a team like the Foxes.

As it turns out, Danielle Wilds is a 5'5" woman with short curly hair and an inviting smile but a sharp edge in her eyes, the kind of assessing look someone who isn't trained in the art of discretion can't successfully conceal. She calls out Juliette's name, butchers the pronunciation of her last name and extends a hand.

"I'm Dan Wilds." Her grip is firm. "Nice to meet you."

Juliette gives her a nod. "Jules LeRoy."

"LeRoy," Dan repeats, correcting her pronunciation, but her 'r' is still a tad too soft. "Need help with your bags?"

Her eyes widen a little at its weight, but she doesn't seem to mind picking up the bordeaux duffle bag Juliette had stacked upon her suitcase. She hoists it on her shoulder and heads towards the exit. "Matt's waiting for us at the pick-up zone—the parking lot's expensive as shit."

"Matt?"

"Matt Boyd," Dan clarifies. "Sophomore backliner. Really cool guy. I don't have a car, so I hitched a ride with him."

They walk out of the airport and Dan leads Juliette to a, frankly hideous, blue truck with a large bed and an extended cab with extra seats. Juliette briefly wonders if they avoided the parking lot because the fare for heavy vehicles—which this thing definitely qualifies as—is significantly higher. A guy steps out of the passenger side and Juliette has to do a double take. Matt Boyd is, without a doubt, what most people would expect a backliner to look like—though Juliette might not fall under this category of people, seeing as her go-to image of backliners is Célia, and her sister is many things, but she sure as Hell isn't intimidating. Matt is nearly a foot taller than Dan, jacked like a boxer, and yet he stands with his shoulders hunched under a hoodie half a size too big and a tentative smile on his face.

He introduces himself quickly and throws Juliette's stuff in the bed of his truck before getting back on the passenger side, leaving Dan to drive. Juliette doesn't ask.

The ride from the airport to campus is about half an hour long, which Dan and Matt spend trying to make small talk, and Juliette half-listens as Matt talks about being from New York. When they realise she isn't keen on entertaining pleasantries, Dan switches to telling her about how the day will go.

"We've already picked up your dorm keys from Coach so we could save time, seeing as your plane landed a bit late," she says, only glancing briefly in the rearview mirror to see if Juliette has clocked onto the fact that it's her she's talking to. "You're rooming with me, Allison and Renee, since it's only the four of us women on the team."

Juliette notes the slight bitterness weaving its way in her tone. "They're in your year, right?"

"Yeah." Dan nods. "Allison's our defensive dealer, and Renee's one of our goalies. The others are one of the other freshmen and a fifth year. Allison can be a bit much, but she's cool once you get to know her. Renee's by far the nicest person you'll ever meet, you'll see."

"I'm sure I will."

"Anyway," Dan continues as she pulls into Perimeter Road, the freeway that surrounds the campus of Palmetto State University. "We'll drop off your stuff at the dorm and then head straight to the stadium for the meeting with Coach. You'll have all your time to unpack later."

Dan pulls into the parking lot of Fox Tower, the athletes' dorm, and quickly finds a spot. It was mentioned in one of the documents Wymack sent to Juliette last month that the Exy team is always one of the first to settle into the dorms and start summer practices, so the lot is pretty much empty, save for some beat up Honda civic, a motorbike that has surely seen better days, a sleek, shiny black berline and, of all things, a pink convertible. Juliette figures this paints a pretty solid image of what she's heard the PSU Foxes are: a mismatched team of pieces that don't fit together.

Matt gives her a quick rundown of which keys open her dorm room, the front gate of the stadium, the lounge room and the locker room as they get to the third floor  ( by taking the stairs as, according to Dan, the elevator is often out of service in the summer ).  The door to room 319 opens just as they get to it to reveal a girl with long blonde hair perfectly curled, a skin-tight white dress and a pair of heels without which she wouldn't be taller than Juliette. The girl halts in her step as she sees her three teammates in the threshold and looks Juliette up and down before walking past them with her nose turned up and not a word spoken. She's followed by a guy barely shorter than Matt, with a brown buzz cut and an unimpressed look on his face. He, too, doesn't spare them a word, which is just as well, as far as Juliette is concerned.

"Well," Dan mutters as she leads the way into the dorm. "That was Allison Reynolds and Seth Gordon, senior striker."

"They're about as sweet as they look," Matt chuckles awkwardly.

"You don't say," Juliette deadpans.

The dorm room is more or less what Juliette expected of it—the main door leads to a common space with a large L-shaped couch and a loveseat, a coffee table in the middle and a small cabinet with a flat-screen on its top. To her right, there is a small kitchen with two stoves, a mini fridge, a microwave and an espresso machine that was definitely brought by one of her roommates. Juliette nearly sighs in relief at its sight after two years of drinking Avril's shitty, watered down coffee.

Movement from her left tears her attention from her new environment, and Juliette finds herself looking at a girl with bleached white hair dyed lilac at the tips, the look completely out of place paired with her shin-length grey skirt, white-collared shirt and dainty, silver cross necklace and mary-janes.

"You must be Juliette." She smiles kindly at her and offers a hand. "I'm Renee Walker."

Juliette blinks once before taking her hand, her grip much lighter than Dan's had been. "Jules LeRoy."

"Pleasure to meet you."

Juliette makes a flat sound and, before she can stop herself, says, "don't sound so sure."

Renee's smile doesn't waver, but something in her eyes shifts, and Juliette thinks she might end up being completely out of her depth with her roommates.

She breaks away from Renee's gaze and turns towards Dan when she speaks up. "Bathroom's down the hall, and the bedroom's on the left. We're already settled in, so I hope you're fine with a bottom bunk."

"If you aren't, we can switch," Renee offers.

"It's fine." Juliette waves them off and heads down the small hallway, dragging her suitcase and duffle behind her, half-listening as Renee tells Dan and Matt that Allison and Seth had gotten tired of waiting for them and decided to head down to the stadium on their own.

The bedroom is, thankfully, rather large—at least large enough to hold two bunk beds, two relatively large desks and two double closet spaces without making Juliette feel too claustrophobic. That's not to say she'll spend her free time here, because as much space as there is, the thought of being holed up with three strangers twenty-four/seven gives her the urge to jump back on a plane to NOLA and go crawling back to Miley to tell her she's changed her mind about college, but it's much easier to breathe here than it was in her old studio.

         Juliette quickly realises why Wymack thought it necessary to give her a fair warning about the other freshmen recruits two months ago. She, Renee, Dan and Matt got to the stadium late, and yet when they entered the lounge room, the other freshmen were nowhere to be found. One of the fifth years whose name Juliette didn't bother catching nearly blew up on Dan the moment they walked in, demanding more than asking why they weren't with her. Dan quickly shut him down by reminding him that Wymack only asked her to pick up Juliette and that she isn't yet responsible for the others, which led to a series of low-spoken complaints.

Juliette sort of regrets not following Renee's example and bringing one of her own books when, fifteen minutes later, still no one. The two of them are definitely not into the same type of literature, but all Juliette has to occupy her hands with at the moment is the cheap, fake silver snake ring on her left index, and the more she fidgets with it, the more green residue it'll leave on her skin.

Dan checks her watch every minute or so, and it seems to get on Renee's nerves as well when she clasps her hand with one of hers and brings it back down to her lap. It takes another fifteen minutes, during which Allison has the time to go to the bathroom and come back with freshly glossed lips and the fifth years complain some more, before the door down the hall is heard. A few seconds later, the door to the lounge bursts open to reveal yet another too-tall guy with a shit-eating grin on his face, a pair of yellow sunglasses pushing back his black hair and, what definitely solidifies his bad first impression on a majority of the team, a fitted black shirt with 'GET THIS STRAIGHT—I'M NOT' written in bold, rainbow-coloured letters.

He introduces himself as Nicky Hemmick, backliner, with a crass comment that prompts an even crasser slur from who Juliette is almost sure is Juan Torres. She throws him a dark look, but Dan gets to him first.

"It's all cool, cap." Nicky shrugs. "If I let every asshole get to me, I'd never have a good day."

"What'd you call me?" Juan demands.

"He called you an asshole," a new voice says, and Juliette glances past Nicky to see a guy a full foot shorter than him, with dirty blond hair and an unimpressed expression. "That wasn't news to you, right?"

"This is Aaron." Nicky grins and props an elbow on his cousin's shoulder. "He's a bit rude sometimes, but at least he's honest. You remember Aaron, right Dan?"

The look on Dan's face tells Juliette that she does, indeed, remember him, and clearly not quite fondly. Aaron doesn't spare her a look even when she greets him with forced politeness, and he instead sweeps his gaze across the room. He stops on Juliette for a second longer than the rest, surely noticing that she wasn't on the lineup last year, and Juliette briefly wonders if Wymack let them know he had recruited someone else at the last minute.

Renee apparently decides to be the bigger person and stands up, closing her Bible in the same movement, to walk up to the two newcomers and extend a hand like she did with Juliette earlier. Aaron doesn't even consider taking it, but Nicky seems happy to play it polite.

"Renee Walker. Nice to meet you."

"Starting goalkeeper." Nicky nods.

"Not for long," Aaron says, making Nicky smile somewhat apologetically, though he seems more sorry about Aaron being right than rude.

He gestures to the Bible tucked under her arm. "What faith?"

"Catholic," Renee says. "Are you religious?"

"Sometimes. Dad's a Baptist minister, so some of it was bound to rub off. So long as you don't try to save me from my man-loving sin, I'll forgive you for belonging to the wrong church. Deal?"

"Sounds fair." Renee smiles, and Juliette wonders if she ever doesn't. "Why don't you two come sit down?"

"Yeah," Damian Wilson mutters. "Let's get this over with."

Aaron and Nicky head to the one remaining seat, but neither of them sits down; Nicky only leans against the armrest while Aaron stands a certain distance from the seat altogether. Nicky's gaze travels to Juliette and he arches an eyebrow. "You're new."

"Late recruit." Juliette shrugs. "Jules LeRoy, striker."

"Oh, right! Coach did mention you. I think. Maybe. Definitely."

His interest leaves as soon as it came, and he sets his eyes on Matt. He opens his mouth again, except what comes out of it this time is German. Juliette can't speak a word of it, but she heard it enough times that she can tell its sonority apart from other languages sharing its roots. Aaron replies something in the same tongue but less good of an accent, and it sounds about as friendly as everything he bothered to say in English.

Matt, despite look terribly uncomfortable, asks, "that's German, right?"

"Sure is." Nicky grins at him. "Macon only offered Spanish and German, and why would I put myself through more Spanish? Since we all studied it, we run a bilingual household. I can't afford to fall out of practice while I'm in the States and it keeps things interesting. What about you? You good with your tongue?"

Juliette rolls her eyes at the innuendo and almost laughs at Dan clasping a protective hand on Matt. Nicky makes a half-hearted attempt at placating her, but Juliette is already looking at the third and last person entering the lounge. Renee, who has her back to the door, flinches slightly enough that Juliette is sure she is the only one to pick up on it when Aaron's twin brother lets out a string of German right behind her.

She's still looking oddly at Andrew Minyard when Wymack and a short, middle-aged woman with a kind smile walk into the lounge. Andrew, like Aaron, takes a general glance at the room and lingers an extra second on Juliette, before blinking at Renee by his side, like he's only now noticing her.

"Oh, how indecisive," Andrew says, switching to English as easily as his brother and cousin had switched to German.

"I'm sorry?" Renee blinks.

"So I've heard." Andrew nods, and leaves it at that, whatever the fuck that means.

He goes to take the empty seat Aaron and Nicky left him, and Juliette has the passing thought that the whole thing looks rehearsed, as if they had planned a horrid introduction to a T. Frankly, she can appreciate such a commitment to the bit.

Wymack dumps a stack of paperwork on the table in the centre of the lounge. "All right, we're all here, so let's get the boring shit out of the way. For those who haven't met her yet—" and he looks directly at Juliette as he points his thumb at the woman beside him, "—this is Abby Winfield, team nurse. Your turn, names and ranks around the room."

Everyone takes a turn introducing themselves and their position, all with very low levels of enthusiasm, save for Dan. By the time they get to Andrew, he introduces himself as "the other Minyard!" and it seems to be the last straw for Reggie Dawson.

"We don't need three goalkeepers," he damn-near whines, sinking petulantly into the couch, acting more like a child than the twenty-something he's supposed to be. Dan pinches her nose, and this time Juliette does huff. Reggie turns a glare on her. "Something funny?"

"I mean, yeah." She shrugs. "Didn't you get scored on, like, a dozen times in the last game you played?"

"I think it was fourteen," Nicky pipes in.

"Damn," Juliette retorts with theatrical emphasis.

Reggie looks ready to lung at them before Andrew interrupts him cheerily. "Oh, such a long face! No worries, I'm just here for morale."

"We're fucked," Damian mutters.

"That's new," Seth says with heavy sarcasm.

"Coach said you signed off on him." Nicky shrugs. "Unanimous, right?"

Seth manages to hurl one more slur at Nicky and claim he won't change in front of him before Wymack kicks him out of the lounge for the remainder of the meeting. Juliette is glad to see her Coach will put up with and tolerate his team's anger issues and general unpleasant personalities but won't let their prejudices on his court—it's a good thing, seeing as Juliette would otherwise give herself a maximum of three business days before she took the matter into her own hands and last time she did that, she was the one to end up in the most trouble. Go figure.

The rest of the room watches as Nicky and Andrew seem to argue in German, until Nicky turns another smile, though this time much less genuine, towards Wymack. "Hey, Coach, no problem, right? You took a chance on us, so let's do you a favour in return. Let us use the changing rooms in turn, us and them. Everyone wins."

"Yes." Dwayne is as quick to agree as Wymack is to say, "no."

Andrew laughs, and the sound of it genuinely bothers Juliette—there is something hollow yet nearly shrill to it, and it doesn't match the sharpness in his eyes. In this regard, it reminds her of Renee, though whatever it is that they both hide, Renee does a better job at it, more controlled. She wonders if it has anything to do with the court-ordered medication that Wymack mentioned.

"Oh, Coach." Andrew sighs. "It's so boring watching you feign indignation on our behalf. Be smart, would you?"

Wymack seems equally unimpressed and suspicious and settles on rescheduling this conversation to a later time. It isn't a yes, but it's enough to make the upperclassmen back down a notch and take away some of the tension in Nicky's smile. That settled, Wymack moves on to a speech about academic records and summer schedules. Juliette pays more attention to the papers that make their way to her than to her Coach's words. Despite being recruited late, she didn't miss the deadline to apply to her classes and the paperwork mentioned, amongst other less important things, student tutoring mandatory for athletes. She isn't thrilled by the idea, partly because she knows she won't need it, and mostly because she already has a team-full of people she's going to have to be around several hours a day, and she could do without an extra person.

By the time Wymack is done with his spiel, Abby starts calling the players one by one for physical exams. Andrew goes first, followed by Matt and Seth, before Juliette is called. She follows Abby into the medical room, which doesn't have much past a desk, three chairs and a small, uncomfortable-looking bed.

"Like David said, I'm the team's nurse, Abby," she says as she gestures for Juliette to take a seat on the bed. "This is just a basic exam—weight, height, blood work. Do you have any history of injuries or illnesses?"

The easy answer is yes, for injuries. However, none of them were sports related, nor did they leave any lasting damage that might cause issues in the near or distant future. Bones don't just break again on their own, as Juliette has repeatedly told Célia in the past.

"None."

Abby nods and proceeds with the exam—Juliette weighs in, finds out she has grown an inch since trying out for her high school team, gets two vials of blood taken and labelled, and goes through a series of reflex tests before Abby asks her to take her shirt off.

"I need to check for track marks," she explains.

"I don't really do drugs," Juliette tells her.

"That's good. But mandatory is mandatory."

Juliette clicks her tongue but does as asked. She knows what Abby sees; a wide, upside-down spider weaving a web on her sternum, a crying rendition of the Venus de Milo over a blacked-out, rectangular background on her left forearm, and a string of foxglove flowers on her right upper arm, all done in a similar, modern blackwork style that easily hides the scars underneath. She also knows what Abby doesn't see; twin scars on her cheeks, healed enough to be almost completely hidden under a coat of makeup, and a number of yet-to-be-covered scars on her legs, one of them unmistakably a gunshot wound that still aches in the winter.

Juliette extends her arms so Abby can check for track marks she won't find, and puts her shirt back on as soon as she's signalled to.

"Your tattoos are nice," Abby says as she writes down something on Juliette's file. "How old are they?"

"I'm going to go the legal route and say I got them all done in the past month," she answers in a faux-innocent tone that earns a semi-chastising, semi-amused look from the nurse. "Are we done?"

Juliette leaves the small, antiseptic-stenched room as soon as Abby dismisses her and stops by the lounge just long enough to call on the next person and tell Dan she'll just walk back to the dorm rather than wait for her and Renee to be done, before exiting the stadium.

Outside, in the parking lot, Andrew is leaning against the black car that she had noticed earlier, the one that looks way too nice for a college student on a scholarship to own, and smoking a cigarette. She meets his gaze to find it already on her, and sees again that sharpness she doesn't trust in it. She doesn't shy away from it, though, and only looks away when he gets out of her direct field of vision.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
there wasn't much to edit in this chapter compared to the next one so it's probably a bit of a boring reread but! i'm still very fond of the monsters' sort of introduction and i'm really excited to write their early interactions with jules bcs they're all their own kind of assholes and it's all very funny to me