I am once again late and I hate this, but it's FINE, EVERYTHING'S FINE.

The locker room was dead silent as they all prepared for the coming game. Something Adira hadn't really let herself think about over the course of the horrible day was that she only knew of one person who knew her secret and hated her enough to out it in such a way.

Now, she couldn't ignore the fact any longer, and a day of shame was beginning to turn to burning anger that left her wanting to drop the gloves the minute she saw Willa.

But she didn't... didn't even look at her and give her the satisfaction of acknowledgment. She just took off Austin's clothes, refreshed her mascara for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and went about her normal pregame routine, trying to ignore the tension in the room.

It only took Lindsey a few minutes after her enthusiastic greeting was met by mere mumbles and nods and forced smiles to finally slice through that tension and ask.

"Alright. This is no way to go out there and win, and I'm in the dark. What's going on?"

No one answered.

The coach pursed her lips as she surveyed the room of student athletes. "No one?"

Another moment of silence before, with an infuriatingly innocent tone, Willa spoke up. "Okay, Coach, what happened was..."

Adira interrupted her as hot anger boiled over. "No! I'll tell her before I let you!"

A second of surprised quiet, no one used to Adira standing up for herself. Then, her opponent recovered.

"Why? You don't trust me?"

"No!" she snapped as she stormed across the locker room. "I don't!"

"Yeah, cuz you're a total ***** to her," someone muttered just loud enough for the room to hear.

"Who said that?" Willa asked sharply, whirling to glare around the space.

"I did!" Lucy stated, a little fire in her eyes. "Cuz it's true! You have some sick vendetta against Addi just because she's better than you. She's better than all of us! Get over it!"

"Okay, okay!" Lindsey stepped in before the argument could escalate further. "Everyone simmer down! Adira, what's going on?"

Adira shoved her phone, open to a screenshot of one of the posts, into her coach's hands, setting her shoulders and refusing to cry. "Five of them," she managed. "On the internet. For the whole school and probably the whole district to see."

With a sober and slightly sick look on her face, the coach handed the phone back to her. She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before looking around the locker room.

"Did any of you have anything to do with this?"

"No, Coach," came the chorus.

Its utterance from Willa's mouth made Adira want to rip her tongue out.

Lindsey continued to look around, her gaze fierce. "You're telling me the truth?"

"Yes, Coach," the chorus replied.

"Alright. Cuz if I find out one of you helped do this or even took advantage of it or encouraged it... you are not gonna like what happens."

"Yes, Coach."

"Good. Now unless you're sticking up for your teammate, I want all of you to pretend like you never saw such a degrading and disgraceful piece of art. You got that?"

"Yes, Coach."

She nodded, then jerked her head to the door. "Now go warm up."

The team filed out as the coach locked eyes with Adira. "I'm really sorry, Rhodes." A hesitation before, "I'll have to tell you what happened to me in college sometime."

Adira nodded, just a little comforted at the implication that someone she respected so much had gone through something similar.

"Just don't let 'em get in your head, alright?"

"Yes, Coach."

But that was much easier said than done.

They were playing the Murfreesboro club, so the crowd was larger than usual. Just her luck. There were also more students than usually attended club games... It almost resembled the regular season school games. With a sick feeling in her stomach, she didn't think luck had much to do with that.

She found Austin and Reagan in the crowd as she warmed up. He blew her a kiss. She mimed catching it and putting it in her nonexistent pocket. A goodluck joke they'd had between them since they first became friends.

She was surprised to see James sitting on the bleachers beside him. She'd never even seen him at a school game. He met her gaze and nodded simply. She returned it as a realization sank in.

He was there to stick up for her.

As she continued to prepare for the game, she found more familiar faces walking in and already sitting down. A few school staff members, including Rolys, Adler, Ellis, and Officer Stephens. More students she knew. She could expect some good intentions and some otherwise there. Joel and Moriah... joined by Luke, Courtney, and their kids. She hadn't realized they were coming. And they'd either run into several people they knew, they'd made fast friends with the people sitting by them, or they'd brought friends.

Had the school called him?

She felt sick just thinking about it, so she tried not to. Even if she had twenty people there to root for her, there would be many more who'd seen the post and would be happy to remind her of it every chance they got. The last thing she needed to do was embarrass herself further by playing poorly.

Willa was back in the lineup, and she was starting in her normal place beside Adira. They were waiting for the whistle and the other team's starting serve when she finally decided to take her first real shot of the night.

"You know that old trick about picturing everyone around you naked? Guess you've got the opposite going tonight."

Adira grit her teeth and stared straight ahead. Willa wanted to see her lose focus and screw up more than any of them. It wasn't going to happen.

The other team served. A rally commenced. With Adira's first hit came a yell from the crowd.

"Nice ***, Rhodes!"

And so it began.

Block it out. She just had to block it out.

pov-change sponsored by adam g. and his forty-eight roses

Joel could feel the tension in the stands. There were more people... especially more young people... there than at the games he'd attended previously. He picked out Adira's history teacher and counselor in the crowd and could only hope most of the extra spectators were there as he assumed they were... to support her. But he knew from the whispering and giggling among the students that it definitely wasn't the case for all parties.

Reagan in his carseat was just below the row Joel, Moriah, and their crew chose, not with Ray as usual, but another boy he hadn't met, who actually looked to be Adira's age. That would be her friend Austin then?

Another young man joined him and the two offered each other tight smiles.

"Hey, Man," Austin greeted him.

"Hey," the second boy returned.

"Addi said you stood up for her in class today," Austin said as he reached down to fix Reagan's blanket. "Thanks."

His companion just shook his head. "You shouldn't be thanking me for being a halfway decent person, Man."

The babysitter acknowledged that with an inclination of his head. "You gotta point."

Joel turned his attention away from them and leaned over to where Vince was explaining to Eva how volleyball worked and pointing out Adira's number so the little girl knew when to cheer.

"Hey, thanks again for doing this," he told the musician seriously. "It means a lot."

He and Ben had been the only ones without prior commitments, but Joel actually thought that the two and their wives and children, along with himself, Moriah, Luke, Courtney, and the boys, were the perfect sized group to add support for Adira to the crowd. Much larger would have seemed more forced and overwhelming.

As the girls set up for the opening serve, Joel could see Adira's teammate, the one who'd been so angry with her in the other game, was speaking to her. It was clear from Adira's stoic expression that she wasn't being friendly.

With Adira's first hit came the first shouted comment from the crowd, from a boy probably a year younger than her, who was dressed like a frat boy in the making.

"Nice ***, Rhodes!"

Austin was on his feet the moment the shout had left the boy's lips, turning and projecting back, "Hey, shut up or I'll make you!"

The shouted taunts became more frequent as the match wore on, but even more than that came the murmurs, the giggles, the various descriptions of Adira made among friends, labels slapped onto her just because a bully had chosen to put a drawing of her on the internet.

It was mostly students, and Austin and the boy he was sitting with, who Joel had heard him speaking to at the start of the match, mostly handled them. Their way of handling them was by making threats and saying they could take it outside if they wanted to, but Joel couldn't find it in himself to disapprove of the method. All he'd wanted to do since seeing the drawings that afternoon was punch the people responsible.

When the boys were otherwise occupied, whether with baby Reagan or with a different offender, Joel or one of the people with him would step in if it was in their section, while the various staff members, including Rolys and Ellis, would do the same if it was closer to them.

That mostly consisted of, "That's enough,"s and "Hey, knock it off,"s. The female offenders were less common than the male ones, but when they popped up, Moriah or Courtney took over. There wasn't much they could do about most of the whispering, but after a group of four girls two rows below them giggled and gossiped to each other about what a various demeaning terms Adira was, Moriah had taken all she could.

She leaned down to speak to them quietly but with a certain firm severity. "You know, girls, if someday someone decides to disrespect one of you like they decided to disrespect Adira, I sure hope the other three of you will show her more compassion than you're showing right now."

They silently pouted for the rest of the match.

More than anything, though, Joel and his group, as well as Adira's other scattered supporters, took it upon themselves to cover up the taunts that did exist. They were mostly shouted whenever she touched the ball, so they simply cheered all the louder, hopefully drowning out the catcalls and other disrespect in the process.

In the end, the two team's alternated set wins, but Adira's came out on top with the odd numbers. For her part, the girl played with an intense focus obviously born of a desperate need to drown anything and everything that wasn't volleyball out.

At the end of the match, Vince, Luke, Ben, and their families headed out, telling him to pass on their praise to Adira and bring her by the studio sometime. He and Moriah found their place in the hall to wait for her to come out.

Austin and Reagan emerged from the gym close behind them, and the boy approached them with a nod of greeting. "Joel and Moriah?"

Joel nodded, shaking the kid's hand before his wife did the same. "Austin?"

He confirmed that as well before saying, "Thank you guys. For taking care of Addi, I mean."

"Our pleasure," Joel replied simply. "Really. She's an incredible girl."

"Yeah, she sure is."

The look in the boy's eyes and the enamored tone he spoke with confirmed beyond any doubt that even if they referred to each other as just friends, there was definitely something else going on between the two teens. As true-hearted as Austin seemed, Joel made a mental note to have a talk with the boy when the opportunity presented itself.

Austin's attention was stolen by something behind them, and they turned to see him walking to greet Adira. They could barely make out the soft conversation that ensued.

"Lookin' good out there, Hot Stuff."

Joel couldn't help the eyebrow that shot up at the nickname.

Adira forced a smile in response to the compliment. "Thanks. But it coulda been a lot better."

"What, you mean if Willa hadn't flubbed most of the hits she made?"

The smile that responded to that was more genuine. "I actually meant me."

"Please," Austin scoffed. "You had laser-focus. And even the sets you lost were close. You played really well, Princess. Just like you always do."

Once again, Joel had to blink a little. Just friends, and yet they were already knee-deep in a plethora of cute pet names.

"Well, thanks," she sighed, the held out her arm for her brother's car seat and diaper bag, cooing a greeting to the baby before looking back up at her friend. "See you tomorrow?"

"You know it." He bent down, kissed her cheek, and walked away.

Joel forced his open-mouth shut. It seemed that talk was a little more promptly needed than he'd realized.

Before he and Moriah could continue forward to greet the girl, a man he didn't recognize, probably in his late forties, approached where she was still speaking to her brother.

"Now little lady," he said with a suggestive smile, "I know your ad said fifteen for an hour, but seeing as it's a school night, I thought we could make an arrangement for twice that."

Before Adira had the chance to even take a breath to respond, Joel was stepping in between the two of them, barely able to rein in the hot anger inside of him.

"Look, Mate," he growled dangerously. "It's bad enough to see the boys here who obviously haven't been taught the correct way to treat a woman. But you? You should know how to respect women, but that's the issue here, because she's not a woman to you. She's a kid. So you're not even gonna look at her again, and you're gonna walk right out those doors, or I'm gonna find a police officer to remove you. Understand?"

"Yeah, and what are you?" the man scoffed. "The chivalry police?"

"FIrst of all, I'm a halfway decent person who'd stand up for any young girl being harassed by a grown man," he replied frankly. "And second, I'm currently in charge of keeping this girl safe. So don't look at her again or my wife here would be happy to go find an officer."

"Why get an officer when we can take it outside right now?" the guy challenged, still desperately trying to retain his mojo.

How Joel wished they could. "You know, I'd love to do that. But as I said, I've been entrusted with her and her brother's care and safety right now, and in such cases, punching people is frowned upon, even when they're perverts. Now get out."

Cursing him under his breath, the man finally complied, storming in the direction of the exit. Joel didn't take his eyes off of him until he was out the glass doors and around the next corner.

When he had, he finally turned back in Adira's direction, his demeanor softening as he found her staring at the ground and obviously struggling not to cry.

"Thanks." The word was barely audible.

Joel just shook his head a little. "I'm so sorry, Darling."

"It's fine." He shrugged and swallowed back a fresh onslaught of tears as she said it.

Moriah closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around the girl from behind. "It doesn't have to be fine, Sweetie," she murmured softly.

Adira swallowed again and just nodded, obviously not trusting herself to speak.

Feeling his heart break all over again, Joel nodded towards the exit. "You ready to go home?"

She nodded.

"You want me to drive you?"

A hurriedly shaken head.

"Are you sure?"

Another nod.

"Alright," he relented. "Then we'll see you there, alright?"

As usual, comments make my life, even if I do take ten years to reply to them. Love you lots. Happy late Halloween!

- Line <3