Getting Expelled

The locked door of the abandoned equipment shed felt less like a sanctuary and more like a cage.

I leaned my back against the rusted metal wall, sliding down until my knees hit my chest. My right knuckles were already swelling, a angry purplish-red bruising blooming across the skin. Every breath I took felt like inhaling broken glass as the chest binder strained against my ribs. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the roaring adrenaline still vibrating through my veins.

The door handle rattled.

I flinched, my hand instinctively dropping to the heavy roll of athletic tape beside me, ready to use it as a weapon. The heavy padlock clicked open, and the door slid back with a harsh, grinding screech.

A tall figure stepped into the dim, dust-mote-filled room, slamming the door shut behind him and throwing the deadbolt.

It was Asher.

He didn’t look like my brother right now; he looked like a ghost. His face was entirely stripped of color, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles in his cheek were jumping. He was still in his muddy green jersey, but he looked completely deflated, carrying the weight of a catastrophic secret on his broad shoulders.

For a long moment, he just stood there, staring down at me. The silence in the small shed was suffocating.

"Are you insane?" His voice was a harsh, ragged whisper that cut through the darkness.

I didn't look up. I picked at a loose thread on my rugby shorts. "He tripped me, Asher. He started it."

"I don't care who started it!" Asher snapped, his control fracturing as he took a predatory step toward me. He threw his hands up in a rare display of unbridled panic. "Do you have any idea what you just did? You didn't just punch a guy, Reese. You punched Cassian Vale. The entire field saw it. The entire school knows by now!"

"He's a bully," I muttered, my voice tight with a stubbornness I didn't actually feel. Inside, my stomach was a knot of cold dread. "Someone had to do it."

Asher let out a hollow, bitter laugh, rubbing his hands over his face as if trying to wake himself up from a nightmare. When he pulled his hands away, his eyes were bright with a mix of fury and profound hurt.

"A bully? Reese, this isn't a normal high school. This is Blackridge," he said, his voice dropping into a desperate, intense register. "When you make trouble here, it’s a disease. It spreads. It ruins lives. Did you forget why we are doing this? Did you forget the stakes?"

I closed my eyes, the memory hitting me like a physical blow.

"You practically begged me," Asher whispered, his voice cracking slightly. He dropped to his knees in front of me, forcing me to look at him. "You begged me to let you come to this school. We both knew it was a dangerous game. An all-male sports academy? If anyone finds out you're a girl, we are both finished. My scholarship is gone. Our future is gone. But because I loved you, because I wanted the absolute best for you and your talent, I risked everything. I helped you wrap that binder. I lied to the coaches. I gave you my life."

He gripped my shoulders, his fingers digging into the fabric of my jersey. "So why? Why did you have to go and get yourself into trouble on day one?"

I swallowed hard, the guilt tasting like ash in my mouth. I wanted to apologize, to tell him I was sorry for risking his hard work, but my stubborn pride blocked the words in my throat. I shrugged his hands off my shoulders. "I can handle myself."

Asher's expression hardened. He bent down further, bringing his face inches from mine, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet register that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

"Listen to me very carefully," he whispered. "You think you're tough because you can outrun some boys on a field? In this place, being a good player is not enough. Talent is cheap here. Survival is expensive. So why do you have to go and get yourself noticed? And of all the people in this godforsaken academy, why did it have to be Cassian?"

He leaned in closer, the urgency in his eyes terrifying. "You know exactly who he is. You know what his family does. Cassian Vale doesn't just get mad, Reese. He destroys people. He removes them."

I stared back at him, my heart hammering against my ribs, but I refused to let the terror show. I couldn't. If I broke now, I would never be able to step back onto that field. I needed the anger. I needed the armor.

I stood up, pushing past him, and wiped the dirt from my hands with a cold, defiant sneer.

"I don't fucking care who he is," I said, my voice ringing loud and clear in the small shed. "I don't care about his family, I don't care about his reputation, and I don't care what he thinks he's going to do to me. Let him try."

Asher stared at me, his anger suddenly freezing over into a look of pure, clinical exhaustion. "Oh, whatever. You don't care?"

He reached into his muddy jersey pocket and pulled out a crisp, white envelope. He slapped it hard against my chest binder.

"Then look at this," Asher hissed, his voice trembling. "What the fuck are you going to do about this, Reese?"

I frowned, the sudden shift in his demeanor making a knot of dread tighten in my stomach. I took the envelope, tore open the top seal, and pulled out the heavy paper inside. My eyes flicked over the official Black ridge Academy letterhead, scanning the bold, block text halfway down the page.

My breath hitched. The words blurred together before snapping into terrifying focus.

"Oh, no," I whispered, my voice suddenly failing me. "This... this is not possible. I practically didn't do anything wrong! He's the one who tripped me!"

"Well, you didn't do anything wrong in your mind," Asher said, his voice entirely devoid of sympathy now. "But the school will decide who did something wrong and who doesn't. Especially when you mess with someone like Cassian Vale."

The paper trembled in my hands. The defiance that had kept me standing for the last ten minutes evaporated, leaving behind a cold, hollow panic. I looked up at my brother, my eyes wide.

"So... what can I do now?" I asked, hating how small my voice sounded. "Asher, what do we do?"

Asher looked at me, a grim, final expression settling over his face. He didn't offer a hand, and he didn't offer a plan.

"There is nothing you can do," Asher said coldly, crossing his arms over his chest. "You just have to pack your bags and go back home. Because you've practically been expelled."

"No"

The word torn from my throat before I could stop it. I lunged forward, grabbing the front of Asher’s sweat-stained jersey, my fingers bunching the thick fabric tightly. The paper crumpled between my knuckles.

"I can't go back home right now, Asher! I can't!" My voice cracked, the panic finally breaking through my stubborn facade. " What am I even going to do? I don't want to become... a housewife that dad would obviously sell off to a man. I didn't sacrifice everything just to be thrown out on the street!"

Asher didn't move. He just looked down at my hands on his chest with an icy, detached disappointment.

"You should have thought about that before crossing paths with Cassian, right?" he said, his voice quiet but sharp enough to slice through my desperation. He reached down, calmly but firmly prying my fingers away from his shirt. "You brought this entirely on yourself. I’ve told you to work on your anger problems several times, Reese. I warned you. But now look at what you’ve gotten yourself into."

"Asher, please," I begged, reaching for him again, but he stepped back, out of my grasp. "There has to be something we can do. Talk to the dean. Tell them it was an accident!"

"There is absolutely nothing I can do right now," Asher snapped, his frustration boiling back to the surface. "Look at me! I am also here on a performance scholarship. I have zero leverage in this place, and right now, I am also on thin ice just by being associated with you.

"I can't leave," I whispered, shaking my head as hot tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I blinked them back fiercely, refusing to let them fall. "I can't leave. No... not after I've gotten this far. I'm almost done with the term. I'm almost to the scouts. If I can just get to the showcase—"

"Even this game we are playing is extremely dangerous!" Asher cut me off, stepping closer, his shadow completely swallowing me in the dim shed. "Look at the reality of this, Reese. I’m in my final year. I graduate in a few months and I'm out of here. You are still practically in your second year. You have years left of this pretense."

He pointed a harsh finger at the crumpled expulsion letter in my hand.

"Have you actually thought about what you're going to do after you finish and graduate? Do you honestly want to keep on living this lie forever? Keep up the pretense of being a guy just to play? It was always going to catch up to you. Cassian just sped up the clock."

He turned his back on me, walking toward the heavy metal door.

"Pack your things, Reese. It is time you you become realistic