FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,15
gold anytime soon, new kid!”
Nicholas rolled his eyes as the Kings Row guys passed him, talking in pretend whispers that were intended for Nicholas to hear.
“Can’t believe he’s on the team, even as a crappy second reserve.”
The other guy sniggered. “I heard his last coach was basically a hobo.”
Nicholas threw the guy against the wall.
He’d had to trail Coach Joe all around his tumbledown old gym back in the city, bugging the coach to teach him how to fence. Coach Joe hadn’t wanted to train Nicholas, but he had, and he’d done it the best way he knew how. Now that he had Coach Williams, he understood Coach Joe hadn’t been exactly all a coach should be, but it wasn’t as if Nicholas were the ideal student. Coach Joe had texted Happy birthday, kid, hope you had a blast a couple of days after Nicholas’s last birthday. He was the only person who’d remembered it at all. Coach Joe was great. Nicholas whirled his fist around, already imagining the satisfaction when it connected with this smug idiot’s jaw.
Then Nicholas remembered if he got caught fighting, he’d be thrown out of Kings Row. It had never mattered before. One school was pretty much the same as another. Nicholas had nothing to lose.
Thinking of all Nicholas had to lose now—real fencing, Seiji, Coach Williams, Bobby and Eugene and Harvard, being at his dad’s old school—it would matter a lot.
Nicholas took a deep breath and stepped back. Stepping back didn’t come naturally to him, and he didn’t like it.
“Watch your mouth,” Nicholas muttered. He didn’t care what they said about him. They were mostly right about him, but they could leave Coach Joe alone.
After a moment, he remembered to unclench his fists. Both the boys wore slightly startled expressions, but after a moment they shrugged off whatever was holding them back and resumed their swagger down the hall.
“Sorry, didn’t realize the hobo was like a father to you!” the older boy scoffed over his shoulder.
Nicholas waited until they were gone, then made his way toward the salle. Coach Joe wasn’t anything like Robert Coste.
Nicholas’s father being one of the greatest fencers of all time hadn’t mattered to Mom. She’d been mad that he’d hit it, quit it, and skipped town with his fancy friends. That was all she ever said on the subject. Robert Coste was just one more in the list of men who’d let Mom down, a passing mention in a string of drunken bitterness.
The only one his father mattered to was Nicholas.
Sometimes Nicholas imagined that the truth might matter to Robert Coste, too. Some day. Not right now, obviously. But one day, possibly, when Nicholas was so great at fencing that he was officially acknowledged rivals with Seiji, and he had lots of trophies. Maybe after they won the state championship, the way Coach wanted. Nicholas might then casually hint at the facts, and Robert Coste would immediately be like, Wow, my son—makes total sense. I’m so impressed… if only I’d known before; would you call me Dad?, and Nicholas would be like, No need to make a big deal of it or anything; I’m doing fine, Dad.
Those half-formed dreams hadn’t ever coalesced into a real plan of action. They’d seemed even more far-fetched once Nicholas had laid eyes on Jesse Coste. The son Robert knew about, the son he’d had with his wife and who’d grown up in his, no doubt, fancy house. The son Robert Coste had trained to follow in his fancy Olympic footsteps. Jesse, the guy Seiji wanted to fence with, because Jesse got everything.
One look at Jesse, and the rainbow-bright bubble of Nicholas’s dream had burst.
You have this shiny pedigree dog you’re super proud of, but hey! Guess what. Here’s some unimpressive mutt on the doorstep. Exciting, right?
No.
Nicholas shook his head as he walked into the salle, feeling slightly sick at the thought. He met Harvard and Aiden on their way out and brightened. Their captain was the coolest.
“Hey,” said Harvard, continuing to be the coolest, and hit Nicholas in the shoulder in a bro way. “Getting some training in? You’re better every day, Cox.”
Nicholas knew Aiden thought he was ignoring him on purpose, but Nicholas actually found it really hard to concentrate on what the guy was saying. He got this particular sneering lilt in his voice, and Nicholas knew he was gonna say something to indicate that Aiden was so