holding out the jerseys for everyone to collect, but no one moved.
“Yeah,” Jazz started, her turquoise hair shimmering in the sunlight, “we’re not doing that until you explain yourself.”
I looked at Alec for support, but he turned his face away from me, so I rolled my eyes and faced the group again. “Okay, fine. Everyone sit. This could take a minute.”
Everyone sat down in the grass in front of me, except for Lila, who remained standing with her arms crossed. I didn’t know how much of Zeke’s and my conversation she heard, but Lila wasn’t stupid. She’d probably long put the pieces together.
“Um, okay, so. On Wednesday night, well, Wednesday night into Thursday morning, I submitted an application for the Black Widows to go semi-pro.”
“What?” the Widows resounded almost in unison.
“What are you talking about?” Kris asked.
Hollie raised her hand and remained quiet. I pointed at her, and she put it down. “Hi, yeah. Are you out of your mind?”
“We only have eleven players. We can’t go semi. We’d get eaten alive,” Jansen exclaimed.
“How could you do something like that without talking to us first? You’re always saying that we’re a team on and off the field,” Beck complained. “How would I swing semi-pro status? I have a full-time job and a kid.”
“Same,” Gria continued, “and half the time, I’m rushing off to get to stuff for Addy.”
A flurry of additional complaints started to fly at me, and my first impulse was to run, but my feet wouldn’t move. I could feel Alec staring at me with an unspoken, “I told you so,” but I ignored it. I expected the team to be a little shocked, but I didn’t think that they’d be so upset.
Kris jumped up out of the grass and came to stand next to me. She put an arm around my shoulders and audibly hissed at the team, who went silent. “What’s wrong with you? After everything Quinn has done for us, you can’t even hear her out before you jump down her throat?” She squeezed a spot on my shoulder hard enough to hurt. “I’m a little pissed that we were left out of the conversation,” she said but released her grip, “but I’m willing to hear what her thoughts are. I’m sure she had a good reason, or hopefully, many.”
I put my head on her shoulder for a moment and then lifted it again. “Thank you.” My hands instinctively went into my pockets to hide. “Look, guys. I’m sorry that I didn’t say anything to you. Honestly, it was a knee-jerk decision. We’d just finished watching the Vipers play, and Alec—”
“Ah,” Alec said and snapped his fingers. “Don’t drag me into this.”
“It was you, though!”
“I said it’s a shame you guys weren’t semi-pro. I didn’t say to go do it and then challenge the Vipers to a match!”
“What!” the Widows screeched, and I leered at Alec.
Alec winced. “Oops, I forgot we hadn’t gotten that far yet.”
Kris pulled her arm from around me and folded it into her other one across her chest. “You did what?”
“Well!” I bellowed, my hands flying back out of my pockets to fan out. “He was totally trashing us. I couldn’t just let him say whatever he wanted.” I pointed at Lila. “She agrees with me!”
George looked up at Lila. “You knew?”
“I don’t agree,” Lila responded to me, totally ignoring George.
“Wh—you said!”
“I was angry. You’re the captain. You’re supposed to keep a level head.”
Jansen scoffed. “You’re one to talk.” George and Max both turned to glare at her, and she scooted closer to the safety of Hollie and Gria.
“You think we can beat them, though,” I said.
“Of course, we can beat them,” Lila replied, “but I’m not about to go to some dog and pony show in some misogynistic, male-dominated ring just to prove that I’m allowed to be there. I’m out.”
I shook my head, feeling like I was going to have a meltdown any second. My frustration must have radiated because the entire team went quiet. I opened my eyes and looked into the waiting expressions of my confused and betrayed team. “Guys, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done this without asking you, but I did it because I believe in this team. I believe in us. We can be something more than just a community team. I know that some of you have jobs, jobs you like, even. This would be a full-time commitment if it happened, but we could figure something out. You wouldn’t be volunteering your time