Page 41 of Star Champion

After they were droppedoff at the apartment, Jemm dragged her gaze up all seventeen stories to the top floor, where soft light glowed. “Are ya gonna tell Ma about the signing?” Nico asked.

She gulped. “Aye. You gonna tell her about your beating?”

“Not on your life.”

Her heart thumped harder with each floor they climbed. “I’m thinking about what Migel Arran said, about if it doesn’t work out.”

“If it doesn’t, you’ll play for me, not for him.”

“Aye, but don’t ya worry about how the league will react if they find out what I am?”

“Expulsion, most likely,” Nico said with a shrug. “But there’s no use worrying until ya have to worry.”

He was right, but deep down she feared being fined or worse. There was risk in this scheme, no question. But what pathway to a dream came without some measure of risk?

“Button’s going to miss me while I’m at training,” she said.

Nico kept his gaze trained on the stairs.

“It’s time you stepped up to help. It’s been three years. It can’t all be on Ma.”

They climbed up another floor. “I don’t know how to be a Da,” he said.

“I’m sure ours thought that, too, when he was just starting out.”

Nico made a skeptical grunt. “I don’t remember much about him, but he was larger than life, Jemm. I ain’t.”

“In Button’s eyes you are.”

He met her gaze for a moment, his lips pressed together, his eyes a portal to his inner pain. Would the grief ever leave him? “I’ll do what I can, if that makes ya feel better about leaving.”

She whispered, “It does, aye.”

They climbed the remaining floors, their tongues silent but their minds full. Life would soon change in startling fashion after being the same for so long. Outside the door, in the shadows, Jemm changed clothing and stowed her gear.

Ma was up and Button, too, when they walked inside. “Mum-mum!” Button raced to Jemm, and she scooped her up. Despite her talk with Nico, he made no move to interact with his daughter, although his pensive gaze followed her. Her brother could face down fight club gangsters with more guts than he could his child.

“You good, little one?” Jemm said, kissing her sweet face.

“Aye, but Gramma ain’t.”

Ma was paler than usual, her eyes watering. She was in the kitchen, sipping water from a cup. “Are ya all right?” Jemm asked, setting Button down.

She waved away Jemm’s concern. “The coughing woke me,” she said hoarsely. “And woke the child, too.” Then she saw Nico’s face and her eyes opened wide. “Oh, Nicky-boy. What trouble were ya out getting into tonight?”

“Nothing to fret about, Ma.”

“And ya tore your sweater. Give it to me, and I’ll mend it.” Their mother soaked a towel with water, wrung it, and gave it to Nico. “Put it on ya nose.” Her suspicious gaze swerved to Jemm’s gear bag before she stifled a cough with her knuckles.

“Earth-dwellers are here,” Nico mumbled around the wet towel, handing Ma his sweater. “Frontier folk, like us. They set up a tent in Central. All ya gotta do is show up to get medical treatment.”

“I want ya to go with Nico tomorrow,” Jemm added. “It’s free.”

“Bah, nothing comes for free,” Ma said with a Baréshti’s characteristic suspicion. She examined Nico’s sweater with a frown, then sorted through her sewing basket for a needle and thread.

“I think this time it will. They’ve come to help us. They’ll help you.”

A coughing attack caused Ma to hack so hard into her fisted hand that Jemm feared she had hurt herself. She wrapped her arm over her mother’s heaving shoulders. Button clung to the woman’s hand until finally the fit had passed. Tears streamed from Ma’s eyes. “I don’t know if I’m long for this world,” she said, her breath whistling.

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