Page 34 of Call the Shots
We had the entire summer ahead of us.
Fuck this.
I shoved up from the couch. “What are wedoing?” I snapped. “This is it? The farthest we go? Oh, sorry, our effort stops here, who cares? No.Fuckthat.” I rummaged through desk drawers, tossing folders and books aside. “I didn’t buy new purple eyeshadow and move in with Bearshit Moreau to give up when Elijah starts a fight—which he always does!”
I could feel their eyes on me as I took my place at the white board, marker in hand. I scribbled the five words we needed to confront.
HOW TO FIX THE GLADIATORS
“What are we going to do?”
“June…” Cleo sighed. “I’m tired. I miss football. I can’t get married if I rip my hair out.”
“Become an actual team. That’s what we need!” I wrote the first line, underlining it for good measure. “Those guys hate each other. That has to change.”
“We would need team dynamics,” Denali acknowledged.
Bear folded his arms over his chest, irritation rippling from him. “They need to learn how to playhockey.”
“Okay, play hockey.” I wrote that as the second line. “Which means…?”
“Set practices.” Bear grunted, shifting forward. “Accountability. Gym schedules. Riley Townsend getting rid of his stage fright. These guys need toplay,or we can’twin.”
“Fire the head coach,” Cleo added.
I froze, marker hanging in the air. “Can we…?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do we…?”
“I don’t know.” She drew in a long breath, her face tightening with determination. “We won’t get anywhere without a good coach. If we want to win, Vernon needs to go.”
We exchanged looks. It felt like we were mapping out a mutiny in the belly of the ship, planning to behead and dispose of the captain. Something new hung in the air—it was a grim acceptance but something else lingered underneath. The sharp taste of anticipation. Slowly, I added the line to the bottom of the list.
“We’re actually doing this?” Bear said, testing out the words.
“We’re doing this,” I confirmed.
“No one can know how close we are to folding,” Denali decided. “If the team finds out, everyone will bail, and the program will shut down anyway. None of this leaves the room.”
I tapped my marker against my hand, staring at the list. I didn’t know how to fire a head coach, and I had no idea how to make the hockey players play well.
But team dynamics…
“Cleo?” I said softly. “We have Gladiators all over Roman Villa, from the second to the tenth floor. I think it’s time to round up the ponies.”
“Ooo…that’ll be so much paperwork.”
“June.” Bear’s frown deepened. “What’s rounding up the ponies?”
CHAPTER 14
BEAR
ROUND UP THE PONIES
Roundingup the ponies turned out to be a sledgehammer to my sleep schedule. At four o’clock in the morning, before sane people were even alive, I checked the batteries in the flashlights and draped the whistle over my neck.
