"Do you believe that crap?" Troy had said when they heard.

"You know if was us we wouldn't be allowed to do drama," hissed Yolanda. "What the heck does throwing a ball in the air and arguing with a bunch of nerds have to do with college?"

Probably a lot, Melissa thought. Mr. Cahill was always talking about the importance of having more to offer a college than good grades. She was about to point that out, then decided she didn't feel like arguing.

"Frickin' typical," Troy said. He and Yolanda refused to go to anymore of Brian's games "for the point of it."

The first game after the restriction had been handed down was the big one against Seb's bitter rival, Robinson Secondary. Pat was told she had to go because she couldn't stay home alone. Heather had to work and the twins had made plans to go to David's.

"It's not like I have anything better to do anyway," Melissa heard her grumble.

Melissa was going anyway, but Brian shocked her at dinner the night before the game by asking her to go. Sort of.

"Big Robinson game tomorrow," he said as they waited for dessert.

Melissa looked up, unsure if he was talking to her. But it was Pat and Yolanda's night to clear the table and clean, and Troy was away rehearsing the part of the play that Yolanda wasn't in, so they were they only kids at the table.

And Brian was looking right at her. "Uh yeah…" Melissa said. "Robinson sucks, right?"

Brian smiled; the first time Melissa had seen them do that since his restriction. "You goin'?"

Melissa nodded. They smiled awkwardly at each other for a minute, then looked away. So naturally, she had to go.

As soon as she walked into the filed house, she felt that something was different. The very air between the stands was more electric, the cheering more mean-spirited. The cheerleaders always had little signs that said things like, "Spear the Spartans or Burn the Bruins," but for this game each side had nasty little cheers that made Melissa and Pat snicker, but their father frown. There were more boos when the visiting was introduced and the cheering for Brian's team sounded more like people were just trying to drown out the other side.

Down on the floor, Anne wasn't among the cheerleaders. Pat told Melissa that she had been sick with something called Mono and would be out of school for weeks. Diana and Andie were sitting with Maria Cierra nest to the drill team's section of the bleachers, which wasn't very from where the players' families sat. Pat never looked in that direction. Diana and Maria looked up at first, spotted them and whispered to each other. Andie waved to Melissa. After that, they never looked over.

Also, only the Coppenhagens were there. Since Pat and Brian's punishment, no one had seen much of Aunt Julia and naturally, Diana had not been allowed to come over for the rest of Christmas Break. Not seeing the Aarons made Melissa sad. She missed Andie, who tended to hang around Diana whenever she got the chance.

At least the Cudaghys were there, but they weren't much for lots of cheering like the aunts and Andie. They mostly talked quietly about Brian and Richard; Melissa assumed that night that they would be talking about the boys ignoring each other.

Melissa also missed watching her mother with her sisters. It was amazing how they got along so well, like friends. It was even harder for Melissa to believe that they once fought like she, Pat and Yolanda did or to believe her mother when she told her that one day when they were grown, Melissa and sisters would be friends also.

Melissa looked over at Pat as she watched the game, but tried to look uninterested at the same time. She tried to picture them laughing together over something, when Pat turned and looked at her. "What?" she snapped.

"Nothing," Melissa said, putting her mother's sister/friend theory in the same category with her dad's going up and talking to people plan.

When the game started, Melissa saw that Brian and Richard weren't sitting together. Since Brian was a starter, there was usually an empty spot next to each other throughout the game; Melissa could see them talking as the game went on.

But that night, Richard sat down right in between two other players, leaving no room for Brian. She knew that they had argued, they did that about every week it seemed, but their fights had never lasted this long before.

Seb's archrival, Robinson Secondary was very large; it had 7-12 graders and about 4,000 students. Since their basketball team had been doing well for the past couple of years, fans had been jamming the visitors bleachers all over the area, making a lot of noise, which people claimed was obnoxious.

But besides that, Melissa couldn't really figures out why Seb fans were supposed to hate Robinson fans more than anyone else. When she asked Brian or Pat, they just told her she was too young to understand, which in Melissa's experience usually meant that Brian and Pat didn't know the answer themselves. So that's just how it was, everyone "sucked," but Robinson was the worst. But unfortunately, in the last two or three years, Robinson had trounced Sebastian.

That night was no exception. By half time, Robinson was leading Seb by 20 points.

Melissa saw Brian sit down on the far end of the bench away from Richard and the other two players. "How come Brian and Richard are still mad at each other?" Melissa asked Pat, the only person nearby who was knowledgeable on the subject.

"We don't have anything to do with him, Diana or Maria," Pat said.

"Why not?"

"Just forget it, Melissa."

"Is it because of Danny's party?"

"Melissa….forget it," Pat hissed, rolling her eyes at their father. Melissa looked over at him, but he wasn't paying attention.

Sometime during the half, Richard's parents came up to where the Coppenhagens were sitting and all the parents began talking. Melissa could tell they were talking about the boys, but they were standing and she was sitting, so their heads were too far away for her to listen in on their conversation without being obvious.

"They're talking about Brian and Richard," Melissa whispered to Pat. She had not idea why she was talking this much to Pat, probably because Andie wasn't there. Pat smiled weakly and waved at the Cudaghys, but said nothing. Melissa thought she might have felt guilty about fighting with Richard with his parents right there.

The Cudaghys stayed when the game started back up again. This time Richard and Brian were on the court together, which usually didn't happen. On the rare occasions that it did, they were often next to each other on the court. Brian claimed that they just wanted hang out.

Melissa noticed that while they were still relatively close to each other, they didn't signal or nod like they often did when they played together. In fact, they seemed to be taking care to not look at each other at all. At one point they almost ran into each other because they were both looking in the opposite direction. Brian turned and said something to Richard, who turned sharply and said something back. Brian looked the way he did when he talked to Troy. This was not good.

Melissa saw her father frown. "Here we go," he grumbled. She wondered if it was just as weird for them to be with Cudaghys since Brian and Richard were mad at each other.

Things went downhill from there. In a rush to get a rebound, Brian knocked over a Robinson player. Brian wrestled the ball away, even after the whistle was blown, and the Robinson player shoved him. Brian shoved him back.

The referee blew his whistle again, and pointed towards the Robinson basket, which meant the foul call was on Brian. Both benches stood up in protest as cheers and boos from the stands swirled around them. Brian and the Robinson player backed off, dragged to the bench by teammates, but Brian continued to argue, something that Melissa had never seen him do during a game.

Other Seb players crowded around now, trying to drag Brian away as the Robinson players had done with their teammate. A few of the Robinson players still milled around as both bands struck up to try and divert crowd attention. The Varsity cheerleaders desperately tried some chants, but all eyes were on Melissa's brother.

Then Richard stood up and went over to the crowd, followed by Coach James. Richard started pulling on Brian, much more aggressively than the others. Brian did his best to move away but Richard was persistent. The Robinson side, enjoying the fray and the apparent breakdown of Seb's team, drowned out their own band with taunts. The Seb side was strangely quiet, as people stood up to watch.

Now all of the Seb players on the court were trying to get in between Brian and Richard, who were yelling at each other from a few feet away. Melissa couldn't tell who started it, but Brian and Richard were suddenly pushing each other. Melissa saw her parents and the Cudaghys straining to look. Both fathers looked ready to go down to the court when Coach James, who had made it over to the group, yanked a player back with one hand towards the ref, then pointed at Brian, and pointed at the door. That meant he was kicking Brian out of the game.

Robinson's side erupted again, shouting "You! You! You!" and pointing at Brian as he pushed past players and walked towards the door. To Melissa it seemed like all 4,000 students at Robinson decided to show up at the game with all their parents and friends, and point down at Brian. There were just so many hands. Don't look up Brian, she thought. Her sixth grade class was bad enough, Melissa couldn't imagine hearing those cheers and not wanting to cry. She still felt like crying a little bit. Especially when she saw people their side, Seb fans, clapping. Then that made her angry, even though she knew Brian was wrong. The Robinson player pushed first, after all. She saw Pat look around the crowd, noticing the same things. They exchanged a frown.

"Consuela, Tom, I don't know what the hell has gotten into him, girls, let's go," George said. He was gathering up their coats, apologizing to the Cudaghys.

"Well, he's had a bit of a rough time," Melissa heard Richard's father say. Richard's mother reached out and patted George's arm. Well, at least they were being nice. Melissa suddenly remembered that everyone knew that George was Brian's father, so they were probably going to stare as the family walked out.

The Cudaghys started talking to their father some more about Brian and Richard's problems. The game resumed with Robinson's foul shot, which they made. The game was getting boring, and people starting looking at Pat and Melissa, who had on her Varsity Little Sister button with Brian's number.

"Tough break," said a man next to her that she didn't know. Melissa nodded and looked away.

"I'll go get Brian," Pat said suddenly. She stood and began to feed her way through the crowd

"Me too," Melissa said, following. Pat didn't hear her, so she didn't realize that Melissa had followed her until they were at the foot of the bleachers. Pat looked surprised, but she didn't tell Melissa to go back.

"I had to get out of there, I was sick of people staring. Like we don't get watched enough, you know?"

Melissa nodded. "Yeah, they were all looking at us, it sucked."

The girls passed through the gym doors and left the noise of the game behind them. In the large, empty hall outside of the field, Melissa was amazed at the quiet; she listened to the noise of Pat's shoes on the floor and the change in her own pocket as they walked towards the locker rooms.

Pat took Melissa through the doors that she, Troy and Yolanda had run through the day Yolanda stole the Varsity Roster. They walked down a flight of stairs.

"Wait here," Pat said, sitting down on the bottom stair. "We can't go into the boys' locker room," she explained.

Melissa nodded and leaned over the banister. While they waited, she swung from underneath the banister from her hands like on the jungle gym at school, then slid down it a few times. Pat watched.

"What's with you? You're never this active."

"Yanh hunh," Melissa said trying to hang from the bars upside down, "you just don't see."

"Well, don't crack your head open; I'm in enough trouble already."

Melissa's change flew out of her pocket and bounced along the stairs to the floor.

"Good job," Pat said.

They stooped to gather the change when they both heard a door open and looked up. Brian came out of a side door at the far end of the hall. Melissa started to wave then thought the better of it. She and Pat gathered the change and they both waited by the stairs as Brian walked up to them.

Melissa looked back and forth between Brian and Pat, waiting for one of them to say something. When no one did, she piped up.

"Do you want a drink? I have some money. I dropped some though."

Brian handed her a nickel he had stooped to pick up. "That's okay. Let's get out of here before everyone else comes down."

Melissa nodded and grasped one of Brian's gym bags. "I can carry it," she said. She flung the strap over her shoulder and struggled with it up the stairs.

"Melissa give it, you're going to kill yourself."

"I can do it, come on!"

"I don't know what's gotten into her; she's been jumping around like the twins," Pat said.

The three of them ambled down the hall, prolonging Brian's confrontation with George. Brian and Pat talked a little; Melissa only heard bits and pieces of their conversation, mostly complaints about their "ex" friends, but nothing that sounded too dangerous. Brian let her lumber around the gym bag awhile, then took it back. Melissa then sprinted ahead to the cafeteria, where she got a can of punch from the only drink machine she could find. She opened it and drank, surprised at how thirsty she was. She held out the can to Brian and Pat when they caught up. "Here, we have the same germs."

"Ugh, nice mental picture," Pat said. But she and Brian both took drinks. They stood in the doorway of the cafeteria until the can of juice was finished. The girls filled Brian in on crowd reaction to the fight.

"All right," Brian said when the juice was done, "let's get this crap over with."

Melissa sighed, sorry to see the nice mood broken. Tomorrow Pat and Brian would probably be mad again and ignore her. Brian tossed the can into the trash and the three turned towards the main hall.