Everyone grew quiet, and the lone ref watched, a whistle in his mouth, clearly entertained.
Evan laughed. “Ha. Too bad you didn’t do that three goals ago.”
The Legal Eagles started mocking their opponents. Oh, nice. Daniel grinned.
Evan stood and looked down at his shorts, brushing at the dirt.
The tall guy said something and made a move, probably planning to shove Evan down again. But Evan spun and ended up kicking the guy in the ass. With cleats.
The big dude went down, face first, in the mud.
Evan huffed. “Don’t be a dick. It’s just a game.”
“Uh-oh.” Rachel cringed. “That’s not going to end well.”
The smaller buff guy grabbed Evan in a bear hug.
Will started running for the far end, a few of his teammates joining him. The cops looked at each other and clamored en masse. Which caused the rest of the legal team to join Evan and his attackers.
In the meantime, Evan did some funky maneuver awfully fast and reversed the hold then used his weight to send them both crashing down, Evan on top of the shorter guy, both of them now muddy.
Then Evan started wrestling with both guys, swearing and laughing. Daniel couldn’t tell if they’d initially meant to have fun or if the fight had been serious before turning into a mock brawl.
“Close your ears,” Kenzie warned him, seeming torn between grinning and grimacing.
“Wow. Evan’s sure creative.” Daniel heard more than a few curses, his favorites beingthunderfuck,fucknugget, andbonerbreath, which was just funny.
Rachel clapped. “Evan’s holding his own, Kenzie.”
He had some nice moves. Evan got punched a few times but just rolled with it and returned with some jabs and knees of his own.
All in all, it was a pretty tame fight, busted up in minutes. But those minutes had entertained, for sure. Especially when the ref called the game in favor of the Legal Eagles, citing the Top Cops for poor sportsmanship, not to mention they plain lost the game 5–2.
Evan and Will returned to the stands, covered in mud.
“What a game.” Evan bro-hugged Will then leaned in as if to hug Kenzie, who shrieked.
Instead, he laughed. “Kidding. Hey, man, I didn’t realize you were here.” Evan bumped fists with Daniel.
“Nice moves, bonerbreath.”
“Daniel.”
Will and Rachel found that hilarious. Evan flushed. “Oh, sorry. But that guy was asking for it. He can barely kick his own ass around, let alone a ball, and he and his dickless friend think they can take me on? Forget that.” Geez, Evan was oozing testosterone, obviously hopped up from his tussle with the po-po.
Daniel’s estimation of him went way up. Evan could play like a soccer ninjaandkick ass. Awesome.
“Wow.” Kenzie stared. “I had no idea you could be so…mean!”
Everyone looked at her, hearing the same breathy exclamation he did.
Gross. She was flirting. At a sporting event.
“Kenzie.” Daniel glared at her then pulled Evan away. “Ignore her. She’s being all girlie. Hey, um, do you think you could show me some of those moves? I’m trying out for the school team.”
“Sure. Will, kick me a ball, would you?”
The rain started again, but Daniel didn’t care about getting wet. His sister had been right about making him come this morning. Because Evan was running rings around him with the ball, attracting a bunch of players to watch. An inside touch and scissor. An elastico, which was a kind of outside-inside move, very fast and very effective to elude players. And a friggin’ Maradona—a 360-degree spin around the defender. Damn.
