“I don’t know if that’s the case. If I had to take a guess, I think that some corporate sponsors helped fund the construction of the athletic dorms and maybe had some say in their design.”
“That’s a thing?”
“It can be.” I nod. “I know that our jersey designs are funded by sponsors, and they get input in design. Same thing with re-turfing the field. That’s why there’s a debate right now between the blue turf and the green turf.”
“Why not just grass?”
“To make a completely level playing field. Less maintenance. RDU has real fields, but Coach wants turf.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t demanded a pink turf,” Corwin muses.
I grin. “He has. His sponsors disagree. He’s even pointed out that a pink turf might throw off all visiting teams, working to our advantage. They considered his request for a solid week.”
Corwin laughs.
We lapse into silence for a while, but it’s making me drowsy. “I think I’m going to wander around a bit, or I’m gonna fall asleep again.”
He nods. “Yeah, I might as well, too. I slept on the second flight, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve closed my eyes in twenty-four hours.” His eyes flicker up to where Xile is sleeping. “They’d better not keep us awake because they’re sleeping all afternoon.”
My eyebrows scrunch together. “They?” Is there more than one person in that blanket pile?
“Xile.” My confusion must show on my face. “Xile’s non-binary. The pronouns they prefer are they/them, though he/him is usually not something they’ll get offended at.”
I wince. “I didn’t know that.”
Corwin smiles. “Xile’s cool. If your using different pronouns had upset them, they would have said.”
“Good to know. I won’t forget.” The last thing I want to do is make someone who has been super nice to me upset.
I slip into my boots, parka, hat, and gloves to brave the cold. As soon as it touches my face, I shudder. Now I feel more awake.
CHAPTER 10
KENDRICK
The domes are cool as shit. I didn’t mean to have one all to myself, but there were only so many multiple-person domes unless we wanted to share beds. I like my staff, but that’s probably pushing the line. Zarek volunteered to partially pay for the cost of a dome for himself, so I did the same. Thus, we each have our own.
It’s beautiful, too. I’ve never been in a structure like this, and I can’t stop looking at all the triangles that make up the overlapping fabric. I bet Zarek can tell me all about the geometry of this place. It’s as if numbers flutter about, pointing at angles and intersections.
With a yawn, I fall into the chair and close my eyes for a minute. I didn’t mean to stay awake throughout the plane ride. The exact opposite, in fact. I’d wanted to sleep, especially since we’d be flying overnight.
That didn’t happen. So much of the trip was me watching Brevan. Even when I couldn’t see him, I watched him. It bothered me that he thought he didn’t belong here.
Anyone accepted into RDU should have the potential to represent our school. In reality, theyall dorepresent our school.I won’t say that we make anyone jump through hoops to gain admittance. That’s not the kind of program we run.
I don’t want RDU to be an elitist in the university atmosphere. That’s not the part of my school that I want competitive. Our educators are just as accomplished as the Ivy League’s and our athletic department is moving up into hiring more talent to advance our game. That’s where I want us to be competitive.
While I don’t make it a habit of judging admission based on anything other than academics, we are a very obviously queer campus. Which means that most of our student body is queer, as is the case with the staff. That doesn’t mean we accept only a certain number of straight-identifying students every year.
Because we’re not shy about being a queer campus, we automatically dissuade many non-queer people from even applying. The world has a long way to go before some people don’t make a decision on where to attend school based on the acceptance of queer folk.
Either way, advertising queernormative culture on campus has its own way of weeding out the bad eggs.
All this roundabout thinking is me trying to remind myself that it’s not just the toxic culture against queer people that innately avoid RDU and therefore keep their toxicity to themselves, but we do end up with people who choose cruelty, even when doing so under the assumption that they’re not being overheard.
One of my most life-changing moments isn’t because of the hate I faced outside of the queer community, but that which comes from within. I was shocked the first time I witnessed it. Horrified. I don’t understand how people who are so used to being treated harshly think it’s okay to turn around and treat those of their own community harshly in turn. As if their victimization gives them a free pass to be an asshole.
It makes my stomach flip that we somehow managed to bring two of those people into this ambassador program. But how do I change that? How do I modify the admittance process to weed those people out?
