Free Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders) by Cate Cameron

game,” I suggested. “We don’t have a game Saturday, so no curfew tomorrow. I think if you’re approaching this with a true spirit of awesomeness, you need to be open to the possibility of doing something postgame. It’s part of the tradition.”
    Claudia raised an eyebrow. “Okay. How long for the core activity, and then how long for the optional time?”
    “Four hours for the game, three for the party,” I guessed.
    “So I want four hours of hard studying from you.” She shrugged. “And then if I go out to the party or whatever, you owe me that amount of extra studying time. Deal?”
    “You want me to study math for seven hours ? How long do I have to get it done?”
    “They’re not traveling this weekend,” Karen told Claudia. “He’ll have more time this weekend than he will for the next two weeks.”
    “Okay, then. Four hours this weekend. The extra three hours sometime next week, if you can’t fit it in over the weekend. And our lunch sessions don’t count. We can spend those just on chemistry, now that you’ve got all this extra functions time.”
    “You want me to study math ?” I grumbled.
    “You want me to watch a hockey game ?” Claudia replied with the same intonation, and with a little wrinkle of her nose that I should have found annoying instead of cute.
    “Neither one of you is going into this with the proper attitude,” Karen scolded.
    She was right. I made myself nod and smile. “Okay. Math. Functions. That’ll be great. Math is a good way to—to help us understand the world. I’m looking forward to learning more about it. And it’ll be good to get my grades up, too. Awesome.”
    Karen shrugged, clearly not impressed but not ready to make a fuss over my effort. Instead, she turned to Claudia, who dutifully said, “Hockey. Lots of people like it. Maybe I will, too. It’s…our national sport. Part of our identity. Sports are a good way to bond with people from all different social groups. I’m broadening my horizons.” She looked at me with a sort of calm acceptance, like we were marching off to war together. “Awesome.”

Chapter Five
    “Are you sure you don’t want to be part of it?” I asked Annalise. I’d gotten permission from Karen and Chris to invite Annalise and Oliver into the group, in exchange for Karen being allowed to invite all three of her half siblings. Chris had said he’d hold his invitations in reserve. “It’s a bit silly, I know, but it’s kind of fun, too.”
    “Fun? Claudia, you’re going to a hockey game . How is that fun?”
    “Lots of people think watching hockey is fun.”
    “And since when are you ‘lots of people’? Since when are you a sheep?”
    “Trying new things isn’t the same as being a sheep. And honestly, I don’t think my challenges are up for debate. That’s between me and the sisters. I’m just asking if you want to be part of the program as a whole. We’d have different challenges for you.”
    “No,” she said, and stuck her nose back into her book. It was only a couple minutes before class started so I guess she felt like she needed to get as many words into her head as possible before she had to deprive herself for seventy-five minutes.
    “I’m going to ask Oliver. And if he wants to join, you’re going to be all alone on the outside.”
    She didn’t even look up. Damn. If Annalise were a sister, I’d be challenging her to do something that didn’t involve reading. And she’d probably hate me for it.
    I felt kind of weird as I walked away from her, heading down the hall toward Oliver’s locker. Annalise and I had been friends since about third grade. Back then I’d been thrilled to find someone else who didn’t feel comfortable in big crowds, someone who’d rather read or study than jump around and do whatever the hell it was the other kids were doing on the playground at recess. We’d wander off to our little corner of the yard, Annalise reading as she walked, and we’d sit quietly and wait