jeremy knew what people said about the trojans, and he spent very little time thinking it. it didn't bother him when he stumbled across an article or a sportscast about how the trojans were too soft, he knew what he was. what kind of team he was leading.

but not letting your opponents get the better of you wasn't supposed to mean that they should say whatever they wanted and get away with it. this was twice as true when it came to his teammates.

he had been unwilling to let lucas's comment at the beach slide. he hadn't escalated it, but he wouldn't tolerate it. this time the comment had been far worse, and jeremy hadn't been able to stop himself on calling lucas out on it. he was willing to back away, but he had made the wrong call thinking jean wouldn't be pulled into it.

he had stepped in front of jean pre-emptively, he had meant it to signal that jean was apart of this team now and jeremy would defend him with whatever it took. lucas was already swinging though, so jeremy was the one who took the first hit.

everything narrowed down to the burst of pain. he only allowed himself a moment with it before he forced his hearing to come back and confirmed that one of the coaches was dealing with lucas. his hand reached out to touch his face, but jean was faster.

jean. how could jeremy have forgotten about him, when all this violence had occurred, for even a moment?