#meredith cotes

THE FOXHOLE COURT: JANUARY 28-FEBRUARY 3

ONLINE:

“After venturing outside of their districts for their first games of the Championships, the Breckenridge Jackals and the Palmetto State Foxes are preparing for a Southeastern District showdown on Friday night.” 

“The Foxes have good reason to want a do-over: when these teams met for their first games of the fall season, the Jackals obliterated the Foxes 6-2, in a game that saw a red card for repeat offender Grayson Sharpe. The Foxes have undoubtedly hit their stride since then, first by just barely securing their spot in the Championships and then by winning their first game against the UC Davis Aggies. But while the Foxes have had to claw their way into the postseason, the Jackals have been sitting pretty: second place in their District behind the Ravens, the only team to beat them during the regular season. And their first game of the Championships was won in similar fashion, defeating the ULCA Bruins with a score of 4-1—while the Foxes required a shootout to get a win over the Aggies.”

“Teams need just two wins to move on to the next round of the Championships. With one win under each of their belts, whoever wins on Friday night will punch their ticket to the death matches, and whoever loses will have just one more chance. The Foxes’ last game of the first round will be against the Bruins, and the Jackals will take on the ailing Aggies—now down two key players. This week, the Bruins and the Aggies will be playing their own in-district game. Both having lost one game already, one of them will keep their chances of moving on alive, and one will be eliminated with one game left to play.”

“ELSEWHERE IN CLASS I: The USC Trojans, Edgar Allan Ravens, and Penn State Lions will try to keep their winning streaks alive and secure their spots in the death matches, as they match up against the Arizona Sundevils, the Belmonte Terrapins, and the UNLV Rebels, respectively. After a surprising first loss, the Ohio State Buckeyes will try to make up ground against the Binghampton Bearcats.”

- COLLEGE EXY ONLINE, “CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW: FOXES vs. AGGIES”

“Has anyone seen the new douchemobile parked outside of Fox Tower? How soon do you think it’ll be before someone keys it or slashes its tires? Or maybe you won’t even have to wait for that—the owner has a history, and we’re sure he can wreck it all on his own. Hope he’s got insurance.”

“Breaking news from cheer practice: photographic evidence of another Vixen hitting the deck. At least it wasn’t in front of a whole stadium this time. And here we thought cheerleaders were supposed to be coordinated—well, maybe the good ones are.”

- FOXWATCH, YOUR SOURCE FOR GOSSIP AT PALMETTO STATE UNIVERSITY

ON CAMPUS:

If the mood on campus last week was celebratory—between the Foxes’ first win, the pep rally, and the anticipation of the football playoffs—the mood this week is a little bit more like a hangover. The Foxes know their next two games will be crucial if they want to avoid their rival team’s fate, and they quickly put the diversion of the football game behind them.

As the week goes on, the rest of the campus has seemed to catch up. Between Fox fans and Jackals fans making the drive from out-of-town, tickets for the game sell out quickly, the crowds coming out to support their side of the district rivalry. 

Friday, February 1 is cold and rainy, though that doesn’t seem to deter the fans gathering in the Foxhole Court parking lot as evening falls to tailgate before the game: the first Championships game of the season played on the Foxes’ home turf—and, hopefully, not the last. 

(OOC information related to the game under the cut)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MEREDITH COTES!

[light rose gold pocket knife. not wrapped. no receipt. note attached.]

Happy Holidays. If you do not like it you can give it back to me and I will get you something else. It is a frame lock so make sure the blade is locked before you use it.

THE FOXHOLE COURT + TUMBLR (1 of 2)

TFC HALLOWEEN COSTUME COMPETITION RESULTS!

At the conclusion of the voting at the Vixens’ Halloween party, the following winners are announced and prizes handed out: winners are given gift cards to Sweetie’s in Columbia and a hand-written certificate, while the second-place finishers in every category but the grand prize are only given a certificate.

FUNNIEST COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): SYDNEY McCRAY as MOTH WITH LAMP (HONORABLE MENTION: BRAYDEN SYKES as CAT)

SEXIEST COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): LEO DUARTE as (SEXY) WINTER SOLDIER (HONORABLE MENTION: CASEY HENDRIX as THE RIDDLER BUT SEXY)

MOST ELABORATE COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): SYDNEY McCRAY as MOTH WITH LAMP (HONORABLE MENTION(S): RIPLEY VAN SANT as MALEFICENT, MEREDITH COTES as THE BLACK SWAN, and ARLO BOOTH as THE BLACK DEATH)

BEST CLOSET/LOW BUDGET COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): NEEL AVERY as LIT MAJOR (HONORABLE MENTION: GRANT ROLLINS as REFEREE)

BEST THROWBACK COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): ALIS TAN as THE AMERICAN DRAGON (JAKE LONG) (HONORABLE MENTION: ROSIE TOMMASI as KIM POSSIBLE)

BEST COUPLES COSTUME ($10 GIFT CARD): BRAYDEN SYKES and STERLING WALSH (HONORABLE MENTION: JEN BROOKHART and CARTER MADDOX)

THE FOXHOLE COURT: OCTOBER 1-OCTOBER 7

ONLINE:

“The Exy season is picking up steam once again, as the Palmetto State Foxes prepare to take on the Blackwell Jackrabbits at home on Friday night. Both teams qualified for the Spring Championships last season, and both teams are coming into this game off of a loss: the Foxes lost to the Belmonte Terrapins before the Fall Banquet break, and the Jackrabbits couldn’t stand up to the surging Edgar Allan Ravens, who have made it clear that they’ll settle for nothing less than another undefeated regular season record. But it’s the Foxes who undoubtedly have the worse record, going without a win in their first two games of the season, in what has been a disappointing, if expected, return to form.”

“For this matchup, the Foxes are down two players: freshman Raphael Peruggia and sophomore Octavia Dawson, who both received red cards in the game against the Terrapins. Peruggia, in particular, is under scrutiny for an illegal hit to Terrapins player Travis Lott, who remains sidelined with a concussion. Despite the public urging of the Terrapins Coach, the ERC has opted not to pursue any supplemental discipline, but it’s almost certain that they will be paying particular attention to any foul play from the Foxes on Friday night as they attempt to wrest back control of a season that seems to have already gone off the rails.” 

- COLLEGE EXY ONLINE, “FOXES AT JACKRABBITS: PREVIEW”

“Did you think there was just one rivalry in the Vixen Den? Well, if you did, you were wrong—as the Vixens make their case for being an even bigger trainwreck than the team they cheer for, we’ve got our eye on another one brewing among a pair of underclassmen, who were spotted earlier this year exchanging some heated words outside of the Vixen Den. We’re eagerly awaiting updates, so bring us some, would you?”

“We were so focused on the shit-show that is the Vixens’ Captain that we neglected to mention another piece of gossip from the Foxes’ Fall Banquet—although, we’ll give this Fox credit, at least he had enough good sense to take it outside. Our school spirit says we can’t get too angry about someone throwing hands with a Gamecock but, once again, it’s not a good look for this Fox, who’s already got a reputation.”

- FOXWATCH, YOUR SOURCE FOR GOSSIP AT PALMETTO STATE UNIVERSITY

ON CAMPUS:

On Friday, October 5, the Foxes and the Vixens gather at the court after the Foxes’ morning practice to load themselves and their gear onto buses for the drive to Norfolk, Virginia, the home of the Blackwell Jackrabbits—and it’s a long one, approximately seven hours. In their district, only Edgar Allan is farther away. 

As the Vixens arrive to the Court, they’re met with a surprise: Coach Amanda Corey, who looks none too pleased to be there. It’s almost unheard of for the Vixens’ Coach to travel with them on a weekend when the football team is also playing, and her displeasure makes for an awkward drive.

They arrive at their hotel with time to spare, giving them all a chance to stretch their legs after the long ride, squabble over roommates and settle into their rooms, and gather for dinner together at the hotel before it’s time for them to head over to the Jackrabbits’ court, and attempt to pull out a win in what’s been a winless season thus far.  

(OOC information related to the game under the cut)

THIS IS YOUR GAME

Name: Meredith Cotes Age: Nineteen Class Year: Sophomore Position: Vixen Hometown: Weston, Massachusetts

THIS IS YOUR MOMENT

TW: death, drug mention, sexual harassment

Her father was a businessman, a mogul, the kind that they wrote profiles on in magazines, peeking behind the curtain at his private life, his beautiful home, his perfect family. But even outside of the public eye, their life was idyllic: Meredith’s parents loved each other, and they loved her. Her parents had the kind of hobbies that only money could buy, hobbies that took them to the bottom of the ocean and the tops of mountains—and then even higher, as they took to the skies. Meredith kept her feet on solid ground, preferring the rigid structure and discipline of ballet to her parents’ constant quest for adrenaline, her childhood all ballet-pink and en pointe.

And it was her parents’ own sense of daring that undid them, Meredith losing both her parents in one fell swoop to a plane crash in which her father had been at the controls. She was fifteen and orphaned, uncertain of what would become of her until her parents’ lawyers sat her down and told there was an uncle of hers coming to take care of her—an uncle she had never met, because he had been estranged from her parents, and Meredith quickly came to understand why. Her parents had filled their home with life, with laughter, with love, made it something that always felt warm and welcoming and bright. Under her uncle, it became something else. He was rude, and the friends he invited into Meredith’s parents’ home were even ruder, filling it with raised voices and crude language and cigarette smoke, turning her childhood home into something that seemed dingy, seedy, a shadow of what it once was.

It felt like she had stepped into an alternate universe, with everything the darker inverse of its previous self. In her home she felt hunted, afraid to leave her bedroom because of the way the drunken eyes of her uncle’s friends would follow her, the lewd commentary that her uncle never stopped and sometimes encouraged, the wandering hands she had to dodge. On nights like that she would hide, alone in her bedroom with nothing but the chair jammed under her doorknob and the sinking feeling that, however bad things already were, they could still get much worse.

And then there was the money. As a minor, her uncle had sole discretion over the money her parents had left behind, charged with using it in her care until she came of age. She watched it drain away: a flashy sports car, a six-figure watch, the purest cocaine that money could buy, high-stakes card games in the dining room where her family had once had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It wasn’t the spending that saddened and enraged her. It wasn’t even about the money at all. It was about what it represented: her parents’ legacy, and the love they had for her, the future they wanted to provide her—all that she had left of them.

Her despair felt bottomless, but she resolved to not let it paralyze her, to turn it into something more inflexible, something stronger: she was not going to passively sit by and count down the days until she turned eighteen, until she was free—no, her uncle was a brute, her uncle was a criminal, and she wanted him out of her home and out of her life, where he couldn’t poison everything that was still good in it. And so, with the help of her parents’ lawyers, they built a case, a dossier of evidence that encompassed everything from embezzlement to illegal gambling to drug possession, everything they could put together to put him away for a long time.

Meredith wanted to be vindicated, imagined with deep satisfaction the day she would sit in a courtroom and recount her uncle’s crimes, make him look her in the face as he realized there was no getting out of the web of his own making—but it didn’t quite work out that way. The end result was what she wanted—her uncle plead guilty and went to prison, and she would live alone as an emancipated minor until she turned eighteen—but it was all back-room dealings that never saw a trial. There was a part of her that had grown bloodthirsty that wasn’t satisfied, but she bit her tongue and forced it to be enough—she was free, and that was what really mattered.

SEIZE IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT

Her life was her own again, and so was her future—a prospect that felt more frightening than liberating, that made her miss her parents more than ever, because they weren’t around to guide her, to help her answer the questions of what she should do, or what would come next. College seemed small when compared to putting her uncle in prison, but it was impossible to visit campuses alone, look at all the other prospective students walking arm-in-arm with their parents, and not feel that ache. In the end, that’s perhaps what drew her to Palmetto: it’s where her mother attended undergrad, before meeting her father in graduate school.  

Ballet was something that had fallen by the wayside after her parents’ death, and something she thought about going back to: something rigorous, something disciplined, something that may have fit the newly formed steel spine inside of her. But instead she found herself pulled in an entirely different direction, her attention captured by the defiance of the Foxes, the roaring of a game-night crowd, and the bright orange uniforms and waving pom-poms of the Vixens. It felt so outside of what her life had become in the past few years, something unrestrained and vibrant, something full of life, and she was hungry for it—and so she followed that hunger to a spot on the Vixen squad for her sophomore year, hoping that by making herself a part of it all, she could find a way to take some of its vibrancy for herself.