Chapter 4 Not Your Backup

Riley's POV

Priya moved my lunch onto the equipment list.

"Eat."

"I'm reading."

"You've been reading since we sat down."

I lifted the corner of my sandwich wrapper. Underneath it, station cards, small cones, and signs occupied three columns. Together, they represented an afternoon Cole Mercer apparently expected me to spend following a checklist.

The checklist wasn't the problem.

Priya took a bite of her sandwich. "Do you want to finish this, or do you want to see his face when you do it your way?"

"Both would be efficient."

"There she is."

I crossed out a heading. Cole had been irritatingly reasonable that morning. He'd accepted the entrance change. He'd helped count the signs. He'd even managed to be wrong without requiring an assembly about it.

I still wanted to finish the sorting faster than he expected.

Theo stopped beside our table, carrying his tray.

"Do you have the youth-session stuff on there?"

"Cones and number cards. They're mixed in with everything else."

He leaned over the list. "We need those separated."

"Yes. The school has identified that problem and assigned it to my afternoon."

"When are you doing it?"

"After class. Before practice."

He checked the list again. I pulled it out from under my lunch.

"Two teams. Split the stations. First to get everything sorted correctly wins."

"Wins what?"

"Being right."

Theo nodded slowly. "That does appeal to me."

"Bring somebody. You can take the simpler station sets. I'll—"

Priya tapped my wrapper.

"What?"

"Are you asking?"

Theo waited, looking more amused than offended.

I lowered my pen. "Would you and someone else like to help? Briefly. Voluntarily. With the opportunity to defeat me."

"As long as we're done before we have to report. And you're actually doing it, not holding a clipboard and yelling."

"I'm taking the sets with duplicate signs."

He looked at the list. "All right. I'll ask."

Priya slid my lunch closer as he left. I took a bite before she could ask why Cole's reaction mattered.

---

By the time Cole arrived, Theo and another player were standing beside two rows of empty station bins. Sloane held the inventory sheet against her clipboard.

Cole stopped at the edge of the concrete and took in the bins, the cards, and Theo, who was examining a cone as if somebody might have hidden an unfair advantage inside it.

"This is the help?"

"This is the improved process."

Sloane pointed toward the storage doors. "Nothing leaves this area. Don't block the entrance."

I held up my copy of the list. "Two teams. Station sets are marked. Finish first with everything in the right place. Sloane checks. Nobody throws anything or races with a loaded bin."

Cole came closer and read the assignments. I had an explanation ready for the duplicate signs, another for inviting people, and a third in case he objected to making the work a competition.

"Which side am I on?" he asked.

"Mine."

It came out before I could make it sound less definite. He nodded and set his folder aside.

"We've got the station sets with signs for both approaches," I said. "They're easy to miss."

"Show me."

I pointed them out. He checked the labels, then crouched beside the mixed supplies.

I'd prepared for the wrong version of him.

"Ready?" Sloane asked.

Theo said yes before I did.

I separated the numbered cards while Cole checked each station's list and set the cones beside the appropriate bin. Across from us, Theo's teammate read out numbers. Theo answered too loudly.

"Not a stadium, Grant," Sloane said.

"Competitive environment."

I held out a stack of cards. Cole took it and matched the numbers without asking me to explain the system again.

"Blue signs next. Put those with the entrance set."

He picked one up but didn't move it.

"What?"

He turned it around. A small label on the back identified it as a station marker, not an entrance sign.

I checked the others. Same color. Different labels. Theo was already reaching for another stack.

For one stupid second, I wanted to argue with the sticker.

"You're right," I said. "Could you separate those? I'll take the cones."

Cole passed me the list. "Yeah."

No reminder about asking instead of ordering.

We switched jobs. I counted while he read the labels. Once he started setting the signs face down so the markings showed, I stopped having to ask which pile went where.

Theo looked over. "Mercer taking instructions. Somebody get a picture."

I had a response halfway out.

"She knows where this goes," Cole said, already checking the next sign.

Theo returned to his own pile. I put a cone into the wrong stack, caught myself, and moved it.

Cole held out another card.

"Here?"

I checked the bin. "Yeah."

We kept going. There were no cameras. Nobody asked about the fall or wanted me to repeat something I'd said to the principal.

When I pointed to a space, Cole put something in it. When he found a label I'd missed, I checked it.

We finished first, and Sloane found nothing out of place. Theo demanded a recount until she offered him the clipboard, then checked the time instead.

We were done early.

---

The other player headed toward the locker rooms. Theo stayed to help Sloane put the finished bins where they belonged.

I handed Cole the checked list.

"Organized. Complete. Nobody died. Any concerns?"

"No."

"Not even a small one?"

"It worked, Riley."

I'd expected a qualification. Something about how we could have finished without turning it into a race, or how he would've done it differently.

He gave me the list back. I smoothed a corner that didn't need smoothing.

"Good."

Cole collected his folder while I checked that nothing had slipped underneath mine.

"You do know I was the one following somebody else's plan today."

I looked up. "And you survived."

"Your turn next."

"I can follow a plan."

"When it's yours."

I folded the list. "You've had one afternoon where you weren't in charge. Don't apply for sainthood yet."

"I wasn't going to."

"You're very calm about something you'd hate doing for a whole week."

"You think you'd last longer?"

Theo stopped beside the bins. "Are you two making the actual partnership a competition now?"

I looked at Cole. He waited.

"Fine," I said. "Until Traditions Week ends. First person to request a new partner because they can't stand the other one loses."

"Loses what?" Theo asked.

"One reasonable favor. Not a blank check."

"No dangerous stuff or public humiliation," Cole said.

"Or kissing somebody. This isn't middle school."

Theo lifted both hands. "I didn't suggest anything."

"And actual reasons to leave don't count," Cole said. "School, practice, whatever. The favor doesn't get to interfere with those, either."

"We can still switch," I said. "We just don't get to pretend being annoyed is an emergency."

"Good," Sloane said, picking up the clipboard. "Because I'm not keeping anybody on this project over a dare."

I tucked the list into my folder. Cole could refuse. He could point out that we already had a schedule and a job to finish. He could leave for practice.

"Deal," he said.

Immediately.

Theo looked between us. "Witnessed."

I'd been ready to talk Cole into it. Now I had nothing to do with the argument.

He was still looking at me.

"What?"

"Nothing."

For once, I left it there.