SSS: Outside Expectations 25
“Ryen’s talking about switching coaches,” Graham says that night as we’re getting ready for bed. I can tell by the way he’s scowling that he doesn’t like the idea.
“Mom didn’t travel with him all the time as it was before. They always worked with the team coaches too, so it might be easier to stick with them. He’s eighteen, and now with Peeta--”
“Oh don’t tell Peeta that,” I say and Graham cuts his eyes at me with a look of exasperation, as if he already knew it’d be a bad idea to tell Peeta that he’s the reason Ryen boots his own mother off his coaching staff. Honestly, Graham probably does realize that, and I’m just being overly jumpy and protective of Peeta. Another example of me thinking I know what’s best for him when I really don’t. Like this afternoon’s muck up.
I bite my lip and go back to changing into my pajamas, washing my face. I splash away the face wash and pat my skin dry with the fluffy towel.
“So is he going to wait until the end of the season to fire her?” I ask and Graham gives me another exasperated look.
“He’s not firing her. She’s our mom.”
“Right,” I say, trying to keep my tone light. “They’ve always butted heads though, and he always says he wants a different coach or to compete in freestyle instead but then he never switches.”
“True,” Graham admits, fluffing the pillows as I slide under the thick covers. “But he wasn’t a legal adult before. Now he is.”
“So now he can switch… or at least he’s got a better chance of switching,” I mutter the last part and I can see Graham is thinking of arguing, maybe defending his mother. I don’t know, but I am not in the mood to hear it after this afternoon. So I shrug and try to look at him as though we’re in agreement when I say, “And also…”
“Peeta,” we both say at the same time. He gives me a soft smile and I relax a little. One disagreement averted.
“He needs her more than Ryen does at this point, I think,” Graham says, joining me in bed.
“Maybe. He’s got physical therapists, though. A whole team of doctors,” I counter and Graham shakes his head.
“If it were Ariel or Brigid,” Graham says and I turn my face away from him in pain at just the thought of it. “You’d be incredibly involved, wouldn’t you?”
