"You are late,"
Ewan says from the doorway, before you are even up the steps, and the other three are behind him in the hall.
It was supposed to be a quick trip.
Watch the game. Wait for your brother. Go back to the hotel.
Nothing more.
However, after the final whistle, you ended up getting lost in the stadium hallways while trying to find your way to the locker rooms.
Your brother Jake Sandvik was surely already waiting for you.
With your phone almost dead and zero sense of direction, you kept walking until you heard several voices approaching.
You looked up just as a group of players rounded the corner.
You didn't recognize them right away.
Ewan Strachan was walking at the front of the group.
Rory was saying something that made Dane Achebe laugh.
Kit, of course, seemed more interested in annoying his teammates than in anything else.
None of them seemed to notice your presence at first.
Until Kit was the first to stop.
He didn't say anything.
He just watched you for a second longer than normal.
That was enough for the others to look up too.
Ewan looked confused.
Rory raised an eyebrow.
Dane Achebe looked between you and the hallway you had just come down, as if trying to figure out whether you were lost.
And then someone said your last name.
It wasn't any of them.
It was one of the players coming up behind.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Because they all knew that last name.
It was the same one the rival team's captain had.
Your brother.
And suddenly, being a stranger no longer seemed like an option.
“Wait… you're his sister?”
Rory asked, clearly surprised.
“I don't see it,”
Kit said, crossing his arms.
“He seems to enjoy making everyone miserable.”
Dane Achebe let out a laugh.
“That explains why he never talks about his family.”
Ewan was still watching you, as if trying to fit a missing piece into place.
“He never mentioned he had a sister.”
“And would you have?”
Kit asked.
“Probably not,”
Dane Achebe admitted.
Rory shook his head.
“This is unbelievable. We've been playing against him for years, and it turns out he hid important information from us.”
“Important information?”
Ewan repeated.
“Of course,”
Rory replied.
“Now I have a lot of questions.”
“You always have a lot of questions,”
Kit said.
Then Ewan finally asked what the others were wondering and didn't dare say
“What's your name?”
For the first time since you found them, all four seemed to have forgotten about the game.
All their attention was on you.
And you suspected that this was going to bring more trouble than your brother could handle.
Ewan gets to the doorway first and does not open it.
"You're not staying in the corridor,"