Us Against You

Benji’s sisters bring him to Ramona to ask her for a job. Benji needs responsibility, a schedule, and a productive reason to be at the bar. Ramona agrees, and when they’re alone she tells Benji that even though he looks like his father, he doesn’t have to end up like him. Benji is at the next hockey practice, where he apologizes to Zackell for his absence. He tells her making him captain is not a good idea. Zackell assures him that she doesn’t care if he comes to practice, doesn’t care that the only players on time today are him, Bobo and Amat. Zackell tells Benji that by making him captain, she’ll be “giving you the thing you’re most terrified of: responsibility for other people” (193). Frustrated, Zackell goes to the locker room to get the rest of the team on the ice. Though they don’t know him and he is so much younger, something about him makes them follow.

As Peter reflects on his own career as a hockey player, he contemplates that he “lacked the killer instinct. When his team had a big lead during practices he would ease up, because he didn’t want to humiliate his opponents” (198). Peter applies this self-characterized flaw to his current predicament with the Pack: Who does he really owe anything to? Peter sees Zackell on the ice getting ready for A-team practice and recognizes that what makes her a leader is that she doesn’t give up even when she’s far ahead. He continues to watch on as the peculiar practice begins. Zackell ties the boys up in two groups with rope so that when one player falls, everyone does.

The men quickly become frustrated, so Zackell heightens the stakes. She takes out a paintball gun and tells them that when she coached a girls’ team, she had them strip and skate from one goal to the other while she shot at them. Every time they reached the net, they earned a beer. The men seem too shocked to understand if Zackell is giving instructions or if she’s kidding. So Benji stands, removes his shirt and gear, and begins to skate. Zackell hits him sometimes and realizes how resilient Benji truly is. Benji ends up winning enough beers for his whole team, and he leaves with shaving cream in his shoes.

Meanwhile, in Hed, William Lyt has learned that Benji is Beartown’s captain. William worked hard for years to surpass Benji in Kevin’s friendship and their coach David’s esteem, even following David to Hed while Benji remained in Beartown. No one has been named captain of the Hed team yet, but David assures William that it will not be him. David knows that this will stoke William’s deepest fury because it violates his pride and desire for love, but David also knows that William can use that on the ice. David thinks about Benji, essentially his hockey protégé. He recalls catching Benji kissing a boy, and regrets that as close as they were, Benji never felt that he could confide in David. 

Late at night, Sune knocks on the door of the Bearskin. He and Ramona have a jovial, long-standing friendship. First they talk about the new hockey coach, and Sune tells her that Zackell wants Vidar on the team. Ramona is thrilled; Teemu and his brother are feared throughout town but show Ramona endless kindness. She knows Peter won’t want Vidar on the team and points out it’s the first time Sune has sided against Peter. Sune asks Ramona to have Teemu make sure Vidar gets to practice, then he asks for another favor. He tells her about Alicia and asks that she be looked after. Ramona calls Teemu, who waits outside Alicia’s home. He sneaks in, frightening the adults. He tells them that from now on, Ramona will fund Alicia’s hockey gear and he informs them that Alicia now has brothers. The threat is real, and the adults know it: if Alicia continues to show bruises not related to hockey, the Pack will come back.

William continues to deal with mounting anger as more and more people, including a girl he likes, turns their back on him at school. He needs an outlet for his anger, and Leo is happy to give him one. William has a girl invite Leo for a walk and in a tunnel, she runs off and William follows behind to give Leo a beating. Jeanette sees the girl run away and William and his bully friends enter from her perch on the roof, and hurries to help. When she arrives, William registers her just in time to not hit her. She kicks William to the ground and he and his friends run off, but Leo is disappointed that she’s helped him. Leo wants violence, and he crave the opportunity to hit William back.

Meanwhile, Ana and Maya are practicing reclaiming Maya’s life, so they go for a jog to regain some freedom of movement. When they reach the place Maya held the gun to Kevin’s head, she can’t move forward so they turn back. Maya calls her mother to pick her up and she and Kira go out for coffee and talk, a rare occurrence for a busy career mother and a traumatized lonely daughter. Maya worries that the rape has hurt her parents in a different but still profound way.