The overly bright smile on Alphonse's face should have been Murina's first clue that something was amiss, but her mind was elsewhere. Brunch with Harris had not gone well. The meal itself was pleasant enough, but the meeting had brought some unpleasant facts to light that had gone missed the night before. While they ate, Murina went over the basic outline of her time spent with the big Alley rat, glossing over as many of the more unpleasant details as she could while highlighting what few positive aspects she could. As she nibbled on her salad and Harris on his lox bagel, Murina Beaubonique was starting to feel better about her new client's prospects. Until one innocent question brought it all down.

"Sounds like everything's working out," Harris said. "How's he play, though?"

Murina stopped in mid-chew. "...mm?"

The feline lifted an eyebrow. "How does he play?" he repeated, emphasizing each word.

She stared back at him. "Well... he..."

Harris groaned and put an elbow on the table, pressing a finger between his eyes. "Chrissakes, Muri, don't tell me you signed him BLIND! His file's from over five years ago! The only word we got on his skill is an article by that mouse and he just saw him for five minutes on a park court, for all we know he could be total SHIT now!"

The normally cool-headed rat was a terrible spot. In her zeal to prove to Harris that Alphonse was signable and not a lost cause, she'd forgotten about his actual on-court skills. Normally clients come with stacks of highlight tapes and statements from coaches or local papers to review, Alphonse had a handful of quotes from high school and an article from FSPN magazine by an author known more for character pieces than sports analysis. The last thing Murina could deal with right now was to lose Harris, and an error like that could stain her reputation permanently. So, she began to think quickly on her feet.

"Of... of course not! In fact, we have a scrimmage game scheduled today," she lied. "The... contract he signed had a clause in it stating that if he could not perform in a test run, as it were, then the whole deal is off. Think of it like a... rent-to-own agreement." She nodded, firmly.

Harris wasn't convinced, and his skeptical glance had Murina on edge. Finally, though, he nodded once and smiled. "Well then! You should be on your way. Don't want to make you late for your game. Oh, and don't worry about the meal. My treat. To make up for the double dinner you had to spring for last night."

The ride from the restaurant to the hotel was a blizzard of phone calls as Muri frantically scheduled a quick pick-up game at the local university. As was often the case, her reputation proved the main factor in getting it all organized. The university's coach had read Rozich's article and knew that having him on their floor might not be the best idea, but Murina assured him that she had been working with Alphonse and that he would be of no danger to their players, that it was just intended to assess his skills and provide teams and the media with footage. What she didn't mention was that it was also a test to see just how well Alphonse could play outside his home turf.

So, when Alfie came strolling up toward her, grin nearly splitting his head in half, Murina thought nothing of it. Rather, she stood, looking impatiently at the moseying rat and tapped her watch, beckoning him to move faster.

"Alfie! Would you hurry up? We have a LONG day ahead of u-"

"That we do, darling, that we do. C'mon, then! No time like th' present!" Alphonse responded, not stopping his stride as he went toward the front door. He had no idea what Murina had planned, but what he did know was that whatever was coming his way, he was going to be taking charge. Sure, he had no money, no phone, no connections, and no sense of where anything was in the city, but that wasn't going to stop Alphonse Norwich IV from taking the reins. Today was going to be HIS day.

The lack of limousine outside threw Alphonse's rhythm off, looking around for the ride he'd had the night before. "Oi, where's the toddla?" he asked.

Murina eyed him. "I assume you're referring to Woodrow. He's not my personal chauffeur, so today we're taking my car," she responded, pressing the unlock button on her keyless entry, the familiar double-beep announcing her Audi's presence.

Alphonse's expression visibly dropped at seeing the small sedan rather than the spacious limo, making Muri roll her eyes. "It's not as small as it looks, I even put the seat all the way back. Now get in, we don't have a lot of time."

The two rats climbed into the car, with Alphonse instantly complaining about the lack of leg room compared to the limousine. Once he got settled, the Alley rat began rooting through Murina's glove compartment, opening up the center console, flipping the sun visor down, looking at himself in the mirror, and pressing all the buttons he had access to. He seemed to find the automatic windows especially entertaining, making all four go up and down randomly until Muri turned on the window lock and gave a small "ahem" to let him know to quiet down and pay attention.

Murina explained the day's itinerary. "Now listen, today is CRITICAL for us, Alfie. We have one day to make up for you being AWOL for the last five years and that means the first thing on our list is getting you on a court to play."

That caught her passenger's attention quickly. "'at right? Who'm I playin' against, eh?"

"I managed to talk the university into letting us join them for a practice game. Think of it like an exhibition." She paused. "Like... a game to show off what you can do, not a competition."

Alphonse grinned. "Lookin' forward to it, luvlie! Long as I got my cheerleader on the sideline, eh?" he said, leering at Murina, resulting in another eye roll.

Pulling into the parking lot near the Harvaardwak University arena, Murina turned off the car and turned toward Alphonse. "Okay, one more time. Why are we here."

The big rat snorted. "Fer me t' show the FBA what I got an' give 'em a nice piccy fer th' rags."

"...I suppose that's close enough. Let's go."

She led him through the front door, where they met the Harvaardwak team's coach, a distinguished looking older opossum in a suit. Introductions were made, and to Murina's surprise Alphonse actually shook the coach's hand. He didn't look especially friendly about it, not saying a word and with an icy expression on his face, but it was a vast improvement over his non-introduction to Harris twenty four hours earlier. As the opossum led them down the hallway, explaining the history of school and the team itself, Muri's attention was on the rat beside her. No outbursts, no comments. Maybe sleeping it over had given Alphonse a fresh perspective, Murina thought. Maybe things really WERE going to be fine.

Entering the main area, where the team had already assembled and were warming up, the opossum clapped his paws loudly. "All right! Everyone bring it in. Today we've got something special planned. This is Murina Beaubonique, I know a few of you know who she is already, and this here is Alphonse Norwich. Now he's a client of hers and an FBA draft prospect. So she's brought him here to play a quick exhibition game." He pointed around the edge of the court. "We've got cameras set up here, because they want footage of this for the league's GMs to get a peek at before the draft. So that means no fuckin' around, okay? Any questions?"

A lanky flamingo in the back raised a hand. "Uh, so we're supposed to just let this guy show off for an hour?"

The coach chuckled. "No, Ken. Treat this like a real game. Play just like we've practiced. I realize Alphonse doesn't know our playbook, but I figure if we give him a quick rundown he'll be fine, that right Alphonse?"

All eyes turned toward the scruffy rat. It took an elbow to the side to get him to answer. "Yeh!"

"Good," the opossum said, nodding. "Okay, starting teams are Cameron, North, Sparks, Dixon, and Lewis against Goss, Johnson, King, Valko and Mr Norwich here."

The players began to split onto their respective sides, when suddenly Alphonse spoke up. "Oi, 'old up a tick," he said, walking out toward the rest. Murina began to tense up again, sensing her earlier optimism may have been misplaced.

"Is there a problem, Mr Norwich?"

"'Ere is. I ain't playin' wid 'at one," he said pointing straight at the flamingo.

Ken looked confused. "Uh... what'd I do?" he asked, the coach.

"Not 'avin' a beaka on my team. You an' you, swap 'round," Alphonse answered for him, indicating a similarly built stoat on the other team. No one moved.

Finally, the coach broke the silence. "...alllll right. If it'll make this move more smoothly, we can do a couple substitutions."

The flamingo and stoat crossed sides, with both of them giving a small shrug to each other as if to say "I dunno either, man." Afterwards, Alphonse had some other lineup changes to make, until eventually his team was comprised of himself, the stoat, a fox, a fellow rat, and a rather large bear of a center. Meanwhile, the opposing side was made of the flamingo, a bat, a copperhead, a gecko and a moose. There was a fair amount of grumbling as the players shuffled around, with Murina rubbing at her forehead all the while. Alphonse's perspective had changed slightly, all right, but not for the better.

A small finch hopped toward them all, handing out red practice jerseys to Alphonse's team and white to the others. When he got to the rat, Alfie shook his head with a snort, pulling off his vest and shirt.

"No thanks, stubby. Don't think they'll have an 'ard time findin' me."

A voice could be heard muttering. "Pretty sure we'd smell him a mile away." The team laughed. Murina froze in place.

Alfie's eyes flashed. "Who th' FUCK said that??" he barked, storming right over to the opposing side. The rat's sudden burst of anger made all eyes shoot immediately to the the speaker, and the bat looked back at them atl with an expression of outright betrayal. Within seconds, Alphonse was nose to nose with him.

"Think you're all Easter, do ya?" he spat at the bat, who tried to mount a defense but was immediately silenced. "One more word an' I'll rip ya fucking jacobs off and FEED 'em to ya! Ya undastand??" he shouted, grabbing the bat's jersey. Instantly the whole team dove in, pulling the pair apart. Murina ran over and managed to talk Alfie down, pulling him off to the side to get him away from the others. Both 'teams' were in a frenzy, shouting at the rat as well as each other. The opossum coach flew over, furious.

"Ms Beaubonique! I don't care if you brought over Cheeto Wolfote, I will NOT have my team threatened!"

Muri had both hands on Alfie, eyes on his, silently telling him to relax, that she would take care of it. The Alley rat's chest was heaving, his fists clenched, but he managed to calm his temper. The smaller murine turned around to address the coach, straightening herself up.

"Perhaps your players should keep their comments to themselves. I was not expecting them to treat a guest so rudely." Her surprise defense of Alphonse made the big rat settle down further, an almost satisfied look on his face.

The agent and the coach had a staredown, until the opossum grunted. "Of course. Well, if everyone's done throwing a shit fit," he half-shouted, making sure both sides heard him. He waited until everyone quieted down before continuing. "Then let's start this game. And I don't want ANY more problems. Okay?"

It took a few moments for Alphonse to make his way back out onto the court, with Murina practically shooing him along. For the Harvaardwak players, it was hard to tell who looked more uneasy: the ones who would be playing against him or the ones who'd be playing with him. Neither side seemed especially eager to share a court with the haggard rat in boots who'd nearly beaten up their teammate. With cameras pointed at them and the coach's reminder that the FBA itself would be looking at the tapes, though, no one wanted to give anything less than their best, so after some further encouragement, the nine Boston students and the one British Alley rat squared up for the tip off.

The game got off to a rough start. Although he was quick on his feet and moved along the court like the others, Alphonse's years of experience in street ball became painfully obvious when an incredibly hard pick put the Harvaardwak gecko flat on his back, wheezing to catch his breath, and the rat's only reaction was to taunt him by telling the gecko he "oughta keep ya eyes open, sandy!" Despite being rough around the edges, Alphonse was a solid player with a strong charge and a good leap to him. He even managed a dunk over top of the moose, much to everyone's surprise. The opossum looked over at Muri, his expression indicating that he had to, begrudgingly, admit that the rat was skilled.

Things came to a screeching halt when, near the end of the first quarter, Alfie made a hard block on Ken the flamingo that nearly turned him upside down. It was a flagrant foul, and one that could have easily injured him. The game stopped immediately and within seconds both sides of the ball were yelling at Alphonse or hollering at the coach to stop the whole thing. The rat himself seemed not to understand what he was doing wrong and his confusion turned to anger, yelling back at the whole of the Boston lineup, blaming them for not being tougher.

Murina decided to step in. "TIME OUT!!" she cried, bringing the first period to an early stop and waving Alphonse over for a quick pow-wow.

Alfie seemed just as aggravated as she was. "You see 'ese cherries cryin' foul at everything? I 'ope they ain't this soft in the F-"

She had no idea why she did it, how she had the courage to do it, or what she thought his reaction would be, but Murina Beaubonique reached up and smacked Alphonse in the head. The impact was quiet, but enough to get his attention. Not just his, but the students across the court, all of whom suddenly stopped their grousing about their "guest" to watch the drama between rats.

Alphonse winced and put a hand on the side of his head, acting more injured by the hit than he was. "Ooow! Th' fuck whuzzat for??"

"What are you DOING out there?" Muri shot back.

"Fuck's it look like I'm doin'? I'm playin'! Ain't MY fault 'is bunch is soft a-"

"You're playing prison ball! Don't you get it? This is for real! This is the big time! No elbows, no shoving, no knocking everyone down, no trash talk, no fouls! You have to be SQUEAKY clean out there!"

The two of them continued arguing about whether Alfie was playing dirty or the University team needed to toughen up, although they kept the volume low enough that the eavesdropping students couldn't hear exactly what was being said. After another minute of "discussion", Murina pointed hard at the floor as if telling Alphonse to hold still while she walked over to the Boston team and their coach. The whole group seemed to have a newfound respect for the diminutive rat. Certainly none of them would have had the courage to strike the scarred Brit.

Muri cleared her throat. "Okay. I admit that this was a... rocky start. You all just have to remember it's been some time since Mr Norwich has played in such... controlled conditions. He's just working the cobwebs out. I assure you none of that was meant in malice."

Dante Dixon, the gecko, huffed at her. "Are you kidding? You heard what he said out there!" The others nodded in agreement.

Taking a small breath, Murina nodded her head as well. "Yes, I know. Again, he's played out on a street court these last few years, he's used to games being more physical and less... strict concerning fouls. We've had a talk and I assure you the rest of the game will be by the books. If he commits one more foul, we'll be gone and he's on a plane back to England."

That seemed to placate the team, although Murina had a caveat. "Gentlemen, that ALSO means I don't want any of you taking a dive just to get him in trouble. This isn't just for fun, my tail is on the line here, too."

Straightening her glasses, Murina walked across the court back to her client, who was standing with his arms crossed, looking cross. "'Ey ready to start back up?" he asked.

"If YOU are."

"Ready an' waitin', luv!" Alphonse responded, as if this whole thing was just a pointless delay. Then, uneasily, Muri signalled for the game to resume.

The second quarter started off much more slowly than the first. Alphonse's steps were uneven, stilted. He knew he had to be careful, but was overly cautious. He loped across the court, visibly annoyed and giving too much space to the other players. It didn't take much effort for the offense to get around him or for defense to snag the ball out of his paws or block passes. His teammates even seemed to prefer to pass around him rather than let him have the ball. With nearly half of his "audition" game over, Murina's heart was sinking. The money spent, the risks taken, time and emotional investment, her high hopes for Alphonse Norwich IV were all fluttering out the doors of the Hardvaardwak University gym, and worst of all, it was all being filmed. Her humiliation was going to be public.

As the half started to draw to a close, though, something began to change in Alphonse. It was as if the shadows of high school training were coming back to him. His steps became quicker, sharper, and his ball-handling more focused. The rat wasn't focusing on species or Muri any more, and then, to the surprise of all in attendance, Alphonse began to PLAY. By the end of the second period, Alfie was driving through defenses, stealing rebounds, and blocking opposing players like a pro. His teammates began to treat him more like a peer, and the quarter ended with a devastating fake as Alphonse went up for a dunk before blind passing over to his bear teammate who drove the ball in for a backboard-quaking slam. Muri couldn't help but squeal out a cheer, and even Alfie's teammates were giving him high fives for the play.

The contrast between the first and second halves of the game were like night and day. His game wasn't as technical or refined as the rest from the Boston squad, but his physical style and impressive conditioning more than made up for it. On defense, he kept opponents from being able to get close to the basket, forcing the other team to repeatedly shoot for field goals or threes. On offense, his guarding was nearly impenetrable, and he had no trouble taking it to the net himself on occasion.

Murina stood off to the side of the court, hands laced together and pressed to the front of her muzzle, breath held for nearly the entire latter half of the game. After the initial disaster, all she'd hoped for was to be able to get out of the Boston arena with enough footage to prove that she at least shouldn't be embarrassed that she'd taken a chance on Alfie, but now it was looking like she had a mohawked highlight reel on her paws. Of course, this was against a college team and not professionals, and not the best the country had to offer at that, but his performance was nothing short of stellar. Their coach went from yelling at the rat for being a menace to yelling at his own players to do something to stop him. Alphonse's agent was nearly giddy. It was like a miniature version of the story she was hoping to tell: the rough and tumble rat coming from harsh beginnings and ending up a bona fide baller.

When the game finished, Alphonse's teammates were suitably impressed, although the players opposite him were less eager to show any respect for the rat. Their coach came in with a clap of his hands, the expression on his face still sour. "Okay, pretty good job everyone. Lewis, what'd I tell you about half-assing it? See what happens?" he chided, as if criticizing his own players would downplay Alphonse's performance. The opossum caught eyes with the dirty rat briefly. "Mr Norwich... I suppose we'll be seeing you on FSPN come draft night. Best of luck to you," he offered, paw outstretched, although the offer was just as chilly as Alphonse's had been at the start.

Grinning ear to ear, Alfie took the opossum's paw and shook it like he wanted to tear the old marsupial's shoulder out of socket. "Any time y'need ya team get its arse kicked, give us a call."

He walked off the court toward Muri, who jogged up looking like she wanted to hug him. Once they got close, though, her muzzle wrinkled and she immediately aborted that plan, offering Alfie instead a pat on the chest.

"You did it! Oh, Alfie, I don't think the FBA is going to be able to ignore you now! And the way the coach was just GLARING at you?" she laughed. It was as much a victory for her as it was for her client. His performance proved that she was right. There was a place for Alphonse Norwich IV on a real basketball court and not just relegated to the decrepit court Richter Rozich had found him on just a few weeks ago.

Alphonse winked at her. "Toldja I's the tits, darling."

She chuckled, another eye roll following. "Okay, settle down, big boy. Um, don't you want to get cleaned up?" Muri asked, with more than a bit of a hint in her inflection.

He sneered. "I ain't sharin' an Austin with 'at filthy lot," he responded, acid in his voice. "You see th' way those fucking nellies was eyein' me? I ain't lettin' 'em put their peeks on m' goods."

It was a surprisingly sharp rebuke, and one that Muri hadn't expected given how well Alfie had just gotten along with his teammates. She looked at him for a moment, as if to make sure she heard what she'd heard, or to see if maybe he was joking. The silence in the air made it painfully obvious that he wasn't, and so Murina nodded and handed Alphonse his dirty shirt and vest back, giving him a single pat on the back once he got re-dressed.

"Well, let's get going, then. This was just our first stop. There's a lot more we have to do if we want to make you league-friendly..."

The game had gone better than she'd hoped, and far better than she was afraid it would after Alphonse had nearly sabotaged any hopes of drafting. Somehow, though, Murina didn't feel quite as confident as she thought she would. She had a sinking feeling there would still be a lot of rocks in the road ahead.