If you can't beat them, join them.

There didn't seem to be a win here so Matt figured the best he could do was play along.

"Are you guys on the football team? That's so cool. You think we can win the district this year?"

The punk looked down his nose at Matt. "Not just a free breakfast loser but a suckup. Must suck to be you."

'Suck' and 'suckup' in one paragraph. Not a lot of imagination there. But how much imagination do you need if you're a star of the football team and you've got a lineman to run interference for you? "I hear PV High is having a down year," Matt said. "If that's the case, I don't think anything could keep you from going to state."

"Hell yeah," the sidekick announced to everyone within five hundred feet. "Gotta keep training but nobody is going to stop us. Right, Jordan?"

Matt leaned closer. "You know, one thing I heard was, players aren't supposed to have sex while they're training. That's just bullshit, right? I know cool guys like you aren't going to let stupid rules like that--"

"If coach says it's a rule, it's not stupid," the sidekick yelled.

"Shut up, Freddy," Jordan said. "And don't worry about us, asshole," he continued. "We get all the action we can handle. But don't worry, there's some low-rent pussy around that nobody on the team is likely to mess with. You can enjoy that trash all you want."

"That's what I figured." Matt decided not to point out the repeated use of 'don't worry'. Guys like this don't have much vocabulary because they didn't need it. They just smashed anyone who thought words were a way to fight. "Wish I'd gotten here a couple of years ago," Matt said with artificial sorrow. "I could have trained and maybe helped out the team. Unfortunately, coming from the hood, I never got the chance and it's obviously too late now."

Jordan looked confused. Matt's sucking up had deflected his antagonism like mental judo. As for the sidekick, he seemed to have fallen for Matt's line completely.

"You better be at the games and cheering," Jordan said. "Trust me, I've got friends in the stands and they'll let me know if you don't show."

"Wouldn't miss it," Matt lied.