Whether that was just an excuse to maintain a professional edge or real prejudice, the effect was the same. For the first time in his life, Dimi felt that he was truly alone, and not just alone but lonely—an emotion underscored by the academy’s resident bully, the founding coach’s talentless but ever-present nephew, Nate Marsden.
“Hey, Notebook, how come you don’t have any pictures of your folks in your room?” Nate and the others called Dimi “Notebook,” because he always had his head buried in one, in class and courtside.
“I do, too, have folks.”
“That’s not what I hear. I hear you’re a reject and not once but twice.”
From then on, Dimi used photographs of Valerian and Alexey—well, the one photo of Alexey in which he appeared what Nate might think of as semi-normal looking—as computer
