News spread really fast. The Breaca national tennis committee had to make a big choice. That was whether to accept or reject the invitation. It put them in a bind. The all alpha committee members would rather die than ask 4 omega males to join the team. Obviously, they wanted to reject it. But it was not just up to them. The IPTB was an international organization of tournaments, players, referees and interested fans from all over the world. If they refused here, it would be a PR nightmare. People would call them bigots. That was bad for their image. Boycotts and protests could happen for other sports. The IPTB certainly would never give them any other opportunities or favors in the future. It was team tennis. That meant the 4 would form 2 doubles teams. It was just like in their high school national tournaments. They could handle that. It led to a flurry of public discourse. People either wanted them to play in the cup or not. Petitions going both ways were sent into the national committee and the federal government. After a debate, it was mandated by law they all be accepted.
As the national sporting committees were under the government, they had not choice but to obey. Reid, Reilly, Ronan and Rhys were all going to the Burke Cup. If they were taking the 2 doubles slots, the national committee's job was to find the 4 greatest singles pros in all of Breaca. There were certainly a couple. But Breaca was not a nation known for tennis. It really was not known for much. With that being the case, Ronan offered to be one of the singles players. Evan could play with Reilly instead. It was a bit of a slap to the face. Still, they needed bodies. Ronan was actually higher ranked than both of the alphas. Another alpha returned from retirement by request of the committee in order keep Mitchel from taking the last spot. Breaca had already been in contention with the idea. While there would always be those willing to do the work for the greater good, nearly all of the alpha players refused to join if they had to be on the same team as an omega. Betas leapt for the chance, but their committee was already compromising. They really did not want betas on their teams.
Capitalizing on it was Bruce. He was the CFO for a megacorporation. They sold costumes and party decorations. It was a no brainer to drop a 100,000 lin donation on a new team of national heroes. They personally designed and tailored the team outfits. Once they did, others did as well. They were the new hot topic everyone was talking about. Anna, Barnett, Marcus, Thom and Cody were all their personal bodyguards. People were pissed off. Evan and his father got a ton of death threats. So were all the boys. Things were getting very tense. Anna also spoke to Jake about this matter. He agreed that protecting the national team members was important. Now that they were in a prominent position, the school finally allowed them to use the courts at school. Evan, Reid, Reilly, Ronan and Rhys all had to prepare for the Burke Cup. Even though they really did not need to practice at all, their dedication to the sport was admirable. Even when they finished at school, they went over to the park. Anna and the others were guarding the place. That was until Jake and Richard showed.
