A week after Black Sunday, Asphodel "Dell" Oletsky drives her uncle's Dodge to meet her best friend and basketball teammate Valeria Ramos in the parts graveyard behind the Ramos house. Sitting in a wrecked tractor cab, sharing a flask of whiskey, the two girls grow intimate. Dell confides that she dreams of the ditch where her mother died and struggles sleeping in her mother's bed. Valeria suggests she visit the Antidote, a prairie witch, to deposit her painful memories, even offering to lend her money. Valeria muses that Dell herself might be a witch, given her sudden basketball talent. They share a charged, tender moment holding hands before Valeria leaves.

At Tuesday practice, only nine of the original seventeen players remain. Dell reveals to her teammates that Abby Ohrn has died from silicosis caused by the dust, lying that Abby died peacefully in her sleep. Coach then announces devastating news: Uz Poultry & Eggs, owned by Miss Irene, has gone bust and discontinued sponsorship, and he himself is leaving Uz for Ohio the next morning. The girls beg him to stay, but he drives away.

Sofia and Daniela quit on the spot. The seven remaining players—Valeria, Pazi, Dagmara, Thelma, Ellda, Nell, and Dell—vote to complete the season. They rename themselves "The Dangers" and elect Dell as player-captain, partly because she refuses to lose. Dell vows they will sponsor, govern, and chaperone themselves. They finish practice with a passing drill. Privately, Dell resolves to visit the Antidote to obtain money quickly, suspecting she herself may be, or could become, a witch.