Frozen Heart

Chapter 9 ~ "I Know You Can Do This"

Nik

Grace was such a godsend, she worked with me on my math for ages on Monday and sent me home with a few practice questions to work on. Since then she'd been helping me out if I had a question and we had an agreement to go to the gym together this Thursday.

I was stressed about my test tomorrow but I was even more stressed out about tonight's game. I still kept remembering that there were scouts coming and that I had to perform really well. I always had a hard time believing that I was any good at hockey, but I had to believe I could do this somewhere deep in me. I had to believe Alex could too.

"Ready?" Alex asks and I nod. He nudges my arm a bit and the two of us stand with our coach, going over line-ups. 

"Alright boys listen up!" Coach calls and everyone huddles around. "This our third game this season and I want everyone to play it clean, just like the last two. Everyone understand?" He asks and we all nod. "Work hard, leave it all out on the ice and work together." I nod and try to narrow in my focus. "Hands in, one, two, three!"

"Hockey!" The whole team yells at once and I shove in my mouth guard. We make our way down to the ice and hear the announcements starting as we all skate around and warm up. I take a couple of shots at the net and look around at just the sheer number of people here tonight. It was the last game before school let out, lots of parents and family members were here.

I let all of my stress over it go, I just had to play the best that I could and hope it was enough to get noticed. I found picturing Grace with me helped, not just with math but on the ice too. She helped me with my stress and after the night I fell asleep next to her things had changed. I started to want to see her more often and I missed her.

I called her after Sasha went to practice on her birthday just to go over some math stuff. Sasha's birthday had turned out to be way worse than just 'underwhelming'. Alex and I both got her a card and made box cupcakes with her in the kitchen. She seemed to have fun icing them and joking around with the two of us. 

Mom came home a while later with a few presents for her, Alex and I went splits on a bath set and a pair of earrings. Mom bought her some new tights for skating, a few beauty products and a set of wireless headphones for her to use at the rink. She seemed really happy about that and mom presented her with a birthday pie.

This was a Russian tradition, we don't eat cake for birthdays. Instead you bake a special pie and put a message on top for the birthday person. Sasha's said "Happy 16th", not much but definitely special. 

It was all so happy until dad got home, then it was like I watched the light drain out of her face.

"What is all of this?" He asked. "Anya, we agreed no presents."

"But it's her sixteenth Andrei." She said. "She should get something, this is a big birthday for a young girl."

"We celebrate achievements in this house, not the passage of time." He said angrily and I felt myself getting angry. She worked so hard and she couldn't even celebrate her damn sixteenth birthday? "And pie and cupcakes?"

"It's just a bit of fun." Mom insisted and he sighed.

"Not during competition season, she has a strict diet." He huffed. "I want all of this gone, let's go Sasha, you have practice."

So I brought the gifts and cards to her room and mom hid the sweets in the garage fridge. He ruins everything for everyone.

I shake it off and focus back on the game, skating back off the ice to get ready for them to announce the starting line-up. 

The game was actually going miraculously well. The other team sort of sucked so I'm sure that made Alex and I look better than we really were. It was a pretty fun game, any game that you're up two to nothing in the first third is a good sign.