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❝ 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖎'𝖒 𝖘𝖔 𝖙𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖎 𝖒𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙
𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖙 𝖒𝖞 𝖏𝖔𝖇 𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖆 𝖓𝖊𝖜 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊 ❞
THE TEAMS WERE GIVEN OUT AND THE GAME WAS ABOUT TO START.
But no one was really eager to play. We had managed to pick teams without causing a fight, which ended up keeping the new kids on their own team with a couple of Duck additions, and everyone seemed pretty okay with the standings.
Figuring that everyone would take it easy for now--not even Adam cared about this scrimmage too much— I wandered around the ice, trying to find a way to kill time watching the team.
Team USA, such as we were, were arranged in big fronted lines that stood against the walls and sat where others had once been. For the most part everyone was unspeakably boring, all about arguing and the enduring crisis of new players, but one kid stood out from the rest.
He was in a place of honor at the front of the crowd, in a fancy uniform that rested atop his gear. He stood behind a rope I stepped over and a little warning sign I didn't bother to read, and he case had polished cheekbones and a smile so white you could practically see through it.
When I looked at him, I think I actually gasped—and for one panicky second thought wowza!—because I had suddenly and unexpectedly been staring at some random boy for far too long.
His shrunken body bore an uncanny resemblance to the kids that would bully me at school for my accent, as did the color of his hair, which was like something that had been spit-roasted over a flame. But when the boy failed to come any closer and tattoo my mind forever by sipping a fake cup of tea, my initial panic subsided.
"Ken Wu, right?" I whispered to him, who agreed with a nod.
It was just an opportunity for a new friend, albeit an excessively difficult one.
"Look, Nelson's trying to find a boyfriend!" called a voice from behind me, and I turned to see Charlie striding in my direction. "I didn't know you were into younger guys, Nelson." He grinned and reached out to shake my hand. "Honestly, I thought you were into Banks for the longest time."
"Shut up, Conway," I said. "I'm just trying to talk to him."
"Ha! Well, you could try that, too, though I never thought of you that way. Didn't know you had any charisma in you, Nelson." It seemed his goal was to embarrass me. "You see, Wu, she's better known as Aurora Nelson--though to us she's just Tea Time. She's fourteen years old to be exact, though though it was only last year when Adam gave her the name."
"Seriously, Charlie? Shut up about that." I said, glancing at Adam's, his delicate features somehow perfectly preserved. "I don't think anyone really—"
