October Academy

Chapter 21

The door swings open and Ben walks through. I lean backwards, breaking any connection with Callum that might've been – or that I imagined.

I finish up with Callum's bandage, "All done," I say, patting him platonically.

"Thanks," he says, brief and hollow.

"Showing off your battle scars?" Ben says, confidently strutting into the room.

I give him a once over and see his hands are fine, his face is unblemished and nothing about him seems dishevelled. "Glad to see you're ok," I say to Ben.

"Like you, Jade, I just did some batting practice," Ben smiles cheekily.

I think back to the day I met Callum, when I thought he was a robber so I approached him with a baseball bat. I try not to think about what Ben did with our bat.

"So what's the surprise?" I ask.

"Marina, come up," Ben calls down the stairs.

"Marina?" I say under my breath.

"Brace yourself," Callum says to me.

A girl zealously pounces up the stairs, appearing beside Ben with full enthusiasm.

"Nice to meet you!" she exclaims, a big teethy smile on her face. "I'm Marina, Ben's girlfriend."

My eyes are as open as my mouth, "girlfriend?" I question.

I give Marina a better look. She's curvaceous – her hips rounded, her breasts full, her waist cinched. She's a bigger girl, with a womanly shape. Her hair is curly brown, her lips plump, her eyebrows thick and sharp. With a name like Marina, she must be Greek or Italian. She's gorgeous.

She radiates some kind of energy – positive, uplifting: enlivening.

"You must be Jade," she says, pacing across the room to greet me. She hugs me tightly, arms enveloping me.

I hug her back, a little off guard, but grateful for her friendly welcome.

When she pulls away, I say, "I had no clue Ben had a girlfriend!"

"I never got the right chance to tell you, I've just been so busy," Ben says across the room, grin on his face. "But I'm glad my favourite girls finally got a chance to meet."

There's some more small talk before we decide to set up on the couch and pick a movie. Marina and Ben fight over which horror movie to play, claiming 'The Ring' is classic but the new 'Annabelle' is iconic. They finally settle on 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' or something like that.

Ben and Marina set up on the big red couch, leaving Callum and I to the other (smaller) red couch. I grab the biggest blanket I can find, and huddle up on the couch, wrapping myself in it.

Callum sits beside me before whining, "Aren't you gonna share?" He tugs on the blanket.

"No way," I say. "There's not enough room for both of us in here."

"Sh!" Ben whisper shouts as the movie begins.

We watch the movie tentatively. Or I guess everyone else does, because I start to fall asleep. I barely got any sleep last night – thanks to a particular perverted policeman. I doze off, falling fast, and severely asleep.

I wake up drooling on Callum's shoulder. The TV is off – I'm guessing we finished the movie and it automatically shut down while everyone else fell asleep. I quickly glance around the room and see Ben and Marina dead asleep.

I shift off Callum, hoping to God I don't wake him up after dramatically and embarrassingly sleeping on his shoulder.

Without waking anyone, I sneak out and drive myself back home.

.

.

.

The next day I go straight to work after school and I breathe easier knowing that Officer Taylor is probably in hospital somewhere far away from me.

Whenever I work on Mondays, it's always chill. All I have to do is stay at the ticketing counter and make sure that people pay their membership entry and supervise the hockey training before the public session starts.

This Monday, however, is getting interesting. I notice the hockey training is getting tense. The A and B team's rivalry has been hitting a new high recently. And not the epic highs and lows of high school football kind. Every time they train together, someone gets a broken nose.

I peak through the glass separating my office from the rink. The first person I see is Darcy. He's a force on the field. When his eyes narrow on a target, it looks like he could move through them. But his expression is always stoic and composed, like he's not even breaking a sweat.

I wonder for a brief moment what Callum looks like on the rink. He's meant to be a professional, but I've never seen any of his games. I can't imagine anyone would be better than Darcy. He's indestructible.

Eventually I notice Xander. We still haven't spoken properly since I was 'flirting' with Callum. I know he's just in a mood and he'll get over it. But still, it's been a while and usually it doesn't take him this long to forgive me.

Maybe I'll go and talk to him when he finishes training.

Or maybe not... the whole rink becomes chaos. Fists are being thrown, faces are being slammed into the ice, bruises are forming just by a glance.

I step out of my office, looking for the emergency whistle, when a loud voice booms through the rink – over all the heads, over all the voices, so loud that everyone freezes and it stops me dead in my tracks.

"I've had enough!" the voice yells. "I have had absolutely enough of this bullshit."

It's Coach Goscicki.

"I can't put up with this buffoonery anymore. I'm out of here." Coach Goscicki angrily stalks off the rink.

The hockey players are quiet for a moment, shocked at Goscicki's announcement and subsequent departure. They leave the rink and head to the locker room, whispering under their breath with confusion.