Banksie// Adam Banks

Chapter 9

Russ and his group were more coaches then players. They taught us more then we would've thought. We were standing in full gear, on the ice, in a huddle. We were ready for our game against Germany, but coach Bombay was nowhere to be found. 

Don Tibbles had said something but I couldn't hear it. The only thing I managed to hear was "Where's Bombay?"

"You tell us." Luis scoffed. Without a coach we wouldn't be able to play. A ref came over to us explaining that if we didn't have a coach, we would have to forfeit.

"We do have a coach!" Charlie explained. Ms. Mackay had just walked into the stadium. I knew she had no experience with coaching, but I knew what Charlie was doing. He mumbled some words to her before turning back to the red. "Here she is! COACH Mackay!" he said turning back to her, she had a look of pure shock on her face. She turned to us. I gave her a begging look.

She sighed, thinking about it for a second. "What are we waiting for?! The ice to freeze? Let's play!" She yelled. She shuffled around some people and came into the bench area. We all decided together who was going to start. Adam, Averman, Jesse, Goldberg, Connie, and Guy. I was relieved that I wasn't starting. I had a throbbing headache from the day before, even though I slept most of it.

We only had a minute left of the game, we were beating Germany, 5-1. When We heard a duck call. We all shifted our views to where it was coming from. Of course, Bombay was making his way to the bench, blowing into that annoying duck caller. He called a time-out. Me and everyone on the ice made our way to the bench from the center of the rink. Coach made some short speech about how he regretted leaving us, and how the team was all he had. We all forgave him, as much as I didn't wanna admit it, we would need him to beat Iceland.

"The return of caption blood." Averman said, getting an elbow in the chest from Julie in return. I laughed before making my way back to the center of the rink. I took head off and quickly shoved a Germany player down. I passed it to Fulton who took his amazing shot, making the puck go in right before the buzzer went off. We had won, 6-1. 

We were all finishing up in the locker room. Me, Julie, and Ken had decided to wait outside the door for Adam because he had stuff left to do. Ken and Julie went to a vending machine nearby while I stayed. All of a sudden I heard Adam say, "But you can't do that!" Who was he talking to?

"Adam you can injure yourself permanently." I heard another voice. Coach Bombay?

"You can't bench me, I gotta play! All the scouts are watching, this is my shot!" Adam said. I could hear the pain in his voice. What were they talking about?

"You're young n you're gonna have plenty of shots, believe me." coach Bombay said. He sounded so calm, for some reason he has to bench one of our best players. There's no way we're gonna be able to beat Iceland without him!

"But my dads counting on me." I didn't know much about Adam's dad, but I did know he cared a lot more about Adam's hockey career then Adam himself.

Coach Bombay sighed, "I'm sorry." he continued to talk about his dad and how he only wanted to make him proud, and how Adam's dad would be proud of him no matter what. I felt terrible, I had no idea why he was getting benched but I knew Adam wasn't happy about it. I don't blame him, if I had to get benched I would be upset too. 

After a few minutes Adam came out of the locker room. I tried my best to make it look like I hadn't been listening, but I could tell that Adam knew. He sighed and looked at me.

"You know how during our preview game an Iceland players hit my wrist?" he asked. I nodded my head. of course I knew, he said he was fine. Oh my gosh. It hit me, he wasn't fine, his wrist was injured. I hit my forehead. How could I have been so stupid, I knew he wasn't fine but hadn't done anything. If I had done something he would probably be able to play. I can't blame myself though, it wasn't my job to tell someone, it was Adam's.

"Ohhhh, I understand." I said. He looked down at his feet while walking. I think Ken and Julie just went back to the hotel because they weren't at the vending machines.

"Yea, now I can't play. I have to be benched. I can't believe this is happening. I didn't come here to be benched!" He said. You could hear it in his voice that he was upset. 

"Adam, you're wrist will be healed before we go back. I guarantee that you'll be able to play against Iceland again." I said, looking at him, he looked back at me.

"Hopefully," he mumbled, looking down at his feet. "I know this is probably a weird time to ask this, but do you wanna like, hang out tomorrow after practice?" he said looking back up at me. 

"Oh uh Julie and Ken were talking about going to this museum or something tomorrow?" I was confused, I don't know why he would need to ask to hangout. The 4 of us hang out every day.

"No, like, just us," he said. Like a date? Was he asking me out? Huh? I looked at him confused. "only if you want though, uh we, we can just hang out with Ken and Julie if you want." he stuttered. 

"Oh, no no yea it's fine we can just hang out, just the two of us." I said. I looked at him. He was staring at his feet again. He looked up.

"Wait really? I didn't actually think you would say yes." he laughed, scratching the back of his neck. 

"I'll meet you right here at 1" I said while laughing, we had just reached the rooms. I turned an unlocked the door, he just stood there. I looked at him. "You good?" I asked. 

He looked up at me, "Yea, just thinking." He turned to his door and unlocked it. "See ya tomorrow!" He said while walking in. He had a huge smile on his face. That made me laugh. I walked in and shut the door. I flopped down on my bed and let out a nice sigh.