Rules and Roses (Hockey)

6

   "How are y'all today?" She skated up to the coaches, who were setting all of their things on the end of the bench.

   "Good, and how are you?" Coach Lawson gave her a small smile.

   "What are y'all planning for practice today?" She placed her elbows on the half-wall in front of where they were getting ready.

   "Conditioning, mainly. We use Wednesdays for that. We'll have them split off near the end to work on more plays," he answered.

   "I wrote down a skill each of them need to work on and gave it to them," she went on the other side of the wall to open her bag. She pulled out her notebook she had made notes on the day before and flipped to one page. "Here's what you all can look for on the ice today when they do more than conditioning. They should be focused on that today, or at least I hope so."

   She handed it off to Coach Simmons and he read all of them.

   "Thank you," he passed it on. "I didn't have much faith in you at first. I just thought you were testing my ability as a coach. Either you're like this as a person or extremely bored."

   "I'm both, sir. I've just always had a working mindset. Give me a job, and I'll do it really well. I guess my mom is the reason for my overachieving. She wouldn't accept grades below a ninety-three," she chuckled as they did. She didn't like the head coach at first, but she was going to get on his good side, at least.

   They made small talk before she decided to go stretch on the ice. The coaches agreed to let her condition with the boys because she wanted the exercise for herself.

   She sat near the middle of the rink. The ice was cold beneath her, and once again she cursed herself for not layering up more. It hadn't been long enough for the top layer of ice to melt, so she was glad no water would seep into her pants.

   She straddled the ground. Her arms extended to touch one of her toes and proceeded to do the same on the other side.

   She looked up when she heard the sound of skates joining her. The boys, without hesitation, sat down around her and did the same as she was. They didn't say anything, they just wanted to.

   "Feeling better?" Nathan asked after he steadily sat down near her.

   "Yeah. I might have a bruise, but it'll go away in a matter of days," she responded, happy that they felt like doing the same as her.

   "When it does bruise down there, will you show us?" Jay Meyers chuckled, knowing where she had hit the floor.

   "If you boys keep bothering me about seeing me undressed, I'm just going to leave, and you'll never get the chance," she laughed a bit.

   "Okay, okay. I'll stop," he put his hands up in defense.

   She put both of her legs in front of her and reached for her toes again. The boys followed suit, but most of them couldn't bend all the way. She liked that they respected her enough. She knew that a lot of them wouldn't be open to her joining at first, but even though it had only been a few days, she could feel them warming up to her. It was quite relieving. She had a feeling these guys could be some of the best friends she could ask for.

   They stood up with her. Some stretched their arms and did big circles. They just waited for further instruction, whether it be from her or the coaches.

   "Hey, Hartley?"

   She spun around and looked up to make eye contact with Sam. "Yes?"

   "Woah, don't look at me like that," his eyes widened.