TROUBLE MAGNET - Completed

Chapter 7 - Becoming A Man

Chapter 7 - Becoming A Man

Matt and Rob are first to arrive at our lunch table. Right away they begin talking to Landon about their upcoming basketball game. As I watch Landon, I can't help but compare him to Trace. I know this is wrong, but I can't help myself. It's wrong because I spent years having a crush on Landon. Now that we are finally dating, there is no way I should be interested in some other guy. I'm crazy about Landon, yet somehow ever since I met Trace, I can't stop thinking about him. 

Where Landon is fair, Trace is dark. Landon has these amazing grey-blue eyes; Trace has just as incredible green eyes. Landon is laid back and easy going, Trace is all energy and charisma. The biggest difference between them though, is that I've known Landon forever and I'm comfortable with him. With Trace, I barely know him and the little I know makes me anything but comfortable. Yet, when I think back to when I first met Landon, I remember he once made me very nervous too.

I met Landon in junior kindergarten and for the first six years of our acquaintance he never even knew I existed. Then in grade four when I started playing hockey, I think I finally registered on his radar, but it wasn't in a good way. Actually I think he truly disliked me.

When we were younger we played on the same team for both soccer and baseball, but I honestly don't think he even knew my name. He hung out with the boys and I hung out with the girls. Living in a small town, meant girls usually had to play with the boys because there weren't enough girls to make up our own teams. Eventually, as I got older there were enough girls from neighboring towns to make up a travelling girl's team in soccer and in baseball, but not in hockey. In hockey, I was the only girl playing at my age level and it stayed that way for five years.

So right away I had three strikes against me. First and most obvious - I was the only girl playing ice hockey. Second - I started late. I was age nine, where most of the boys started playing around age four and five. And third - I could barely skate. In the beginning, Landon and his friends just acted as if I wasn't there. They didn't talk to me. They didn't include me and they made it known they weren't crazy about a girl playing on their otherwise all-boy hockey team.

My first coach was Landon's dad, Mr. Murdoch. Everyone said he had been given a team of misfits with the exception of his son Landon, who was easily the best player on our team. Along with being the only Novice team with a girl, we also had a boy named Brian, who was in remission from cancer and a boy named Scott, who suffered from bouts of anxiety. We had three beginner players including me, all of whom could barely skate. Our team was the weakest by far, of the four local novice teams that year.

Coach Murdoch just took it all in stride and encouraged us kids to do our best. He suggested to the new players that we take power skating, to help improve our skating. He kept us all interested by making the practices fun. We only had thirteen players on our team and yet everyone showed up to all the practices and games, because we liked Coach Murdoch that much.

Landon was a forward on our team, and in the beginning I was playing defense. However, about halfway through the season, Landon broke his arm snowboarding. Coach Murdoch moved me up to play forward, to fill in for Landon. My skating had greatly improved after I went to a Christmas hockey camp. Once I was able to skate, coach said I was a natural.

In the beginning of the season we lost all of our games, but by mid-season we began to tie and even win a few games. We got to the point where we could only dress eleven players, because Landon was out and so was Bryan. Bryan's cancer had come back and he was unable to play. Still, he attended as many games as he could and cheered us on from the stands. We were down to only two lines and a goalie, but Coach Murdoch's great practices were starting to pay off. Every one of our players were improving and we were playing better overall as a team.