ɢᴜʏ ɢᴇʀᴍᴀɪɴᴇ
𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 second I saw him, I just knew. Luis Mendoza was going to ruin everything.
He had the curls that Seventeen Magazine labeled 'the look of 1994', and I knew this because I had developed the same ones over the past few months. But his were black, and he was much tanner than I was. Perks of living in Florida, I guess.
Luis held the gaze of every girl in the room (there were only three, but still), and I bet he was used to that.
He maintained a proud but humble expression as Tibbles bragged about how he was probably the fastest kid in the country or something. 1.9 seconds blue line to blue line. Whatever. And if that wasn't enough, he began doing laps just to show how good he was.
"Good-looking skater," Connie commented from beside me. "What do you think, Maeve?"
I watched as my girlfriend scanned him up and down and rolled my eyes. I shifted an inch away from her and glanced at Williams.
"Eh," Mae shrugged like she couldn't give less of a crap, but I knew she was hiding back a smile.
"Just eh?" Adam provoked with a smirk. "I don't know, I see a little blush right there."
She slapped his finger away as he tried to poke her cheeks. "Shut it, Banks."
I didn't get it. He wasn't even her type.
"I'd say very good-looking," the redhead behind me quickly added. "Any thoughts, Guy?"
"Shut up, Averman," I sneered, shoving my elbow hard enough into him that'd he lose balance.
I didn't think Luis Mendoza and I were going to be best friends. But I wouldn't say I was the jealous type.
Out of nowhere, like my prayers had been answered, Luis crashed into the boards.
"He has a little trouble with that."
But, hey, at least I could stop.
"Yea-haw!"
A bewildered expression fell onto all of our faces.
"Y'all ready to play some puck?" A brunette boy hollered as he traded his cowboy hat for a helmet.
"Oh, this is gonna be good," Williams quietly laughed.
"That's Dwayne Robertson from Austin, Texas," Tibbles announced. "Best puck handler I've ever seen."
"You mean for his age?" Bombay clarified.
"No, I don't. He's the best, really."
For once, I agreed with Don Tibbles. Dwayne Robertson was the best.
"That's Julie 'The Cat' Gaffney," He quickly moved on--maybe he was on a tight schedule. "She won the state championship for Maine three years in a row."
"Well, we have a goalie, Goldberg," Bombay said.
Goldberg is my friend and all, but you've actually got to be kidding me. Greg Goldberg has barely improved over the past few years, and we've got the best goaltender in the country about to join our team--and Bombay wants her to be the backup?
"This is gonna be a long summer," I muttered.
Then a 4'11 boy starts twirling on the ice while Tibbles explains how he managed to pull him from the Figure Skating Olympics and convinced him to join hockey instead. And hell, I'll give it to him, Ken Wu was no joke--this Tibbles guy sure knows how to do his negotiating.
