Hopeless Wanderer

Broken Promises

As soon as I walked into the classroom I longed for any little sign of familiarity. I was early to class, but as soon as I walked in every single pair of eyes turned to me. Some appeared confused, others surprised, but the worst of them all were the judging ones. I tightened my grip on the books I was carrying to hide the fact that my whole body began to shake violently. I hadn't done anything wrong yet, had I? No one even knew my name...

Before I could get to the empty seat at the back of the class, the teacher caught me. "Excuse me Miss, are you the new student that I have been expecting?" All I could manage to do was nod. "Introduce yourself to the class then!" the teacher said while smiling eagerly at me.

My heartbeat began to race. Why was she doing this to me? I'm going to make a complete fool out of myself! My palms became slick with sweat and my knees started to wobble. There was nothing more fearful then having twenty-some strangers staring you down. My stomach was doing flips and my tongue was now tied, how was I ever going to be able to talk to this many people at once? "I, uh, m-m-my, umm, I-I-I am R-R-Rylee... Rylee." I managed to mutter after what seemed like hours of standing there. I turned to face the teacher while shifting my weight from foot to foot. She gave me a small, sympathetic smile and motioned for me to go to the back of the class and take the only empty seat.

Eyes watched me as I made my way to the desk. People spoke in hushed tones and I knew they were making fun of me already. Great.

***

By the time lunch came around I still hadn't got over how badly I had embarrassed myself in French. I couldn't wait to see Campbell, his easy-going attitude was exactly what I needed to calm down right now. I peered nervously into the cafeteria to see many kids eating and laughing and enjoying themselves. I searched for Campbell and when I found him I couldn't believe it. There he sat with the other hockey players, enjoying his lunch, although that wasn't what surprised me. The fact that I didn't even realize that he was Campbell Saunders, top NHL prospect, was the part that killed me. I was completely dumbfounded; Campbell is considered one of the best hockey players of my generation and I didn't even notice!

At that exact moment he looked over and saw me standing at the door. I smiled and waved, but the expression on his face stayed neutral and he went back to eating. He just pretended I wasn't even here, like he didn't even know me. I guess I just wasn't good enough.

I walked away from the caf, running my hands through my hair. How could I be so stupid?

My mind was numb from all the emotions that occupied it and I knew only one way to fix this problematic stage. Hockey. I ran to the gym and found my way into the equipment room. They had a shitty selection of plastic sticks and I just picked one that was in decent shape. I found an orange hockey ball and a net, then dragged it out of the small, closet like space. I began whipping the ball at the net. After I took a few shots, I began to work on my deeking. Backhand, forehand, backhand, forehand. It was a soothing, repetitive maneuver. After that simple stuff I decided to show-off to myself. I flicked the ball in the air, spun around in a circle and with closed eyes, I swung the stick towards the net. I opened my eyes as soon as I heard the whap of plastic on plastic. The ball went flying into the netting as I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I had only been practicing that since I was nine, never once had I actually done it right...

Apparently someone else had also been amazed by my moment of pure luck and perhaps even talent because a sturdy rhythm of clapping came from behind me. I spun around super fast and in the process dropped the stick to find a spikey haired guy was leaning on the entrance to the gym. He was tall and strong looking which was intimidating enough without the fact that he was wearing a Toronto Ice Hounds jacket.

"Nice hands." he laughed. I began to quiver lightly, and my palms became sweaty again. I reached down to grab the stick as fast as I could. "But seriously that goal was amazing, and your shooting skills and stick-handling talent is astounding." he continued as he walked towards me. "I'm Owen and as you can see, I'm a member of the Ice Hounds. There's no way you can't be on a team already, I'm just surprised I didn't hear about a girl in the junior pro league..."

"I'm Rylee and, uh, well, I'm not actually on a team ... No one drafted me. No one wanted to go through with the troubles of getting the rules to work so that they could have a girl member ... I dream of playing hockey in the pro's one day, but by the looks of it, it'll never happen."

Owen looked confused. "No one wanted to go through the trouble? What trouble isn't worth having a talented player and letting someone live their dream? Come with me, I'm going to introduce you to out captain. We're gonna get you on the ice." He put out his hand, offering it to me.

Was he asking me to hold it? What was this? What did he want? I had just met him and he wanted me to hold his hand? I guess he seemed nice, but what would happen, all the rumors and the judgement would be the death of me. On my first day.

He could tell I was nervous so he just took my hand and laughed "It's okay! I'm here with you!" he said with a smile as he squeezed my hand and led me to the cafeteria.