Avalanche

Chapter 10 | No Way Out

"What do you think your dad is going to have us do?" Kemen asked Ricky, who was in the process of putting on his skates.

"I'm not sure, but I know we're not just skating around for fun."

The ice rink was empty besides the team and Ricky's father, whose wealth had prompted the owner of the ice rink to temporarily shut down. Ricky wasn't sure what his dad had up his sleeve, but like he told Kemen, it wasn't going to be lackadaisical.

The girls came towards them, hobbling along with skates on their feet, muttering to each other.

"I don't even know how to skate," Akari complained.

Ricky smirked. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Don't worry about it," Tara consoled her, "I'm not very good either."

"Listen up team," Ricky's dad spoke. "I brought you here today for a team building activity that is something besides snowboarding. While you all know how to snowboard, you guys seem to leave out the 'team' part. Today we're going to fix that. With ice hockey."

"Ice hockey?" Akari said, "Couldn't it be something else? I can't even skate!"

"Sorry to hear that Akari," Benedict said. "Maybe one of your teammates will be nice enough to show you a few things."

Rob, who was now leaning against the wall of the ice rink, smirked. "Well, you're screwed."

Akari gave a barely perceivable growl.

"Like I mentioned, this is a team building activity," Benedict spoke. "Helping one another certainly counts as team building."

"Yeah, whatever," Ricky said low enough that his father couldn't hear. He walked onto the ice and skated around to warm up.

Benedict got one goal out on the ice and gave each of them their hockey sticks. "Which one of you is goalie?"

"I'll do it I guess," Kemen says.

"Ok. Rob and Tara are a team, and so are Ricky and Akari."

Well, that ruined my chance of showing Akari up, Ricky thought to himself.

"This is basically half-court ice hockey," Benedict continued. "Each team is trying to score on Kemen. I am your referee and will keep track of score."

With that, they geared up, and hit the ice. Once the puck was on the ice and Benedict counted down, the game began.

Rob immediately swiped the puck with his stick first and skated towards the goal. Ricky got close to Rob, but not before Rob hit the puck with a dangerous amount of force that sent it flying past Kemen and into the goal.

"Wow, that was fast," Akari said. "Good job, Rob."

"Don't congratulate him!" Ricky yelled at her. Rob just laughed.

Kemen used his stick to send the puck flying out of the goal and back at them, and the process started over. Within five minutes, it was four to zero. Tara just stayed out of the way, letting Rob do all the scoring, which was something he was clearly more than happy to do.

Akari was doing her best to help Ricky stop Rob, but she kept falling on the ice. The first few times she tried to laugh it off, hoping to keep her spirits up. Then Rob deliberately knocked her on the ice to get her out of the way, and Akari's happy-go-lucky attitude was killed. Akari could tolerate a lot of things but being pushed around was clearly not one of them.

Ricky noticed Akari's change in behavior, and unfortunately, so did Rob. He knew that she would try twice as hard now, but regardless, Rob would still get away with the puck. After that, she fell on the ice more and more due to Rob's roughness, but she kept getting up, looking angrier and angrier after each fall. Ricky wondered what would happen when she reached her limit.

Ricky managed to steal the puck but had no chance of scoring the goal with Rob and Tara blocking him. He passed to Akari, who was almost instantly knocked aside by Rob.

Ricky usually didn't care when others were getting beat up, but thanks to Rob constantly getting away with fouling on his teammate, they had no chance of winning.

Akari's face was red, and her chest was heaving with heavy breaths. She looked enraged. Ricky knew she wouldn't act on her anger. So, he would do that for her.

Ricky stood and watched as Rob scored a goal. Then Rob scored another, and another, but Ricky stood in place.

Akari looked at Ricky. What are you doing? Her expression seemed to say.

After the score was ten to zero, Rob realized that Ricky wasn't moving. He approached him.

Yes, come closer you giant brute, Ricky thought to himself.

Rob towered over Ricky, staring him in the eye.

"Gave up already, punk?"

Ricky cocked his head. He knew what he was about to do would get him in serious trouble, but it would be worth it.

"No. I just wanted to make sure the playing field was even. How hard do you think I have to hit you to equal the pain you've given my teammate?"

He knew the statement took Rob by surprise. His brief surprise gave Ricky enough time to swiftly skate around behind Rob and hit him on the back of the head with his hockey stick.

Ricky knew that if he would dare do such a thing, he'd better go all the way through with it. He didn't realize that it meant going all the way through his hockey stick. Rob didn't even flinch in pain as Ricky's hockey stick was broken in half over his head.

Everyone on the ice, including Benedict who was in the scoring box, stood still. The only sound that could be heard in the ice rink was the sound of the broken hockey stick hitting the ice.

The silence became terrifying, and Ricky started to regret his actions.

"Run!" Akari finally yelled at Ricky.

Ricky skated as quickly as he could off the ice, and without sparing a glance behind him at Rob, he hopped out of the ice rink. He didn't even bother taking off his skates as he fled away from Rob, who, once had gotten over his shock, chased the blonde teenager at full speed, hockey stick still in hand. It was a sight to behold.

Benedict got up from the scoring box and sighed. "Well, I guess it's game over guys."