Mitts (OLD VERSION)

5. The Bulldog

I woke up the next morning to way too many notifications in the team group chat. People online were shocked that we won against Amherst. It was making headlines in local papers and dominated the hockey pages online, it started small. Until people saw the team pages and decided that 15 sweaty guys playing hockey deserved plenty of attention. Twitter was its own hellscape though.

@puckbun345
so ummmm we're all thirsting after everett right????

@mattrivierastan
pov: riv is the best husky ❤️

@everetthockeynews
Only 6 more days til the first official season home game against Hudson Valley University! Livestream link will be posted on Saturday on @EverettMensHockey, one hour before the game!

@everettfan27

this pic of 13 in the box dumping water on himself though, omgggggggggg

@h.uskynation

i'm placing my bets, everett is going to sweep the northeast league this season!

Hockey Hoes

Cal: everyone in the lounge at 3pm. no one posts a thing online until after the presentation or else you can kiss your dicks goodbye.

_/ \_

Cal gathered all of us in the lounge, squished together on the couch. She looked stressed, her purple hair was pulled back into a messy half bun and the two bleached blonde strands were loose in the front, she had pajamas on at 3pm, and she looked like she hadn't slept since our win against Amherst. In addition to being our team manager, she was also in charge of running all of our social media accounts. We had a Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, for some reason. All of which were now gaining a lot of traction online.

"We need to do a quick refresher in how to act online before anyone considers posting anything, especially you frosh." She had her laptop hooked up to the TV, "There are a lot of people who are suddenly in love with you guys, for some reason. So let's try to keep it that way instead of getting any of you cancelled out of existence."

A presentation in a surprisingly well put together theme read Social Media Etiquette for Puck-heads in bolded blue font.

"Rule 1. Don't say anything that can count as libel." She paused, "Trevy before you ask, libel is written defamation and false accusations that paint someone's social image in an unflattering and untrue light."

"Thank you." Trevy smiled.

"Rule 2. Language. Hell is fine, wtf is pushing it. Fuck, ass, bitch, whore, shit, and other worse ones are not allowed. I don't have to tell any of you this but no slurs." She clicked onwards.

"Rule 3. Be a person without letting everyone know your personal details. No addresses, don't talk about your class schedules, only vague family details, you can mention your major and age but don't go into detail. There are weird people online. Don't let them know more than your stats bio page. Frosh you should be taking notes right now, I don't know why you aren't."

She continued on for another thirty minutes. There were 35 total rules before any freshmen were allowed to officially put Everett University Hockey in our bios or anywhere on our social media pages. I made a new Twitter and Instagram for the public. I didn't want them to see my old stuff, none of the team even followed my accounts from high school. It wasn't like I used them anyway, it was mostly full of hockey posts and some less-than-ideal comments from old teammates. They were all private anyway, I didn't know why I bothered to keep them up. I hadn't posted in months on either.