𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ; 𝓶𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝔂 𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓼

Iceland

    My dad comes into the lockers looking a greased up monkey. The team, minus my trauma buddies, were gawking and making jokes about it. Fulton goes up to him. "Good night last night, coach?"

    "Yeah, it was fine."

    Portman was putting on gloves. "What'd ya do?"

    He was taken back by this. "Oh, I... just watched some tv, got to bed early."

    "But not without some dessert, right?"

    Portman and Fulton scoff before walking away. "Perhaps some ice cream? With a knock off Brooke Shields?" I shoulder bump him as i walk off. "Grease monkey."

-

    We're at the rink, doing practice laps before going against Iceland. "Portman, Fulton." I skate up to them. "If we lose, I'm blaming that backstabber of a coach." They shake their heads in agreement.

    The refs blow their whistle and Bombay calls us in. "Okay, everyone." He looks at us all. "Let's beat these Vikings!" The game starts and Portman instantly gets out.

    "You ran at him unprovoked." The ref ran up to Portman. Portman turns and accidentally knocks him down. "Calm down, son. You're out the game!"

    A ref drags him off the ice. "Come on!" Bombay starts yelling. "You can't do that, it's three seconds into the game!" Portman looks pissed as he leaves the ice.

-

    Some time passed and we're getting our ass handed to us. Iceland is flipping us over and they scored a goal. Eventually, Dwayne gets the puck and he starts to show boat.

    He gets sandwiched.

    We do a line change and me and Banks go in. He gets the puck but gets flipped over. "Adam!" I skate over to check if he's okay. He was fine, but Luis was not.

    He got hooked and slammed into the boards. Bombay decides it was time for Kenny to come in and Adam switches with him.

    Poor Kenny. That was the worst thing he could've done. Ken goes flying across the ice from getting slammed by two Iceland players.

    Kenny goes back to the bench. Eventually third period starts.

    "What is going on guys?" Bombay looks at us. "You guys are runnin' around like a bunch of chickens with tour heads cut off!"

    I scoff at him. "And who's the biggest headless chicken here? You're the one coaching us."

    "Don't back talk to me, Vivienne." Bombay was agitated. "You guys may want to go home early, but i sure as hell don't."

    The period starts and to no one's surprise, Iceland got the puck. They start knocking everyone down and scored a goal, putting them 10-0.

    Goldberg gets switched with Julie. She got out before we reset. "Intent to injure! You're out the game, young lady!"

    Goldberg looks annoyed and Bombay put in Fulton.

    Fulton gets the puck and takes his shot. "What the fuck?" The goalie blocked the puck. I stare at him. "That's gonna be there forever." I comment on the huge bruise on the goalies palm.

    The game resets and Adam finally got the puck. He sneaks his way and dodges all the players. He makes it in.

    I go skate over to him and see Sanderson from Iceland smack his stick into his wrist. "The hell man!" I yell as I skate over to him and try to shove him.

    Guy pulls me back. "Not worth it."

    The game resets and I get the puck from Jesse. I skate to Icelands net and get hooked by Gunnar Stahl. The puck slides between the goalies leg and goes in.

    I stand up and get in Gunnars face. "You know i wouldn't have made that in without you."

    He shoves me when the refs weren't looking. I drop my stick, and gloves to the ice. I swing on Stahl.

    "Little girl, you're out for fighting!" The refs were shouting.

    I was getting some good hits in. "Vivienne!" Charlie pulls me off.

    A ref pulled me roughly by the arm out the rink. "Go to your lockers." I roll my eyes and stomp to the lockers.

When i got there, it was a mess. Everything was everywhere and Portman was throwing stuff at the tv. "He provoked her!" He was shouting at it. "Stupid ref."

Julie was trying to pick up the mess. "Portman, you're making this harder." She was irritated. "Oh, hey." She smiles at me.

Dean turns around and smirks at me. "Good hit, babes." He comes up and high fives me.

"Thanks, Portman." I see Julie slightly frowns before continuing to pick up the mess. "Oh, come on!" I yell as I see Jesse get a penalty for hooking. Although it was clearly that Iceland player hooked himself.

Portman passes me a shin guard. "It's fun." I grin and toss the guard at the tv.

"You know what." Julie sighs loudly. "I give up on cleaning this up." She plops onto the bench.

Me and Portman threw something at the tv after every foul we were wrongly accused of, whenever Iceland scored, and when Iceland got away with penalties.

-

We lost 12-2. My dad was pissed and the team was quiet. "12-2." He came into the lockers. The only ones that were out of uniform were me, Portman, and Julie. "12-2." He repeated himself. "You know what word comes to mind when you think of that?"

    "Get to the point already." I grumble under my breath.

    I think he heard me as he glanced at me. "Pathetic! You guys were brought here to play hockey."

    "What about you?" Jesse speaks up.

    "What about me, Jesse?"

    Julie rolls her eyes. "Coach Stansson knew everything about us. They were ready for us."

    "Yeah, and you spend your time driving around and convertibles talking to those sponsor fools." Luis adds on.

    I scoff around him. "Or hanging around with the Iceland lady." I gesture to Fulton and Dean. "We saw you two Saturday night."

    "Eating ice cream with the enemy, huh, coach?" Dean continues on. The team starts murmuring with each other. Most look confused.

    My dad snaps his fingers. "Hey. Hey, what I do is none of your business. Is that clear?" The team begins taking off their pads. "Don't take those pads off. Everyone stay in your gear. We have practice."

    Everyone sighs and kept their gear on, or put it back on. I didn't move at all. "Why aren't you getting ready, Ice?"

    "I'm not gonna bend to his will." I fold my arms. "I never have. And thanks to his lousy coaching skills, we lost."

    My dad notices i wasn't changing. "Vivienne, why aren't you getting ready."

    The team looks to me. "Because I don't think it's fair for you to be acting like an entitled little jerk when you were the one that made us lose against Iceland."

    "How is that so?" He questions me, also folding his arms.

    I scoff again. "We've been working our ass off during practices while you're out in Malibu doing interviews with sponsor folks and not even coaching us properly."

    "What I'm doing, I'm doing it for Team USA."

    I stare at him. "No, you're not. You're doing it for your greedy selfish self." I grab my bag and turn to head out the door.

    "Vivienne, don't you walk out that door!" My dad starts yelling. I flip him off as I walk out anyways.

    As I was about to leave the stadium, Jesse, Fulton, and Dean caught up with me. "What you guys doing here?"

    "Coach said if anyone wants to join you, do so now." Jesse smirks. "We joined you."

    Fulton pats Portman on the back. "We did too. Now let's go have fun or do something to get our mind off hockey."

    Portman grins. "I know just the place."