speed of sound // Charlie Conway

| FOURTEEN |

Today was another practice day, even if we had just finished practicing yesterday.

yesterday..

Yesterday had a good end to it, and today had a good start to it.

We were on the rink, basically playing tug of war with hockey sticks. I chose Charlie as my partner, for obvious reasons.

after that we were practicing scoring again. "Good shot!" Charlie skated up to me while he cheered. I had hit a puck into the goal halfway across the rink. I took off my helmet as I started in shock. Even I was proud of myself. "Thanks!" I yelled back to him.

"You guys did really good today, Im proud of you all." Coach told us before dismissing us all from practice. We had been there for about two hours and we were all sweating and tired.

—

"Hey, Charlie! I just got the best idea!" I turned to him. We were hanging out again in his dorm. Except this time, it was just me and him alone.

"Yeah? What?" He questioned. "So, since Adam's out for now, we have a roster slot open, right?"

"Yeah?" "Well couldnt we try to get Russ on our team? or to atleast play with us while Adam's out? I mean, hes a good player, and that trick he has, it could get us some good scores." I shrugged. "Natty, you're a genius." He smiled as he ruffled my hair and quickly got his shoes on.

"Where are you going?" I fixed my hair, brushing through it with my fingers.

"To go get Russ, come on!" He stood by the door. I quickly got my shoes on and left with him.

We walked to the court Russ was playing at. "Hey, it's the team USA players! Where's the rest of you guys?" One of his friends asked.

"Its actually just us," A silly smile appeared on my face. "Yeah, we came to find Russ, is he here?" Charlie asked the boy and he pointed straight to Russ. "Hey, Russ! Get over here!" His friend called, and he quickly skated over to us.

"You wanna maybe play for team USA?" I asked. He agreed right after hearing my words, and we headed off to coach.

—

"Coach, coach! I know with Banks out, we got a roster slot open." Charlie ran into Coach's office, I followed after him. "Yeah?" "You know how I always told you i'd make a better coach than a player? Me and Natalie did some scouting. Come on in!" Charlie motioned to Russ, who walked in afterwards.

"Russ Tyler, Coach Bombay." Charlie smiled. "Hiya, Coach!" Russ greeted. "Russ Tyler, huh." Bombay scoffed.

"Coach, he's really good." I assured.

"Well, Russ, what can you do for the team?" He asked him. "You never heard of my knucklepuck?" "Knucklepuck? No.." The three of us smiled at each other. "Take him to the rink, and he'll show you." I informed Coach Bombay.

After Russ showed Coach his skills, he agreed to let him on the team, and I was thankful, because today we had a game with Russia.

—

"Team USA leading Russia two to one here in third period!" The announcer spoke. "Over here! Give me the puck!" Russ called for me, and I hit the puck over to him. "Russ Tyler, team USA's newest member from Los Angeles calling for the puck. He gets it,"

"Its knucklepuck time!" Russ cheered as he flipped the puck on its side and hit it into the net. "Yeah!" He cheered, and so did I, even if the alarm was blaring in my ears.

We had won yet another game and were going to move onto the next one. I was so proud of myself and our team, and I was so thankful I had gotten this opportunity, to be apart of team USA. But I was also thankful for Charlie. He had helped me through everything, he got me where I was.