𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ; 𝓶𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝔂 𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓼

Pranks

    "Hey, Astor, Banks." Riley comes up to me and Banks in the halls. "We'll see you at JV's game right?"

Adam nods for us. "Yeah, you will." He closes his locker.

"Good." He flashes a smile before the bell rings. He turns away and goes back to Cole and them.

The next class I only have with Charlie, Connie, and Goldie. It was Spanish. I take my seat next to Connie. "Hey, Vivs!" Connie smiles to me. "How was your classes so far?"

"Sucky." I groan as Charlie makes some backhanded comment. "Charlie, if I wasn't an athlete, i would rock your shit."

He rolls his eyes and leans back in his seat, talking to Goldie. "You guys are still not good, huh?" Connie states the obvious.

"Whaddya think, smarty." I huff as I take out my Spanish book.

Connie looks taken aback. "Don't be getting all mad at me, Vivienne." She says before the class starts.

"Clearly you think a 'sorry' will fix everything." I was in a bad mood today. "News flash, princess, it doesn't."

-

We go take our seats at the JV game. I sit on either side of Scoots and Banks. The game starts and Charlie makes the first goal.

Adam stands up and cheers for him. Rick pulls him down roughly. "We don't cheer for them." He reminds him.

Banks looks at me offended. He leans in. "Why are we not allowed to cheer for our friends?"

"He said they're our enemies in hockey." I shrug and continue watching the game.

The Ducks were making all the goals in. Adam subconsciously claps after every goal, before remembering not to.

Luis jumps over the net after not being able to stop and he smacks into the boards. He looks delirious when he gets up.

Dwayne starts showboating and I can't help but crack a grin at that. He makes his goal and I silently praise it.

Charlie gets hooked and Fulton gets the puck. He does his slapshot and a player makes the mistake of trying to catch it. He twirls for a moment before throwing the puck in.

I loudly clap for that and both Scooter and Riley give me a look. "Hey, no cheering for them."

"He's my first friend I made outside of hockey, I'm clapping for him." I snap back and stop clapping after a moment.

I see #9 from the blue team, i didn't catch their name, jump at Kenny. Kenny falls back and Russ laughs and says something.

    Averman and Charlie score on the goalie and I see Julie looking really bored at her net. She was saying something and was dancing, or something.

    Charlie scores the last goal of the second period. Adam smiles down at the rink and to me before down again.

    Blue team finally makes a goal in. They start scoring on them as defense wasn't doing their job.

-

    Halfway through the last period, Riley and them sneak away. Banks didn't seem to notice them. "Hey, I'm going to the bathroom, catch me up." I tell to him before following varsity.

    I see them sneak into JV's locker room. I go in after them. "Right, now what?" Cole asks Riley.

    "The showers." He tells him. "If we run them now, no hot water later."

    I lean on the doorframe. "If you put the clothes in the showers, they'll have cold water and no clothes."

    The team looks back at me. Scooter was shocked to see me, Riley just smiled. "Good idea, Astor."

    "Why are we listening to her?" Cole looks me up and down.

I look him up and down too. "Because if you do, you're killing two birds with one stone."

"I like the way you think." Riley grins and elbows Scooter. "And you didn't want to involve them."

-

We gathered all their stuff and shoved it into the showers. Grant turns the water the highest it could go.

"Hey, look!" Cole came into the showers carrying shaving cream. "I want to write something."

He goes to the shower wall and writes 'Freshman Stinks' in big letters. "Wow." I cross my arms and Scooter grabs my shoulder.

"Except you and Banks, of course." He resolves my offense.

-

We were in our locker room getting suited up for our game. I was putting my jersey on when Adam stops me.

    "Your necklace." He points to my heart necklace around my neck.

    I unclasp it and put it into my locker. I also remember to take off my bracelets too. I close the locker and follow everyone out to the rink.

-

    We win the game, 3-0. Not as big as a lead Coach wanted, but still a lead.

    I was chatting quietly with Banks when we reach the lockers. They were frozen. Cole picks up his jacket. It slips and shatters on the floor.

He points above the door and we all turn to look. 'Varsity Sucks Ice' was written. Riley looks like he was going to explode.

He turns around and sucker punches his jacket. It breaks and goes flying everywhere. "Ducks!" He yells and throws his helmet.

We all take off our gear and put on any unfrozen clothing we still had. My jewelry looks fine, until i put it on.

It breaks into a million pieces all over the floor. That was it, I was done.

-

I march right up to most of the outta state Ducks. "Did you guys do that?" I was mad.

Julie laughs awkwardly. "What?"

"Don't play fucking stupid, Gaffney." I snap at her and Russ stands up. "Sit down, Russ. Did you or did you not freeze varsity's stuff."

She crosses her arms. "Did you soak ours?"

"Yeah, matter of fact I did." I own up to it and match her stance. "But soaking them makes it still useable, right?"

Dwayne nods and Kenny looks down. "Yeah, so?"

"So, fucking freezing something beyond 0 degrees doesn't make it usable again." I yell at her. "You want to know what you froze that I will never get back!"

I reach into my jeans pocket and pulls out the many frozen jewelry pieces and throw it at her.

"What's that?" Dwayne asks, dodging the stray pieces.

I wipe my hand on my pants. "My priceless jewelry." I feel tears well into my eyes. "My heart necklace my ma gave me before our case worker took me and Elio, the charm bracelet about the Ducks, the chained bracelet Fulton and Dean bought me in LA, and the bracelet Kenny sent for my birthday last year."

Kenny looks up at me. "It was..?"

"Yes!" I yell again and see Adam appear in the distance.

Julie went quiet. "It was just a joke, V..."

"You know what else is a joke?" A few hot tears go rolling down my cheeks. "This friendship."

Banks reaches us and looks concerned. "There you are, Viv! My dad's waiting for us. Oh, hey, guys!"

I grab Banks by the wrist and pull him away. "Let's go."