Wild Card

-3-

Aziza

The cool air that hit my face provided a refreshing sense of relief. The awkward atmosphere in the car previously had dissipated once Roxy put on the most god awful song on in the car, which pissed the three of us to no end, but she'd successfully managed to bring everyone back to how they normally seemed to be. Though, I wasn't really sure exactly how Theo was. I mean, I'd spent fifty percent of the day with Liam and another twenty percent of it talking and texting Roxy. She'd added me to a group chat at lunch with five others, which supposedly meant I was suddenly part of her inner circle.

I found it almost endearing that she'd latched herself onto me, though I'm sure the shiny sign of 'new girl' hanging over my head was going to dull down soon enough and she'd end up not really giving a shit about me. The shadow of doubt consistently lingered in the background, but I shoved it away as far as I could to try and stop the negativity from seeping into my expression. If only she knew that my 'sparkle' was just a lake of bile.

"I fucking love hockey players."

I turned my attention to her path of eyesight to watch as I realised she was checking out one of the player's arses. I snorted at the blatant lack of shame Roxy was emitting, slouching back further into the chair.

"Roxy, I dont know if you know this," I started cautiously, "But that guys bum you're checking out is fifteen."

An amused smile attempted to pinch my lips when the sudden look of mortification washed over her features, and her hands slapped over her glossed lips before squealing a loud "Eeeeew".

I did a quick survey of our surroundings, ignoring the way my head spun at the sudden movement, to see that most of the people who had showed up were looking at their screens. It was understandable since all the new players had clearly been kicked out onto the rink, since not one of them looked a day over 16 and I knew for certain that the team's main lineup consisted of 17-18 year olds.

Dad and I often watched Theo's games, since we followed the team's that he had been on and their channels tended to livestr3am the games since Theo always managed to land a spot on some important team who played internationally. I watched his games whilst in rehab and the main goalie —Kirk— for Theos recent team, was a beast at defending that net, even though he was one of the smaller people. I might have developed a small habit at tracking Kirk's stats more religiously over the rest of the team, but it wasn't weird or anything... Moreover, Theo was an absolute whizz at scoring and tactics. He rarely hogged the puck and was always incredible at deducing the offensive play that needed to happen to score against the opposition.

Call me obsessed, I didn't particularly care. Ice hockey was mine and Dad's thing, and even though he expected Kep to take equal interest in hockey when he turned four, I was the one who clung onto the matches like it was an IV drip.

"Ooo. It's starting," Roxy said when the shrill of a whistle tore through the arena.

The obnoxious music that started blasting itself around the arena matched the exuberant egos that hockey players typically had, and I watched in mild awe as the team spilled out into the rink, each player taking off as soon as their blades hit the ice. Each player definitely met the brief of being a Lumberjack, physically anyway.

Fuelled by their excitement and oversaturated ego's, snorted in amusement when one of the players threw a wink in the direction of some girls that I could vaguely recognise. I take a moment to absorb their faces, and I noticed a clump of blonde hair and a baby pink top. My expression immediately soured. That bitch, I don't even know her name and I honestly would give a shit about who she is if she hadn't have saidanything. Clearly, all teenagers were the fucking same no matter what country you were in.