Shooting Star

Chapter 5

I breezed into school on Monday morning, 15 minutes early and feeling totally refreshed and rested. I was still buzzing from my last minute heroics at the tournament on Saturday.

"Breeze!" Kylie bounced next to me while I was standing in front of my locker.

"Hey Ky," I smiled. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Kylie said. "We missed you at the celebration party."

"Sorry," I sighed. "I was tired."

"No one blames you," Kylie laughed. "You played your best, and you worked harder on half the girls on the ice! Plus you're the youngest."

Kylie only said 'youngest' and not smallest because I'm one of the taller girls on the team, even though I'm only 5'9. I'm even taller than Kylie, who's 16 and only 5'7. My mediocre height makes it harder for me to play hockey with girls that are taller than 6 feet, but it also makes it harder for me to fit in with my team onstage, because most of the dancers are shorter than 5'6.

"So did you go to the exhibition game?" I asked, grabbing my math textbook and science binder.

"The console?" Kylie giggled. "Nope. Too pitiful."

The exhibition game, a.k.a. the consolation game, was played by all the teams who didn't make it into the playoffs. The teams usually sucked so much nobody showed up to watch except the players' families.

"Hey," I said, smiling. "That could've been us, had it not been for me!"

"I know," Kylie shoved me playfully. "Captain Breeze on fire!"

"I am not the captain," I griped.

"You could be after Sierra leaves," Kylie pointed out.

"True," I said. I glanced at my phone. "I've got 5 minutes 'til homeroom. I should go," I said apologetically.

"Me too," Kylie said. "See ya at practice tonight."

"Likewise," I said, shutting my locker and hurrying down to homeroom.

When I got there, I was greeted by a vast amount of cheers, and even a sign that said, "THE BREEZE ON FIRE!"

I blushed when I saw that.

"Congrats, Miller!" Tanner Ebony fist-bumped me.

"On what?" I asked innocently.

Mason Walker snorted. "Don't act stupid, Miller. Your game-winning goal!"

"Oh," I said, pretending to realize it. "That was nothing."

"What are you talking about?" Tanner demanded. "That was world-class hockey!"

I smiled. "If you say so." Secretly, I was quite pleased. "You guys were there?"

"Yeah!" Mason cheered. "So epic."

I kept smiling. "Thanks."

"But man, the console was so sad," Tanner added. "I almost couldn't watch the rest of it. The teams were so upset about not making the playoffs they barely had enough energy to pass the puck to each other!"

I burst out laughing. "It couldn't have been that bad. But hey, if I hadn't scored, one of those teams would've been us!"

"But seriously," Mason said. "That was one of the best goals I've ever seen!"

"Thanks," I said again. I felt like I'd said that a million times already.

Even Adrian, yesterday night, couldn't stop telling Jake about how epic my goal was.

"Two point three seconds left, bro, and Bree scores! I was like, how did that happen?"

Jake hadn't been that impressed. Of course, being that he plays for the OHL, and that he's one of the youngest to do so, since he got granted exceptional status, all he had said was, "That's good, Bree. Keep it up and you'll be the second woman in the world to play in the NHL."

I'd punched him. "Shut up," I had snapped, grinning. "Just because I kicked your butt because you never scored a game-winning goal doesn't mean that you get to pretend that it wasn't amazing."

"But it wasn't," Jake had insisted.

"Jake, you don't talk to your sister that way," Mom had glared at him. "What she accomplished today was wonderful. Besides, your schedule isn't as busy as hers is, and you have to give her credit for what she's managed to accomplish so far."

"I guess," Jake muttered.

"Bree?" Tanner asked. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah," I said, shaking the memory out of my head. "Just re-living the dream."

"Man, would I give anything to have been you during that moment," Mason said.

"Thanks," I said again.

At that time, Ms. Bonalis stepped into the room, and we scattered into our seats. Erin, the girl who'd made the The Breeze on Fire! poster, stuffed the banner into her backpack, where I figured she'd throw it out later.

The intercom crackled. "Good morning, Admirals! Let's start with the morning announcements!"

I sat back in my seat and listened.

"The lunch menu today in the cafeteria is chicken nuggets with steamed veggies and and a bag of chips, all for a stunning 4.99! Try-outs for the U-20 Girls and Boys volleyball teams begin today after school, starting at 3:30. Be there or be trapezoid!"

I smiled at that. Sally Benson, the school's head girl, did the announcements each morning.

"Congratulations to the U-20 Triple A Girls Ice Hockey Team on making it to the playoff round, something the Carlton Admirals have failed to do in that category for over 15 years now. And we have our star player, Brianna Miller, to thank, so if you see her in the halls, be sure to send your congrats her way!"

I turned fire-engine red when I heard that. All Sally needed to say was that we made it to the playoffs, I thought, embarrassed. She didn't have to mention me personally. Oh well.

All of the class turned to look at me when Sally said that. I just waved and focused on the rest of the announcements.

"Okay," Ms. Bonalis said as the announcements ended. "I need your homeroom assignments passed in as you leave. You're dismissed."

The bell rang and everyone jumped out of their seats, myself included. I dug my assignment out of my bag and put it on Ms. Bonalis' desk as I left the room. We'd had to write a page length about why it was important that we attended homeroom on time and not skipped it and just head to our first period class, which was what most students had been doing up until now.

But the happy feeling that'd joined with me when I'd scored the winning goal stayed with me throughout the school day. I was in such a good mood I'd gotten an A-plus on my chemistry pop quiz!

"It's called elation, Breeze," Kylie said when I joined her at her locker at the end of the school day. "But let's go home before we have practice. We can drop our stuff off."

"Good plan," I said. Our houses were across the street from each other.

I couldn't get rid of it though, the elation. Or however you would say it that way. Not that I wanted to. I just felt weird, being happy 24 hours, 3 days a week straight.

And abnormal. I was usually super-stressed by the end of the day, and I wasn't even trying to scribble down the last answers to my math homework. I glanced at the clock. 2:30.

I sat back in my chair and double-checked over my work before letting my mind wander to the tournament. Then I groaned when I realized that I had an extra-long dance practice tonight.

The elation that had been with me all day and weekend was gone. And the stress had returned to take its place.