LOVING SOMEONE ⇢ LUIS MENDOZA [1]

five

"And hold, two, three, four!"
"If the coach isn't here why do we have to be?" Connie asked Dean.
"We have a game tonight, we have to workout!"

"I say mutiny, who's with me?" Goldberg breathed out.
"Goldberg, I'm too tired of mutiny." Dwayne said.

"Come on, guys. It's not like we couldn't use the conditioning." Hailee said, looking at Dean.
"Speak for yourself, babe." Dean tutted his head.
"Her name's Hailee, not babe!" Luis shot at him.
"Don't tell me how to talk!" Dean snapped, pushing Luis backwards.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Hailee said, stepping in-between the two. "Calm down, jeez."

"Hey, Team USA? What're you gonna do today? A million jumping jacks?" Russ shouted from across the court.
"This kid's crazier than me, forget about him." Dean scoffed.

"Hey, man, I'm getting sick of you!" Jesse yelled.
"And I'm getting sick of seeing the USA represented by a bunch of wining babies!"
"Well too bad you can't back up that mouth!"
"Man, me and my boys could take you anytime, anywhere." Russ started to make his way towards the group.

Jesse scoffed. "I don't see no boys!"
"I got 'em waiting! Grab your gear and lets go play some schoolyard puck! Or maybe you forgot what it's like to play for real."
"You got a pass?" The guard asked Russ.
"C'mon, it's not too far, you lil wimps!" Russ yelled.
The guard took hold of his arm and started to lead him out of the court. "Hey, what're you doing? Get off me!"
"Lets go."
"Come on, you coming or not?!"

"I say we do." Hailee spoke up once he'd been dragged out of the court.
Adam nodded. "Me too."
"Let's show 'em the real Team USA." Jesse said.

***

"My lil brother Russ here has been telling me that you guys have been choking, bigtime." Russ' older brother, James, told them.
"Well your brother's got a big mouth." Jesse snapped.

Hailee bit her lip and shared nervous glances with Goldberg and Averman.
"Uh oh," Goldberg mumbled.

"He does, doesn't he?" James said, looking down at his brother.
Russ cheekily smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Goldberg and Averman breathed out sighs of relief.

"Anyways, we thought we'd call y'all to see what you got."
"We know you can talk to the press and sign autographs and stuff." Russ added.
Luis tutted his head. "We can do more than that."

"Yeah? Well we can show you how to play like the real Team USA." James replied.
"And what would you know about it?" Dean scoffed.
James looked around at his teammates and smirked.

Hailee watched as James smashed into Dean from the other end of the court. It was only then that she realised how rough this team were, and was debating whether to just stay in the sidelines or not.

But Dwayne then passed the puck to her, and she forced herself to move.
As a blonde boy, who looked around her age, skated towards her, she began to pick up the pace as she headed for the goal.

But soon enough he had pinned her up against the wall with a smirk on his face. "You've gotta play, sweetcheeks."

"Hey, what're you doing?!" Luis yelled from the bench.
"Yeah, why're you stopping?" Jesse called out.
Hailee pushed him off and took the puck into her possession.
"I was just waiting for the right time." She hit the puck as hard as she could and it landed in the net.

Her team cheered as she shot him a fake smile before skating away.
Luis skated into the court. "Hey, what was that all about?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at the blonde boy.
Hailee scoffed. "I have no idea."

"She your girlfriend or something'?" The blonde boy called out.
Luis tutted his head. "Yeah, she is."
He threw his hands up in the air. "Sorry, man, I didn't know."

Hailee sighed and before Luis could shoot something back, she said, "It's fine, don't worry about it."
She grabbed Luis' spare hand with hers and pulled him away. "It's okay, babe. Forget about it. Now let's trade places."

Luis smirked. "What did you just call me?"
Hailee playfully rolled her eyes. "Play on, Mendoza." She replied, skating towards the bench.

Russ and his team were beating Team USA, and Hailee desperately wanted to step back in again.

"Come on!" James yelled out to no one in particular. "Come and get it!"
"Don't mind if I do!" Luis grinned from behind. He stole the puck from James and skated towards the make-do net at full speed.

"Go Luis!" Hailee, Connie and Guy cheered.
Luis hit it into the net. "Oh no, not again!" He groaned, before crashing into the wall.
Hailee laughed.

Team USA had soon caught up with Russ and his team.
Hailee was playing again as just as she was about to steal the puck from Russ, he swung back and hit the puck as hard as he could.

Everyone stopped and watched the puck fly into the net in awe.
"What the heck kind of shot was that?" Fulton asked in amazement.
Hailee skated up to Russ with him.
"You like that, huh?" Russ grinned.
"Yeah, that was amazing!" Hailee chipped in.
"That's my Knucklepuck! It's hard to be accurate, but it drives the enemies crazy!"

The teams ended up drawing and everyone had gotten over their hatred for one another, Jesse and Russ and Luis and the blonde boy in particular.