LOVING SOMEONE ⇢ LUIS MENDOZA [1]

seven

Later that evening, the press had released an article titled:

POWER COUPLE SCORE THE WINNING GOAL

and it spread around fast.

***

The team were sat in the park, where Gordon asked to meet them.
"I've had a lot of big distractions since I've been here in LA," He began, picking up a cardboard cut out of him mentioning Hendrix. "This is a distraction."

Hailee laughed and pointed at it. "You know, he looks kinda familiar, don't you think?"
"I agree." Goldberg grinned.

"This a fire in a barrel." Gordon continued. He held the cardboard cut out up and stuffed it into the barrel.
"This is a distraction in a fire in a barrel. Any questions?"

Everyone began to clap. Luis and Hailee shared smiles before joining in.

***

The next couple of days leading up to the match, Gordon trained everyone either as a team, or individually.
He made sure that Jan helped Luis out with his stopping, and allowed Hailee to watch and help out.

"Luis, your speed is a great weapon. Now you must learn to harness it." Jan told him.
Luis nodded and began to skate towards the cans stacked on top of one another.
"Remember to sharply turn to the side!" Hailee called out, but she was too late.

Luis had crashed into the cans and Jan sighed.
Hailee threw her arms up in the air. "Now we're gonna have to stack them all up again." She said as Luis got up and groaned.

In between Luis' private sessions, Hailee spent a lot of time with her team in the gym and on the ice. During that time, she became closer with everyone on the team that she wasn't already close with.

Luis and Hailee also went on small dates a lot more, which they both loved.

The team won against Canada and Iceland lost to Russia, meaning they were now tied with USA.
Since Adam had injured his wrist, he was unable to play, so Charlie brung in Russ, whom Hailee was excited to see.

They had just beaten Russia - Russ scored the winning goal with his Knucklepuck.

***

There was one more day until Iceland and USA competed for the win, so Gordon called everyone to the rink and made sure they didn't come in their hockey gear.

"Coach, shouldn't we have our hockey gear on?" Luis asked, taking his hands out of his pockets.
"Yeah," Hailee agreed.
"Guys, this is our last team practise, which means-"
"The return of Captain Blood." Averman cut him off, referencing to the nickname the team gave their coach during his mean streak.

"Not quite..." Coach Bombay took out a beach ball. "It means let's have some fun!" He grinned.

The team smiled as Gordon hit the beach ball into the centre of the ice rink.

Hailee grinned. "Out of the way, everyone!" She joked, skating towards the beach ball.
"No way, Hailee, come back here!" Connie laughed.

The group of friends played around with the baseball for about five minutes, when the Iceland team skated onto the rink, making them all stop in their tracks.

Coach Stansson picked up the beach ball and squeezed it until it burst.
Hailee was about to shout something out, but Gordon stopped her.

"Playtime is over. We have the ice now." Stansson said, calmly. "You and your little rink-ranks must leave"
"We're right here, Coach." Dean reassured from behind him.
"The only little is your career and the pros." Gordon sassed. Hailee snorted.

"Gordon, no, let's go." Miss McKay sighed.
"At least I had a shot - I was there." Stansson spoke up.
"You were a disgrace."
Stansson glared at him.

Gordon turned round to face his team. "Alright, team, we're out of here." No one moved. "I said let's get out of here, come on."

"Step off the ice? Or please, play a little with me. Show me that famous trick that your daddy taught you. Or was it that old geese over there?" Stansson mocked, looking over at Jan.

"Marria." Stansson said. He held out his arm for her to give him a spare hockey stick. He threw it at Gordon, and he luckily caught it.

"Three bar. First one to hit both posts in the crossbar. You have to take it out past the blue line."
"I know the game." Stansson said, rudely.

Everything was going great for Gordon. He was one point away from winning, when Stansson skated up behind him and hit his leg with his hockey stick.

Team USA began to yell and shout at Stansson. They skated towards their coach and helped him up. He winced in pain.

"Get your coach off the ice. We have to practise now." Stansson told them.
"Why the hell-" Hailee started, but Luis grabbed onto the arm, stopping her.
She looked down at his hand, before back up at Stansson and scowling at him.