Love For A Game

Chapter 5

I feel my skates cut into the ice as I step off the bench. There are seventy-five seconds left in the game. We are up by two goals. The game is practically won by this point.

We are playing the Aliston Warriors today. They are third in their division, with a record of 11 wins and 10 losses. We don't have much trouble with them; however, we never run up the score too much. Just 4-1 or 5-1, nothing too embarrassing. We're up 3-1 now.

It takes me less than three seconds to get into the flow of the game. The Aliston winger picks up the puck on the left side toward centre ice. He lifts the puck high, and it drops in the corner, to the right of Noel.

Nathan gets to it first, and tries to clear it out of our zone. An Aliston defender keeps the puck with a nice play. He passes to the other defenceman, who shoots. The puck is tipped by Josh accidentally, and we all hear the clang of the puck hitting off of the crossbar. Noel grabs it and shoots it away with his stick.

The buzzer sounds. The game is over. Aliston really put up a good fight towards the end, but they were not much of a match for us. We line up to shake hands with our opponents, and congratulate them on their effort.

As I am skating back to our bench, however, something catches my eye. I am surprised that I didn't notice it before.

It is Nicole, the girl that I met on Monday in my Science class. She is here, watching me play.

I look up at her, and see that she has her eyes locked onto me. She has a hint of a smirk on her face, as if she's impressed. She doesn't smile; she gives me a nod. Hopefully it is a nod of approval.

My teammates and I head into the dressing room. This particular game doesn't hold any sort of significance to us, so we don't really celebrate. We just silently take off our equipment.

Noel approaches me when he is done. "You ready to go?" Noel and I are hanging out at my house after, to practice some skills in my driveway.

"Yeah," I say. "Let's go."

The two of us leave the arena. However, standing right outside the arena entrance doors, is Nicole, who is seemingly waiting for me.

"Hold on," I say to Noel. "I'll be back in a second."

I approach Nicole. She smiles when she sees me. "Hi," I say tentatively.

"Hello," she replies.

"Um, what are you doing here?"

"Watching you play, of course. I had to see what you were made of, you know."

"And?"

"Not bad. You skate well, very fluid, and the way you play has a nice flow to it. Your shot is pretty good, accurate, and doesn't seem to miss much. You're a fine hockey player, Jordan Devlin."

"How do you know so much about the game? Did you used to play or something?"

"I played left defence back in Montreal," she says.

"Will you join a team here?" I ask.

"I can't," she replies, shaking her head. "There are no girls teams here in Ryerson. I would have to go to Toronto, which is too far away."

"I imagine that feels pretty bad for you," I say.

"Yes, it does."

Just then Noel walks over to us. "Jordan, are you coming? Wait, who is this? Jordan, you don't have a-"

"No!" I say quickly. "This is Nicole. She goes to our school."

"Hi, I'm Noel, Noel Johansson," Noel says.