Love For A Game

Chapter 10

It is now Thursday. I wake up to a gloomy and drizzly morning. Rain hits the windows with a steady plink plink plink. I dress in a hoodie and jeans.

I eat breakfast with my father as usual. Dad tells me how the Canadiens won last night, defeating the Colorado Rockies 7-4. Mats Naslund scored two goals.

I walk to school as usual. Luckily, the rain isn't too bad, and I don't get very wet. However, a brisk early-December wind is blowing, and my nose and ears get cold quite quickly.

School is the same old thing that I experience every day. I go through my classes, learning gerunds in English, gas laws in Science, and algebra in Math.

In History, Mr. Kendrick gives us time to work on our presentations. They are to be presented next week, and he expects them to be good. Some are struggling, and have not got much done. However, others, like Nicole and I, are almost done.

The rest of the day goes by without anything eventful happening. After school, Nicole and I go to the arena for her first practice with the Raiders.

Coach Bennington has decided that Nicole will practice for the team and attend all of the games, but will not play her first game until the twenty-eighth of December, against the Crusaders. He wants Nicole to get acclimated to our style of play, so he is having her sit and watch a few games.

Nicole and I arrive at the arena, and head to the dressing room. She has already said to me that she does not want a separate changing room, but wants to change with the rest of the team.

Outside the locker room door, I stop. "Are you sure you don't want your own locker room?" I say.

"I've already told you, no," she says. "I'm not embarrassed."

"That's not what I meant," I reply. "Some of those guys might, uh, look."

"Aww, is somebody jealous?" She coos at me.

"What? No!"

"Face it, Jordan. I'm changing in this locker room, and if people want to look at me, go ahead. I don't even care if they like what they see."

And she walks into the locker room ahead of me.

I enter the room. Everyone has stopped what they are doing, and are staring directly at Nicole. Some have angry and disgusted looks on their faces, and others have surprise written all over them.

"She really made it, huh?" Josh shouts.

"Obviously," I snap.

He stands. He walks up to Nicole, getting about an inch from her face. "Just saying, you better watch yourself. 'Cause I ain't going easy on you in practice. Opponents won't either. I don't think you belong here. Prove me wrong." He taps her with his stick, right on her butt. He walks out of the dressing room. One by one, everyone else does the same, until only Nicole and I remain.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

Nicole looks at me. There is a fire in her eyes that I have never seen before. A fire that tells me that she can take on anything.

"He's gonna get it," she says. "Oh, he's gonna get it."

I love it.

***

"All right, let's get it goin'," Coach Bennington says. He has us skate a few laps around the ice. Once we are done, we do a few suicides to get our blood pumping.

Power play drills come next. Our power play is number one in the league, so we need not worry about trying new things. However, we do anyways, in case we need to in a game.

Once we are done, we break off into two teams, and scrimmage. On my team is Luke, Connor, Nathan, and Nicole. Noel is in our goal. The other side has Sam, Charlie, another forward named Eric Fletcher, a defenceman named Ryan Ingram, and Josh.

I win the draw off Sam easily. I skate up the puck, with Luke on my left. I attempt a pass across the slot, but Josh makes a nice play to block it, and passes to Eric.

Eric shoots it into the corner, and Nicole grabs it. She skates it up and looks at me for a pass. I shake my head, and she continues up the ice.

She passes the blue line, with Josh watching her closely. She drags the puck close to her, and goes right around Josh! She skates close to the net and shoots it into the bottom right corner. A beauty play.

Josh is miffed. He slams his stick on the ice. Luckily, it doesn't snap. We line up again, and play resumes.

Nicole grabs the puck, and passes to me. Josh and Ryan watch as I skate into their zone. I drop back to Luke, who fires it high and wide. Josh tries to clear it, but Nathan keeps it in. He passes to Nicole. She passes to me, and I one-time it into the top left corner of the net. 2-0.

Play goes back and forth for the next ten minutes. The score remains the same, however.

Josh dumps it into our zone and chases after it. He picks it up in the corner, and Nicole skates after him. I know what she's going to do. I can see it coming...

Crunch! Nicole drives her shoulder right into Josh's chest, and he goes into the boards. He goes down, and is slow to get back up. He opens his mouth, and I see blood stain his teeth. He must have bit his tongue when he got hit. Still, it was one hell of a body check.

Coach Bennington blows his whistle. "Okay, that's it!"

We head back to the dressing room. Nobody bothers to say anything to Nicole as she changes back to street clothing (a few look, though). She has earned the team's respect with that hit on Josh.

One by one, the team files out of the room, until only three of us remain: myself, Nicole, and Josh. Josh walks over to Nicole, and sticks out his hand.

"I want to apologize," he says. "I was wrong. You really can hold your own. You're damn good too. You really do belong here. Thanks for proving that to me."

Nicole shakes his hand. "Thanks, Josh. I really appreciate that."

Josh leaves the room. Nicole looks at me, and smiles. "What a practice, huh? I didn't know I could do all that."

"Yeah," I say. "I think a little ice cream may be in order, don't you think?"