Frozen in Ice

Chapter 9

Luke's POV

Brynn and I were working on another Math worksheet together. We mixed up questions with talking about ourselves and things that interested us more. I got to know her better and learnt that she had a younger brother.

"I always wanted a sibling. Mom works so much that I always wanted someone else to be around," I admitted.

"I really like him but when you have a sibling there are times that you don't want them around," she smiled.

I didn't really understand but I nodded anyway. We started working on the next question and it didn't take very long. We finished the worksheet not long later and Mr King told us that we didn't have anything else that we need to do so we continued to talk.

"How are you finding the school so far?" she asked.

"Everyone seems nice. It's not really that different to every other school that I've been to," I shrugged.

"I guess, this is the only school that I've ever been to, so I don't have anything else to compare it to," she said.

"They are all the same. Some good teachers, some shitty ones, same type of peoples, just the names are different," I said plainly.

She thought about that for a minute and then shrugged.

"I guess if that is the way that you think of it. You can be quite cynical, you know that?"

"It's called being real. I've been around and I know what it is like," I said.

We didn't talk for the rest of class and I knew that Brynn was thinking. I knew that I could be cynical and often I didn't see the bright side of things but it's what I've always been like. I had to grow up quickly with Mom working and us moving so much.

Moving schools I got used to starting in a new place and I quickly realised that they don't change much. I barely heard the bell ring since I was deep in thought. I slowly packed up and said goodbye to Brynn.

She smiled at me as she left and I left moments later after her. My other morning classes were boring but unfortunately I got a pile of homework that I wasn't sure when I was going to complete. I had training and work after school.

Brynn and I random got assigned to work together again in English. It wasn't very difficult work because it was just a discussion about the book that we were reading. I moved to sit next to her and we started to talk.

I jotted down notes as she talked about the book. I added my own views occasionally but I mostly just let her talk. It meant that it didn't take us long to finish the work that we were meant to do again.

"We make a good team together," she smiled.

I nodded and we continued to talk more. I slowly let her get to know me better but there were still things that I kept close to me. Brynn was friendly and quite easy to talk to. I could see that she still didn't like the hockey team.

I didn't know what her problem was but I didn't talk about it so I didn't ask. I made sure to steer the conversation away from hockey then. She didn't say anything about my 'girlfriend' that she thinks I have either and I was glad.

Our teacher came around and briefly talked to us about what we had discussed for our English work that we didn't really care about. Brynn mostly talked and I agreed with her. I wasn't particularly interested in the book that we were reading.

I said goodbye to Brynn after class and headed to training. Brynn seemed to be nicer to me now and I hoped that it would stay like that because she was nice. I was the first one into the locker room so I started to change in silence.

Mark and some of the other players came in and the locker room got louder as more people came in and started to talk. Since I wasn't included in any of the conversations I just headed out onto the ice started to warm up.

Coach came out once all the players were on the ice and started to yell at us as we ran drills. Mark seemed a little distracted for a lot of practice but Coach didn't yell at him like he did at the rest of us. I was standing on the edge of the ice, drinking, when Coach was yelling at Justin.

I rolled my eyes and skated over to Justin.

"You alright?" I asked.

Justin was a good player and Coach was yelling at him a lot today and he wasn't doing much wrong. Not enough wrong for the amount yelling that he was getting.

"It's alright," he said softly.

I looked at him and he just shrugged and then started to run the drill. I didn't get a chance to say anything else and I stood there. Coach had favourites and I was not one and neither was Justin. His favourite was Mark and it was extremely obvious.

Coach kept yelling at us all practice no matter what we did. I was getting angry about it because we weren't doing anything wrong. I took my angry out once everyone else was off the ice. I was hitting shots into the net as hard as I could get rid of my anger.

I didn't have long before I needed to be at work so I only hung around for an extra ten minutes. I felt a lot better even with the small amount of time so I collected the pucks in the back of the net and headed into the locker room.

There were a few players still talking but they were pretty much all changed and where just talking. I noticed that one of them was Mark and I wanted to talk to him but I knew that would be a bad idea. I pulled my gear off and quickly changed and happened to leave at the same time as Mark again.

Every time that this happened Mark had something to say to me. I knew that this wasn't going to be any different. In the split-second I decided to make this different.

"You know that if you get your shit together on the ice we wouldn't get yelled at," I snapped.

"That wasn't my fault," he snapped.

"Of course not. It's not like you are Coach's favourite and he takes it out on the rest of us when you play like shit," I said sarcastically.

He glared at me and I just rolled my eyes.

"Like you can talk. You aren't a good player," he retorted.

"I might not be a good player but I'm better than you. We don't deserve to get yelled at. Now I have better places to be than talking to you," I said.

I left him there standing in the parking lot and it felt good.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

Comment and Vote

The Wise One