The angry England winter was bitting at my fingers as i grabbed my hockey equipment out of the boot of dads new car. The rage inside me building as my anxiety kicked into high gear. I huffed my bag over my shoulder and grabbed my sticks from dad, "darling, take it out on the puck not yourself." he looked me in the eye and kissed my forehead. I half smiled up at him and rested my head on his chest before turning to walk into the arena.
as i walked in, i by-passed all my teammates dirty looks and stares and went straight to the change room. i got dressed and put on my freshly sharpened skates, grabbed my favorite stick and walked out to my teams bench. i was the first one dressed as usual, i walked over tot he pretty pile of pucks and swung my arm and knocked them onto the ice. i skated out for warmup as i noticed all my dads friends had showed up, i always liked it when they came. it gave me something new to think about besides all the shit going on in my life in the current moment.
"Hey! Firth! you little gnome better be prepared to chase the snow coming from my skates as i leave you in the dust!" my best friend Kye yelled from her teams side of the ice. i giggled to myself and shot one of my pucks at her and hit her in the butt. she turned around and gave me the finger to get lost and i returned to my warm up, looking up at dads usual seating i saw my uncle and all his friends. My Uncle Mark gave me a thumbs up as Taron jumped from his seat and ran to the glass, i skated over and climbed the boards to give him a hug. " hat trick for me please?" he said in his cocky boy voice, " oi! Taron! would you leave my beautiful daughter alone so she can do what she does best, kick ass!" dad yelled down and Taron gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before heading back up to his seat to be greeted by Uncle Mark slapping him upside the head.
i skated back out onto the ice and gathered in formation with my team, the awkward tension could be cut with a knife at this point. Karen, our right defensive wing nodded at me and i skated forward to take the face-off at centre ice.
