Elastic Heart ➵ C.Conway

III. NEW COACH

The sleek black limo rolled onto the ice as the hockey team came together to see who this guy was and what the hell he wanted. A few of the boys were mumbling 'I ain't scared' to one another, but Riley knew otherwise. As she and the team started to skate towards the limo that had now stopped, she skated next to Connie, the only other girl on the team.

"What do you thinks going to happen?" Connie whispered, her dark brown eyes slightly staring at Riley with curiosity, "What do you think they want?"

Riley looked at the black limo again before turning to her friend, "I honestly have no idea." Was the only reply she could come up with. "Maybe he's lost?" Even Riley know that was a stupid answer.

Connie laughed slightly, her brown hair that was tied into a braid moved onto her shoulder because of the movement. This made Riley smile, knowing that she had made at least one of her friends a little less tense. Her attention was brought back to the boys as she heard them whisper shout to each other.

"You don't know what you're doin'!" A slightly fearful Peter told Jesse, who was leading the team towards the limo. It made Riley smile slightly, knowing no matter how tough Peter acted, he was still only as brave as everyone else. "We're going to get into big trouble," the short boy stuttered.

"I'll take care of it." Was the only reply Peter got from Jesse, who was still powering towards the limo.

This caused Peter to bite back in frustration, "you're drug dealin' I just know it."

As soon as Riley and the team stopped next to the limo a door opened, revealing an average sized man wearing a black suit and coat. Riley thought that this man was used to being respected by everyone, something he definitely wouldn't be receiving by the her or the team. At least not till he earned it.

The man walked towards the team, standing right in front of Jesse while making eye contact with him. But Jesse did not back down in his stance nor stare.

"Yo, dude," Terry's brother started, "you obviously in the wrong hood. This is my domain. This is a drug-free zone, you understand?" A few 'yeahs' echo from the team while Riley hears someone call that 'we ain't buyin' nothin'', which caused Jesse to continue with a cocky smirk, "I'm feeling generous today. So I'm gonna let you get your sorry vanilla bootie outta here before we be usin' your eyeballs as hockey pucks."

This caused the whole team (including Riley) to burst out into laughter and giggles at what Jesse said. Riley was proud of the boy giving him a high five and a wide smile, which he returned immediately.

The guy rolled his eyes at the boys behavior before responding, "thanks, bro, but I'm not goin' home 'til I take care of business." He starts to pull something from inside of his coat, making all of the kids back away. As an instinct Riley looked around for Charlie, only to spot him slightly behind her to the left. Charlie was already looking at her, fear and shock covering his face as he grabbed her hand and gently pulled her behind him. Seeing that he only has a piece of paper, Charlie lets out a breath of relief before he lets go of Riley's hand, blushes covering both of their faces as they refuse to look at each other. "District Five Pee Wee hockey team. I'm Gordon Bombay. I'm the new coach."

Laughter immediately comes from the team.

"What a joke!" Averman laughs, his body almost doubling over in laughter.

"Yeah, right." Jesse comments.

Looking up, Riley notices that Bombay isn't laughing, he isn't even smiling. Her laughter slowly dies off once realisation hits her. "He's not joking..." The girl quietly mumbles before saying it louder so the team hears her and stops their laughing, "He's not joking."

"Afraid so." Bombay looks at Riley, clearly unimpressed he has to coach a hockey team. "Got the roster right here. Averman, Dave. Conway, Charlie, Hall, Terry." Everyone stands in shock that this guy is actually their coach. "Here's the long and the short of it. I hate hockey and I don't like kids."

"What's that supposed to be, a pep talk?" As always, Peter has to say something, Riley thinks as she rolls her eyes at the short boy who can't seem to shut his mouth.

"I'm sure this will be a real bonding experience," sarcasm is practically dripping from is mouth, "maybe one day one of you will even write a book about it in jail." Riley rolls her eyes at this guy as everyone grumbles to themselves. "Is there a goalie?" He asked.

"Only for a little while," Goldberg proudly states to their new coach, "I'm movin' back to Philly."

"Thank you for sharing that."

"No problem."

With his hands behind his back he instructs, "alright, get out on the ice and let me see what you can do."

Averman looks at the coach as everyone goes back onto the ice, "uh, just so you know, We really suck."

"Averman!" Riley yells as she hits the back of the boys head, "your not supposed to tell him that!" The brunette then proceeds to pull him onto the ice by the back of his hood.

Gordon Bombay couldn't help but laugh at the girl, already knowing she would end up helping him, or possible killing him.

~~~~~

After another terrible practice that included Riley getting squished under Guy, Charlie and Karp, the team head back over to their new coach who was talking to Connie.

"So what do we do now... Coach?" Riley questions, hoping that Coach Bombay might be able to help them.

"What did your old coach have you do?" Which led to a whole lot of weird actions from Peter, showing Bombay that the old man had a heart attack. "Alright, look. I gotta make a phone call. Keep scrimmaging. You, you, you, you and you," he pointed to Connie, Avermen, Peter, Terry and Guy. "Against you five," he then proceeded to point to Jesse, Karp, Charlie, Goldberg and Riley.

"We got names, you know?" Goldberg pointed out.

"I'm sure you do," Bombay started, "and I'll bet they're very nice names. I might even learn 'em. For now, I'll be in my office." Coach Bombay laughed quietly to himself as he walked back to his limo.

"What a jerk." Riley mumbles as the team go to scrimmage.

~~~~~

"You know what?" Riley stops everyone from practice. "This isn't fair, if he's going to be our coach he needs to start acting like one." Hearing yells of agreement, the girl continues, "I say we teach him a lesson." Smirking then looking towards the limo, Karp and Goldberg get the idea, skating towards the limo they start to shove it around. This then causes the rest of the team, excluding Riley and Charlie, to skate over too.

"What have you done?" Charlie looks over at his best friend, who's smirking at the scene in front of her.

Riley looks at Charlie and gives him a grin that makes a faint blush form on his cheeks, "how could you accuse me of something like that?" She gasps in exaggeration before breaking into a cheeky smirk, "I just thought I'd give him a proper District Five introduction."