Sunset Boulevard-ON HOLD

Chapter 1-Mallory Hamilton

I pull into the parking lot of the local St. Catherine's ice rink that my father owned as the clock hit 4:00am. Mornings are hell, but there's just something about the brisk air and the sound of the skates hitting the ice that can snap you out of that morning funk.

Coach Sutter had sent me back home to get a few weeks of rest after the injury I had received to my knee in the opening of camp and although I was bummed about the injury it gave me a good chance to hone my skills and see some old friends and family...

As I finished unpacking my bags of pucks and hockey equipment I looked around the vacant parking lot and realized my best friend, Mallory, had not yet arrived.

Mallory Hamilton was definitely something else. She could make a boy drop dead with her looks and make a goalie open his five hole with her dirty dangles. She normally got a lot of shit around here from a lot of the guys when I or her brothers, Dougie and Freddie, weren't around for being a female hockey player.

I decided to take a quick jog around the outside of the arena and just as I finished my lap and began to twirl the keys in my hand just in time to see a winded girl run into the lot, "Hamilton, you're late!"

She cracked a sly grin and replied, "You try running five miles at 4:15 in the morning. At least you have a car."

I walk back over to the door and unlock it, "I've told you several times, Mallory. I would be happy to pick you up.

"But running is good for cardio!", she protested as she poked me and made her way inside the pitch black arena.

"Yeah, yeah. yeah. You just want to be like Dougie and Freddie, don't you?"

We made our way down the stairs and into the locker room and started putting our gear on before Mal broke the silence as she threw her bag down onto the floor.

"You know, I want to somehow break the barrier in the NHL."

And there it was. Don't get me wrong, Mal was great, hell, she was beyond great and she played hockey better than a lot of the guys I knew around town, but the NHL was a completely different ball game as I had found out in camp, and she had this idea in her head that she could make it in. I sit down on the bench next to her and let out a sigh as we get ready to put our gear on.

"Mal, it seems silly, don't you think."

I instantly felt a pain of guilt as I could see the hurt and upset that she tried to hide on her face, but was beyond apparent in her blue eyes.

Before I had a chance to apologize she responded, "I can do it, Karson. Everyone says I can't, but I can."

I tried to make light of the situation as we finished putting our gear on. "Just don't be to disappointed if it doesn't work out. You could always go into sports therapy and study it at Boston University."