Slapshot

Chapter 26: A Study Party

Taylor's POV

"Guess what." Cameron said, taking a seat beside me in the lunchroom.

"What?" I ask, looking up at him with a smile.

"I got a mark update in Functions." He starts, resting his head on his palm and looking at me.

"And?!" I ask, feeling excited for him.

"I'm at a forty-two. Already." He smiles. It was a big jump from the thirties.

"That's awesome." I grinned. I really was happy for him.

"I know. I would never have thought I'd be this excited to go up in a class." He laughs, and I get what he means. He has told me that he's never had good marks, or even cared to try. The fact that his mark had already jumped so much so early in the year was great.

"I'm proud of you," I tell him honestly. "But we're not done yet."

"I know." He nods.

"Do you wanna..." I gesture, not saying it out loud. "Right now?" Cam had told me that he was a bit embarrassed to be tutored, and I get it. I didn't wanna say it in front of everyone, in front of the table.

He shakes his head. "I just wanna eat. But I was thinking maybe after the game tonight you could come over, we'll study at my house. My parents won't be home, don't worry." He offers.

"Uh, sure." I answer.

Was I nervous to go over? Of course. Was I nervous that his parents wouldn't be home? Of course. But we were just going to study, and I was friends with him. We'd be fine.

It was true that although Cameron and I had only been talking for a short amount of time, we've become... well acquainted with each other. I might even say friends. We spent a lot of time together talking, and not just about math. I also saw him a lot because of hockey.

The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly, as quick as could be for a crippled girl. Our team had a game right after school, now feeling more pumped than usual that Jonathan finally could play. I caught up with him as the last bell rang and we walked to the change room.

"Nervous?" I ask him.

"I don't know. I'm usually not, but I feel like people are counting on me today, since we've been losing so much." He says, and I know what he means.

"I think you're going to do great. You always do." I say.

"Thanks." He raises his eyebrows, not looking at me. I proceed to the bleachers, sitting wherever I can find an empty spot. I have to admit, it was a lot less lonelier when I'd be sitting up here with Jonathan. I really did hope he was okay. He's been acting different lately.

The game went on as usual, I tried to stay quiet this game after getting a weird look from some of the other teams' fans. But I watch in quiet frustration as our team goes down by two in the first. The only memorable thing that happened other than the goals was being able to hear Jonathan yelling even from up at the bleachers. Otherwise, everyone walked to the change room with a big frown on their face.

I think everyone knew that our team was doing a lot shittier lately. Nobody could tell what it was, either, because obviously if Coach knew, he'd do something to fix it.

The other team came out strong in the second, too. At one point, the puck bounced around our net. Noah retrieved it, looking around quickly before passing it up to Jonathan. He flew by their defence and buried the puck behind the goalies' pads. Everyone was celebrating except for him, though.

The team tried again and again to score, but we were getting outplayed. The game ended in a 4-1 loss for us.

Cameron told me to meet him in the parking lot beside his car rather than outside the change room. I was fine with this, since I didn't want to have to see everyone's sad faces after losing the game.