The Hive

9

Two more games passed and they found themselves at the beginning of February. The season would end in May. They already had a spot on the wall for the trophy to join the others. If they won three more matches they would be set for finals and then after five matches during finals they would win. As always.

They went to Seekers for the second time that season, the least amount they'd gone during a season in years. They took Sasha with them once again. Alina found the time to come too but instead of her usual shotgun seat, she sat in the back, Wally in the middle and Sasha on the other side as Joan and Natalia took the front.

Things got off to a rocky start. Sasha wrapped an arm around her but Alina had other plans, she rolled her eyes and pulled Wally onto her lap. She wasn't opposed. As long as it stayed at a petty actions level and didn't escalate to full on fighting, they were fine.

They entered, Wally waving to the cashier as she saluted her and then rushed over to the Hornet's merch. Alina followed as Natalia and Joan looked at new skates and Sasha disappeared into the racquets section.

"I think you'll look good in this." She picked up a black crop top with a Hornet on the front and Hart 01 written in yellow on the back. She tossed them to Wally who threw them over her arm before a pair of black and yellow shorts flew her way as well. "This too."

No one else bought anything and Wally wondered if this was Alina's doing. As soon as they arrived back at the Hive she asked her to, "Please change baby, you know you look so pretty like that," and Wally did because if she didn't already love Alina, she loved being complimented.

She spent the rest of the afternoon with Alina and moved onto Joan toward dinner time. They walked to the athlete's dining hall for dinner and ate before heading back to the Hive and she and Natalia joined them for night practice.

"Tonight?" Sasha asked from inside the goal. Natalia set down another bucket of balls as Wally yelled back, "One fifty!" It was fifty shots for each of them. Wally would go first, shoot her fifty until Sasha blocked them all and Joan and Natalia collected the missed ones and put them in the five empty buckets. Joan would go next. Then Natalia. It took Sasha two and a half hours. Fifteen minutes less than last time. Improvement. Joan laughed and threw her another ball, she caught it and it fell from her hands immediately. Joan threw another one, a little slower. She caught it and immediately dropped it again. Sasha reached for her racquet and dropped it with a wince. "She's blown her fuckin' arms out." Joan scoffed, Sasha shook her head, trying for her racquet again. "Go ahead and change. It's my ass when coach finds outs anyway. I'll be down in a bit."

She skated over to her as the pair left the court. She led her to the bench, sitting her down carefully before she started for her clothes. Sasha screamed. "What?" Wally pulled off her skates instead as Sasha worked on her glove. Once she got it off she slammed it against the rink wall, her hand raw. Wally stared at it a moment and looked at her gloves hand again.

"What the fuck?" She mumbled, quickly retrieving the discarded glove. She smelled it, silencing Sasha as she tried to place it. She couldn't but it didn't smell of sweat, she pressed a finger to it, holding it there as she felt the rest of the glove. After she'd thoroughly searched it for any sort of leaves or packets she pulled her index finger away, bright red but not as raw as Sasha's.

She returned to her side as she pulled off the second glove, setting both to the side. "Okay Sasha, this is going to hurt very much but we need to get whatever is on your hands off, okay?" Sasha nodded and followed her to the locker room, biting back tears.

She screamed as the cool water touched her hands. Wally kept her hands under, whatever was on her hands needed to come off before it did more damage. Once she was satisfied she carefully dried them and went for the first aid kid hung on the wall. She retrieved some sort of antibiotic or other and rubbed it on her hands before she wrapped them up. She should've gotten Kayla but Sasha was already embarrassed to be crying in front of her and she didn't like Kayla anyway. It'd just make it worse.

"Go to bed okay? I'll take care of this." She mumbled, kissing her forehead, Sasha nodded and squeezed her eyes tight as she pushed open the door.

She held the massive goalie gloves in one hand and knocked on Coach's door with the other. Coming to her was ill advised at the best of times but someone had tried to fuck up Sasha, now a member of the Rings, in between afternoon and night practice.

Wally went through a list of suspects as shuffling came from behind the door. Coach opened it a few moments later, looked at the gloves in hand and frowned.

"Coach Hart, I am so sorry to bother you. But these gloves. It's- it's important." She places two fingers inside as she spoke, making sure that Coach saw it. She explained the situation and then took her fingers off. Coach looked at them unimpressed until the skin began to blister.

She nodded quietly and asked, "Any idea who did this?" Wally shook her head, letting the gloves hang loosely at her waist as she looked down the halls. "I wanted to ask your permission to investigate." "That's fine. But I want all my players in perfect shape for Monday's game. Injure any of them and we'll have issues, am I clear?" "Yes ma'am." Coach nodded and shut the door.

She went first to locker room, taking the identical pair set of goalie's gloves. Then she moved to the trio gathered in the common area watching tv.

"Have you guys ever seen how big goalie's gloves are? This shit is insane! Here! Try it on!" Each of them tried it on without hesitation and she marked them all off her mental list, moving onto the people she wanted to test least, the girls. They all didn't hesitate either. That cut out seven people right off the bat, seeing as she and Sasha also didn't do it.

She continued her search the next morning at practice.