Loving Astrid

14

Practice was 15 to over by the time Coach Brennan made his way into the arena, having had to drop his daughter Lily off at her grandmother's. He took a seat on the bleachers, his clipboard in hand as he evaluated the team.

Astrid skated forward with speed towards Nathan who was on the opposing team, angling her stick away from her body as she rounded him, stealing the puck and skating away.

Ekrem noticed the involuntary exchange, rushing after her for a handoff, with Elias racing him from the opposing side of the rink.

Astrid snuck a look behind her to see Ekrem approaching, getting ready to toss the puck to him. She zigzagged between Kian and Jonathan, successfully keeping a hold of the puck while glancing up briefly to see Elias skating towards her with full speed.

He shaved the ice while trying to slow down and simultaneously retrieve the puck, instead failing to do both. Astrid flicked the puck away from her in Ekrem's general direction, wincing beforehand at the anticipated collision with her captain.

Coach Brennan blew his whistle, calling a break as he stepped onto the ice, grimacing at the heap of players as a result of Astrid and Elias's clash. They had dragged down Kian and Jasper with them, Jasper having tailgated Elias, and Kian having been behind Astrid before she was rammed into.

The guys on the ice stifled their chuckles with forced coughs, not wanting to anger their Captain or the coach.

Astrid groaned from underneath Elias, "Please get off of me."

Elias rumbled above her, angrily cursing in Italian, "Jasper if you don't get off my ass right now I swear—"

Jasper hurriedly scrambled to his feet, his skates giving him difficulty.

Elias grunted, getting into push up stance from above Astrid, using his arms for support, before getting to his feet.

Coach Brennan gazed down at Astrid for a moment, watching as she remained lying down on the ice, "Koslova, get up now."

Astrid quickly nodded, "Yes," she replied, blinking a couple times to clear the white and black spaces in her vision.

He rolled his eyes at her uncoordinated reply, watching as the girl got up and onto her skates with good balance, proceeding to extend her hand to Kian to help get him on his feet too.

Coach clapped his hands, "Okay ladies. It's the 27th, which means we have our first game in 3 days, the 1st of spooky season," he continued.

The date reminded Astrid it was her birthday, September 27th. It wasn't something she advertised, simply because she didn't like celebrating aging. She didn't like birthdays; cake, cake cutting, being put on the spot, receiving presents, any of it. To each their own, her dad would always say in her defence.

She only accepted two presents for her birthday, one from each of her parents.

With the events in the past year, she refused to accept presents at all.

Upon the awkward silence from the team, Coach cleared his throat, "October. I meant October."

She smiled a little at what the coach said, "I like spooky season Coach."

Ekrem grinned knowingly, "Lily calls it spooky season doesn't she?"

Coach groaned, "Yes. Her cousins taught her that," he cleared his throat once more, in vain. "Right, so on the 1st we have our first game. Koslova, you've had one week to practice, and the rest of the team three, so I'm going to have you sit out the first game."

Astrid began protesting, but Coach held up a hand. "The next six games you'll be on, I just want you to observe the first one and get additional practice on ice."

She nodded reluctantly, her mood having dampened considerably.

Elias watched as Astrid's shoulders dropped slightly. She's clearly committed, that counts for something, he thought.

Astrid felt her body ache as she began trudging off the ice, slightly upset that she wouldn't be playing competitively on their first game of the season.

Regardless, she understood Coach's reasoning, so she decided to sulk in self pity instead of fighting back and remaining aggravated.

Thoughts of her mother filtered through her head as she began taking off her equipment. Removing the helmet, she sat down on the bench, undoing the half-assed bun she'd thrown her hair into that morning.

Having visited her mother the previous day, she felt lighter knowing what Dr. Mikhail had revealed to her. A small chance is still better than no chance. She glanced up at the rink, noticing Ekrem was the last to leave the ice.

Elias had already began making his way over to his bag which was coincidentally next to Astrids.

He watched she lifted her eyes, moving them around the arena, briefly landing on him before moving on. He observed her brown hair sticking to her skin and neck, slick with sweat from practice.

Catching her eyes once more, he glanced away abruptly, not wanting to get caught staring.

Astrid watched as he made his way past her, dropping down on the bench a few seats away with a heavy thud.

Ekrem noisily followed, having caught up behind Elias. He sat down on the other side of Astrid, rubbing his hand over the top of her hair, messing it up further.

Astrid simply groaned in response, "Ekrem," she exclaimed, dragging out his name. "My hair did not need your unnecessary gesture."

Ekrem scoffed playfully, "It was a gesture of love Koslo."

She side eyed him, "Koslo? What, people shorten last names too?"

Ekrem nodded, "It sounds cooler." He leaned forward to get a look at Elias, "Don't you agree?"

Elias thought about it for a second, "It has a ring to it for sure."

Astrid let out a laugh in response, "I'll call you Cab," she said to Ekrem. Turning to Elias she continues, "And you Mickey."

Elias immediately backtracked, "No Cabbar, Koslova sounds great. No need for a short form."

Ekrem grinned, shaking his head. "Traitor. And all because you don't like nicknames," he muttered.

Astrid looked up, "That's false. He lets me call him Eli, and that's a nickname."

Ekrem glanced at Elias confusedly, "Didn't your—"

He was cut off by a jerk of the head by Elias, "No. Don't call me Eli," he addressed Astrid. With that he got up, slinging his bag over his shoulder, walking away from the other two.

Concealing her surprise to his reaction, Astrid shrugged noncommittally to Ekrem, "I guess he was drunk."