Found Family [1] || G. Germaine

☆ PROLOGUE ☆

Hawks player; Willow Pearson, often goes unnoticed by her team. Willow's coach; Coach Reilly, didn't see her at her full potential; being the only girl on the team and all. He only saw a little girl who was eventually going to tire of trying to impress boys and quit the game. One could say he had a somewhat traditional view when it comes to women. Even though Coach Reilly wouldn't voice that directly, Willow could sense by the way he lets her know she wasn't exactly wanted on the team. He'll complement the team, but make sure to add emphasis on the boys. Sure when she scores a goal the players on the ice will gather and cheer, and sure Reilly will pat her on the back as she makes her way to the bench, but that's about the most anyone will do.

Over the years, Willow has gotten better on not letting it get to her. She's heard her fair share of poorly contained judgments about being a girl in sports; no less hockey, one of the more 'physical and manly sports'. Her grandfather actually said that to her face at her first ever game.

The team wasn't all bad all the time, though. She has her friend Adam Banks. They had been pretty close before Adam joined the Hawks, having grown up together as neighbors. Although, the second Willow joined the Hawks too, she started to notice that brutal practices wasn't the only reason she had been seeing less and less of Adam. Every so often, he blows her off for their other teammates; Adam claims it's because he 'can't say no'. Willow is more hurt by that than anything else really, but of course, she also knows that he just doesn't want to be the team reject like her.

Willow has talked to her parents about being on a different team, however, they had said there was nothing they could do without moving houses, and they had absolutely no intention of that. She still wished that she could, though; she imagined that if she had to switch teams, she would like to transfer to District 5. Yes, they were downright terrible, but she didn't really care. District 5 was the only other district that had a girl in her age bracket playing, and to be honest, Willow just really wanted another girl to play the game with. Mostly, though, she just wished she didn't have to play with the Hawks.

And, well, she got her wish.