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SIXTEEN the final countdown
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It was the day. The day that Octavia had been dreading. The day that her boyfriend and new friends played against each other and finally settled the stupid rivalry. The buildup had been intense and she was just happy that Lucas never said anything about it to Adam when he was over at their house— they were surprisingly civil about it.
After she had wished the junior varsity team luck for their game, Octavia took a seat in the stands in between her mother and Jenny. Her father sat on her mother's left side and Shelly (who was finally better) sat on the other side of Jenny. Their seats were two rows behind the glass that separated them from where the players sat on the benches. No words were spoken among the five, all of their eyes were busy watching the ice as varsity warmed up. Lucas took his second to wave up at them, his whole family returning the gesture.
On the other side of the ice, the Ducks wore their jerseys proud as they stepped on. The Martin family (including the son on the ice) watched as they skated in a circle while touching the ice. The four recognized it. When Hans was on one of his long talks about hockey, he brought up how touching the ice symbolized respect in Norwegian. Octavia grabbed her mother's hand and gave it a squeeze, to which Joanna returned.
After the Ducks did their cheer that had the whole arena joining in, the starting lines went to the face off. Octavia watched as her brother went and took his position at left wing, and Adam took the face off— which also happened to be where Rick was. And the second the puck hit the ice, varsity went hard. Rick just straight up discarded the puck and went right to knocking Adam onto the ground, making Octavia suck in a monster breath. She didn't realize her hand was gripping Jenny's wrist so hard she was almost cutting off the circulation until Jenny's calming hand rested on it, getting her to loosen her grip.
Barely a second in the game it was already taken into the Duck's zone and there was a shot on net— which Julie thankfully blocked. Varsity easily held possession of the puck for a while, but the Ducks were able to hold their own. Julie made saves and the defence didn't let anything get past. Even with Rick and his goons charging and boarding anything and anyone in sight, they were still going hard. Even when they would crowd the net (which is something that they always do if Octavia were to point out) the whole team would make sure the puck gets cleared.
Every time the puck almost went into Julie's net, Octavia and her mom would suck in a breath— actually Octavia would suck in a breath, Joanna would gasp so hard that her lungs had to hurt. A few times Connie and Julie came over to her house when Jenny and Shelly did and the five girls would hang out. Joanna grew fond of the two girls like she did when she first met Jenny and Shelly. And even though her son was on the varsity team, she didn't want Julie to feel bad for letting in any goal— everyone knows how fucking sweet she is.
