Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (8 page)

“I didn’t think this was going to turn into autograph day,” Alex said.

“You guys are co-captains, and these guys are super great players,” Scottie said. “Of course everyone wants your autograph. Most of them want to be you in a couple years.”

“I ‘spose,” Alex said. “We sign stuff sometimes, but I’m still not used to it.”

“I think it’s cool,” Scottie said. “I hope I get to do it one day.”

Alex chuckled. “Who wants hot chocolate?” A chorus of “me” went up from the coaches.

“Okay then. Five it is. I’ll be right back.”

He walked away and teetered after a few steps. He grabbed the back of a chair to steady himself. I stepped up to his side and offered some support, which he shrugged off.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah.” The frustration wasn’t directed at me, but I hated hearing it.

“I’ll help you with the drinks.”

Alex sort of limped to the concession stand and I stayed at his side.

“Was that like the other ones?”

“No, it’s like it went to sleep all of a sudden.”

Alex sighed. “It makes no sense. This is the first flare up since I started seeing Kirk.”

“Maybe he should refer you to someone else?” We stared at each other as we waited in line. “I don’t know. It scares me to see you have to catch yourself.”

He nodded. “Me, too.” He took a moment to order the cocoa. “I have to see Kirk before the game tonight anyway, so I’ll let him know.”

I wondered if he got hurt in some way we weren’t aware of, but I couldn’t put my finger on anything specific that it could be. “Let’s go early to the game and talk to him together. Maybe we can think about the end of last season and what might have caused this.”

Walt, TJ, and Bryan arrived as we walked back to the group. Bryan and TJ were talking and smiling at each other. That was good. I’d seen Bryan at practice since we’d talked, but I didn’t know if he’d asked the question yet.

“Hey, guys,” Walt said. “Big day, first game. Awesome to see all of our coaches here, too.”

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Hillary said as I passed out the drinks.

“Yeah,” I said, putting my concern for Alex aside for the moment. “Luckily, we’re playing at home so we can be here. We didn’t want to miss this.”

“We should probably get changed,” Scottie said as more of our team came in. The group followed him back to the assigned locker room. It was great the guys took to him as their captain as quickly as they did.

We gave the guys fifteen minutes to get changed before Hillary, Alex, and I went back to talk to them.

“Okay, guys,” I said as we walked in. Everyone was already dressed, which was exactly what we told them we expected, especially since Hillary was coming in. “Everybody ready?”

A chorus of enthusiastic voices filled the room.

“Every practice has been better than the last,” I continued. “This is a real game, but you should use it to keep gelling as a team and working on your skills. It’d be great to pick up a W for this one, but don’t beat yourselves up if that doesn’t happen. Go out there, play the best game you can and have fun.”

“For this game,” Alex continued, “Simon, Hillary, and I are going to be behind the bench. It’ll be a lot of people, but trust me when I say that Simon and I know how to stay out of the way. Danny and Trent will be in the stands texting Hillary with anything they think you guys need to know.”

Hillary’s phone chirped and she checked it. “That’s Danny,” she said, “as if he needed to prove he was in position.” She chuckled, as did a few others. “The Zamboni’s wrapping up so we should hit the ice. Let’s go, guys.”

Everyone got what they needed and headed out. Again, Scottie showed he was good captain material as he was the last out and put the combination lock on the door to keep the team’s stuff secure while they played. There wasn’t far to go since the locker room was adjacent to the rink we were playing on. Our opponents, the Lions, were on the ice, taking the home side.

Alex and I flanked Hillary as we crossed the ice. Alex seemed to be moving fine now and I was thankful. We didn’t need any incidents here. As we got situated on the bench, I saw Danny and Trent high up in the bleachers with Coach Rapp. I also found Trevor and a few other people from the community center near them.

“All right, into the corners everyone, let’s get some shots on Scottie,” Hillary called out.

Everyone filtered into the corners and the warmups started. Each person was passed a puck as they skated over the blue line so they could come in and take a shot on Scottie. It was a simple drill but it got everyone moving. Scottie stopped all but two.

After a few minutes, Hillary called the team in as the refs were taking the ice.

“That looked good,” she said. You guys had good connection with the puck. Scottie did a solid job shutting it down. Crisp passes are key. We don’t want to give these guys anything to pick off. Scottie, anything to add?”

Scottie peeled off his helmet.

“Thank you all for doing this.” He was excited, but trying to retain his composure to address the team. “I’m psyched to be here, hopefully you all are, too. On three, let’s give a loud ‘Rainbow High’ and rock the rafters.” He put his hand into the center of the group and Hilary, Alex, and I reached in from the bench. “One, two, three…”

“RAINBOW HIGH!”

We were loud. It was awesome, reminding me of some of the loudest Falcons cheers we’d given. From the stands the cheer was echoed back to us. Several signs went up in the section in front of our bench.

Everyone lined up and the puck dropped on the first game of the season. We actually won the first face-off, which got the whole bench cheering. We got into the offensive zone before their defense caused a turn over and the game came back towards Scottie. The Lions’ center was quick on his feet. Walt was able to bolt back and help on D. The Lions got a strong shot off which Scottie gloved.

“Not a bad first shift,” Alex said. “Not bad at all.”

“Yeah. We’ve got life. Leg okay?” I asked quietly.

He looked down and shook it. “Yeah, it’s fine now. Weird.”

“Make sure you sit down if you need to, okay?”

He nodded, keeping his attention on the ice.

The game powered on with no one scoring until late in the second period when The Lions got one past Scottie. He’d stopped a dozen others, but that one tipped out of his glove and rolled over the line. We started the third by not only winning the face off, but with Walt driving down the ice and sending a powerful slap shot past the Lions’ goalie.

It wasn’t going to be a shutout! Alex, Hillary, and I exchanged high fives with each other.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a win either. With two minutes left, another puck went in our net. Scottie was screened by one of our wingers, who got out of position. Despite the team’s best efforts, which I was truly proud of, we couldn’t get it tied up before the final buzzer. We lost 2-1.

Rainbow High was buoyant as they returned to the bench after the handshakes. We got through the first game better than I suspect any of us thought we would.

We didn’t have many off days, but this was one of them. We won our exhibition game last night against Toronto, which was a blast. It was also a blast to start Sunday without an alarm clock. We still woke up a little after seven since it was nearly impossible for us to sleep late, but we lingered in bed until we had to get up so we wouldn’t be late. We were meeting Mimi at nine because she wanted to watch us skate before we met up with Hillary for brunch.

Her request baffled us since she’d seen us skate often, but, of course, we said yes. We met her, and four other people we didn’t know, at Yost’s player entrance.

“Yay! Hey guys.” Her usual energy was on full display despite it being early Sunday morning. She hugged us both and introduced us to her friends, one guy and three girls. As we walked in she elaborated on what we were doing.

“I’m working on my senior dance project,” she said, excitedly. “I think I want to do something based on hockey moves. The way you guys glide across the ice is so cool with the speed ups, slow downs, quick changes, always an intensity. I want to shoot video and take some stills to help me figure out what I might be able to do. That’s why I brought people, so we can fan out and take footage from a few different angles.”

“Cool,” I said. Alex and I’d been a fan of Mimi’s work since the first time we’d seen her perform. Getting to play a part in her creation process was exciting. “How do you want us? Just skates or in gear?”

We came to the rink in sweats since neither of us liked skating in jeans. We could easily dress in whatever she wanted.

“If you guys are okay with it,” she said, meekly while scrunching her face, “I’d love to get video of one of you getting checked into the boards.”

“Oh, okay, violence,” Alex said, with just a little bit of good-natured snark. “That’ll be interesting to see you turn that into a dance.”

“That won’t be all of it,” she said, throwing some snark right back. “But I do want video of everything to work with.”

“We should probably gear up if we’re going to be checking,” Alex said.

“I was thinking that, too. We’d never hear the end of it if one of us got hurt just messing around.”

“Thanks, guys. Do you think maybe you could do some in gear, and some just in the sweats? The sweats will let me see more of the body movements. But for the checking, definitely gear.”

“Sure,” Alex said. “Give us a few minutes to change.”

“Can we get out to the ice?” Mimi asked. “We can finish planning how we’ll shoot.”

“It should be open,” I said, “and if anyone asks, you’re here with us since we’re on the sheet for this morning.”

“Thanks!” She kissed me on the cheek and then Alex before taking off with her crew. “We’ll see you in a few.”

I flipped on the locker room lights as we headed for our lockers.

“Unreal,” I said. “We may help create a dance.”

“I would’ve never guessed anyone would want to see how I move to get ideas for choreography.”

“For either one of us, really. I mean I can hold a beat, but I’m nothing extraordinary. If we end up immortalized by her, it’ll be the best we’ll ever look on a dance floor.”

We dressed with our pads over our sweats. Not only would that allow us to get out of them quickly, but she’d see a little more of the movement in how the pads look.

“Sticks?” Alex asked.

“Might as well. If we don’t take them, she’ll probably want us to have them.”

We grabbed those, and helmets, and headed out to the ice. We joined Mimi and her foursome at the bench.

“Oh, I like that,” she said, pulling on my chest protector. “That’ll help the photos and video I think. So let’s get the so-called violence out of the way first. What’s the best way to capture a check?”

“Hmmm,” Alex said. “I don’t think I’ve ever tried to stage one before. Do you want mid-ice or against the boards?”

“Both please.” She looked like a kid making a Christmas wish. Alex and I traded good-humored looks.

“Mid-ice will be easy,” I said. “You play center, I’ll drive down, and you take me out. Even if it would be called as interference, it’ll probably look good. On the boards, what do you think? A grapple in the corner where we come in at high speed?”

Alex nodded. “That should work.”

“Let’s do mid-ice first,” Mimi said, her voice going into what could only be called director mode. “Where’s the altercation going to be?”

“Just above the circles in the offensive zone,” Alex said.

She nodded and started moving her people around to get coverage. She had one videographer on the blue line, one on the bench and the other back where the net would be. Her still photographer was going to be parallel to us, so for now she was against the boards on the bench side of the rink.

“Video guys, make sure to get their full bodies. Get as close as you can, but keep them fully in frame. I’d rather be too far away than too close. Same thing for stills.” She surveyed her positioning and then looked to us. “Ready when you are.”

We skated out to the middle of the ice. I leaned in and whispered to Alex. “
Do not
hurt yourself, okay? I’ll always be on the receiving end of the blows.”

Alex gave me a single nod and a smile. Doc Kirk had adjusted his treatment a bit before last night’s game after they’d discussed the afternoon flare up. He’d certainly seemed fine during the game even after the visit to what he called
Doc Kirk’s Torture Chamber.

The party at Alpha Epsilon was chill. To call it a party might have been an overstatement, it was more like a relaxed gathering. The vast majority of the team was there and we hung with each other and blended with the other partygoers as well. We knew tonight wasn’t one of the frat’s themed parties, which were usually epically loud. This was easy going and it was possible to have a conversation in most areas of the house. It was a great change of pace, especially since we’d come off the excitement of opening weekend with a game Friday night and another one this afternoon. We won both!

We hung out until nearly eleven when we decided to call it a night. It was a beautiful evening to walk across campus, made even better since we were with Trent and Julie.

“How’d it go at dinner?” I asked Trent as we walked back to the dorm. Since it was just the four of us, I figured it was safe to ask.

“Good, at least I think it was good. Yes?” He looked to Julie, eagerly.

“Yup. Daddy talked to you, a lot. That’s always a good sign. And you were great about not seeming nervous.”

“So you were nervous?”

“Terrified. Luckily I kept my jacket on since I sweated through my shirt pretty early on.”

Julie wrapped her arm around his as they walked. “You made a good impression.” She gave him a kiss.

“I’m glad it’s over. They were great, so it should be easier the next time they’re here.”

I enjoyed Trent like this. He’d never quite found the right girl. Julie might be it. It’d only been a few weeks since they’d met in his history class, but they really clicked. She certainly put him in front of the parents fast.