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Part Nine

Jonathan's POV

* Sunday Night* 

I pull into the UC parking lot at 6:00 pm. We're playing the Penguins tomorrow, and Coach Q wanted to work on our lines. I told him about Patrick this morning, but I left out the part about him being drunk. All that Coach Q knows is that Patrick was walking during the night and he got hit by a car. He said he would tell the team today before practice. I grab my bag from the back of the car and head inside the arena. It's one of my favorite places on earth and a place I can call home. I nod hello to Dave the security guard. "Gonna get a win tomorrow, Jonny?" he chuckles. "You betcha," I tell him. When I get to the locker room, it's bustling with noise. Everyone's there, except Patrick, his locker empty. Duncs slaps me on the back. "Hey buddy, how's it going? Where's Kaner?" I shrug, not wanting to break the news to him. He'll know soon enough. 

I put on all my equipment and head out onto the ice. When I step on, it seems like half my problems melt away. It's just me and the puck. I come back to the bench and wait to see what we'll practice today. I see Laura sitting on the bench, dry erase board in hand. She's working on lines with Q, so I skate over and say "Hey." She looks up, with an icy cold glare, says "Hi," and goes back to work on lines. I feel awkward as I slowly skate away from them. I drag Andrew over to the side and whisper, "Dude, you gotta help me. Laura hates me." "What did you do," he says. "Remember, crazy Lindsey?" I ask him. He nods vigorously. "Well she found me over the weekend and started making out with me and Laura saw and thought that I was cheating on her and now she hates me." I say spilling everything out. "Well what am I gonna do about it?" Andrew asks. "Can you just, uh, talk to her or something, just get her to understand that I really care about her and I wouldn't cheat on her. C'mon Shawzy, you know I'm not like that." "Yeah, yeah, fine. Just help me get some scoring chances if we're on the same line tomorrow."

Coach Q calls us all back over to the bench and starts laying out the plans. We're working on powerplays tonight, so we play scrimmages of 5 against 4. My line is me, Hossa, and Sharpie, with Keith and Seabs for defense. We're playing against Shaw and Smith with Oduya and Hammer as defense first, Crow guarding their net and Raanta guarding ours. Shaw skates up to the center line with me, and says, "Going down, Jonny Boy," as Q drops the puck. He manages to win the face off and Smith has the puck. He races down to our end and manages to get past Keith and Seabs, sniping one right into Raanta's padding. I grab the rebound and our team starts back. I pass to Sharpie and he passes up to Hossa. Smith checks him, but he manages to pass Keith the puck. I position myself in front of the net, ready to go top shelf on Crow. Keith passes me the puck and I don't hesitate as it touches my stick. I shot it right above Crow's right shoulder and it hits the crossbar with a satisfying "ping" before dropping into the net. "Woooooooooooo" I yell, cellying. I fist-bump all the guys on my team. "Nice work, guys." I look over to see if Laura noticed, but she's just talking with Q, pointing at notes on her board. I want her to notice me, to feel something. I skate back to the bench, and sit down next to Shaw. "Don't forget your promise," I say nudging him. "Don't worry Jonny, I got your back," he says, tapping me with his stick.

Coach Q's POV

I gather the team around the bench after practice. We really worked them hard tonight and I feel like we're ready to play against Pittsburgh tomorrow. It's going to be hard without Kaner to help us, but I felt a lot of energy tonight. I know the boys have been questioning where he is, so I have to drop the news to them. When they're all settled on the bench, I skate in front of it. "You may have noticed that Kaner was not here tonight. Well last night, he was out and someone hit him while he was crossing the street." There's a collective gasp and I hear more than one guy mutter "Shit." Bollig stands up, "Who hurt him? We'll find the bastard and take him down." The guys start standing up and rallying, ready to fight for the little brother of our team. "Sit down, sit down," I tell them. "We don't know who hit him, but he's in the hospital, recovering right now. We may not get him back until the playoffs, and even then I don't know if he'll be ok." I rub my head, knowing the stress is going to make me completely bald. "I want you all to go home and get a good rest tonight. Be safe and be ready for tomorrow's game. Good job tonight." Everyone heads back to the locker room, talking about Kane,  as I head back to my office. 

Andrew's POV

Jonny taps me on the shoulder. "Can you go talk to her now," he whines. "I'm not even changed yet!" "Please Andrew!" I look over at Laura's office, the door's open. I get up slowly and trudge over there. I don't know how pissed off she is, but she's pretty scary when she's mad. I knock on the door, "Can I talk to you." She smiles at me, "Sure Andrew! What's up?" I sit down in the chair in front of her desk. "Well, uh, you know," I try to stall. "Andrew, what do you need to tell me? Just say it, I'm sure we can fix whatever is wrong." "Well, Jonny told me about what you saw last night and I really think that he means what he was saying because he really does care about you and I know he wouldn't mess up like that and he really wants you to forgive him so please forgive him." I blurt everything out and then sit there, ready to run if she gets mad. The smile doesn't drop from her face, but I can tell it's forced now. "Look Andrew, could you tell Jonathan that maybe he should fix his own problems and not get other people to do it for him. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." I get up and head back to Jonathan, who's still sitting in his gear. "Did you talk to her," he says, his face hopeful. "Yeah man, you fucked up big time. Good luck solving this problem," I tell him as I start removing my gear. "She's still mad?" he says. "Ugh, fucking Lindsey ruined everything." "Well, good luck." I tell him as I head to the showers. "Thanks," he mutters, his head in his hands.

*Sorry for not uploading for so long! I'm working out a bunch of college stuff right now and senior year is just super stressful, so thanks for bearing with me. I'm on break right now so I'll try to upload more often. Chapter 10 is going to be going up today so stay tuned!*