maybe • adam banks

don't listen

we were standing in front of the rude boy's team, skates on, ready to play. i stood in front of adam and stared intensely at the guy who had called us babies.

the boy's older brother stood tall, starting to speak,"my little brother, russ, says you guys have been choking big time."

"yeah, well your brother's got a big mouth." jesse spat, causing all of us to look at him in surprise.

while we were confident we could play better than them, i was fairly certain they could beat any one of us up.

so we waited in anticipation, seeing what their next move would be.

mike gave us a hard stare, before laughing,"he does doesn't he?"

we let out a breath of relief, glad that they had decided to spare us.

"anyways, we thought we'd call you and see what you got." another one of the team members stated.

"yeah. we know you can sign autographs and get ready for pictures-"

"we can do more than that." luis cut him off, unhappy about the oversimplification of our skills.

"oh yeah?" mike asked,"well we can teach you how to play like the real team usa."

i knit my eyebrows, rolling up my sleeves,"and what makes you qualified to do that?"

he smiled,"i'll show you. why don't you start?"

i nodded and got into position, ready to see what they had to offer. connie was on my right, danny on my left.

we started and i immediately got the puck, skating to their makeshift trash can goal. i shot it in and smiled.

i turned to the boys jokingly,"thanks for showing me."

"no problem." they laughed.

we continued to play, and they actually did teach us some pretty good things. i was skeptical of their abilities at first, but they turned out to be kind of skilled.

if coach wasn't going to help us, these guys were definitely doing the trick.

charlie went to hit the puck in, but instead broke a cars windshield. i did a slow clap for him, not even surprised that he was the one to do it.

"ladies and gentlemen, our captain: charlie conway!" i exclaimed, while the members of our team cheered.

he flashed me an innocent smile, looking a little remorseful.

he saw a man walking by and decided to ask,"excuse me could you throw that back over, please?"

"alley oop." the guy said as he threw it back into the court.

charlie thanked him and they continued to play. i had done enough, so i took a seat, sending dwayne in.

i watched as Russ got the puck. he hit it, it soared through the air, did a little jump, went in.

i looked at him quizzically, wondering how he had managed that shot,"damn, what was that?"

he smiled at me, happy that someone had noticed his impressive shot,"that was my knuckle puck. hard to be accurate, but it drives goalies crazy."

"well," i started, watching as they grabbed the puck,"it's very cool."

"thank you." russ nodded and skated off.

ken got the puck, did a few of his turns and spins, and shot the puck in.

"you messed up now, kid," mike exclaimed, and i immediately felt scared for kenny, wondering what he had done to get in this mess,"come here, i'm gonna get you!"