Toe Pick: Sophomore Year

5 Days

COLORADO SATE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT 
GAME 1

After being medically cleared the day after the car accident, Travis drove home to go to class on Monday before he and the hockey team went back to Denver for the State Tournament. Zoey was ecstatic that she would be out of the hospital in time to go watch the Tournament Finals that were three days away with her big sister and her friends.

Zoey had made an excellent recovery since she flat lined in the operating room after the car accident. She had almost fully regained complete movement in her injured left arm. The only real issue she would have do deal with after being discharged from Denver General Hospital was letting her broken ribs heal. But, she was set to be discharged in two days and would just have to wear a cast and brace around her chest until her ribs healed.

All of this passed through Travis's mind as he stepped off of the bus Pinewood had rented to make the trip from Aspen to Denver, the cold winter wind easily penetrating his thin suit jacket. He and the team followed coach David Miller through one of the team entrances set up at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver. Once the entire Pinewood team made it to the locker room, most of the players began changing into their pads as they prepared for their first game of the Tournament. As Travis slipped on his socks over his leg pads and pulled his padded shorts up to around his waist, he thought back on the amazing season Pinewood had had.

They finished undefeated with a record of 21-0 and were the first team to qualify for the 16 team state tournament. Travis has led the way as usual scoring 53 goals and racking up 47 assists for an even 100 points across the season. And, for the second year in a row, Pinewood had managed to beat their cross town rivals, Aspen High by a dominant score of 8-0. Brandon Halverson, the Hawks goalie, had started 19 games this year, winning all 19 with ease, grabbing 13 shutouts in the process. Brandon was a senior this year and had gotten his number 30 retired by Pinewood at the teams last home game. The teams freshman backup, Jordan Haskins, had started the other two games, of course winning them both, but mainly because of Travis and his line mates, Caleb Cozens and Trenton Frost. The next two years weren't going to be so easy for Pinewood and the team knew it, so this was their big, final push to win the school's first state title.

As Travis finished pulling on his 2020 tan, green, and gold Pinewood State Tournament Jersey, (All teams got specialty alternate tournament jerseys this year) , he heard a horn sound from the ice so, he laced up his skates and took his place at the front of the line of Pinewood players. An off ice official guided the team to the tunnel's exit onto the ice, gave a thumbs up, and the Pinewood team charged onto the ice.

As Travis and the Pinewood team began to warm up, he heard a player from the Colorado Springs Thrashers, whom they were playing say to his teammate, "Would you look at the ass on her!"
Travis turned and glared at the opposing player and muttered too him, "Come on, really, aren't you even going to take this game seriously. I'd like to beat a team that actually tries." Travis taunted the Colorado Springs player.
"Ha ha, very funny," the CS player mocked, "But just look at her," he gestured with his stick and when Travis saw who he was pointing at, his heart fell. There was Mya, walking to her seat a few rows up from the ice, holding Zoey's soda as she helped her little sister find her seat. Travis barely registered the fact that Zoey was out of the hospital early because of the anger building up inside of him.
"She'd be a hell of a lot cuter if she didn't have that weird, jumpy freak with her," the CS player continued.
Dylan Cozens has skated to Travis's side after hearing a bit of the conversation.
The CS player spoke again, "I could care less though, I'd still screw her!"
Travis started to make a move towards the CS player but Caleb threw his arm across Travis's chest.
"Don't do it man," Caleb said as he led Travis to the beach as the game was about to start. The first two periods of the game were a blur to Travis, who was boiling up with hate toward the cat calling Colorado Springs player.

The last straw came with about 10 minutes left in the third period. Pinewood was up 7-0 and they had all but guaranteed the win when the CS player skated past the Pinewood bench and muttered to his teammate, "Think I could get her into bed after the game?" and began laughing as he skated away.
The whole Pinewood beach heard the remark and most of the team, except for the freshmen, knew who he was talking about by now. Even the coaching staff knew.

"Put me in coach," Travis spoke up from the middle of the bench.

"Travis, you don't want to do any"- Coach Miller began but was cut off by Travis,
"Put...me... in!"

"Line one, go!" Coach Miller said as Travis and his line mates hopped over the bench and in too the ice. Colorado Springs was carrying the puck in the Pinewood zone when it was passed to the Cat calling player, who's name Travis has realized when looking at the roster after the first period was Cliff Calico. When Cliff scooped up the puck, Travis didn't hesitate and laid a dirty hit on him, launching his shoulder into his head. Cliff fell hard to the ice but was black up with his gloves off, ready to fight Travis. Travis flicked off his gloves and squared up with Cliff, ready to fight. Travis grabbed the back of Cliff's collar and began whaling on him. Travis landed punch after punch across Cliff's eyes, nose, and mouth. As the referee pulled the two apart. Travis saw the damage he had done. The Colorado Springs player's nose was clearly broken and his mouth was dripping blood. Travis glanced at his hand and noticed cuts on his knuckles. As the referee skated the two players to their benches as they had been ejected, (Unlike the NHL, fighting gets you ejected in High School Hockey) , Cliff turned to Travis and asked, "What was the hit for, what did I do?"

Travis spoke back calmly, with venom in his voice, "That girl you were cat calling, yeah, she my girlfriend."

Cliff's eyes went as wide as saucers.

Then, Travis dealt the final blow, "And that little girl you called a freak, has ADHD. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, she's my girlfriend's little sister."

Cliff went white as the referee ushered him off the ice. And, as Travis made his way to the locker room to wash the blood off his hands, he smirked at the the fear in Cliff's eyes as Travis thought ahead to tomorrow's games.

Authors Note:

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