Shredding Ice

chapter eleven

Sunny practically sprinted out of the car the moment his dad braked. He was later than he'd like to be, but at least the large crowds were already in the rink so he didn't have to wait in a long line.

He did have to drop twenty dollars at the entrance, but that wasn't bad considering the price he looked up online was closer to forty. Perhaps they lowered the price since the location changed.

Walter's rink wasn't meant for assigned seating, so he had to scan the crowd for any open seats. There weren't many but he eventually found one in the third row, right between a group of rowdy young men he assumed were from the college and a pair he couldn't tell was a couple or just friends.

Only one team was on the ice, and he was pretty sure it wasn't Harding's. They were wearing blue during their practice, but those jerseys weren't quite as nice as the ones this other team was wearing.

The crowd around him was buzzing. A few people were yelling out names to the team on the ice, cheering for people they knew. Sunny was waiting for Harding.

His back was completely pin straight as he tried to search over heads in front of him (that were already a foot below his own head thanks to the seats) for the other team to come out. He even rocked side to side, as if that would suddenly help him see people who weren't there yet.

It wasn't long before the announcer's voice came on. He didn't recognize it, and when he looked up to the sound booth, found that it was a young man in a stiff suit. His voice was a lot lower than one would guess by looking at him.

"And now, welcome onto the ice," he started, "your Baban Foxes!"

Everyone around Sunny instantly jumped to their feet. He was a moment behind all of them, just barely catching the moment the first player dressed in shining navy blue made his way onto the ice. They spilled out, circling their half of the rink.

A lot of them lifted hands and sticks, screaming with the crowd and getting them riled up. Harding was one of the last ones on the ice; he was easy to spot in all his extra gear.

"Harding!"

It was a weird moment when he called out his name. Because the guy he was sitting next to, the one with the girl(friend?), said it at the same time as he did.

"You know Harding? I'm Sunny. I'm his best friend. Who are you?" Sunny jut out his hand for a shake.

"You're... his best friend?" The man gave a glance to the girl, but she didn't seem to be paying attention. She was cheering for Harding too. "Sunny?"

"Yeah! Has he told you about me? What's your name? Maybe he told me about you too."

The man looked down at his hand and finally shook it. "Sylas. You're uhm..." He waved a finger around his own cheeks. "They're fitting. For your name."

Sunny grinned and felt the skin glue holding little plastic sunflowers to his cheeks tighten his skin. They were his favorite part of his competition costume; he liked to imagine he had real freckles that his eyes just couldn't see. Freckles were beautiful. "Thanks. I thought so. But it's actually because my competition music is this cool rendition of 'Walking on Sunshine,' for the short round."

Sylas looked back to the rink when the girl shouted Harding's name extra loud. He was skating by them slowly and even with his big helmet on, they could see his large smile. "Yeah, Champ!"

"Champ?" Sunny waved wildly at his friend, but he spoke to Sylas. "Is that because the team is really good or something? You know, Baban means winner, or victorious. I mean, I know the team is good because I watched Harding's games and I looked up the team's stats. They're supposed to be really good."