ice princess , fulton reed

sixteen

"You've never heard of my knuckle puck?" Russ asked with his nose upturned in surprise. "You didn't tell him about my knuckle puck?" he asked and looked at Charlie and Carson.

"Knuckle puck? No," Bombay asked as he shook his head.

"Um," Carson stuttered as she finally looked away from Russ to look at Bombay, "I'm gonna make him teach Fulton how to do it at some point. It's really good, Bombay."

✩

"Here! Pass it here!" Russ said and tapped his stick against the ice. Carson skated around the puck and dropped it off in front of Russ when she passed in front of him. She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up as she skated behind him and guarded an empty Russian player.

"Knuckle puck time!" Russ said and hit the side of the puck to prop it against his hockey stick. He took his shot and the puck bounced up and down in the air as it went towards the goal. Russia's starting players stopped and nodded along with the puck as it flew by. The puck bounced over the goalie and the crowd cheered when the point was added to the scoreboard. Carson cheered loudly and lightly hit the back of his helmet when she skated past him on her way to the box.

✩

"I told him no visitors, but he wanted to congratulate you anyway," Bombay said as Wayne Gretzky followed him into the locker room. The team gasped as they watched him walk in and Carson excitedly jumped up and down with a small squeal.

"That's Wayne Gretzky!" Jesse said as they loudly clapped and cheered. He cringed away from Carson when she elbowed her way past him to stand in between him and Wayne. He roughly pushed the side of her head and snickered into his hand when she stumbled away.

"You're Wayne Gretzky!" Carson grinned as she vigorously shook his hand after recovering from Jesse's shove.

"Guys, this is The Great One!" Charlie said while they crowded around him.

"Wayne's fine," Wayne said and smiled as he raised his hands before letting them drop to his sides.

"None of my friends at home are going to believe that I've met Wayne 'The Great One' Gretzky," Carson said and sighed.

"Good thing we're your only friends from home, Princess," Averman said and laughed loudly. Carson rolled her eyes and elbowed Averman in the side, smiling when he groaned and doubled over.

"Shut up, Averman, or I'll start pretending I don't know you at home," Carson said and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

"Say 'hockey'!" the photographer that followed Wayne and Bombay into the locker room said as he held up his camera for a picture. The team gathered tightly around Wayne and smiled brightly as the picture was snapped.

✩

"You think Captain Blood is back?" Carson asked as she adjusted the straps to her denim overall shorts and retucking the sides of her white short sleeve shirt into the overalls.