Always There

Chapter 13

BEEEEEEEEEP!!!!

The bell echoed through the classrooms and hallways signaling the end to a continuous day of school. I walked out of my last class dragging my feet behind me. I opened my locker sluggishly and shoved my books inside. I grabbed my phone and hockey bag and slammed the door shut.

I made my way lazily toward the hockey locker room. On my way there, I was interrupted in my walk, by Jordan and Luke. They pulled me aside to wish me good luck. I thanked them and then they walked the opposite direction toward the entrance of the rink.

I came to the locker room and put my hand on the handle. I took a big deep breath and then opened the door and quietly entered. After the day I was having, I was so not ready for this.

The locker room was extremely quiet. You would have been able to hear a pin drop. I turned the corner to where the lockers were visible. None of my teammates were in here yet, so I took that to my advantage and walked over to the sink.

I grabbed a paper towel and put in under ice cold water. I waited until the entire towel was covered before I shut of the water and took the towel in my hand. I placed the icy towel on my face and pushed down. I could feel the droplets of water running down my face and neck.

This helped relax me, so I left it on for a couple minutes. Once I removed the towel, I took a dry one and wiped off the remaining water from my face. I went and sat on the bench and held my head in my hands. I took a couple deep breaths and mentally prepared myself for the game ahead.

My meditation, as some would call it, was interrupted by the rest of the team barging through the door. I stood from my sitting position and walked over to my locker to get dressed for the game tonight. I looked at the clock and realized that we had over an hour until the game and that the fans wouldn’t be allowed in for another 15 minutes.

I laced up my skates and went to find coach sitting in his office, going over plays. I cleared my throat to get his attention, and he snapped his head up to meet my eyes.

“Do you mind if I do a 15 minute warm up? I need to get my mind off of some stuff before the start of the game”

“That is fine, just don’t work yourself too hard”

“Thanks coach” I exited the office and headed for the tunnel that led to the ice. I could faintly hear some of the people lined up outside the doors, waiting to come inside. I turned my walking into slight running as I got closer to the ice. I jumped onto the ice and began to glide around.

The thing I loved the most about hockey, was the skating. When your skating, you feel like you can float, like anything is possible. Well at least, that is how I feel. I did some suicides to begin thinking about the burning sensation in my leg instead of the things happening in my life.

When the countdown came on the screen, to let the people outside the doors know that they could enter in a minute, I did one last round of suicides and then skated around a few more times at top speed. I exited the ice just as the swarm of people were let into the rink.

I walked back into the locker room and over to my locker. The rest of my team were pretty much fully dressed in their equipment. I put on my equipment and joined the girls in their conversation. We talked for a while and then coach game in and we all gathered round for his speech.

He gave us a very short but inspiring speech and then it was my turn. I gave a little speech before most of our games, but today was a playoff game, so I knew I had to make my speech special.

I stood up and took the place of coach in the center of the circle of girls. I cleared my throat and then I spoke.

“Today we have an amazing chance, that many other teams where not given. We need to go out there and make the best of it. We need to show everyone why we were given the opportunity and they weren’t. We need to show them what we are made of, and we need to prove ourselves to them. I know a lot of you have issues with some of the people at Northwood. I do too as well, but today we need to go out there and win and show them we are better than they think. Lets go out there and win this! Team on 3, 1...2...3 TEAM!!!”