For Pucksakes

chapter six

Bradley Stevens

I flipped through the old photos on my phone on the car ride to the rink for practice.

Smiling faces with cap and gowns on, along with my best friend from back home. I never really did plan to keep up with her when I moved, she was in Canada for most of our senior year anyways visiting her boyfriend.

"What's that?" Connor glanced over at my phone, "Grad?"

I nodded, shutting off my phone. "Yeah, high schools not really something I want to look back on."

"Why? Everyone was scared of you?" Connor laughed, I smiled weakly. "You can say that."

We pulled into the parking lot of the arena, pulling into a staff only parking space and Connor put the truck in park. "I won't talk about high school if you won't."

I nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that."

Our night last night went overly well. Most of us got along, and I avoided Ayden's death stare for most of the night. He really did not like me. As for the other guys, they welcomed me pretty nicely and it was safe to say I felt a little more comfortable for practice today.

••••

"Alright team," Coach shouted over the sound of pucks being shot against the boards and glass. Everyone skated over towards where coach stood wearing an all-navy Bauer tracksuit, with an IceCapps logo on the left shoulder. We all took a knee around him and his whiteboard.

"We're gonna run some break-out and break-in drills, I assume most of you will want to be on the same line as last season but I am here to say that will not be possible."

Now, most of you have met some of our new additions; Alex Jefferson, defence. Samuel Jensen, defence. Oliver Petry, centre. And, our newest addition Bradley Stevens, who will be going to join our forward line-up as a left winger. Welcome boys, and Bradley."

Everyone tapped their sticks on the ice and gave the new boys and me a pat on the back. "Now I assume we won't let gender be a factor on discriminating our new player, seeing as I've scouted Bradley and her brother since Bantam; along with Coach Hodgins and Coach Kowalski. She can kick ass just as good as any of you boys; if not better."

An embarrassed smile came to my lips as most of them hooted and hollered in my favour.

"Alright, well, with that being said let's get into practice. We'll start first line, blue jerseys; Johnston, Grey and Jasper. Second line, white jerseys; Richie, Keatons and Stevens."

My head popped up, he put me on the second line? This dude must really believe in me.

He finished reading the lines and blew his whistle indicating that we were starting our first drill and we all stood up to get on the bench so we could run a full-ice regroup drill.

"Stevens, I'm your centre-man!" Connor came and pushed me jokingly, "Good to know I'll be stacking up on assist points this season."

I laughed, lining up beside him on the bench. A boy in a white jersey beside me looked over, "Mike."

"Nice to meet you Mike," I fist bumped him and we watched the first line complete their drill which meant it was our turn.

We lined up for a pretend face-off and shot the puck into our own end, proceeding with a break-out.

I got a pass along the left-wing and passed it up to Connor in the centre position. We spaced out while entering our offensive end and I lined up for a one-timer in the slot while Connor took it wide past our defenders.

He saw me open and passed the puck perfectly onto my stick where I lined up for a one-timer and scored on our goalie top-shelf.

••••

My smirk never left my face as practice folded to an end, and most of the players were pleasantly surprised by my efforts.

I headed to the girls only dressing room, which was used only by me for practices and some games. Which was pretty depressing considering the dressing room is where some team bonding takes place.

I undressed and grabbed my towel which was hanging up and headed to the shower in my makeshift dressing room; originally a ref's dressing room.

The water pressure was immaculate seeing that these faucets were not used very often and it was all to myself. I squirted some shampoo into my palm and scrubbed it into my hair, followed by some conditioner. Before stepping out of the shower and tying my hair into the towel, fully nude walking back to my stuff.

I put my sweatsuit on and dried my hair best as I could with the towel, tossing it into the laundry bin along with the sports bra I had worn on the ice.

I slipped on my shoes and walked out the door towards the boys dressing room, most of them had to have been done by now.

I knocked on the door four times, indicating it was me and a voice yelled, "We're good Brad!"

I pushed open the door to a very overwhelming odour of men's hockey equipment and sat down in my stall on the other side of the room.

We waited patiently for coach to come in and update us on how practice went in his eyes.

I looked across the room to see Ayden staring me down again, I mouthed 'what?'

Not a word came out of his mouth. Instead, his right hand raised and one finger went up towards me.

Asshole.

••••
A/N
I included a makeshift IceCapps logo that I created myself at the beginning of the chapter. So please check that out and let me know what you think.

I have come back to this story after some time and decided a new approach I am going to take to it which is why it has been soooooo long since my last updates back in May I think? So this is me officially saying I am rewriting all the chapters in my drafts and For Pucksakes will be continuously updated as much as I can update. Although I am a busy full-time university student I assume most of my readers will be understanding and respect some updates may take longer than others. But just know, I am very passionate about this book and I have decided to finish it as soon as I can. (And a sequel may be in the future.)

Please vote, comment, follow and share this book with your friends. It would mean the world to me.

Thank you! Happy reading. - K