cool kids , fulton reed

fifteen

"where's coach bombay?" miss mackay asked, her expression melting into shock.

"i don't know. he promised he'd be here and he's not. but you need to pretend or we're out of the tournament," sloane answered while fighting the quiver settling in her lips.

"but i don't know anything about coaching," miss mackay nervously responded, the knot in her stomach growing at sloane's visible strain to remain collected.

"it doesn't matter, miss mackay. we'll help you out, okay? we go home if you don't and i don't want to go home just yet. please," sloane begged and dropped her forced expression as the quiver in her bottom lip and chin grew. she looked up as the referee stopped beside her and the calm mask returned to her face. she bit hard at the inside of her lip to stop the quivering as the referee stared at her expectantly.

"here's our coach, michele mackay," sloane told the referee and motioned toward her. she glanced at her teammates as the referee looked up at miss mackay.

"yeah," the team mumbled as they glanced at each other. "come on, coach mackay!"

"what are you waitin' for, ice to freeze? let's play!" miss mackay said as she stepped on the boards and gripped the top of the glass.

"let's go," the referee said, shrugging softly before skating away.

"thank you," sloane mouthed to miss mackay before skating toward the box. she tilted her head and smiled as her teammates cheered for her. she raised her hands for high-fives as she stepped into the box.

"nice, sloane," luis said, patting her lower back as she passed.

"couldn't make it without you," guy said and gently shook her shoulder.

"you'd all be a lot less cool if i wasn't here," sloane said while smiling slyly at her teammates.

"thumbs down," goldberg said, holding up a thumbs down while blowing a raspberry. sloane laughed and jokingly rolled her eyes before turning to watch miss mackay enter the box. she pushed her way toward her tutor and wrapped her arms around her shoulders to give her a hug.

"thank you for caring about us," sloane whispered as she pulled away.

"every group of kids needs an adult on their side," miss mackay replied with a wink.

✩

sloane slid into her left-wing position and rotated her hockey stick on her hand while she waited for the face-off. after the referee dropped the puck between germany's center and Jesse, the german center passed it to his teammate and pushed Jesse down. she skated down the ice, moving between players to follow the puck. she hit her brakes in front of one of germany's players to guard him as the player with the puck stopped to take his shot. she pitched forward and skated toward goldberg after he made the save.

she picked up the puck when goldberg tossed it out and sped down the middle with it, moving it from one side of her puck to the other. she sharply cut to her left to avoid germany's left-wing and widely arched through the ice to return to the middle. she watched and winced when one of germany's defensemen roughly hit guy in front of their box. she blew out a long breath and returned her attention back to moving down the ice. she gasped and ducked to her right to avoid the check from one of germany's players. she took a deep breath as her heart raced and continued to move toward germany's goal.