cool kids , fulton reed

sixteen

"Coach, this is Russ Tyler. Russ, this is Coach Bombay," she introduced while leading Russ toward Bombay's desk.

"Hiya, Coach," Russ said with a wide smile. Bombay ducked his head as recognition washed over him before chucking and lifting his head.

"Russ Tyler, huh?" Bombay asked and propped his arms against the desk. "Well, Russ, what can you do for the team?"

"You never heard of my knuckle puck?" Russ asked in surprise.

"Knuckle puck? No," Bombay replied as he crossed his arms on his desk. Sloane, Charlie, and Russ shared a knowing look before dropping their gaze to their seated coach.

"It's good, Bombay, real good," Sloane said, smiling slightly as she nodded once.

✩

"Over here! Over here! Give me the puck! Over here!" Russ said as he tapped his stick against the ice. Sloane stole the puck from one of Russia's players and passed it across the ice to Russ. The player she stole the puck from quickly hit her from the side and she stumbled sideways as two of his teammates skated toward Russ.

"It's knuckle puck time!" Russ said, pushing the puck onto its side. Sloane regained her balance and straightened as Russ pulled back his stick to take his shot. Sloane smiled to herself as the two Russian players that were skating toward Russ stopped and nodded along to the puck as it flew past him. Sloane whistled loudly after the puck flew past the goalie and skated toward Russ as the score siren blared.

"Yeah! That's my stuff!" Russ yelled while lifting his stick over his head.

"Nice shot, kid," Sloane said and patted Russ's helmet as she passed him.

✩

"Miss Anderson, how do you feel about the fact that you and your teammates will be playing in the gold medal game," Guy asked and tilted his plastic water bottle toward her.

"It's a very exciting experience! My team and I, we're ready, we're hungry, and we're out for gold," Sloane answered with a smiled as she placed her hands on her hips.

"You'll be going up against team Iceland, who beat you in your last match up. How prepared do you feel that you are for this meeting?" Guy asked, extending the bottle toward her after asking his question.

"I think my team and I are much more prepared for this matchup against the Iceland team. We've reviewed a lot of their film and heavily discussing and practiced how we'd like to defend them. Yeah, I feel like we're much more prepared for this game than we were the last," Sloane said and smiled widely. She and Guy stared at each other for a moment before bursting into loud laughter.

"Guys, guys, come stand over here," Bombay said, waiting until they all gathered around him. "There's a special surprise that's been set up for you guys so I'm gonna need you guys to wait here for just a minute," he said and turned to leave the locker room.