LOVE TO HATE YOU | c. conway

twelve

"coach isn't here, why do we have to be?" julie asks, finishing her stretch.

fulton, still reaching for his toes, answers the question they'd all been thinking. "we have a game tonight, we have to workout!"

goldberg takes loud breaths, clearly winded just from warming up. "i say mutiny. who's with me?"

"goldberg, im too tired to mutiny." dwayne says.

andrea looks up, bombay's words running through her head. she was supposed to be good. "come on, guys, it's not like we couldn't use the conditioning." she says, mostly to herself.

"speak for yourself, babe!" dean says with a smile, motioning to himself. andrea knows he was only joking, but it doesn't sit well with her friends.

"her name is andrea, not babe." adam says, stepping towards dean.

charlie frowns at dean as he walks forward to meet adam.

"don't tell me how to talk, rich boy!" dean threatens, pointing a finger at adam.

"guys! stop it!" andrea demands, but it's no use. dean pushes adam, who lunges forward, charlie and fulton coming to his aid.

"portman, chill!" fulton yells, stepping in front of adam.

soon, everyone is pushing everyone, and andrea is frantically trying to calm them down, grabbing adam and charlie's shoulders. adam, not knowing it's her, shoves her hand off of him.

andrea hisses in pain, grabbing her wrist. he hadn't meant to hurt her, she knew that, but that didn't make her wrist feel any better.

an unfamiliar voice calls out to them, halting their fight. "yo, team USA, what are you gonna do today? a million jumping jacks?"

as andrea looks over, she sees the boy who's been heckling at them in almost every game, especially targeting jesse.

dean waves him off. "this kids crazier than me, forget about him." he turns back to continue the fight. "look, fulton!"

jesse pushes forward to talk to the boy who's been following him in an attempt to get under his skin. "hey, man, im getting sick of you!"

"and i'm getting sick of seeing the USA represented by a bunch of whining babies!" the boy retorted, skating forward on his roller blades.

jesse looked at him with disgust. "well too bad you can't back up that mouth!"

the boy laughed. "man, me and my boys can take you anytime, anywhere!"

jesse made a show of looking around. "i don't see no boys!"

"i got them waiting! grab your gear and let's go play some schoolyard puck! or maybe you forgot what it's like to play for real pride." he said, as a security guard seemed to realize the boy wasn't authorized to be on the field.

"come on, it's not too far, you little wimps. man what are you doing, get off of me!" he said, pulling his arm away from the security. "you coming or not?"

          Rollerblades tied tight on her feet, knee pads on and her stick in hand, andrea stood with her team, staring down the kid and his 'boys.'

"my little brother russ here has been telling me that you've been choking. big time." said the boy who stood at the front, seeming like some sort of group leader.

jesse leaned forward. "well, your brothers got a big mouth."

the boys across from them stared for a minute, some of her teammates beginning to worry, but thankfully, russ' older brother smiled. "he does, doesn't he? anyway, we thought we'd call you all out to see what you've got."

russ butted in. "yeah, we know you can talk to the press and sign autographs."

"we can do more than that." luis said, leaning on his stick.

"oh yeah?" said the brother. "well we can teach you how to play like the real team USA."

dean gave them a look, asking the question andrea was thinking. "what would you know about it?"

that's how the scrimmage begin, with trash cans laid on the ground as nets and skates replaced by roller blades. andrea sat out for the first part, opting to study her opposing team before she played. she watched as dean got pressed against the fence.

the puck was passed around, and with everyone in mismatched colors, it was hard to tell who had the puck. adam skated down with the puck, which was quickly stolen from him.

russ' team scored a goal, andrea calling for someone to switch off with her. she ignored the pain in her wrist, a grin on her face as the urge to prove herself kicked in.

"there ain't no whistles out here, either! you keep digging until you score that goal!" yelled russ' brother.

the sun beat down on her, sweat running down her face. andrea stole the puck, skating past russ. a hispanic boy, she didn't know his name, skated backwards in front of her. she passed it through his legs and picked it up again, hitting into the net.

the game was pretty evenly matched, both teams trading possession of the puck pretty often. as andrea scored again, she skated off to grab some water.

russ skated by her. "you take a few breaths, slug some water, and get out there and do it again!"

beside her, charlie drank his water, getting up off the bench and back into the game.

russ' brother got the puck, calling out to andrea, who faced him skating backwards on defence. "don't just stand there, come and get it!"

little did he know, she was waiting for luis, who was coming up behind him to swoop in and take the puck. "don't mind if i do!"

luis skated down, scoring and then promptly crashing into the fence, still unable to stop. the hispanic boy helped him up, but not before lightly teasing him. "hey, hey, hey! use the brakes, baby!"

andrea switched off with fulton, who took a shot and hit the side of the can. it ricocheted over the fence, hitting a car. andrea winced as the car alarm went off.

apparently, that happened all the time, and the owner of the car simply tossed the puck back to them.

the puck got to russ, who flipped the puck up onto his stick, and shot. andrea watched in amazement as the puck seemed to zigzag up and down, before landing dead centre of the net.

eventually, it was time for team USA to head off so they'd be back in time for their next game. they bid farewell to russ and his friends, boarding the bus that would take them back to the arena.

andrea waved goodbye as she stepped on the bus, having a feeling this wouldn't be the last time she would see those boys.

AUTHOR SPEAKS!

having a bit of writing block in
part three (i've got part two and
some of part three written, im just
publishing them a bit after i write
them so i have time to edit etc.)
cause charlie is a bitch in that one 🙄