Slapshot

Chapter 9: Her Shot

"I'm gonna teach you how to shoot." Jonathan says, climbing over the bench. I follow him. "I was gonna get Noah here to help me, but he couldn't come for lunch."

"Good thing he's not here, I wouldn't have been able to shoot on him for the life of me... I haven't even learned how to shoot yet." I say.

"Just an idea." Jonathan shrugs. He skates over to the net, where there's one puck waiting in front of the net for me.

"Okay. So you line up with the puck. You put your stick behind it, and then kind of flick your wrist when you hit the puck. It's called a wrist shot." He says, lining up with the puck and demonstrating just what he said. The puck goes in, top corner.

He goes to retrieve the puck, bringing it in front of me to shoot. "I'm nervous." I admit.

"Don't be. If you suck, you're just letting our whole team down. No pressure." He says, and I groan. That's a scary thought.

I do what Jonathan said, using my wrist to shoot the puck. It goes way over the net, but hey, at least it went somewhere.

"Not bad." He says, nodding slightly. He skates over to retrieve the puck. "Don't put so much force into it, aim to be right in the middle."

I try again, and again and again. I missed a lot, and I even hit the crossbar once (which I thought was a big accomplishment), but I also got the puck in a few times. It was a really rewarding feeling.

"I need you to aim your shots now," Jonathan says. He takes the stick from me, calls out, "bottom left," and shoots it. The puck goes in, the bottom left corner. He heads back to retrieve it, passing me the stick. "It's easy, just direct your stick where you want the puck to go. You're smart."

I take a deep breath, and as Jonathan calls out for me to shoot bottom right, I aim and shoot. The puck goes in, a little bit more left than I had wanted. We continue this for a while, and although I don't get every shot perfect, I'm proud of the ones I do get right.

Jonathan had then wanted me to practice a drill where I skated up a bit with the puck then shot. It was thankfully easier than I thought it would be.

When we're done this, we both skate over to the bench, and I get some water.

"Our game's in just over a week. Do you think I'll be okay?" I ask him.

"Yeah, I think so." He nods thoughtfully. "Obviously you're not gonna be perfect, but I don't expect you to be. But our team does need you." He says.

I smile. He was right. Everyone was counting on me. I could do this. "Okay." I say.

"Have you gotten a chance to watch any more hockey?" He asks, leaning up against the boards.

I give a sheepish look. "No. I've been so busy with school and councils that I haven't had much free time." I say, and Jonathan sighs, rolling his eyes.

"Watching hockey is your homework! It is important, so it should be a priority." He says.

"Okay." I chuckle. "It'll be a priority."

Jonathan scratches the back of his head, looking out onto the ice. "Are you busy Friday?" He asks me.

"What's Friday?"