reconnect • charlie conway

street puck

we were at the field doing our stretches getting ready for the game later today.

"and hold. two, three, four." charlie instructed as we touched our toes.

guy complained, unable to touch his toes,"if coach isn't here, then why do we have to be?"

goldberg groaned,"i'm tired. who wants to start a mutiny?"

"goldberg, i'm too tired to mutiny." dwayne said as we lifted our heads up.

i rolled my eyes, feeling the need to fact check the goalie,"and mutiny's are for ships."

"come on guys," julie tried reasoning with the lazier members of our team,"it's not like we couldn't use the conditioning."

dean smirked, looking down at his toned body, "speak for yourself, babe."

i examined dean's body, nodding in agreement. though, i would never concur aloud, seeing as portman's ego is already big enough as is. he didn't need any more validation from the rest of us.

"her name is julie, not babe." adam argued, going to straighten out the disrespectful boy.

dean huffed, pushing adam,"don't tell me how to talk, rich boy!"

i looked at the scene with wide eyes, knowing dean could rip adam's head off,"dean, stop!"

"stay outta this, danica." dean advised me, still trying to grab adam.

everyone started yelling at each other, but i was just trying to keep the peace. fulton came to adam's defense immediately, a fact that surprised me. adam and dean continued to shove each other, so i got in between them and pushed adam backwards.

"hey team usa!" we heard a boy yell, causing us all to stop and stare as he continued,"what are you gonna do today? a million jumping jacks."

i recognized him as the kid who had been messing with jesse for a lot of our games. i wasn't sure why he had handpicked jesse to mess with, but i didn't think about it too much.

"man, i'm getting sick of you." jesse rolled his eyes.

the boy scoffed,"and i'm getting sick of team usa being represented by a bunch of babies!"

my mouth gaped open in offense, and i turned to adam with a shocked look. he gave me a simple shrug, staring at the boy with a grimace.

jesse decided he was done with the boy's insults,"yeah, too bad you can't back up that mouth!"

"man, me and my boys can take you anytime, anywhere." he replied, puffing his chest aggressively.

i gave him a confused look, crossing my arms over my chest to seem more intimidating,"i don't see any boys."

"i got them around back. why don't you grab your skates and play street puck?!" he offered, as security guard was trying to escort him away,"unless you forgot how to play real puck. come on it's not too far, you wimps!"

charlie turned to us once the boy was gone,"i think we know what we have to do.

i pursed my lips,"are you sure it's a good idea? we have a game soon."

"yeah," banks backed me up,"we need our energy."

charlie sighed,"come on, we can school those guys in a second. don't even worry about it."

i looked around at the group, who all seemed on board.

i groaned, giving in,"fine, yeah, let's go."

they cheered, happy for the opportunity to shut the loud-mouthed boy up.

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