CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
❝ we ain’t come this far to lose ❞
•••
Sophie was hanging out in the lounge area for the US tournament members with Adam, Dwayne and Averman. They had a free schedule for a bit and they decided to see what the lounge had to offer them. So far, they had played foosball and air hockey and now they were hanging out on the couches. Sophie was hanging upside down while the three boys sat up right.
“In conclusion, The Karate Kid is the best movie ever made,” Averman said as he finished off his rant.
“Averman,” Sophie began as she looked at the boy on her right. “We all literally said we agree with you at the very beginning. You just ranted for twenty minutes when we said we agreed with you.”
“Wait really?” Averman asked as he looked over at the other two.
Dwayne and Adam nodded as they stared at the redhead. Before anyone else could speak again, Charlie came running up to the four. As he stopped in front of them, he bent over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath.
“Soph,” Charlie started before he took a couple more deep breaths. “Alright. Soph, we need to go do that thing we talked about.”
“Oh crap you’re right!” The girl exclaimed as she sat upright quickly. “Shit, shit, shit. Light headed.”
The boys laughed at her for a moment before she looked at them all with a glare. They quickly shut up as the girl stood up from the couch and said goodbye. Sophie followed Charlie out of the lounge as they made their way to the exit of the building. As they walked out of the door to the streets of Los Angeles, they almost walked straight into Dean, Fulton, and Kenny.
“Where are you two heading off to?” Fulton asked as he noticed them heading off in a rush.
“We’ve got team stuff to do,” Charlie answered as he looked at his watch. “We’ve got a meeting with someone in twenty minutes.”
Sophie nodded as he noticed the time on the boy’s watch. They could not be late as they weren’t sure how long the person they were meeting would stay where they were.
“Okay we’ll let you get where you need to be going. See you guys later,” Kenny said before fist bumping Sophie and walking towards the entrance of the building.
Sophie quickly pressed a kiss to Dean’s cheek and waved at her brother before her and Charlie rushed off down the street. They ran a couple blocks until they got to the court where they had played street puck with Russ and his friends. Upon arriving they noticed the guys in a game before Victor took notice of the two Team USA players.
“Guys look who it is!”
“Yeah, yeah it’s us don’t cream your pants,” Sophie joked as the guys rushed over to welcome them.
“To what do we own the pleasure of seeing you two?” Russ asked as he fist bumped Sophie.
“We’re here to recruit you for Team USA, Russ,” Sophie began before Charlie took over.
“With Banks out with an injury we have a spot on the roster open and we wanted to know if you would like to have it.”
Russ and his friends stood there in shock for a moment before his older brother began to cheer and pull Russ into a hug. The boys began to cheer for their friend and congratulate him as they jumped around. Charlie and Sophie watched with smiles as Russ could barely contain his excitement.
“When do I start?”
•••
Sophie and Charlie rushed into Coach Bombay’s office once they saw he wasn’t busy. They smiled at him as they began to rush out their words.
“Coach! We know with Banks out, we have a roster slot open,” Sophie began, looking over at Charlie to continue once Bombay motioned for them to continue.
“You know how I always told you I’d make a better coach than a player? Soph and I did some scouting for us,” Charlie said which caused Bombay to smile. “Come on in!”
Russ walked into the office with a smile as he stood in front of Bombay’s desk. Sophie leaned her arm on the boy’s shoulder as Charlie and her looked at their coach with pride.
“Russ Tyler, Coach Bombay,” Charlie introduced the two with a large grin.
Russ greeted the coach as Bombay chuckled under his breath. He was surprised that the pair had recruited someone who was unheard of at their level. He was even more surprised that Sophie recruited someone she called a douchebag.
“Russ Tyler, huh?” Bombay asked which got him a nod from the three teens. “Well, Russ. What can you do for the team?”
“You never heard of my knucklepuck?” Russ asked which got him a confused look from the coach.
Sophie, Russ, and Charlie shared an amused look knowing that the man was in for a treat. Bombay learned this when at Russ’ first game with Team USA. They were going against Russia with less than a minute and a half left in the third period.
Sophie and Russ were on the ice together and the boy was calling for the puck. He had a solid shot at the goal which the girl noticed. The other Team USA members on the ice kept the Russia players distracted as Sophie passed the puck to Russ. After lining up his shot, Russ whacked the puck and sent it straight into the net.
“Holy shit that gets better every time I see it!” Sophie laughed as her and Russ embraced each other.
“Thank god for you and Charlie for asking me to join the team. This is a dream come true,” Russ said as he looked around at the cheering stands.
“Hey, us talented people have to look out for each other,” Sophie laughed with a wink before making her way back to the bench when Bombay told her to switch out.
Sophie sat on the bench in between Dean and Fulton and took off her helmet with a happy sigh. She rested her head on her brother’s shoulder as she smiled gently.
“You’re amazing out there Phie,” Fulton smiled as he messed up his sister’s hair.
“Thank you Ful. I could say the same for you,” the girl smiled as she watched the last couple seconds of the game.
As the buzzer went off for the end of the game, Team USA stood up from their bench cheering. They had won, being up by two points. Adam was upset he didn’t get to play due to his wrist but he was still overjoyed that the team had won. As they made their way into the locker room, him and Sophie chatted about his wrist.
“They said it could take as little as two weeks but most likely longer. The doctor said it’d be a miracle for it to take such little time to heal after using it while it was sprained,” Adam sighed as he looked at his feet.
“Hey you’re going to heal and even if it’s not before the end of the tournament, at least you’ll still be able to play hockey. I’d rather you take care of it now then make it worse,” Sophie assured him as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “We can talk to Bombay about you being a kind of assistant coach while you’re out. It’d be fun since you’d get to boss us around.”
“Oh that sounds like fun,” Adam laughed as they finally made it back to the locker room.
The team had barely been able to take off their jerseys when Bombay announced they had a visitor. Wayne Gretzky walked in with a smile which caused Sophie to stop and stare. Her hockey idol was standing in the same room as her. Everyone began to freak out and greet him as they all rushed to shake his hand.
A photographer came into the locker room and had the team along with Bombay, Miss MacKay, Jan and Mr. Tibbles gather together with Wayne for a photo.
“This is so much better than school,” Sophie squealed as she held onto Kenny’s pinky.
ELYSIUM SPEAKS!!
i'm so sorry for being
inactive with updates
for this book!! i've had
major writer's block
without even realizing
it. i've been focusing on
my mcu harry potter
crossover, not realizing
that i've neglected my
other books. hopefully
this book should be
done soon so that i
can get to the d3. hope
you all have a great rest
of your week :)