This chapter is dedicated to anyone who reads this -- thank you so much, you have no idea what it means... I mean, if you also write and post your stories on Wattpad, then you probably *do* know how much this means to me... but, let me have my moment.
A/N:
OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!
This is what I woke up to:
(Ignore the image quality... I write on my computer, but I took the photos on my phone...)
I have no idea where these reads came from all of a sudden overnight, but I'm so thankful to anyone who's read this so far! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I have readers in the US and in Canada!!! The Canada ones are most likely all from my friend, but if there's anyone other than me and my friend who lives in Canada who's reading this... YAY!!! As for the USA ones... I NEVER EXPECTED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY READING MY STORY -- I'M OVER THE MOON WITH HAPPINESS.
(I usually don't use so many caps when I write or text, because it bothers me to no end, but this is an incredible exception. Sorry if it bothers anyone.)
Anyways, the point is, thank you to everyone who's reading my story, now or in the future. *Cries in her bed from happiness*
Other than that, let's get straight to the story. I was going to post this chapter yesterday, actually, but I'm kinda glad I waited.
Happy Reading!
Chapter 5
Laura/Nick
Fudge... cra... shoot! Why, why, why did I call Will "Willy boy"? And, I shouldn't be giving Will the cold shoulder. I saw that look of hurt flash through his eye when I brushed his hand away for helping me up off the ice. And, for some reason, hurting him hurt me. Now we're avoiding each other.
Right now, I'm walking with Will in awkward silence to the locker room. Our first practice is about to start. When we get to the locker room, I see a horde of a dozen or so boys standing there talking amongst each other. They are all about our age -- eighteen to twenty years old. Most of them have brown hair of different shades, but some of them are blonde. They all have a mix of shades of brown, blue, and green eyes. And, thankfully, they are all dressed. All of them are in black athletic pants and black sweaters with the Kensingburg Lions logo on the left side near their heart.
"So, am I late, or did you all get here early?", Will asks with a grin, putting his hands on his hips.
"Of course we got here early, Will.", one of them says.
"You're our captain now. We kinda wanted to surprise you.", another adds.
"Well, thanks, everyone.", Will smiles. He then gestures to me, "Everyone, this is Nick Thompson. Nick, this is our team. You'll get to know their names in a bit, but, for now, we have to get changed.".
My eyes widen as I realize what I need to do. Change. In front of these guys? No way. No way in hell.
"Uh... are there changing stalls here?", I ask nervously.
Will looks at me strangely, but then nods towards the lockers on the right. Beside them, there is an archway entrance.
"That leads to the changing stalls. The lights will turn on automatically as soon as you enter.", Will replies.
"Thanks.", I nod gratefully at him.
I go through the door and the lights turn on immediately. I go into one of the stalls and lock the door. Leaning against the door, I let out a heavy sigh. This is the first moment alone I've gotten all day. Slowly, I change out of my jeans and hoodie and into the black athletic pants and black sweater I was given. I redo the wrap around my chest to make sure that it won't get loose and come off, revealing my secret. Then, using my phone camera as a mirror, I check myself over, making sure I look like a boy, and not a girl.
Then, I walk out of the changing stall and into the main area of the locker room. This time, there is a woman in her late twenties also in there with Will and the rest of the team. The woman has light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She is tall and looks like she stands with a purpose. Everyone looks at me as I walk out.
"You must be Nicholas Thompson.", the woman says. "I'm the coach of the junior men's hockey team here at Kensingburg. My name is Brianna North.".
"Uh... yeah, I'm Nick.", I answer.
To be honest, I saw her briefly at the tryouts, but we didn't talk because, back then, I was trying out for the junior women's team, not the junior men's team. To her, I would have been Laura Thompson, not Nicholas Thompson.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Nick", Coach North smiles at me.
"You, too, Coach North.", I reply.
"Okay, so we're the junior men's hockey team of Kensingburg for this year. I hope we do well this year like we did last year.", Coach North begins.
"Of course, we'll do well. We're the Kensingburg Hockey team!", one of the boys on the team says. He then turns to me and continues, "I'm Archie Padmore. This is my second year here at Kensigburg.".
"Nice to meet you, Archie.", I smile. Finally, a name!
"Wait.", Coach North suddenly says. "You haven't introduced yourselves to Nick? Come on, guys, you can do better than that!".
"Well, uh, we kind of had to get changed.", Archie protests.
"Still!", Coach North shakes her head. "Everyone, introduce yourselves.".
And, so, we go through all the names. By the end of it, I have all the names, but not the faces. There are twenty skaters, including me, Will, and Archie. Then, there are also two goaltenders (goalies). I mentally make a list of all these names:
1. William "Will" Johnston, team captain, skater
2. Archie Padmore, skater
3. Kane Michaels, skater
4. Elijah "Eli" Kahler, skater
5. Andrew "Andy" Ziegler, skater
6. Eric Saunders, skater
7. Grayson "Gray" Vaughn, skater
8. Conner Robinson, skater
9. Shawn Olivier, skater
10. Benjamin "Ben" Lewis, skater
11. Noah Iverson, skater
12. Victor Harrison, skater
13. Mason Charles, skater
14. Derek Franklin, skater
15. Joshua "Josh" Butler, skater
16. Aiden Delaney, skater
17. Brayden Abbott, skater
18. Jake Evans, goaltender
19. Roy Graham, goaltender
Dang... that's a lot of names. Too many names. How is anyone expected to remember all these names? Okay, well, I guess, with some time, I'll know everyone on some level, but right now? Too much. Way too much.
After introductions, Coach North continues, "Now that we're all introduced, let's get on with practice. Everyone, put on your gear and come meet me on the ice.".
Everyone cheers and goes to grab their protectors and other gear. As it turns out, everyone has already picked out their lockers. There is one locker that's left and it's the one beside Will's. Lovely. I put my things in that locker and grab my protective gear. In terms of protection, in hockey, we wear shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey pants, shin guards, hockey gloves, and helmets. Of course, we also wear our team jersey and ice hockey skates and have our personal hockey sticks.
Right now, during practice, we wear practice jerseys. Our practice jerseys are just plain golden yellow. Our official Kensingburg Lions jerseys are a mix of golden yellow, orange, and white. A few minutes later, we're all gathered on the ice rink in the middle. We all have our practice jerseys, skates, hockey sticks, and helmets on along with all our other protective gear.
"Alright, everyone. We'll start with basic things.", Coach North announces. "Skate back and forth longways ten times.".
Wordlessly, we call go to one end of the rink. Then, we all skate across the ice to the other end. And, we do that ten times. That's 200 metres by ten. After that, we do some shooting exercises. We're separated into two groups, and play at the two goals. Jake Evans and Roy Graham, the goalies, practice their goaltending skills.
By the end of practice, we're all tired, and it's only about five in the afternoon. There are four timings for ice training. Morning training is 6 am to 9 am. Midday training is 10 am to 1 pm. Afternoon training is 2 pm to 5 pm. Evening training is 6 pm to 9 pm. There is a training schedule posted at all the ice rinks in the school.
The school has multiple ice rinks, not only the indoor and outdoor ones. There is the game ice rink, which is where all the games are held. Sometimes, there is training there. There is the back rink, which is at the back of the school and mainly just a rink with a fence around it, as I heard. Then, of course, there is the indoor rink that is attached to the Hockey Department building. The outdoor rink is behind the Hockey Department and is more public-presentable. All rinks have two sets of locker rooms: men's and women's. However, the game rink, instead, has the home team locker room and the guest team locker room.
Most of the time, practices are held in the indoor or outdoor rinks, so we use the four locker rooms that the two rinks have as the main locker rooms for the four Kensingburg teams. The outdoor rink locker rooms are also attached to the Hockey Department building, so they are pretty easy to get in and out of. It's just a short walk to the outdoor rink from there. This year, the junior teams have the locker rooms for the indoor rink, and the senior teams have the locker rooms for the outdoor rink.
After practice, we all change back into our regular clothes. I go to the changing stall and get dressed back into my blue jeans and black hoodie. I put my protective gear in my locker and decide to wash the athletic pants and sweater. It's what I was wearing under all my protective gear and jersey, so it's the sweatiest and most disgusting smelling. I'm probably going to have to wash those after every practice we have.
When we're all done changing, we go our separate ways. But, of course, me and Will are headed back to our dorm. Together. When we get to the courtyard from this morning, it's mainly deserted. There are a few people, but Callie Ellis and Tami Kay aren't here. Thankfully.
"So... what would you do if Callie and Tami were here?", I ask playfully. "Run from the scene again?".
"Of course.", Will answers naturally. "Callie is a sweet girl, but she's not for me. I like her, but definitely not romantically. She's just a friend. How about you?".
"Me?", I ask. "What do you mean?".
He grins devilishly in my direction -- which I find really handsome for some reason. "If Tami were here...".
I shudder. "No, thank you. Tami is-".
"-Overly flirtatious, indecent, and way too forward?", Will asks, copying my words from this morning.
"Do you disagree?", I return.
"Not a chance in hell.", Will shakes his head. "Tami is exactly that. I'm actually surprised that Callie has a friend like her.".
"Did Tami ever... try anything... with you?", I ask, genuinely curious.
"No... I think that Callie and Tami agreed that I'll be 'Callie's', so Tami is keeping her hands off me. Thank goodness for that. But, I do know that Tami did try to convince Archie to date her last year. I don't think they actually dated, though.", Will replies. "Archie, and everyone else on the hockey team, knows that Tami only wants two things: lots of fame and a good status. Apparently, both of those things are earned when you have a relation with someone on any of the school teams.".
"Some girls are really just so... disgusting.", I shake my head.
But, at the same time, I can't really say anything because, in some people's view, I'm around a bunch of guys day in and day out anyway. I don't have any ulterior motives with anyone, though.
Okay, that's not entirely true. Even though I've barely known Will for a day, I'm starting to... have... feelings... for him. Romantic ones. And, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm Will's roommate, his classmate, and his teammate. Worst of all, I'm a boy in his eyes. He'll never see me as anything more than a friend.
End of Chapter 5
So, this chapter feels like a filler now that I read it again. The next chapter has a time skip, just as a warning. Not a lot, but enough to make a difference.
I'd also like to say that the list of the members of the hockey team up there -- well, it says that there's 19 people, but it's actually 20 including "Nicholas Thompson".
This chapter was more of the team. You'll see them throughout the book. At first, I was thinking that I would have three or four teammates that Will and Nick would be close to, but I decided to scrap that idea.
Again, I know nothing about hockey (despite living in Canada), but I tried my best. I don't really play sports much either, so practice sessions are a whole new world for me (I didn't mean to quote Aladdin there).
Next chapter will be in Will's POV. Alternating POV's are my favourite to write because I get to see in different people's heads -- annnd, that makes me sound creepy. I think it's refreshing, too, to read from different characters' points of views. I hate writing in 3rd person POV, though. Don't know why, I just dislike it with a passion. I hear that people find 1st person harder to write though, but it's easier for me.
Thanks for reading!
P.S.: Sorry for the super long author's note at the top, I just didn't want to make a separate chapter for that.
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07/07/2021 - DD/MM/YYYY, although saying that isn't really necessary because both numbers are the same and it wouldn't matter either way. ;)
The date is not the date the story takes place on, it's the date I posted this on Wattpad.