I'm sitting on the sofa watching TV when the phone starts ringing. "Hello?"
"Hello, is this Delilah Bombay?"
"Speaking."
"I'm Officer Johnson. I'm afraid to inform you that your father - Gordon Bombay - was arrested for drink driving about an hour ago. He's gonna be held in one of our cells until his hearing tomorrow."
I sigh, "Okay thank you."
"Have nice night, sweetheart."
"Yeah, you too, Officer." I hang up the phone. What am I gonna do?
I think for a few minutes before deciding to ring one of my friends. "Hello?"
"Hello, who is this?"
"Mrs Germaine, its me Delilah."
"Oh, hello Delilah. Are you alright?"
"Um, I'm fine its just my d- Can I stay over tonight?"
"Of course honey, you know you can stay whenever. Do you want me to come pick you up?"
"Yes please."
"Okay honey, I'll be there in ten."
"Thank you."
"Guy, set up Delilah's bed!" , "See you in a minute."
"Bye Mrs Germaine." I hang up the the phone and head to my room to pack my bag for the night.
<^>
The next day...
"Circling around the net, Bombay sees an open opportunity." I narrate as the team and I mess around on the pond, waiting for our new coach. "She cuts across Goldberg, in between his legs. She shoots," I hit the puck into the net. "She scores!"
"And crowd goes wild!" Connie cheers.
"Yeah!" Guy cheers skating up to us.
"Thanks guys!" I smile at them.
"Oh Dee, are you staying with me tonight?" Connie asks.
The team know that me and my father don't get along and that I don't like staying home most nights, so after a few weeks of getting to know everyone they started offering me to stay at their house. Its become sort of routine for me to go to one of their houses at least once a week.
"Um, if its alright with your parents." I nod. "I don't know if my dad's out his holding cell, yet."
"Oh okay. And yeah my parents are cool with it." She smiles.
"Yo, you three wanna run some drills?" Terry Hall calls from across the pond.
"Sure!" We reply.
<^>
After a while of running drills, I look up from the ice to see the team smirking at me. "What?"
Before any of them could answer, I'm tackled to the ground in a group hug. I roll on my back and see Averman, Karp, Peter and Charlie smiling widely at me. "You douche bags!" I smile and we all laugh.
"Come on pee-brains lets practise!" Jesse Hall laughs.
"Who you calling pee-brain, Hall?" I shout to him.
"Pee-brains and Delilah." Jesse corrects.
"That's what I thought." I stand up and we do our small handshake.
Everyone gets back on their feet and get ready to start training when Guy's voice brings our attention else where, "Woah! Who's in the limo?"
We all huddle together, "I thought drug dealer day was Thursday?" I joke.
"You don't know what you're doing." Peter tries to warn us as we inch closer to the limousine. "We're gonna get in big trouble."
"Oh, put a sock in it, Peter!" I roll my eyes and shove him lightly.
"Y'all chill alright?" Jesse says. "I'll take care of it."
"They're drug runners, I just know it." Karp mutters.
A fairly tall, middle aged man steps out of the limo and stands in front of us, I can't get a good look at him as Guy and Averman are in my way.
"Yo dude, you obviously in the wrong hood." Jesse starts, looking the man up and down. "This is my dominion. This is a drug-free zone, you understand?"
"We ain't buyin' nothin'. I'm feelin' generous today. So I'm gonna let you get your sorry vanilla booty outta here before we be using your eyeballs as hockey pucks!" Jesse threatens with a smirk. We all chuckle under our breath.
"Thanks, bro." The man says sarcastically. "But I'm not going home 'til I take care of business."
The whole team starts moving back, away from the man. What's going on?
"He's got a gun." Peter mutters. What?!
Suddenly, everyone sighs and moves back forward. No gun? God I hate being small!
"District-5 Pee Wee Hockey Team. I'm Gordon Bombay. I'm the new coach." The man introduces. No way.
I felt my heart sink to my stomach. What the hell?
"Bombay?" Everyone kept muttering confused, some looking back at me as I kept my eyes fixed on my skates.
"Yes Bombay. By the looks on your faces, I'm guessing you've heard of me." Gordon says smugly.
"What a joke!" Karp exclaims. Everyone laughs and voices the complaints.
Me and Jesse scoff, "Yeah, right."
"Afraid so Dude. Got the roster right here." My dad opens a piece of paper and begins to read off it. "Averman, Dave. B-" His voice cracks. "Bombay, Delilah. Conway, Charlie. Hall, Terry."
"Geez, he is the coach." Guy whispers to me.
"Here's the long and short of it: I hate hockey and I don't like kids." My father states.
"Gee, thanks." I say sarcastically.
"What's that supposed to be, a pep talk?" Peter laughs.
"Look, I'm sure this'll be a real bonding experience. Maybe one day, one of you will even write a book about it in jail." He fake smiles, which I return.
"Funny." Peter says bluntly.
"Is there a goalie?" He asks.
"Um, only for a little while, I'm moving back to Philly." Goldberg speaks up.
"Thank you for sharing that." Bombay replies in a bored tone.
"No problem!"
"Alright, get out on the ice. Let me see what you can do." Bombay commands.
I roll my eyes. "Uh, just so you know. We really suck, except for Delilah." Averman informs.
"Hey! I'll decide who sucks around here." Gordon says confidently.
The puck is dropped and everyone starts fighting for it and ending up in a big pile on the ice, except me. I stand back and wait, as expected Charlie kicks the puck out to me, I pick up the puck and skate closer to the goal.
"You ready, Greggy?" I call the Goalie.
"Mummy." He whimpers as I swing my stick back and shoot, scoring us a goal.
Eventually everyone gets up and congratulates my goal before we play again.
A few minutes pass of everyone falling and Averman commentating, when I look up I see Connie talking to my dad, I skate closer so I can hear them.
"So are you really Delilah's dad?" I hear Connie ask.
"Unfortunately." Coach sighs. "So what's our record anyway?"
"1 and 9. But one was pretty close though, we only lost by five. Delilah almost scored a second goal too."
Everyone skates over to our new coach. "So what do we do now, coach?"
"What did your old coach have you do?" He asks.
"He just yelled a lot." I answer.
"Yeah, that's how he hurt his arm!" Terry laughs.
"His arm?" He asks.
"Yeah, one minute he's yelling at us: 'You little bastards! Where'd you learn how to play? You suck, you! Skate you little bast-" Peter grabs his chest and fake collapses.
"Heart attack. Great." Bombay rolls his eyes. "Alright, look. I gotta make a phone call."
"As always." I mutter.
"Keep scrimmaging. You, you, you, you and you. Against you five." Bombay instructs.
"Hey, we got names you know?" Goldberg states.
"I'm sure you do. And I bet they're very nice names. I might even learn 'em." He fake smiles. "For now, I'll be in my office."
Bombay opens the limo door, "Oh, and if you need me, fax me!" He laughs obnoxiously.
"Douche." I mutter.
"What a jerk!" Peter states.
"That's your dad?" Guy asks.
"I'm not proud of it." I respond. "Let's mess with him!" I smirk.
"Yeah!" Everyone cheers.
"On three!" Jesse starts. "One! Two! Three!"
We all jumped onto the limousine and started to shake it until Karp got the door open and we all clambered in.
I got in the front with Peter and the driver whilst everyone else squished in the back. My father was wailing about in the back and telling the kids to stop when Connie starts chanting: "We want a ride, hey!"
Everyone joins in as I slump down in my seat trying to get my head around this situation. One minute my dad's in a holding cell for drink driving and now he's a PeeWee hockey coach, more specifically District-5's coach, my team? What the hell happened in that court hearing? Since when was the punishment for drink driving becoming a coach? This is crazy! What does he know about hockey? I'll admit I did find some skates in the attic one time but that doesn't mean he's some hockey genius. Why'd this have to happen? The team already know he's been a lousy father to me, now they have to see it first hand? This is so unfair.
"Goldberg!" Everyone cries, breaking my train of thought.
"Open a window." Connie groans.
I look around and notice we are driving on the ice, but I also notice a figure standing in the middle of the ice tapping her foot impatiently and giving the car death glares. "Hey stop driving!" I shout.
"Oh, man it's my mom!" Charlie speaks up. "She looks pissed!" My dad shoves him to the ground.
"Crap!" I groan. Mrs Conway starts flailing her arms around like a crazy lady to stop the car and Louis - the driver- finally listens.
"Alright! Out." Casey demands, opening the door of the limo. "Everybody, out of the car right now!" She steps aside to let the team out of the limo and I lazily get out the front, whilst Peter is dragged out by Louis and held upside down for stealing candy.
When Gordon got out of the limo, Casey grabs a hold of his upper arm and yanks him to the side. "Are you out of your mind?!" Casey asks enraged. "What were you thinking putting that car on the ice? My son was in that car!"
"Lady, lady, relax." My dad says bored.
"One crack in the ice. That's all it would take. One crack!" Mrs Conway continues.
"The ice is not gonna crack!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I'm Gordon Bombay. The new hockey coach." He answers.
Mrs Conway's eyes, momentarily landing on me due to the last name and I give her a small nod before she continues, "The new coach? They send you over here to coach the team, and you endanger their lives!"
"What danger?" He asks. "I grew up on the ice, I know when its safe to drive on."
"How do you know?" She challenges.
"I just know alright?" He replies.
"Well, listen, Mr Zen Master," Casey fake smiles. "you may be in tune with the ice universe, but when it comes to my kid, 'I just know' doesn't cut it!" There's a pause. "Charlie let's go."
"Mom?"
"Well, I guess practice is over." Bombay states the obvious.
"Wow, Bombay, Sherlock Holmes should be jealous of your quick thinking!" I say sarcastically.
"Sorry my mom ruined it, guys." Charlie apologises.
"Its okay Char, just make sure I'm not banished from your house because of him, please." I motion towards my dad before smiling at the brunette boy.
"Sure thing, Dee." He returns the smile. "Coach, you gonna be at the game tomorrow?"
He scoffs, "By order of the state of Minnesota... yeah."
Charlie skates off and just before him and his mom start heading home, Casey turns around. "Oh and Gordon? A little suggestion, you see what I'm doing right now?" She motions to herself and Charlie. "This. This is called parenting, might want to try it out sometime."
Oh god...