P.O.V: Zach
"Look all I'm saying is that if that test is any harder than the review, I'm screwed." Gavin said
We were currently in between drills. We were doing some sort of station activity followed by God forbidden suicides becuase someone left their gear in the lockeroom last night.
"Maybe if you actually paid attention in class it wouldn't be so hard." I stated with a cocky smirk
Gavin and Mick just rolled their eyes at me waving there hands to brush me off.
They were complaining about the gov test, like really? Is the legislative branch that hard?
"Just because school is easy for you Zach doesn't mean it's easy for them" Hayden, our goalie stated.
"No, it's not that." I said with an eye roll, "it's because they sit on tinder all class with their radius set to the nearest college campus."
Hayden chuckled slightly. Before yelling...
"Wait you two are into that alfa pie omega star ship, zodiac, give us your first born blood shit?"
Mick and Gavin turned around sharply their faces red under their cages.
They opened their mouth to reply but were cut short by coach yelling.
"Alright, on the line!"
Fuck.
Suicides
Back and forth back and forth for the last 30 minutes of practice.
My chest was rising and falling as if I had asthma and my legs were shaking bad.
"Christ, my legs are shaking like I'm a girl having an orgasm." Chris said from down the line.
I smirked slightly.
"How would you know, you've never given a girl one." I replied with a sarcastic smile before staring the next round of suicides.
"Oh speak for yourself Knight." Chris shouted back.
Rolled my eyes.
"At least I can pull if I wanted to. You're DMs are drier than the desert." I replied back.
I few teammates chuckling.
Banter was always good when practice got boringly hard like this. Nothing was more boring and more hard then running 30 minutes of suicides.
Which is why I was grateful that the clock read 5 minutes and coach blew the whistle for us to huddle up.
I was facing coach, with my back to the bench leaning agaisnt the board for support. Seriously I think my legs were gonna give out.
Coach rambled on about something and a game coming up, but I didn't listen because my attention was pulled else where.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see someone sitting in the stands. I turned my head to find out who it was and I found myself surprised when I noticed the figure almost immediately.
Elbows rested on her knees and head rested in her hands she was watching us intently.
I took my eyes off her for just a moment to look at the clock on the wall.
Damn she was here early early.
I raised an eyebrow at it and looked at Mick who also had noticed her on the bleachers.
I had been slightly concerned for Hazel, so were some of the hockey boys. She had come into mini mite practice yesterday with her eyes slightly red.
She didn't hold more than a 4 word conversation and just sat in the office all practice texting frantically on her phone.
School today had been slightly different, but it also wasn't hard to tell that she was faking a lot of the smiles and laughs she was giving the boys at the table.
Truth was the boys in the short amount of time they had known her had grown overly attached to her. Like quickly, I'm pretty sure Hazel had all of their snap chats now.
I couldnt say I blamed them either. I had also grown to like Hazel a lot, she was funny and knew how to keep the room alive. Every time she laughed it was contagious. It was hard not to like her.
Mick nudged me slightly earning my attention only to notice that coach was looking directly at me.
I sheepishly smiled, my cheeks growing red.
"Sorry coach." I apologized some of the boys snickered like 12 year old girls.
"Focus Knight. Now boys..." he continued, but I didn't.
I watched as Hazel stood up from the bleachers and walked down towards the lobby.
I looked away from the bleachers back towards coach.
"Alright, Bearcats on three. 1, 2, 3!"
"Bearcats!" We all shouted before skating off the ice.
Mick looked at me, nodding almost telling me to skip the lockeroom. I nodded back. Stepping off the ice, instead of turning right towards the lockeroom I turned left towards the front desk.
Hazel was sitting there scrolling on the computer. Her brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, she was wearing a blue quarter zip and jeans.
I leaned against the front desk and looked at what she was doing on the computer.
She had the ice schedule pulled up for the next two weeks.
When she noticed my presence she looked at me and smiled lightly.
I smiled back, and I noticed my helmet was still on. I opened the cage on my helmet and took in off placing it on the table.
"Whats wrong?" I asked flat out asking.
I didn't really like to sugar coat anything. So I just flat out asked. I learned from my 4 years of high school girls aren't normally ones to flat out tell you how they feel (unless its about drama).
So I wasn't too surprised when Hazel just shrugged she leaned back in her chair and looked our the office window towards the ice, almost longingly.
"I'm just missing home." She stated with a sad smile before looking back at me.
I nodded my head. Being home sick made sense I think I would be home sick too, being away from Mick and the team.
"Makes sense. You got a lot of friends back home?" I asked noticing this was the first she had mentioned or talked about home outside of school.
She nodded her head, one could tell good memories were passing through her mind.
"I've got a large group of guy friends," she explained, her quick connection with the hockey team becoming understandable, "I just, they are doing things without me and its hard being far away."
She picked at her cuticles on her nails smiling softly. She still seemed timid talking about everything, about herself when it got personal.
"If you dont mind me asking, why did you move?" I asked. Hazel had gotten to the rink early and I didn't change so we had a decent amount of time to talk and it seemed like she needed someone to talk to.
She sighed and rubbed her temple with a hand.
"My mom thought I needed a change of scenery." She said it with sarcastic laughter behind her voice.
I saw the opportunity and I took it.
"And your dad?"
She inhaled slightly her jaw clenching.
"As far as I'm concerned I don't have one. He went to jail when I was little and before that he wasn't really around." She said avoiding eye contact like I would judge her. But I wouldnt, my mom was a lawyer for kids so Id heard my fair share of stories about kids with bad parents. It wasnt Hazels fault there was nothing she could do.
"Got it." Was all I said, not pressing any further though I felt like there was a lot more to unpack apart from her father that is.
She sat there still avoiding eye contact her hands becoming very interesting to her. I just watched her.
Her chest rose and fell slowly and she breathed she seemed hesitant and about something in her life past her father.
Her muscular build told me there was some sort of sport in her life but she wasn't ready to do anything or tell anyone about that yet. So I despretly searched for a new topic, my eyes landing on the computer.
"Why are you looking at the rink schedule?" I asked changing the subject.
And instently her mood seemed to change, she turned back to the computer and shrugged.
"Well I was checking to see when open skate times were, I figured if I'm going to be here a lot I might as well attempt skating at some point."
I half smirked, kind of excited to hear that. Hazel had no longer become an extra girl I had to teach, she became someone I wanted to teach, spend more time with, learn more about.
If I could be here to help her learn how to skate, hell ill be here.
She was like the ice burg theory, she said only so much on the surface but there was so much more behind her words.
"Well, if you want some help. Let me know." I said with a smile before turning away from the counter as some of the mini mites walked in.
leaving the decision up to her, if she did want my help... shed ask for it.
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