chapter 1: The New Coach
"Come on, Sparky. Don't be ridiculous, put a jacket on!"
"Jackets slow me down, it's not even that cold out anyways." Said Caroline "Sparky" Conway. The 13 year old was known for many things. She was known for her hockey skills, being the best player on District Five, and her attitude. She had a quick attitude. The nickname came from her first ever coach who really had no care for anyone on the team but for her. Mainly because she was the best player. The nickname stuck with her and then everybody called her that.
"Spark! You'll freeze to death!" Yelled Connie and Sparky shrugged her shoulders. The tall brunettes cheeks were bright red as the wind blew past her, also making brunette strands of hair fall out of her ponytail.
"Death is better than these team." Sparky muttered beneath her breath. She shot a puck on goal. The puck almost hitter their goalie, Goldberg. Goldberg was afraid of the puck. He's a goalie, and as weird as it sounds he's afraid to get hit with the puck.
"Sparky! You almost hit me!"
"It's almost like it's supposed to hit you, Goldberg. It not like your the goalie or anything!"
"Goldberg, you're the goalie. It's supposed to hit you!" Her twin brother, Charlie said as Sparky hit another puck at him. Goldberg moved away in fear.
"Does that sound crazy to anyone else?" Goldberg asked and Sparky placed a hand on her hip and looked at him and shook her head.
"No, not really." Sparky said as the rest of their team skated over.
The District 5 team was the worst team in Pee-Wee hockey. Some of the kids on the team couldn't even skate. The only one that was serious on that team was Sparky Conway, who was constantly in the penalty box for her smart mouth. The only one who ever scores is Sparky. The only one who ever does much of anything is Sparky. The issue is that is the whole team is well, Sparky! That's not what she considers a team though.
Their old coach unfortunately died of a heart attack because of how bad District 5 was. He was so frustrated with the team, and when Sparky was put in the penalty box he just collapsed. The whole team thought his arm hurt or something.
"Okay, who's taking face offs this week?" Sparky asked and everyone stared at her blankly.
"Who's the only one that knows how to do face-offs?" Lester Aveman asked and everyone looked at Sparky. She sighed and nodded.
"Who wants to be on defense?" She asked and everyone raised their hands. They did that because it's the easiest position to play.
Sparky looked around. As she looked around she saw a limousine driving onto the ice. She pointed her finger at it and tilted her head to the side.
"What's this cake-eater doing here?" She asked making everyone turn their heads to the limousine on the ice. Cake-eater was a term used for rich people. Those certain Rich people lived in Edina.
"He's selling drugs." One of the boys, Jesse Hall said. Sparky looked at him with a smirk.
"You're gonna get in trouble." Karp said and Sparky skated over.
"We'll take care if it." Sparky said looking back at the rest of her team.
"They're drugs, I just know it." Karp said and then a man stepped out of the limo. He looked to be in his 30's. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and he was around average height for a man his age. He also looked rich. He didn't look like he should be around these kids, that was for sure. Sparky stopped and ice went everywhere. The man sighed and stared at the young girl. He wiped off flakes of ice shaking his head.
"Yo, dude. You obviously in the wrong hood. 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 bootie outta here." Jesse said trying to scare the older man. He only stayed put as Jesse tried to act cool. Sparky stood next to him as he talked trash.
"Thanks, bro, but I'm not goin' home til' I take care of business." The guy said then reached into his coat. Everyone started to step back as he reached inside his coat. Well everyone but Sparky. That kid had no fears, well other than spiders.
Instead of a gun he pulled out a piece of paper. Everyone sighed in relief as Sparky took off her helmet revealing her messy brown hair.
"District Five Pee Wee hockey team. I'm Gordon Bombay, your new hockey coach." He said and everyone started to laugh. Sparky smiled and looked at him.
"Yeah, right." She said sarcastically and he looked at the brunette who stood there with a smirk on her face.
"Afraid so, kid. Got the roster right here." He said and then started to read off a list of their names. "Averman, Dave. Conway, Charlie. Hall, Terry. Conway, Caroline." He listed off and Sparky tightened her ponytail and looked at her skates. "And you, where is your jacket?" He asked Sparky. The young girl looked up. She only had a long sleeved shirt on.
"I work better without a jacket, Coach." Sparky said and Gordon shook his head and then looked at the team.
"Here's the long and the short of it. I hate hockey and I don't like kids." Gordon said and Sparky furrowed her eyebrows.
"So then what are you here for?" Sparky asked confusedly.
"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." Gordon said ignoring her question. Sparky rolled her eyes and looked at him.
"That's a good one." She said sarcastically and Gordon looked at her. He only shook his head and looked around at the team.
"Is there a goalie?" Gordon asked and we all turned our head to Goldberg.
"Only for a little while. I'm movin' back to Philly." Goldberg shared and Gordon nodded his head.
"Thank you for sharing that." He said sarcastically. Goldberg obviously didn't catch that because he said no problem.
"All right, get out on the ice. Let me see what you can do." Gordon said and everybody started to get back out on the ices.
"Uh, just so you know. We really suck." Averman said and Sparky turned around to look at him.
"Only with that mindset we do, Averman!" Sparky exclaimed as she skated away. She looked back at Coach Bombay and raised her eyebrows. "He's not wrong!" Sparky exclaimed and Gordon sighed and looked down.
"Great." He muttered and then Sparky skated to the middle for the face off. She looked at Jesse and sighed. She knew she'd win, or she'd get tackled due to Jesse sucking at face offs.
Their teammate, Connie dropped the puck in between them. Jesse then tackled Sparky before she could get to it. She fell back and groaned. "That's not how you do it, Jesse!" She exclaimed pushing im him off. She got back up and saw her other teammates scrambling for the puck.
Sparky got up and skated towards the puck. She got it and started to skate down the ice while cradling it in her stick Meanwhile her friend and teammate Connie Moreau was pushing over Lester Averman as he made unfunny nicknames.
Sparky did a spin move and went to the goal. She scored in ease as her other teammates laid on the ice.
"What's that kid's name?" Gordon asked as Sparky started to celebrate.
"What one?" Connie asked and Gordon pointed at Sparky. As she started to talk again.
"The one that doesn't shut her mouth." Gordon said as Sparky skated around the ice.
"That's Sparky. She's our best player." Connie said as Sparky skated to the middle.
"I don't remember a Sparky on the roster." Gordon said looking at the piece of paper.
"Well her real name is Caroline, but we call her Sparky." Connie said and Gordon sighed and looked at the ice to see Sparky talking trash with Jesse.
"What's our record?" Gordon asked and Connie smiled.
"0 and 9. One was pretty close, though. We only lost by five. Sparky had a ton of points that game." Connie said and the rest of the team skated over.
"So, what do we do now...coach?" Jesse asked emphasizing coach.
"What did you old coach have you do?" Gordon asked and Sparky rolled her eyes at the sound of her old coach. He was a real asshole to her.
"He just yelled a lot." Charlie said and Charlie laughed.
"Yelled until his face got super red, he looked like a freakin tomato." Sparky joked making everyone laugh.
"That's how he hurt his arm." Peter said and Gordon raised his eyebrows
"His arm?" Gordon questioned the kids.
"Yeah, one minute he'd yelling at us, "Little bastards where'd you learn to play? Oh you suck! Sparky why can't you keep your mouth shut! Skate, you little bast-" Peter joked and then fell back and Sparky caught him. She laughed and looked up at Gordon.
"After that game he went gonzo." She said and Gordon sighed.
"Heart attack. Great." Gordon muttered and Sparky looked up.
"Couldn't hear that one, I'm hard of hearing." Sparky said and Gordon shook his head. All he wanted to do was block his ears.
"All right, look. I gotta make a phone call. Keep scrimmaging. You, you you, you and you against you five." Gordon said sectioning all the kids off. Into teams.
"We got names, you know?" Goldberg said and Gordon nodded his head.
"I'm sure you do. And I bet they're very nice names. I might even learn 'em." Gordon said sarcastically. Sparky rolled her eyes at his very original joke.
"That's a good one." She muttered and Gordon looked at her.
"What, Sparky? I couldn't hear that." He said and Sparky skated away. "I've never heard a kid run their mouth as much as that kid." Gordon said turning around. "Right now I'll be in my office. Oh, and if you need anything, fax me." Gordon joked and then got in his limousine.
"That's why we call her Sparky!" Karp said as if it wasn't obvious by now. Gordon got in the car shaking his head.
Once Gordon was in the car Sparky skated around her team. "Are we gonna let this cake-eater boss us around?" Sparky asked and everyone answered.
"No!" They exclaimed.
"So what are we going to do about this?" Peter asked and Sparky smiled and looked at them all with that trouble making look we had.
"Spark I don't like that look." Charlie said and Sparky crouched down.
"Charge the limo!" Sparky exclaimed and we all skated over to the limo. Sparky opened the door and sighed sitting next to coach.
"Hey, very nice office you have in here!" I exclaimed as the car shook with everyone shaking it.
"We're being invaded!" Gordon exclaimed and then looked up at the roof. "Get off the roof you little monkey!" He yelled up to Jesse and Sparky relaxed into her seat. She grabbed the phone and answered.
"That's racist, Coach." Sparky said covering heard covering her heart. She knew that's not what he meant, but she enjoys annoying him.
"You know what I meant!" Gordon exclaimed and Sparky took the phone from him.
"Hello. This is the amazing Sparky Conway speaking." She said into the phone and the lady on the other end sighed.
"Can you give the phone back to Mr. Bombay?" The lady on the phone asked and Sparky shook her head.
"I don't know, ma'am he's got a lot on his hands at the moment." Sparky said and then looked at Gordon. "He can give you a call later, ma'am." Sparky said then hung up the phone.
"We want a ride!" Connie started and I nodded my head.
"What do we want?" I asked turning around to see everyone as I kneeled in the seat.
"A ride!" Everybody yelled and I turned around.
"When do we want it?" I asked and everyone answered again.
"Now!" they yelled and we all started to chant "we want a ride!"
"I could kill one of 'em just to set an example, sir." The driver said and Sparky looked at him.
"Not yet, Lewis. Take 'em for a spin, anything!" Gordon begged and they all cheered in response. They drove on the ice and had the time of their lives.
Then that time became smelly. Literally. Goldberg had farted and everyone was disgusted. "Holy shit!" Sparky exclaimed plugging her nose.
"Watch you mouth, young woman!" Gordon exclaimed and then got the smell. He almost gagged as everyone yelled.
"Once you smell it you'd say the same!" Sparky exclaimed looking at Gordon. He sniffed and then smelled it, he looked disgusted.
"Goldberg!" Everyone exclaimed.
"It wasn't me!" He exclaimed and Charlie looked out the im window. He noticed a rather angry woman walking into the ice. The angry woman was his mother.
"Oh, man! It's my mom!" Charlie exclaimed and I looked at her. "She looks pissed." Charlie said and I looked at Coach Bombay shaking my head. Coach Bombay pushed Charlie and Sparky sighed shaking her head. There went their fun.
"Coach Bombay this is unbelievable! You're putting the lives of children in danger-" Sparky joked and he pushed her head down getting a relief of the silence out of the kid.
The team started to whine and complain as Mrs. Conway opened up the limo door. When the door opened she saw Sparky smiling and Charlie looking awkward. "Hey, mom." Sparky said as everyone got out of the car under Casey's command.
The woman grabbed Gordon by his jacket then had a conversation with him. The conversation ended with a very angry mother and two kids wanting to stay.
"Charlie, Sparky let's go." Casey said then turned around to glance at her daughter one more time. She noticed she didn't have a jacket on.
"Where's your jacket?"
"To be fair I told her to put one on." Gordon said and Casey looked at him with a head tilt and an angrier face.
"Well, I guess practice is over." Gordon said and Charlie turned to the team.
"Sorry my mom ruined it, guys." Charlie apologized and Sparky nodded her head. The team was forgiving and then Sparky turned to her coach.
"So, coach, gonna be at the game tomorrow?" Sparky asked and Gordon sighed nodding his head.
"By order of the state of Minnesota, yeah."
"I don't like the state of Minnesota's orders." Sparky said and Gordon looked at her.
"I don't like you either." Gordon said and Sparky smirked. She knew she was getting under his skin, and she'd keep doing it.
A/N:
So as everyone can see, Sparky is a very different girl. In the book she will be seen as the girl with a sparky attitude, or the best in District 5.
Yeah.
Anyway!
I hope everyone enjoyed chapter one!
-Florencepughismine