Justin
We all listened to Mr. Paxton as he lectured us and walked around the class.
"Romeo and Juliet explains love will always find ways. You don't need to chase after something that will eventually come in your life. If it's true love and you deserve it then make sure you fight for it until the end."
Could this class and this professor get any cheesier? I can't even count the number of times I have already yawned and we have only just begun.
A knock came from the door, interrupting Mr. P from his lecture; it was Coach Bryce. He walked up to where Mr. P stood and spoke to him. We couldn't make out what he was saying since they were both whispering.
"Okay, class is dismissed for the day. All those in the hockey team, please follow Coach Bryce to the rink for practice, and the rest of you, free period and you may do as you please." Mr. Paxton announced and the whole class erupted in cheers.
I thank the Lord for giving hockey as it had never failed to save me.
I got up first and walked with Coach while the rest of the hockey team followed them behind.
We changed into our uniforms and grabbed our hockey gears before we all huddled around and waited for Coach to join us. He came in with Violet beside him, already dressed up in her hockey uniform. She had her hair tied up in a high ponytail and she didn't have her glasses on.
"Listen up you girlies. The game is in a few weeks and I want all of you to focus on this. Practice is every day after school and no one goes home until all your energy is drained out!" Coach screamed, his voice echoing throughout the boys' locker room.
"Ah, piece of cake. Those Knights got nothing against us. We always win." Jev shrugged and gave Ryan and fist bump.
"That doesn't mean we should keep our head high and be sure. We don't have Harrison this time so we can't be sure of ourselves."
"I'm here Coach. Plus there's Chaz, Ryan, and Justin, you've got nothing to worry—"
"Just shut up Mitchell. Everyone, get on the rink now and get warmed up. You all better be ready when I get out or everyone stays two hours more after practice."
The team rushed out of the locker room while I took my time and took quick glances back at Violet who was still talking to Coach Bryce.
"Do you want to sit down and see how they work around for a while or do you want to get started? You're new to this so I don't really want you getting hurt. I don't really wanna have parents suing me for physical abuse or something." I heard Coach Bryce say and laugh.
"Don't worry Coach, I got this. Plus, if I don't do this now then I won't ever learn therefore I'll end up being a worthless piece of crap just like Jev said." Violet replied.
"Forget him. Okay, he may be one of our best but I'm sure you've got your own skills. Now get out there and show those girls what you've got."
After hearing that, I ran out of the locker room so she wouldn't catch me and push me away again, just like she did before.
The puck I had went right into the net multiple times without sweat as I had Ryan warmup with me. Even without our best defender, I knew that our team could do it. I mean, he was just the defender.
Like Jev said, there was still, him, Ryan, Chaz and I. I mean, don't even get me started with my hockey skills, not that I'm bragging or anything.
After English Literature, most of the student body crowded the hockey arena. They were all interested to watch since Violet, the school nerd, the most hated person in this school. And the fact that she was the first and only girl, apparently, made it more interesting for them to watch.
"For once I actually feel sorry for that nerd. There's no way she'll be able to cope up with these guys. There's them...and there's her." I heard a girl say from behind but I decided to shrug it off and skated further away from her.
"Let's start with the game. I think that's enough practice for each of you. Justin, Ryan, Seth, Jake, and Violet, the first team. The rest of you are with Jev. Discuss your game plan and assign your positions. You have twenty seconds." Coach Bryce said and walked out of the rink.
Ryan, Seth, Jake, Violet and I went to one corner of the rink while Jev and his team went to the other side.
"Ryan, you'll be at the goal and make sure they don't get through you." I told Ryan.
"Me? They get through me? I'd like to see them even try." He smirked and sent the other team a death glare.
See, with that confidence, we can definitely win the final game.
"Seth, you'll be the center. Jake, just keep passing; passing confuses them which makes them lose their concentration on what they're doing till they don't know what's going on anymore."
"What are you gonna do?" Ryan asked.
"I'll stay with Violet. Since it's your first practice game, I'll be with you. The guys are pretty rough, especially Jev. He can get aggressive when he wants to. I just wanna make sure you'll be okay." I told her and gave her a sympathetic look.
"Aw, Justin Lover Boy Bieber! Who knew." Jake burst laughing and Ryan and Seth joined him.
I didn't bother returning the snarky comment and just skated away with Violet.
Coach came into the rink and kept his whistle between his lips. He made sure they were both equally pressured before he blew the whistle and the game was off. Seth shot the puck to Jake and Jake passed it to me. We were all scattered around now and it was already getting intense. Jev was coming right at me so I passed the puck to Vi. She looked taken back but she skated off with the puck to our goal
I gave her a confusing look considering our goal was on the other side of the rink. I managed to skate through Jev's team mates and reach her.
"What are you doing Webb? Are you crazy? It's the other way round!" I yelled at her.
"I know what's left and right you freak. Just trust me on this one. Go long." She said and went ahead to our goal. The boys from Jev's team were pushing her side by side
Go long? I think she's definitely lost it. With Jev's sidekicks, I don't think that was the perfect strategy.
"Justin, what in the world are you waiting for? Pass it." Violet called from where Jev's team was guarding the goal.
I hadn't realize the puck was already with me and I skated away with all my strength.
For once I was actually nervous, more nervous than the time I did the first show of the 'My World' tour. Jev had a satisfied smirk on his face while he stood a couple of inches away from me. I was surrounded by his team mates and so was she. I didn't know what to do but I had to trust her. We couldn't play this game without trust.
"Bieber, move it!" I heard Coach Bryce scream at me.
I checked the possible angles from my place and shot the puck right through all of the players legs. The other guys who were surrounding Vi were no longer there but instead it was just Jev beside her. Before the puck could reach her, she went ahead and Jev went right after her who wasn't far off behind. Once the puck touched her hockey stick, she swung it back before Jev pushed her to the ground, and the puck flew right into the goal. It passed through their keeper and Ryan, Seth and Jake all screamed in victory.
I looked at Violet who was still lying down on the ice. Jev got up with a shock expression on his face, just as everyone had a shock expression on their face. I pulled out my hand for her to take but she refused it and got up herself.
"Webb! Get over here. All you girlies huddle." Coach called and all of us gathered at the centre of the rink. "Now that's the kind of game I want on that day. Go for it from the very beginning and it should remain that way till the end. Show those Knights they've got nothing against you. Seth, Jake that was very smart of you both; keep doing what you're doing. Jev, that was brilliant but slow it down a little. We don't want us getting disqualified and let them win by default okay? Justin, what the hell was that?" he said.
"I'm sorry Coach. I—I didn't know if it was possible. There were too many people blocking—"
"That's not an excuse Bieber. The very first thing I taught you was to trust your team mates. Without that how do you expect yourself to cooperate and win?"
I looked away from my team mates who were all giving me disappointing looks.
"Watch yourself next time." Coach carried on speaking. "As of Violet...I don't know what to say. How could you—"
"I'm sorry Coach. It's one of the unexpected strategies. I know that strategy isn't something someone usually go for on the rink because it's too risky but it's the one thing I can really do and Justin really helped when he got through all of the—" Violet rambled but Coach cut her off.
"I just wanted to say I'm very impressed. You trusted your instincts and not everyone really does that, especially on the rink. You're right, it's too risky but you pulled it off. And that shot, before Jev took you down, was incredible."
"W-What?"
"Girls, I think we have more than good a defender this time." Coach smiled at Violet as praised her. "Go on." He said and walked away.
I expected everyone to congratulate Violet but instead, they all walked away as if she didn't do anything. I was about to approach her when Jev came up to me.
"Dude, there's no way that bitch is taking my spot here. And I don't think you want her to take yours either." He told me.
"What do you want me to do? She was pretty good and I can't deny that." I replied.
"Whatever. Just, just keep your game up okay? I don't want a girl taking over our territory."
I shrugged him off and skated back to my original position.
It was already getting late as the sun set reflected through the arena's windows but the place was packed like this was the actual game. After the first wing, more students crowded the place after they heard about Violet's stardom moment. Jev was getting more aggressive no doubt right after our little huddle. I trusted Vi right after I saw what she could do and from then on, our team was taking the lead, most of the shots scored by her.
It was a tie score now; it was the final game. All of the students stood around the edges of the rink watching us with their intense faces. Jake was at the center with Jev opposite him.
"This is it girls, make it count." Coach said and counted on three then blew his whistle.
Jev had the puck and skated towards our direction. Violet skated towards him and stole the puck. She passed it to me before she got tackled by Jev to the ice. It was a pretty hard push which made me worry but she gave me an assuring look that she was fine and told me to keep playing. I did so and skated right towards Jev's team.
Seth tackled a few of them and so did Jake so it was easier for me to pass. They stole it from me and tried to used Violet's tactic of going long but ended up in a complete fail when Violet herself came and stole it along the way.
She began skating towards Jev's guarded goal. I couldn't see him around until I spotted him on one side of the rink and two other people from his team were standing on the other side.
Shit! This isn't good. I knew this. I watched this tactic on a footage before I joined the team. It's one of the ways the team had always won. One tackles and the other shoots. As of for this one, his team mates were going to tackle her and Jev was going to shoot. I knew it was gonna be pretty tight because the two guys from Jev's team were really built and could crush little Violet in a matter of seconds.
I tried skating towards her to keep her from getting hurt but it was too late because Jev was already ahead.
"Violet, watch out!" I yelled since that was the only option I had left.
She looked back at me and immediately got pushed by the other guys. Jev went in right ahead, used Violet's tactic and shot the puck right through Ryan.
"And game!" Coach yelled. "Hit the showers."
Jev skated towards Violet who was still on the floor. I made sure I kept a good distance from them so it wouldn't like I was eavesdropping, more than I already was.
"That's how you play it bitch. You're in my area now so you better watch out." Jev smirked and left a hopeless Violet on the ice.
I skated towards her and tried to help her up but she refused and pushed me away.
"Keep your hands off me!" she yelled and slapped my hand off her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I thought I could—"
"Thought what?"
"They were coming to get you and I just I thought I could keep you away from them. I did say I would make sure you were going to be okay at the beginning of this game."
"Just stop okay? I don't need your help. Once or twice is more than enough but the third time is not always a charm. Just because you helped me yesterday doesn't mean I'm going to depend on you all the time now. You were always the one to pick on me so don't act like you're the good guy. You can't do everything just because you think you can." And with that she skated away and left me stunned yet once again.
I was the last one to leave the building as usual. Chaz and Ryan were by my side having their usual conversation when Zayn came and stopped us in our tracks.
"Yo Malik. How's it going?" Chaz greeted Zayn and gave him a handshake.
"It's going good Somers. Uh, Violet told me to give this to you." Zayn said and handed me my neatly fold v-neck shirt and my purple towel.
"Where is she?" I asked him.
"She's in the car with Vallerie. Look I gotta go. I just came here to give this. Bye."
Once Zayn drove off in his car and left the school, Ryan and Chaz quickly turned to me with smirks on their faces.
"Violet huh? Why does she have your shirt and your towel? Wait, you guys didn't—"Chaz spoke up until I smacked him at the back of his head, realizing what he had in mind.
"Dude, no! Urgh, I'd never do that." I defended myself, denying the malicious thought in their head.
"Sure you won't. Come to think of it, Webb's a good fuck but, she's just so plain and nerdy. She's out of my league." Ryan laughed and showed a disgusted look.
"Can you not talk about her that way? It was just raining yesterday and I saw her walking home. I couldn't leave her in the cold rain and let her get sick."
"Oh, someone's in love..." Chaz teased.
"No man. I just, I just wanted to look out for her that's all."
"You don't even like her."
"I know. I don't even know what I'm saying."
"You know, that's one of the symptoms of that awful disease. Love makes you say the most unexpected things about the most unexpected person." Chaz smirked.
"Ew, how do you know?" Ryan asked him.
"I have a girlfriend too you dumb shit. I know how it feels."
"I don't like Violet Webb okay?" I snapped making them shut their mouths.
"I don't blame you. We heard what she told you in the rink. That was pretty cold."
"You know what, I don't care anymore. If she doesn't want anything to do with me, then why should I waste my time on some slutty geek freak like her?"
That shut the two of them for good and we simply walked to my car in silence.
I don't even know what's going on with me. One minute I hated her, the next minute I cared about her then she pushes me away and makes me wanna pull my brains out.
I know I said I wanted to be there for her but I quote, 'Why should I waste my time on some slutty geek freak like her?' Cold, I know but if she doesn't want anything to do with me then so do I. And this time, I really I mean it.