(lol i made a pun with the chapter ! xD also i know that i switch between POV's a lot, but I like that and I think many others do too.. it helps give an insight on the two different characters and you're able to see their contrast just by the way they talk and everything. ALSO i know i haven't updated in forever ahh yikes im sorry okay now carry on reading :) )
Jonathan's POV
I watched the clock intensely, waiting all day. I could barely focus in any of my classes. This is just what hockey did to me.
When it was time, I texted the group chat to let them know to leave class. Instead of physically going to get everyone who wasn't in the group chat like I did last week, I had asked Coach beforehand to make an announcement to dismiss the hockey players from class.
I was the first one in the changeroom, and minutes later, everyone else started to file in. Since we only had two changerooms, the girls had to come into our room to save room for the other team.
Braden wouldn't meet my eye, and obviously I knew why. Things would most likely be awkward between us for awhile, but I didn't really care. I've never liked him anyway. His actions towards me yesterday helped prove my distaste for him.
"Hey." Tom said, bringing his stuff to come sit beside me. I was almost finished changing whereas everyone else was just starting. "Woah. Nasty bruise you've got there." he said, turning to my cheek in surprise.
I could see Braden from the corner of my eye just a few spots away from me, and I noticed his head snapping in my direction after Tom said that.
I shrugged in response. "It's nothing." I tell him.
"So you're good?" he asks to clarify.
"Yeah. One hundred percent." I say, which was the honest truth.
After I had finished talking to Tom, I plugged my earbuds into my phone and put the buds into my ears. I found it helpful to listen to pump-up music before games, especially when I was feeling like this.
As I was tying up my skates, I felt a presence beside me and looked up to see Taylor talking. She was finished dressing as well. "What?" I ask, annoyed as I took out my earbuds to listen.
"Big game ahead." she comments. I nod.
"At least I'm not as nervous as I was last game." she says.
"Cool." I simply say, tying my other skate.
"Can you quickly help me with something?" she asks.
Without looking up, I say, "Can you ask someone else, I'm busy."
I hear her sigh, and I look up just as I finish with my skates. "Are you gonna give me a pep talk? Any quick advice before the game?" she asks, eyes wide.
"Um..." I say, looking around at the changeroom. Everyone looked happy as they finished up with their equipment. "Not really." I say. She sighs, getting up and moving somewhere else.
I sigh, sitting back against the wall. "Jon? A little harsh, no?" Tom says from next to me.
"Not really." I simply say. I resumed my music and leant my head back, my head filled with endless jumbled thoughts.
What felt like 10 minutes later, Coach Jamie came in. Everyone was seated on the benches and immediately quieted down as he moved to the front to talk.
"You know what I expect from you guys, and I know that you expect the same. Play your best game and make yourselves proud." he starts. "That being said... let's not take anymore stupid penalties." he says, shooting a look at both Braden and Tom. "We also need to be more aggressive against the other teams. You guys are getting beat out because you're too soft on the puck." he says. He continues to go off on reminding us what to do and what not to do. I watch as everyone nods intently, everyone looking ready to play.
We finish off and head out onto the ice. It feels great to be back, it truly does. We warmup for about 10 minutes to get ourselves ready and to tighten up any loose ends. The 10 minutes pass by quickly, and before I know it the game's about to start.
Our line is up to do the starting face-off. Tom takes his spot in the middle, and Maria blows me a kiss from her spot on the left. I'm paired up with a huge kid I remember from last year.
Tom loses the face-off, so I follow my partner, number 48. He receives the pass from his centre man, and I'm quick to swipe it off him and move it up. I look to my left and see that nobody on my team is open for the pass. I continue bringing it up and over the blue line, ducking away from #48. I finally see Tom pass over the blue line, so I pass the puck to him, quickly moving to the side of the net. This is where I scored my best one-timers, and everyone on my team knew this.
But Tom couldn't get the puck to me, instead it was taken into possession by another player and moved down the rink. I sighed, racing back to try and catch the guy, but instead he slipped at centre ice. I was almost there, but #48 had already taken the puck, passing it up to another player. He shot it, but it was deflected off Gunner's skate and up over the glass.
I moved back into our zone for the face-off, passing by Noah and touching his helmet in a nice way. "Jon." he said, calling me back. "Watch out for forty-eight, he's trying to hit you." Noah says, and I nod.
Internally groaning, I took a look at #48 who was back on the bench. I was quick, he wouldn't be able to hit me. I'd get him first.
I took my spot back on the bench, sitting beside my line mates Maria and Tom as the second line went out on the ice. Maria laced her arm in mine as the play started. I realized we should've been more careful, but knowing what Coach did to Braden and Taylor... we could be separated at any time, too. Both Maria and I knew that, and I think the both of us also knew that we were allowed to get away with being a bit... more with each other. Just because of the possibility that we could be separated.
I watched as Kate made a good play in our own zone off a shot. She was good, but she definitely didn't get enough credit. She seemed like a good person, too. I should put in a better word to Coach.
As the puck is iced by the other team, my line is called back on for the offensive face-off. I take my spot on right wing, preparing for the puck to drop. It does, and although Tom wins it, it's taken back to our side. Maria and Tom both skate back, so I cautiously wait around the opposing blue line.
"Merritt." someone calls, and when I look around it's a guy standing next to me. I recognized him, I know it. He was on this team, the Royal Lions, last year.
"Dean, hey." I say to him. He skates closer to me, but my eyes are still on the puck being played in our zone.
"Congrats on the win last year, I never got to tell you." he mentions.
"Thanks." I say, giving a little smile. I remembered Dean as a player sort of like me. He was the captain, and he sure was smart. We knew each other for a few years just by playing against each other. Even though we were on opposite teams, relationships with guys like Dean assured the both of us that we wouldn't purposely inflict harm on each other.
"I've noticed the girls on your team. Is that allowed?" he asks.
"Yeah, we didn't have enough guys trying out." I frown.
"Sucks." he shakes his head. "My guys sure are distracted, so I guess that's an advantage for your team." he chuckles.
"Guess so." I give a small smile as Tom passes up the puck to me. My mind immediately shifts gears and I'm able to get around Dean. He's up blocking my left side, though, so I can't get a good angle. I bring the puck up and take a wide shot from about 15-feet out, which their goalie stops. I head back onto the bench with Tom and Maria.
Maria moves closer to me just as Coach comes over behind us. "You guys need to get us on the board early. We're slacking here." he says, kneeling over a few of us. Just as he said this, the other team got a shot, where Noah made a phenomenal stop to save the puck. I heard Coach sigh from behind me, so I motioned the current line off to make room for my line.
I was already planning the perfect play, so I called the defence over to inform them, then telling Maria and Tom. He took the face-off, which he thankfully won. The puck went back to Kate, who stalled with it for a bit. I slowly moved up, and by the time she had two of their forwards coming for her, she shot it up the side to me. I skated quickly with the puck, one defenseman coming back to help block. I saw Maria beside me, Tom skating quickly to catch up.
We passed over the blue line, and I was about to take a shot, but the defenseman was quick to lay on the ice to block me. Instead I made a quick pass to Maria on my side, who shot it up and over the goalie's pad. The horn sounded and the crowd jumped to their feet.
I grinned, skating over to Maria and giving her a big hug. She winked at me, pulling me closer into her arms.
Our line went to high five our bench, and then we took our seats as Taylor's line went on the ice. Their line came out hard, and, to be honest, I think everyone was pumped now with the fact that we just scored.
I watched as the puck was played around with a bit, and then suddenly it was back in their zone. The Royal Lions were weaker on the puck now, maybe they were discouraged that they had just given up a goal. I saw how the puck went back to Henry, one of our newer defence men, who lined up with the puck at the blue line and... scored! Wow, that's two goals in just under a minute.
I'm happily surprised as their line comes to give us all high fives on the bench. Even Coach is happy. There was only about 5 minutes left in the first, and it was definitely important to get two goals early in the game.
The next lines were on, and about 2 minutes later my line was back up. We were switched in the middle of play, and just as the puck was rolling, I ran to it and passed it up to Tom. Right as the puck left my stick I was slammed into a body, immediately falling to the floor on impact. I groaned as I tried to stand back up, noticing that big #48 skating away from me. Ugh. My butt had definitely received the hardest of the hit, so I went back to the bench to rest for a bit.
Braden hopped on with Maria and Tom, and as I watched I noticed the puck being taken right off his stick, and a scoring chance being generated for the Royal Lions. I felt a bit uneasy, but Noah made a glove save to stop the play.
I sighed as Braden skated back to the bench, giving a small smile to Taylor. Why was he still on our team? Why was he still being played by Coach Jamie if he keeps making stupid plays like this? I know I shouldn't call him out or he'll think I'm doing it on purpose... but he's seriously the one on our team who needs the most work and reinforcement.
I'm back on the ice a minute later, this time with our second line to give the first line a break. Once again, I'm hit, but this time I'm slammed into the boards.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I groan as I peel myself off. My bruised cheek had received most of the contact, which I knew was not good. It wasn't hurting as much as it should've been, but I knew it was from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Without that adrenaline, I'd surely be in much more pain.
This time I stay on, and I notice their team has sent #48 back out again. I make sure to stay close to him, I was going to hit him back, I had to. When the ref wasn't looking he gave me a little cross check, then I retaliated with a small push. He was passed the puck, and I took this as my opportunity to hit him, hard. He fell down to the ground and there was a lot of shouting coming from the Royal Lions' bench, but the fact that I fell down with him neutralized the penalty that otherwise would've been called.
I couldn't help the smug smile on my face as I returned to our bench. "You are so good at this stuff." Tom said to me with a laugh.
The buzzer rang to signal the end of the period, and as everyone headed to the change room, Coach stopped me to whisper something in my ear. "You better watch your back, Jon. You've been playing personally lately, and it's gonna get you in trouble."
"Personally?" I question.
"The hitting people back thing... just you hitting everyone and being more aggressive around those guys." he says. "I don't wanna tell you to stop, because it's working... but be prepared for the repercussions." he nods.
I sigh, he's right. "Okay. Thanks." I say, following the others into the change room. I take a seat on the bench, taking a gulp of water.
"Don't you think you should be setting better examples, being captain and all?" when I look up I noticed Braden's asking this question to me. The whole room goes silent as everyone waits for my response.
"Braden.." Taylor says quietly.
"What are you talking about?" I say, already getting annoyed. He was so irrelevant, oh my god.
"Your fighting. And hitting the other team. It's gonna get us penalties." he says. He probably thinks he's the shit. I really do hate him.
"Better examples... do you not remember that I'm the one who just set up our first goal, and you're the one who turned over a play, almost causing their first goal?" Usually I wouldn't be bragging like this, but I hate him, and I need to prove him wrong. I need to ruin his ego.
"Can you guys not do this here?" Taylor asks, looking at the both of us. I scoff at her. She's defending Braden, isn't she?
"Jonathan is right." Maria speaks up to Braden. "You keep your mouth shut." I'm conflicted whether or not to thank her or yell at her. Every little action towards Braden regarding me... I'm just scared he'll use it to our disadvantage.
"Yeah, I'm so scared of you." he says to her with a scoff.
"Start scoring goals and providing for our team. Otherwise you don't get to talk down about those doing better than you." Maria says. God, why does she keep going? I understand that she wants to defend me, but... not the right time.
But her words shut him up. Or maybe it was because right when she was finished, Coach walks into the room.
"Jon, have you already said anything?" he asks me. I shake my head, so he nods for me to speak. This was usually when I'd give my insight, provide some tips for everyone.
"Okay... well the fact that we scored two goals late in the first was really effective, it'll set them off. Good job, guys. But, as you've noticed, because of this they've been more aggressive towards us. Aggression, or having to resort to violence... it just shows that the other is winning. They're winning with their skills, and the other team can't compete with it, so they take another approach. Which is being aggressive, getting in fights... Wrongfully targeting and beating up someone else." I'm quiet, letting the words sink in. I was indirectly talking to Braden, at the same time insulting him. When I looked at Braden, he was looking back at me with a scowl. He knew I was talking about him. Good.
"You want me to take over?" Coach asks at my silence, but I shake my head.
"We can't let the bully win. We have to show that maybe being smarter or being better competitively will win against aggression and fighting. Because it will. Although it may not seem like it in the moment, it will. So we will take hits, but we will not be his punching bag. We will fight back, but not resort to his level. But we will push and we will win because of our intellects and skills, not because we're a dirty rotten team that has to resort to violence, the only thing he's good at." I finish, and as I look around everyone's reactions are different.
"Who's he?" Monroe asks me.
He? What? "Did I say 'he'? Oops, I meant the other team." I say, giving him the most artificial smile that I can.
I sit back down and Coach gives me a weird look as he makes his way into the middle. I was definitely talking about Braden, but I'm sure the same message could be said about the Royal Lions, too.
Coach begins talking, saying some of the same things I said, and adding his own ideas too. He liked how we played in the last five minutes of the first, and he wanted us to continue like that.
The buzzer rang soon after and it was time for us to go back onto the ice. Nothing too eventful happened in the beginning other than with Maria...
Early in the second she deked a forward, then defence man, then took a shot, but it was saved by their goalie. As she was skating back, a big guy on their team said "Watch out for that chick. Make sure you're always on her." Maria whipped around immediately. Maybe she heard them wrong, I don't know, but she skated right up to the guy.
"What did you say, tough guy?" she asks him.
"Woah, woah." he starts, but before he's finished she's already shrugged her glove off and punched him.
"Hey, hey." I say, skating up to her fast and pulling her away. The other guy pushes her back, but someone on their team goes to stop him too. Maria's trying to wiggle out of my arms, she wants to hit him again, but by now the refs have arrived to stop it.
"What was that for?" he asks Maria.
"He said something about me!" Maria exclaims.
"I said nothing wrong..." the other guy shakes his head.
"Come on. No more of that." the ref says, bringing her to the penalty box. When I get back to the bench everyone's smiling for her, and even the crowd's clapping and cheering for her.
"Another bad penalty, Jon." Coach says to me.
"She's a fighter." I grin, shaking my head in disbelief.
We kill off the penalty, thankfully, because I definitely wouldn't know what to think if the other team had scored on Maria's penalty. She comes back to the bench when her time's up, and she looks sad, confused.
I pat her on the shoulder, giving her a big smile. "You sure know how to give a guy a punch." I say to her.
"He pissed me off," she shrugs, making me laugh.
"Y'know their team's gonna be coming for us, right?" I tell her, referring to me and her. We were the only two on our team who've fought back.
"So what? We are good fighters." she smiles.
During the second period, we get another goal. It's off the stick of Nick, but tipped in by their defence man.
As well during the second period, they came out hard. I got knocked down two more times, and Maria was also hit more. Even Taylor got shoved to the ground. The good thing to come out of all of this was that Noah barely faced any shots this period.
We all walk into our changeroom at the end of the period. Our spirits are noticeably down because of the hitting, even though we're winning 3-0.
"Are you okay?" Taylor asks as she passes by me. Don't forget, I tell myself.
"What?" I say.
"You got pushed a lot, are you okay?" she asks, concern laced in her voice.
"Yeah." I say, looking down, and she walks away. Ugh. I hated being such an ass towards her, but I couldn't let myself get to her. I couldn't let her get in my head again, or else I'd do something stupid like call her "cute" again.
"Just keep pushing, guys." Coach shakes his head as he walks in. "I know they're rough, and it's stupid, yes. But you can't give in. Your best revenge is winning." he says, and I nod in agreement.
Everyone's for the most part silent, and I hate it. We were acting like we were losing, not winning. Everyone needed to get their hopes up, everyone needed to get pumped up.
We were back out for the third, and before I could get on the ice, Coach put his hand on my shoulder. "Your cheek. Is that from today?" he asks.
"No." I say.
"What's it from?" he asks, looking a mix between confused and worried.
I don't say anything. Coach sighs, "You're not gonna tell me?" he says, eyebrow raised.
I shake my head. He sighs again. "Okay, fine. Go out." he says, nodding to the ice. I walk off and onto the rink and take my place at centre ice. No way was I ratting out Braden. Not yet, that was for sure. He'd just get me back by mentioning Maria.
#48 did some more shoving against me at the centre face-off, but I wouldn't egg him on. I did not want to fight a big guy like him, that was for sure. So I let him hit me as Tom won back the puck and I got open.
I knew he was trying to start something because of how he kept going. He was chirping at me and shoved me lightly, but I just replied by having been passed the puck and skating around him. That left him speechless.
Later on the ice I'm matched up with Dean again. "You guys have a good team." he tells me.
I shake my head. "Not as good as last year."
"Still playoff worthy." he notes.
"We practice hard." I say.
"Yeah, I can see it." he gives me a smile, and I'm left wondering how a guy like him, whose team is currently getting beat, can still act so kind to his opponent.
I'm back on the bench watching the game, and there's only about 10 minutes left. Coach sends out the Taylor, Gabe, Andrew line, and I begin to notice they haven't had much time on the ice tonight. Taylor hadn't made any notable mistakes, which was good. She was learning, which made me proud, and she was getting better.
I started to feel funny as I thought about my attitude towards her. Almost as if I could sense something was about to happen, but I didn't know it yet. It was troubling, and my head was spinning, and it felt weird to not know why.
But once again, I hadn't been focused on the game, so I turned my attention back towards it. And this is when I felt that crazy feeling again. Almost as if now, everything was going in slow motion. I watched as Taylor was stood in front of our bench, and how Lucas had the puck behind the net. He saw her too, and so he passed the puck up to her. Nobody was on her right away, but she started to skate fast, gaining momentum. I assumed she was skating fast, but like I said, it was all happening so slowly.
We had practiced this same drill once at practice together, where she skates up the wing fast and takes a shot. But we'd never practiced it with someone defending against her. I might've skated up against her once, but this guy was applying pressure, actually trying.
Anyways, once she was close enough, she shot the puck. It was a slapshot, and it was hard (top right corner), but their goalie stopped it. I wasn't watching the goalie, though. I was watching her. And I watched as their player slid his stick under her and she lost her balance right before the boards. Instead of being able to stop herself, she was now on the floor, sliding. Maybe I had imagined the pop when she hit the board, but I knew it was something. We could all tell it was something.
Right as she made contact with the boards, the crowd went silent. I was watching her skate, I watched as her foot twisted way back. Not the way that a foot is supposed to move.
——
this is part 1 lol the chapter was wayyy too long to fit into one chapter soooo yeah but the next chapter will continue on from this moment ^ :) :)