The next day, we had a game against Italy tonight. The team was woken up by Miss McKay so we could all go to our lesson.
"Now today, we'll all be writing poems and learning about poetry." Miss McKay smiled, everyone whined except Jules, Connie, and I.
The three of us squeaked while looking at each other from across the room, "Of course the chicks are excited." Dean scoffed.
"Now famous poets have a rhythm or a pattern," Miss McKay started writing a piece of poetry on the chalkboard. "This one is called Trees by Joyce Kilmer," She then finished writing, sat the chalk down and turned to us. "Anyone care to read?" She smiled.
Everyone was silent as we looked at each other, then I let out a huff, raising my hand. Miss McKay nodded, so I stood to see the board,
"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree who's hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may and summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."
The whole room was whispering, so I sat down slowly, Miss McKay smiled all while nodding her head, "I'm impressed," She paused and waited for everyone to stop talking. "You read poetry well, Vicki."
Smiling, "Thank you." I nodded my head.
"Now, what Vicki just read, has a rhythm in it. They are called stressed and unstressed syllables," Miss McKay used the chalk to underline the stressed syllables. "There are also lines that rhyme too, can anyone see them?" She crossed her arms.
Charlie raised his hand, "The first two lines and the last two lines. See and tree and me and tree." He pointed to the lines on the chalkboard.
"Very good Charlie!" Miss McKay smiled and wrote "A" next to the first two lines and "F" next to the last two lines at the end.
"Now why the heck are ya writing letters at the ends?" Dean scrunched his face.
"Well, Dean, very good question," Miss McKay started. "Any line that matches you use the same letter to, so see and tree are A and so on and so forth." She tapped the board with the chalk.
Jules raised her hand, "Day and pray rhyme."
Miss McKay then started writing down "C" on the board, "Pressed and breast rhyme." Banksie called out.
"Wear and hair," Guy called out. Miss McKay wrote down letters next to the matching lines.
Once every line was matched, Miss McKay applauded us, now since your masters at poetry analyzing, it's time for you to actually write poems of your own," We all then got out sheets of paper. "I'll give you a few minutes to write your poems, I'll be going around examining your pieces and answering questions."
Immediately, I started writing down some ideas before starting the first line.
The cold icy snow
Makes my face glow.
You always believe in me,
Because that is all you see.
As the puck glides,
Goldberg takes his slide.
Your ocean blue eyes the pierce mine,
Make my knees weak and heart melt.
My heart races and hands shake,
Your hands in mine make me quake.
Your soft comforting hands,
Your long warm hugs,
Soft lips and even your fingertips.
The sweat that coats your hair,
That makes it clump and stick to your forehead.
Teach me to fly,
Teach me to reach the sky.
My heart is forever yours,
The Cake-Eater in my life.
You are forever mine.
Someone then tapped my shoulder, making my face turn red as I turned around. Miss McKay smiled down at me and then placed a hand on my shoulder, "Vicki," She started.
I looked away with my crimson red burning face. "This is beautiful," She walked in the front of my desk and sat down on the back of the empty desk in front of me. "I'm assuming you wrote it for someone special."
Looking down at my paper, I nodded my head, "Ya." I said quietly.
"Well, I'm sure that this special person will love this poem." Miss McKay smiled before standing up and walking around the room again.
From across the room, I looked up at Banksie who was writing and had his hands in his hair from frustration. I smiled and looked down at the paper, signing it "Forever Yours, Vicki" and then putting a heart as the period.
After the lesson, the team all went out for a free day before tonight's game against Italy.
Dwayne, Goldberg, Jesse, and Averman decided to hit the streets of Beverly Hills, claiming Goldberg had to get a tee shirt from Beverly Hills for his mom while Connie, Julie, and I decided to have a girls game day in our dorm. Julie had brought her favorite game, Twister, along with her, ironic enough.
"Ok," Julie flicked the spinner sitting on the floor near the Twister mat in the middle of our dorm. "Right foot yellow." We all put our foot on a yellow circle.
Connie was next to spin, "Left-hand blue." Reaching across the mat to the nearest blue circle, I propped myself up.
I reached over to the spinner, flicking it, "Left foot red." At this point in time, we were almost to the point of being tangled in each other.
"Right-hand yellow," Julie smiled while fixing herself, wiggling her arm in between my legs while Connie reached over Julie's back to get to a yellow circle. "Who gave ya that?" Julie asked which made me look to my wrist.
"Oh, this?" I gestured to my hockey bracelet on my wrist.
"Ya, I like it! It's cute!" She smiled.
"Charlie got this for me for my birthday in March." The hockey bracelet was one of those multiple layered connected bracelets. The words "hockey" in the middle on a thick black velvet band, with two sterling silver braided bands above and below it. The two end bands were thin velvet. The bottom band had crossed hockey sticks with a puck in the middle and the top one had a giant infinity symbol with "love" written in one of the lines in cursive.
I saw Connie turn her head to look at my bracelet, "Oh ya, that is really cute," She smiled, turning the bracelet on my wrist so she could see it better. Connie then reached over to the spinner, "Left-hand blue." The three of us tried to reach for a blue circle, only to topple over on to the mat, laughing our guts out.
"Ok, either I just walked in on a weird game of Twister or someone cracked a bad joke." Banksie's voice called out from the open door to our dorm where he was half smiling at the confusion he was seeing.
"No, no," I said while half wheezing. "We were playing Twister."
"I'll just come back then." Banksie started walking away when I jumped out of the pile and stopped him.
I grabbed his arm, "No, no, what's up?"
He looked down at my hand gripping his arm, then back up at me, "I was wondering if ya wanted to go out to Beverly Hills?" I let go of his arm, frowning.
"Oh um, I was gonna have a game day with Con and Jules," When I turned around, I saw the two with their brows raised, shooing me with their hands. "I think my plans just changed," I smiled at Banksie who returned the gesture. "Just gimme a minute to get my things." Nodding my head I walked over to the two girls who were quietly squeaking. Clenching my jaw, I told them to shut up.
Grabbing my sunglasses, dorm key, and a few bucks, I shoved them in my designated light washed jean shorts pockets before walking out of the dorm with Banks, arm and arm together.
Putting on my sunglasses, the two of us walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to Beverly Hills, "So, why exactly are we going to Beverly Hills?" The two of us stepped on to the bus and sat down next to each other.
"Why wouldn't someone wanna go to Beverly Hills?" Banks chuckled. "Besides, I figured we would go on a shopping outing and check out the stores."
"But Beverly Hills is like rich rich. I only have a few bucks in my pocket-"
"That is why my dad gave me this." Banks pulled out a credit card from his back pocket from his wallet.
Snatching the card, "Your dad seriously gave ya your own card?!" I examined it.
"Yup," He nodded before taking the card back, putting it in his wallet, sticking it in his back pocket. "He knew I would buy some things so why give me cash?" He smiled.
Rolling my eyes playfully, I shook my head, "You're too much Banksie."
The bus ride was pretty long, but when we got off the bus, we saw well-dressed people, "Banks, do ya think we fit in?" I whispered, looking down at my clothes.
"Well I mean your wearing a Tommy Jean shirt and I'm wearing Ralph Lauren and we both look older than we already are, so I mean," He trailed off. "I wouldn't think they'd notice." He shrugged before taking my arm again.
"True." I nodded, putting on my sunglasses.
The two of us walked off to the Coach store and to our surprise, we were let in, "Why am I not surprised that this is the first store you walk into?"
"Because Banksie," Taking off my sunglasses, I folded them and put them on the collar of my shirt. "I'm a woman and I like Coach stuff." Strolling around the store with Banksie behind me, I came across a white crossbody purse with gold apples printed on it.
Smiling, I put the purse over my head, "That's a nice one. Like the apples." Banks nodded.
"Can I get it?" I pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
"Whatever you want, Vicki." He said slowly which made me squeak.
Then I dragged him over to the men's section of the store. His eyes landed on a black leather jacket, "I've always wanted a leather jacket." He thoroughly felt the material on the jacket.
"Well, put it on!" Shaking his shoulders, he laughed as he pulled it off the rack, handing me the hanger, before putting it on. He played with the zippers before fixing the jacket on himself. "Adam Banks, you have never looked better!" I smiled.
"Really?" He shoved his hands in the pockets before zipping up the jacket which complemented the dark navy button-up Polo shirt he was wearing.
"Uh, yeah!"
He laughed before taking the jacket off as the two of us walked to the checkout. The two of us walked out of the store with two new items, my purse at my hip with all my belongings inside and Banksie's new jacket on him.
The two of us went in and out of stores, with Banksie carrying all my bags except one small one. Banks had insisted he carried all my bags for me.
At one of the stores we went to, I secretly bought myself a bikini since Banks had suggested we should go to the Santa Monica Pier and beach. It was a black one. An off the shoulder top with ruffles and high waisted bottoms with slits on the sides being held together by criss-cross strings. Nothing too provocative or fancy, just something I liked.
While walking down the sidewalk with Banks, smiling and laughing, we were going to get pizza for lunch, when we saw Dwayne, Goldberg, Jesse, and Averman get thrown out of a store, "Coach!" Dwayne smiled, noticing me and Banks.
"Hey guys, did you all get thrown out of a store?" I pointed to the store they all got thrown out of.
"Ya, sorta," Averman pushed up his glasses.
"Where did ya get all that stuff?" Jesse scrunched his face, looking at all the bags Banksie was carrying.
"And that hat." Goldberg gestured to my black floppy sun hat on my head.
"Oh, we went on a shopping spree." I smiled as Banks held up all the bags in the air as he shrugged.
"Oh." Goldberg nodded.
"We were gonna go get pizza for lunch, wanna tag along?" Banks smiled.
"Sure! I'm starving!" Dwayne smiled, fixing his hat on his head.
"Your always starving." Jesse retorted as we all laughed, walking down the sidewalk together to go to a pizza place to have lunch together.
Dwayne was scarfing down some breadsticks while telling us how he woke up this morning to have shaving cream all over his face while Goldberg was trying to deny everything. I brought up the subject about hearing loud rock music coming from Fulton and Dean's room last night. Everyone heard the music too, so at least I wasn't crazy.
When we all got back to the dorms, Banksie helped me get my bags to my room before the game. Connie and Julie were getting ready for the game when we walked in.
We all walked to the rink to go to our game. Tonight was gonna be a long night. We were all walking to the locker room when a few cameramen came up to Coach Bombay and I to ask us a few questions.
"It's great to be here! The guys at Hendrix Hockey have been absolutely fantastic to me and the team!" He smiled.
"I'm sorry to break up the party," I interrupted. "But we've got a game against Italy, so we'll talk to ya after we beat them," I said confidently before dragging Coach away.
"Thank you. Thank you," They smiled as the cameras followed us. "Good luck guys!"
While walking away, one dude with a bushy mustache and glasses patted Coach on the shoulder, "Go get'em."
"Thank you very much. Thank you." He smiled, turning to the guy, then he bumped into the blonde lady from the Iceland team which made them snap their heads at each other, wincing.
"Oh, I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry, uh-" Coach was caught off guard by her beauty.
"No, it was my fault. I was clumsy," She shook her head, smiling. "You're Coach Bombay."
"That's right."
The blonde then looked over at me, "And your Victoria."
"Yup," I said while biting my cheek.
I didn't like this woman very much since she was an Iceland lady, "You play well." She nodded.
"Well thank you." Coach smiled.
"I mean your team. Your team plays well." The blonde corrected him.
"I-I know what you meant," Then there was an awkward silence between the two as I looked between them. "So who are you?"
"I'm the trainer for the Iceland team," She held out her hand. "My name is Marria-" The two shook hands briefly before Stansson came from nowhere behind Marria, saying something in Icelandic to her, making her snap her head back as he strode over to us.
The two exchanged a quiet Icelandic conversation before Marria looked at the both of us before walking away, "Well, you have a way with the ladies," Coach chuckled. "We haven't formally met," He gave Stansson a fake smile. "I'm Gordon Bombay, coach of Team USA."
"I know my competition," He said lowly, then turning to me. "And I know you."
My stomach churned at his words, "Ya, but do ya know the real me?" Coach chuckled which made me tug on his sleeve of his tan sports coat.
"You're full of confidence," He smirked. "Cocky," He raised his brow with the smirk still on his face. "American. I like that. It will make our triumph even more enjoyable." He chuckled before turning his gaze to me.
My brow raised at his words, "Your triumph?"
"Lighten up a little bit," Coach started. "We're all just here to have-"
"A little fun, right?" Coach Stansson interrupted. "Don't you worry. We will," He paused before smirking at me. "We will." He said lowly before turning to walk away. Then he turned around pointing at us before shooting a wink.
"Coach," I groaned. "Ya had to provoke him." Turning my head, I slightly looked up at him.
Coach scoffed, "Whatever," Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. "He's the one who's gonna lose at our game."
"Let's not get too overconfident, Coach." I patted his back before we went into the locker room.
When we started the game against Italy, we automatically scored a goal. Italy then started bringing some heat on to the ice so we pushed back scoring two more goals in the 1st period. Charlie, Banksie, Fulton, Dean, and Guy were all bringing the fire on the ice while Goldberg was still on his hot streak. In the 2nd period, we only scored two points while the Italians were putting up their fists for a fight. In the 3rd period, we only scored one point but we were bringing us our best A-game.
We had a 6-0 lead on Team Italy. Goldberg again saved another puck. Then he decided to taunt one of the players, "Goldberg!" I whined.
"What did I do?" He threw his hands in the air.
After Goldberg made his insult, Team Italy was slowing down and couldn't keep up with our pace. Making the finish of the game official of our win.