Chapter 11
ELEVEN
“Hi!” I answer my phone and wave at the screen while Josie goes back to drawing at her desk. My parents are crammed together on our living room couch.
A second later, Mom moves the phone to show me Allison sitting in the armchair across from them.
“Congrats, Al.” She plays on her high school junior varsity team, but got bumped to play varsity for the first time because one of their star players got injured.
“Thanks,” she says, trying to play it cool. She breaks seconds later. “It was so awesome, Sie. They turned all the lights down, and the music was so loud that the announcer had to yell our names. I’ve never felt more important in my entire life.”
She keeps rambling about her hockey game last night.
“Mom sent me the video,” I say, when she takes a breath. “The only person yelling louder than that announcer was Dad.”
She snorts. “Mom threatened to sit across the rink next time.”
“I’m going to at least need to invest in earplugs,” Mom says. She’s smiling though and just as proud of Allison.
My chest tightens thinking about how I’m missing watching her play. Add that to the selling points of Dalton. I could actually see my sister play a few games. “Did your coach say whether or not this was going to be a permanent thing?”
“I hope so. Chelsea is out for the rest of the season.”
“I’m so proud. My little sister is crushing other people’s dreams to make her own happen,” I joke with my hand held over my heart.
“Hey, it isn’t like I injured her. And I’m sorry she’s out, that royally sucks, but you have to take the opportunities given to you.
” She’s all sass and fiery determination.
We are alike in a lot of ways. We have the same dark hair and same green eyes.
But at five foot eleven, she looks older than fifteen.
In fact, by the time she was ten, she was already taller than me.
I’m more quiet determination and Allison is unapologetically tenacious in everything she does.
“You’re not wrong there. When’s the next game?”
“This weekend. It’s going to be a tough game.” Her expression goes serious, and she gets quiet, presumably worrying about their next game.
My parents jump in to ask about skating and school. Dad hammers me with questions about the interview and congratulates me when I tell him they already sent over an offer.
“They’re a great company,” he adds. “Good benefits, nice office building.”
“It would be so nice to have you living closer again,” Mom says.
“You know I’ll visit more no matter what,” I tell her.
“And Kelsie mentioned the great health benefits.” I roll my eyes.
“Doesn’t it seem sketchy that they offered me a job without a proper interview.
I don’t even have any experience!” I don’t want to tell people how to do their job, but maybe Kelsie should be fired for hiring someone without properly interviewing them.
He waves me off. “No one comes in with any useful experience. It’s about character, and Bob knows you’re a good egg.”
“Bob?”
“I worked with him when I was overseeing the program managers, remember?”
“No.”
“Handlebar mustache, wore flannel before it was trendy.”
I huff a small laugh. “Vaguely sounds familiar.”
“He’ll be your boss. He’s a great guy and has a good team. They’re at the south location with the good cafeteria.”
“Another selling point,” I mumble.
My dad looks like he’s two seconds away from giving me another lecture on working my way up, climbing the corporate ladder, when Olivia walks through the door.
“Game is in five,” she says. “Are we watching it here or downstairs?”
There’s a bigger TV downstairs in the lounge area, but Josie’s already propped up her laptop and is finding the game.
“You’re watching hockey?” Allison asks, brows raised.
“Of course. Valley is in the semifinals.” And my new crush is playing. I run two fingers along my bottom lip thinking about Rhett and wondering if I should keep kissing him.
“If they win, they play the championship at Valley!” Allison says.
“I know.” In the past I probably wouldn't have known but thanks to Rhett, I am well aware. “We’re really excited.” I move my phone so they can see Josie and Olivia.
“Hi girls,” my mom says. Except they can’t hear her because I’m wearing my earbuds.
“My mom says hello,” I tell them.
They wave and say their hellos.
“Here we go,” Josie says. I glance over in time to see the camera zoom in on Valley U’s hockey team warming up. If they win they’ll move on to the championship this weekend. If they lose, their season is over.
As the game starts, Josie and Olivia settle on the floor to do homework, and I listen as my parents fill me in on everything happening there and periodically glance up at the screen to check the score, and okay, to see if Rhett is on the ice.
Allison and my dad are talking about her last game again, all things they’ve already told me, but they’re both really excited so I let them chatter on.
I’m tuning them out, anyway, watching the game.
Number twenty-three comes onto the ice and I can’t tear my eyes away from him.
Valley has the puck and he speeds down the ice.
Several guys take shots at the goalie, but nothing makes it in.
Finally after three or more attempts, Rhett rebounds a blocked shot and passes to Adam on the other side of the net for the first goal of the game.
“Oh my gosh!” I yell. Josie and Olivia look up to see the Valley players huddling up, congratulating Rhett and Adam on the goal.
My family stops talking to see what the commotion is about.
“We scored.” I can feel the blush creep up my neck. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a goal in a hockey game. “Valley is up by one with three minutes left in the second period.”
“That’s a lot of time,” my sister says. “Is Luke Ketcham in the net?”
“Uhh...” I glance at the screen. I’m not about to tell them I only know the name and position of one Valley hockey player. The team is huddled up celebrating, but then it pans to the goalie and he turns so I can read the back of his jersey. “Yep.”
“He’s one of the best. The highest number of games won and most saves in a single game. I think he was drafted already.” She looks to me like I might know. Yeah… nope, my hockey obsession is more a singular hockey player obsession.
The rest of the second period goes by scoreless, but when the third begins, Josie and Olivia abandon their schoolwork and I say goodbye to my family so I can sit and watch with my friends.
“Have you heard from him since they left?” Josie asks.
“We texted back and forth this morning, but just about the game.”
“I hope they win. Can you imagine? It’ll be nuts.” Josie squeaks with happiness.
“There goes what’s left of our ice time,” Olivia says.
Josie laughs. “Hey, I think we should continue to share. It’s some serious motivation to land a jump when a group of hot hockey players are watching. It’s been the best week of practice ever for me.”
I snort. “I doubt Coach is going to find your reasoning solid.”
The final minute has us sitting shoulder to shoulder in front of Josie’s laptop, holding hands. If they win, I have a great excuse to text Rhett later.
Prescott has the puck. They pass it around looking for opportunities.
Valley uniforms are everywhere trying to cover every inch to block any shot attempt.
Still, Prescott manages to get it within a foot of the net.
There are too many bodies in front of the goal to keep track of the puck. They hack at it looking for an opening.
I hold my breath as another shot’s fired. This one gets by everyone but the goalie. He keeps his pad down on the ice protecting it until the final buzzer sounds.
“They won!” Josie screeches and bounces up and down, still clutching my hand. “They did it. Oh my god.”
We jump around our room and squeal with happiness. I send Rhett a text before I talk myself out of it. Congratulations!!!
“This is crazy,” Olivia says. “I think I can hear people yelling outside.” She moves to the window and we follow.
Sure enough, people are screaming and dancing around in the grassy area outside of our dorm.
“Let’s go down there!” Josie rushes to the door. The hallway is filled with people who had the same idea.
Outside music is playing and one guy even has his face painted blue and yellow. People are hugging and high-fiving as if they’d been the ones to win tonight. It’s insane and absolutely amazing.
I snap a couple of selfies with the chaos in the background and send those to Rhett too. The mood mellows, but people hang around. Olivia eventually leaves to finish studying and Josie and I take a seat on the grass with a hundred or more people wanting to enjoy this crazy moment together.
“This is incredible,” I say, looking around the darkened campus. The glow of street lamps is the only light.
“It’s a shame the hockey team missed this.”
“I’m sure they went out to a bar or something. The bus doesn’t come back until tomorrow morning.” My stomach sinks as I imagine a drunk, charming Rhett pulling women into dirty, bar bathrooms to celebrate.
“Still. It isn’t the same.”
“Isn’t it? Girls and booze are interchangeable.” I check my phone to see if he’s texted back yet. He hasn’t.
“Do you really think that Rhett believes that?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “It would be easier if I did.”
“And way less fun.” She pulls her hair back into a low ponytail. “I don’t think he’s this player you’re making him out to be. Nothing I’ve heard about him backs it up. Seriously, I don’t know a single person who has hooked up with him, and I’ve been asking around.”
“You have?” A smile tugs at my lips, partly in relief and partly because it’s just like Josie to dig for dirt without my asking.
“I might have been poking for my own purposes. There are some seriously cute guys on the team that I needed more information on, but, yes, I asked around.” She shrugs. “If he’s hooking up with an endless stream of chicks, they’re not talking about it.”
My phone pings and I glance down to see Rhett’s face in a sweaty selfie with Maverick.
They must have taken it just after the game because I can see lockers in the background and they’re in a state of being half undressed.
They’re smiles are giant, though, and I feel a new surge of excitement for them.
Laughing, I hold the screen out for Josie to see.
“Your smile is as big as his, friend. No matter your reservations, you like him.”
“You’re right. I like him. I do.”
“But?”
“I just hope he doesn’t crush me.”
“I think you have to go for it. If you do and he breaks your heart, then you’ve got me to pet your hair and tell you how wonderful you are.”
I snort laugh.
“I would! I would do whatever I had to until you were over him. But if you don’t see where this could go, you’ll regret it, and I can’t fix that one so easily.”