33
LEONORA
I’m still in bed staring at my phone and reading the comments section on Craig Tennant’s article for the fifth time. Willow is still asleep and Katie is somewhere on campus, probably already in the library.
I pull on a sweatshirt, pad to the door, open it.
Coach Calloway is standing in the hallway.
He’s in his Blackwood jacket, a coffee in his hand. His face is unreadable - the same expression he wears behind the bench when the game is on the line and he’s already three moves ahead.
“Coach?”
“I read the article. My office. Twenty minutes.”
He turns and walks away before I can answer.
I get dressed and walk across campus in a fog. The cold air does nothing to clear my head.
His office is small and cluttered. There’s a Blackwood Giants banner on the wall, a whiteboard covered in plays, a framed photo of the team from five years ago when they had just won the league - back when my father stood behind the bench as coach.
Coach is behind his desk. He gestures to the chair across from him. “Sit.”
He looks at me - the same way he looked at me at the tryout. Measuring.
“I read the article,” he continues. “He’s right. I should have asked more questions. I should have wondered why a player with your skill wasn’t already on a roster somewhere. I should have-” He stops. Shakes his head. “But I didn’t. And now we’re here.”
“Coach, I’m so sorry-”
“Don’t apologize for wanting to play hockey.”
He reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He slides it across the desk.
I unfold it.
It’s a statement typed out on an official letterhead.
The Blackwood College Athletic Department stands with our student-athlete, Leonora Shaw. She participated in open tryouts, earned her position through merit, and contributed to the team’s success on the ice.
We acknowledge the conference’s investigation. However, we do not condone the characterization of Ms. Shaw’s actions as deception. She is a member of this team and will remain so. And she will play in our final game before the holiday break, regardless of the consequences.
I read it through twice.
“You’re inviting me back to play?”
Coach Calloway looks at me for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is quieter than I’ve ever heard it.
“I never met your father. But I respected him. I respected what he built here.” He pauses.
“I’ve sat quietly while they’ve cut funding for women’s sports across this college.
It’s not just hockey. I didn’t even give it much thought.
” He rubs a hand along his face. “What you can do for the sport is something I can’t stand in the way of.
Let them do what they have to do.” He stands.
“The game is Saturday. I expect you on the ice.”
ZANE
She’s the last one out of the tunnel.
No helmet yet. Her hair is loosely tied back. The crowd reaction is strange. Some cheers. A few boos that get drowned out by the people around them.
On the other side of the ice, the opposing team - the Rivermen - huddle near their bench. I see their captain talking to the referee. I see their coach shaking his head.
“What’s going on?” I ask Russo.
He watches them. “They’re deciding if they’ll play.”
“They have to play.”
“They don’t have to do anything. They can just walk out - make it into a statement and appeal based on the fact we have a woman on the team.”
The Rivermen’s coach crosses the ice toward Calloway. They talk. I can’t hear the words, but I see the Rivermen coach’s face - he looks uncomfortable but like he’s backing down.
Calloway doesn’t raise his voice. He says something, quiet and steady, and the other coach walks back to his bench.
The Rivermen stay.
They take the ice for warm-ups. But they don’t look at her. None of them do. They skate their laps, run their drills, and carefully, deliberately, keep their eyes anywhere but on number nineteen.
“Let them be scared,” I say, low enough that only she can hear.
She glances at me. “They’re not scared. They’re-”
“They’re scared of losing to a girl.” I tap her shin pads with my stick. “That’s a them problem. Not a you problem.”
She gives a small smile.
The puck drops.
The first period is strange. The Rivermen play tentatively - not dirty, not aggressive, just… careful. Every time Shaw touches the puck, they give her space. Not respect. Fear. The kind of fear that comes from not knowing what to do with something you’ve been told doesn’t belong.
But she doesn’t hesitate.
Three minutes in, she picks up the puck along the boards. No one steps to her. She carries it into the zone and slides a pass across the slot that lands perfectly on Russo’s tape.
Goal.
She skates back to center ice, stick raised, waiting for the next faceoff.
The second period is harder.
The Rivermen’s coach must have said something between periods, because they’re not giving her space anymore. They’re finishing checks. They’re leaning on her along the boards. They’re playing hockey - real hockey - and she’s right in the middle of it.
I’m watching her the way I always watch her - tracking her movement, reading her body language.
She’s not showing any weaknesses.
Instead, she steals the puck at the blue line, drives to the net, and puts it past their goalie before anyone can react.
Two - nothing.
The crowd is louder now. Some of them are standing.
She skates past their bench on her way back to center ice, and I see their players watching her. Not with fear this time. Something else.
Respect.
The third period, they pull their goalie. The kind of move that says they’d rather lose swinging than lose quietly.
We hold them off. Chen stops everything that comes near him. And Shaw - Shaw is everywhere. Controlling the pace like she’s been doing this her whole life.
Because she has.
The final buzzer sounds. Three–nothing.
We win.
The crowd is on its feet now. Not the full roar of a championship game, but something else - something that sounds like the beginning of something.
I find her at center ice. She’s standing there, stick in hand, looking up at the stands.
“Not bad,” I say.
She doesn’t look at me. “This game will probably be disqualified once the investigators find out.”
“I know.”
“None of this is going to count.”
I step closer. “It counts. Every single shift has counted.
She doesn’t answer. But she doesn’t pull away when I take her hand.
The crowd is still cheering.