𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓

chapter 8

i woke up the next morning from my loud alarm sitting on the night stand. i slammed my hand on it to make it shut up.

i dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day. coach wanted us to wear our team usa track suits when we went to the rink.

as i approached in the lobby, only a few other teammates were waiting their. i made my way over to ken and made small talk with him.

in the matter of ten minutes, everyone else had showed up. i sat in the bus with excitement running throughout my body.

we all threw our bags into the small storage area and made our way onto the bus.

"calm down there, mymy." fulton called out to me. "i am just excited!" i told him as a big smile came onto my face.

as soon as we arrived, i was in absolute awe. there were beautiful buildings surrounding us with tons of trees added along. i could see julie pulling out her camera and taking multiple snapshots.

as soon as we were inside, more excitement bubbled inside of me. we quickly went to the locker rooms to get changed and ready for the game.

i stepped out onto the ice and looked around the stands. slowly, more and more seats were filled by attending fans.

our first game was against trinidad. before i knew it, we were halfway through the game and our team was leading 6 to nothing.

everyone on the bench shot up again as we had made yet another goal. i gave a high five to jesse but his smile quickly faded from whoever was talking in the stands.

"high five some more. man, my little brother could score on these guys," the young boy from the stands said. i rolled my eyes at his words.

"then why don't you go bother him then?" jesse responded. before things got out of hand, coach stepped ahead and told jesse it was his time to go on the ice.

a small sigh left my lips as i took a seat on the wood bench. a sweaty dean came back onto the bench and plopped himself next to me.

"coach has barely even put you in," he told me as he took a swig out of his water. i shrugged my shoulders at his comment.

of course deep down it was bothering me quite a lot, but i had to act like i didn't care. "maybe he will sometime soon."

jesse had been tripped which sent him flying into the goal head first. i flinched, scared he would hit his head on the goal post, but luckily he didn't.

he was quick to get up and skate up to the other kid. for doing so, he was sent to the penalty box for two minutes. once again, the kid from before came up to the glass and began teasing him.

i looked over towards dean and fulton to see them putting on their bandanas and giving each other a fist bump. i was about to say something when dean cut me off. "watch and learn, sweetheart."

as they both took the ice, every kid who came near them were knocked off their feet. this got us another goal. everyone shot up from excitement.

but suddenly, trinidad had taken the puck right out of our hands. they were down the line, passed the defensemen, shot, and scored.

a hand was patted on my shoulder. i turned around to see coach bombay with a smile on his face. "go get 'em tiger."

a proud smile was plastered on my face as i hopped on the ice, taking connie's place. the puck was dropped and luis was able to pass the puck over towards me.

i swerved around two kids and then passed it straight to kenny. he made his way behind the net, and scored! i lifted my arms and engulfed him in a hug.

we had taken the win 9 to 2. "all right, way to go! that wasn't a game, that was a statement!" the coach announced as we all huddled together.

we soon broke apart and made our way back to the locker room to get undressed. now, fans were beginning to leave the stadium.

after getting changed back into our usa track suits, we had an interview. we all stood on the podium as don introduced us.

"team usa, how does it feel to be competing on the international level here in los angeles?" a woman with blonde hair asked us.

we all talked into the mic, "we love it. it's great." a few of the interviewers chuckled at our response.

another woman in a pink suit stood up and asked, "coach bombay, the vikings from iceland are the heavy favorite. their coach is already guaranteed victory. how are you gonna handle them?"

he looked between all of us before speaking up. "hard work. i think our team is ready to go up against the best in the world. we aren't worried about them. iceland may be tough but, we're team usa and we're going all the way."