𝔟𝔯𝔲𝔱𝔞𝔩 | 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗻

three: "look out"

"That's Luis Mendoza. He's from our Miami Club."

The beautiful boy standing first in line skated forward and took off down the rink. The sound of his skates on the ice echoed throughout the arena and Tibbles raised his voice to be heard over it.

"I clocked him at 1.9 seconds, blue line to blue line." I heard him say to Coach Bombay. My eyes widened as I watched Luis zip back and forth around the rink. "He has one minor problem."

"Aah!" Luis exclaimed as he came crashing into the wall next to us. We all grimaced and went over to see if he was alright.

"I almost had it that time." Luis sat up and we all laughed.

We all moved against the wall again and the next boy in line stepped forward with a big smile and shouted "Yeehaw! How is everyone? Y'all ready to play some puck?" He began to bounce the puck on his stick and carry it down the rink.

"That's Dwayne Robertson from Austin. He's the best puck handler I've ever seen."

Dwayne came past us and flipped the puck a few times. "Hey, this is easier than ropin' hogs! Yee-haw!"

I looked over at Coach who had disbelief written all over his face. This was proving to be a very impressive group of kids. I was excited to see who was next.

"There's Julie "The Cat" Gaffney. She won the state championship for Maine three years in a row."

My attention was pulled to the girl who had smiled at me earlier, standing by the goal. She hit both sides with her stick and squatted into position.

"Well, we have a goalie. Goldberg." Coach Bombay motioned to the other side of the rink where a heavy-set boy was getting into position like Julie. "All right! Bring 'em on, man! I'm ready for this! I'm the man! I'm the man!" His leg started to slide forward until he was in a full split. "Uh, help."

"Watch this."

A few of the Duck players skated forward and each took a shot at Julie. She stopped every single one.

Next was a small figure skater named Ken Wu. He wowed us all with some amazing turns and jumps. Combined with his hockey skills, I knew he would be an amazing asset.

Once Ken had finished, I skated forward and paused, sizing up the Ducks. I then started to lap around the rink, switching from forward to backwards, moving the puck in between my legs and around my skates.

"Next is Bexley Callahan from the Chicago Storm. With her skills of puck handling and shot accuracy, they were able to win the Illinois championship tournament for the past 4 years."

I smiled a little as I listened to Tibbles description of me and wound up to shoot the puck. I shot it right past the Duck goalie, Goldberg, and did a little fist pump.

I skated back over to the end of the line and shook my head as Dean stepped forward, rolling his shoulders and wearing his stupid cut off jersey. "Showtime! Don't you know that everything's on fire?"

He began to sing and I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Dean to show off his hockey skills by playing air guitar with his stick.

"Come on Bex, sing it with me!" Dean held up the stick to my mouth like a microphone and I swatted it away. He passed me and tossed it to Julie. "Here you go, sweetie!"

I leaned over to Julie and took the stick from her. "Can I beat him up with this?" She laughed, but I was definitely not kidding.

I watched Dean pick up Ken and drop him on top of the goal. "Little man!" He hollered.

"Who does this guy think he is?" One of the Duck players asked and another shouted "Alright, that's it!"

All of the players, both old and new, skated together and began shouting at one another. A kid with curly red hair and glasses approached me.