Hockey is My Life, Plus Some Others

Chapter 1

"AJ," a voice says "AJ, wake up," My eyes flutter open and I see my brother hovering over my face. "Fulton, back off!" I say swatting him away. "AJ, get up and get dressed, Connie's gonna kill us if we don't make it in time." I shoot up from my bed run to my closet, pull out an outfit, and dart across the hall to take a quick shower. "Fulton, can you find my skates and put them by the door?" I shout downstairs as I finish my shower. "Where do I look?" My brother hollers back. "Probably in my bedroom or in the mudroom, maybe by the back door." I reply. I finish my shower, get dressed, put on my necklace my mom got me two years ago, put on my charm bracelet my twin got we when we joined the ducks, and hurry downstairs with my black classic converse in one hand. "Where's my travel bag?" I ask Fulton who's waiting by the door at tapping his foot to the rhythm of my favorite song. "It's right here with your skates," he says, holding them up in his hands. My travel bag is really just an old, worn-out backpack that contains a pair of sunglasses, my house key, some leather gloves, and my helmet and pads. I take out my pads and helmet and stuff my converse inside. I put on my helmet, pads, and travel bag, and Fulton locks the front door behind us as we start off down the street towards Mickey's Diner. "Aw crap, I forgot my phone, did you bring yours?" I ask my brother. "Yeah I have mine and I grabbed yours, too." He replies patting his pocket "I'll give it to you when we get to Mickey's." "Thanks, Fulton." I say knowing my twin will always have my back. In around five minutes we reach the diner. We enter and trade out our skates for our regular shoes. "You're late," a voice says, without looking up I know that it's Connie. I glance up from tying my right shoe and say "Sorry, Connie. This doofus didn't wake me up soon enough." I gesture towards my twin brother. He's already hanging out with the Ducks instead of getting interrogated by Connie. I finish tying my shoe and walk to the booth where the team sits. "Hey look guys, the twins are finally here!" Goldberg says. "Shut up, Goldie!" Me and Fulton say it in perfect unison. That happens a lot. "Crap," Fulton starts. "What now?" I ask. "Uh... I kinda, sorta, left Smokey in my room." "I left Sunny in my room but she was in her crate, did you leave Smokey in his crate?" I tentatively ask Fulton, I'm guessing the answer is no, which means I have to get homes ASAP before Smokey destroys Fulton's room. "Yes?" Fulton says. "Ugh... What are the odds that he's in his crate?" I ask "There's probably around a 75% chance that he's in his crate." My brother responds, I reply "Ok, then I'm not gonna rush home and deal with that, what I'm going to do is order a hot chocolate and some eggs." I go sit down at the booth and place my order. Not long after my hot cocoa is at my place. I ask Fulton for my phone, type in my password and check the baby monitor in Fulton's room that he doesn't know I put in and find Smokey in his crate. My eggs arrive and I take a sip of my cocoa. I realize Fulton ordered waffles and a side of bacon. When he's not looking I steal a piece of his bacon and put it in my mouth before he realizes. But when I start to chew I realize how crunchy it is. I try to chew as quietly as possible but when I'm just about finished Fulton realizes I stole his bacon. I pretend not to notice, but after I swallow the whole team bursts out laughing.

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We leave Mickey's Diner and skate to Jan and Hans' shop, it's been awhile since I've seen coach and since I have a job here I'm gonna get to see coach more often! We ask if we can borrow some skates so we can go skating at the frozen pond, Jan says yes and we find our correct sizes. We find the right skates and walk across the street to the pond. We take off our shoes and put on the ice skates we're borrowing and the next thing I know I'm keeping Fulton from beating up Charlie. "Conway, I'm gonna kill you if you ever come near my sister again!" My brother shouts. "Fulton, chill, I just happened to miss a chip in the ice and roll my ankle when I was skating with Charlie. Bro, calm down, if you want we can go get ice cream?" I finish before he starts shouting again. "But we can't go because you rolled your ankle! Which is Charlie's fault!" "Man, I didn't even touch her!" Charlie shouts back. "Goldberg, Averman, take Charlie home or to the diner. What I'm gonna do is bury this doofus in snow!" I say as I start to take off towards Fulton. As I continue to skate towards my brother I start to stop because of the throbbing pain in my ankle. "Sis, what's wrong?" My brother asks. I look around to make sure Charlie is gone before I answer. "It's fine it's just that my ankle hurts." "I have just the right thing." Adam announces and he takes off his skates, puts on his shoes, leaves the skates on the bench, and walks towards his house. I slowly and sloppily make my way to the bench and take off the skates. Once my skates are off, I put them on the bench and start massaging my ankle. I realize it was my right ankle and mutter under my breath "It had to be my right one, didn't it." "What was that?" Connie asks when I see Adam start to walk towards me with a pair of crutches in hand. "Use these to get home and then you can bring them back when you feel better." He says. "Thanks cake-eater, maybe you aren't so bad after all." My brother says. I put on my converse and lace the right shoe extra tight for some ankle support. "They're a little tall, can we make them shorter?" I ask. He shows me how to shorten and lengthen the crutches. When we find the right size, Connie offers to take the ice skates back for me and my twin. "Thanks Connie!" I say over my shoulder as we leave. On the way home we pass by a McCalister's and I beg Fulton to take us inside so we can get something to eat. We go inside and find out this is the one my aunt works at. Aunt Lily gave us our lunch on the house and brought us some peppermints and brookies. "Thanks Aunt Lily." Me and Fulton say in unison. "Bye kids, see you sometime soon!" Aunt Lily calls after us. "Fulton, can you call mom and tell her what happened, she'll know what to do." I say. He calls mom, explains the situation, and asks what to do. "Mom says to ice it down and then if it's not better tomorrow, she'll take you to have it X-rayed." Fulton says and I nod in response. We make it home and I immediately walk to the freezer to get some ice. I pull out a little plastic bag and some Saran Wrap from one of the drawers along the way. I get to the freezer and put some ice in my bag. I walk to the couch, sit down, set the crutches down beside me, take off my shoes, pull the travel bag off my shoulders, and I start to massage my ankle when my brother comes down stairs with the dogs and something in his hand. The dogs are also twins and they are golden retriever and Labrador retriever mixes. Sunny looks like a golden retriever with short hair and Smokey looks like a black lab with long hair. "Here, I brought you this." I hear Fulton say as he tosses something to me. I find out it's one of my ankle braces, the best one I own. I finish massaging my ankle, put on my brace and use the Saran Wrap to fasten the ice to my ankle. "Fulton, can you bring me a cup of water?" I ask while Fulton is raiding the pantry. He comes back from the kitchen with a bowl of homemade snack mix and two cups of water. He sets them on the coffee table and asks me what I want to watch. I respond with "Any of the Hotel Transylvania movies, please." I don't know why but we always loved those movies. The snack mix is made up of popcorn, caramel corn, extra cheddar goldfish crackers, and some rainbow goldfish crackers. He plays the first movie and I immediately fall asleep.