Hockey is My Life, Plus Some Others

Chapter 9

We're almost finished with our game against Russia. The score is close but team USA is winning. "Here! Here! Here! Pass me the puck!" Russ calls. I pass him the puck and duck under a check. Russ shoots his Knuckle-puck and scores. The crowd cheers so loud I can barely hear the buzzer. I skate over to the side of the box and get in line behind Connie and in front of Fulton. We shake the opposing team's hands and go to the locker room. I untie my skates and take off my jersey. I pull off my pads, revealing my black, long sleeve, compression shirt. I pull off my hockey pants and socks to reveal my gray sweatpants. Bombay walks into the locker room. "I told him no visitors, but he wanted to congratulate you anyway." He says, stepping aside to allow Wayne Gretzky to walk into our locker room. "That's Wayne Gretzky!" Jesse says. "No, duh!" I say, smiling. Goldberg's jaw drops. "Can I shake your hand?" Averman asks. "How ya' doin'?" Ken questions. "You guys this is The Great One!" Charlie says. I smack my face with my hand in embarrassment. "Wayne is fine." Gretzky says, chuckling. Everyone laughs. A photographer pulls out a camera and we all struggle to be in the photo. When everyone is situated and the photographer is ready someone says "Say hockey!" "Hockey!" We all say in unison.

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"I'm hungry, can we please just grab some food before we take them to get their shots?" I complain. "AJ, this is for their health." Charlie says. "Fine," I grumble. "Afterwards, we could go to the beach." Fulton suggests. "I can take care of the puppies while you guys have a beach day." Bombay says, looking in the rear view mirror. "Thanks." I say. We arrive at the vet's office and check in. We wait in the waiting room with the puppies. Duck starts barking. "Duck, shush." I say. Charlie picks her up out of the carrier and starts stroking her. She quiets down and Charlie puts her back into the carrier. "Reed?" A vet tech asks. We follow her into the room. "Dr. South will be in soon." She says. I nod and pull Captain out of the carrier. I clip on his leash and set him on the ground. I do the same with Puck, Lillie, Duck, and Bash. Charlie gets out the treats and tells them to sit. They sit down and Charlie gives them treats. The vet walks in. "Hey, guys. How are our little pups doing today?" Dr. South asks. "They're good. We gave them names, too." I respond. "Good, good. May I ask what their names are?" Dr. South replies. I tell her each puppy's name and how you can tell who they are. The vet does the general checkup and prepares the vaccinations. She gives them each their vaccines in this order, Puck, Duck, Captain, Bash, Lillie. We pay and leave. Bombay gets in the driver's seat and Fulton rides shotgun. We stop at Wendy's on the way back to the dorms. We eat in the car and Charlie keeps stealing my fries. "Charlie, stop. You have your own fries. Why are you stealing mine?" "I just like stealing your fries, that's all." Charlie says. I hand him my fries and stare out the window. "AJ, I'm sorry. You can have your fries back, here." Charlie says. "You're such a pushover." I say, laughing. "Excuse me for being nice." Charlie says. I lean my head on his shoulder and grasp his hand in mine. I hear a loud slurp from the front seat. I look up and see Fulton and Bombay staring at us. I become aware of the fact that we have arrived at the dorm building. I feel the heat of my cheeks turning red. I grab the puppy carrier and rush inside, I hear Charlie sigh as Fulton catches up with me. "Why did you rush off like that?" He asks. "Am I not supposed to be embarrassed when my twin and uncle catch me with my head on my boyfriend's shoulder?" I question. "Okay, point taken." He replies. A random thought pops into my head. I voice it when we get on the elevator. "Random question, when we went skating in the mall, why did you leave Izzy with Christiana?" "I got a text from Portman saying he was being chased by a mob of teenage girls and got lost. So, I has to go find him. I left Izzy with Christiana because I know that she's shy and that seeing those girls would make her self esteem take a major dip." He answers. "So you were just trying to help your friends." "Exactly." Fulton says. "Okay, that clears some things up." I say. "What should I get Izzy for her birthday?" He asks as we step off the elevator. "Christiana would know better than me." I say, "You could get her a necklace with a sapphire. That's her birthstone." "Maybe." "See you later, Fulton." I say as I walk into my dorm room. "Connie? Julie? Can you come help me with the puppies?" I ask. "Coming!" Connie hollers from the bathroom. She and Julie walk out and starts to get out the ingredients for the puppy food. "Connie, the vet gave us a new recipe today." I say, handing her the recipe. I let the puppies out into their paradise and grab their bowls. I hand the bowls to Julie and help her dish out the food. "How many more times do the puppies have to get vaccinated before we can take them place?" Julie asks. "They have to go back three more times for their vaccines and then another time for a checkup at four months of age." I answer. "Okay." Julie replies. I hear a knock on the door. I finish washing my hands while Connie answers the door. "Hey, I guess you guys didn't get the texts in the group chat. We're having everybody over for a hangout, want to come?" Charlie says as he pokes his head in. "I thought we were gonna go to the beach later." I say as I dry my hands. "Oh, yeah. That's right. Let me go tell everyone else about it." Charlie says. "I'll text the Tigers." Connie offers. I grab the bowls of puppy food and feed the pups. I change into my swimsuit and take my hair down. I throw on a pair of jean shorts and find my slides. After ten minutes of looking, I finally find them. I put them on and find a towel. I write a quick note for Fulton and Portman because I'm assuming that the information will not get relayed to them. I draw a skull and hockey sticks on it and tape it to the door. "Ready?" I ask Connie and Julie. "Ready." They answer in unison. We walk out and see everybody but Fulton and Dean waiting on us. Bombay walks into our room because he said he would watch the puppies for us. We walk to the elevators and ride down to the lobby. We walk to the beach. I'm sitting on the beach talking to Connie when we see Charlie and Guy splashing us. We leap from our seats and run into the waves, splashing them as much as we can. "AJ! We could use some help here!" I hear Fulton shout. I turn and see Fulton and Dean being chased by teenage girls. "Not this again." I mutter. I walk out of the water and approach Fulton and Portman. "What happened this time?" I ask. "We had left the dorm building and were walking to the beach when somebody said 'OMG! It's Fulton Reed and Dean Portman!' The we were chased." Fulton said. "Yeah, that's pretty much what happened." Dean says. Christiana slowly approaches with a crying Izzy. Fulton walks over and envelopes Izzy in a huge hug. Fulton gets her to stop crying and convinces her to walk over to the crowd of girls. They slowly but surely walk over. "Hi, uh, this is Izzy, my girlfriend." Fulton introduces. Some girls' jaws drop, others gasp. Izzy's face gets pale. And just as quickly as she turned snow white she turns beet red. She hides herself behind Fulton. I step up and take the lead. "Why do you guys care so much about my brothers so much?" I ask the crowd. Surprised expressions turn to confused expressions. "You don't even know them!" "We know that they look good!" Somebody in the crowd shouts. "You know why I trust these people with my life? Because I know them!" I shout, "Sure, sometimes they close themselves off from the world, have a temper tantrum, or even break things. But in the end, we forgive them. You know why? Because we are one big family and we know and trust each other." Izzy pokes her head out from behind Fulton. "C— Can I say something?" Izzy tentatively asks. I nod. "Uh, hi, I'm Isabela. I'm Fulton's girlfriend and I would like to ask you why are so jealous of me? I'm nothing special." "You're on Team USA Softball!" One of them shouts. Others nod. "I'm here because of my encouraging teammates, awesome coaches, and an incredible amount of hard work. When I started playing for this team I was the youngest player and the worst player. I knew I couldn't do anything about being the youngest, but I could do something about being the worst. I would bring a ball and glove to school and do pop flies when ever I could. And after school, I played catch with my sister, threw weighted balls, did tee work, took soft toss, and did timing drills. I'm only here because I worked hard. Now, I'm happy. Can you be happy for me?" Izzy says. Mena walks up and places her hands on Izzy's shoulders. Some of the crowd stand there with their jaws dropped. Others scoff. They all start to retreat back into the city. Fulton hugs Izzy from behind and congratulations her on being so brave. "Good job Izzy." "I'm just sad that they couldn't just be happy for us. We've worked so hard and come such a long way from where we started." "I know, but they don't realize how hard we have to work." "Can we stop talking and just build a sandcastle?" "Sure." Izzy walks over to the buckets and grabs the biggest one. She walks to the water's edge and fills the bucket with wet sand. Izzy takes it over to us and suggests building a tide pool we agree and start to dig a large hole. When we decide it's big enough we fill the other buckets with wet sand and line the inside with the wet sand to keep it from washing away. We build up the sides and build a channel that leads to the ocean. "It's finished." Izzy declares.