𝔰𝔬𝔫𝔤𝔟𝔦𝔯𝔡 [1]

11

It was the day of the Iceland game. I could feel the anxiety rolling off of everyone, especially Julie. She told me that she had talked to Gordon and she wasn't sure still if he was going to let her play. I told her that I'd kick Gordon's ass if he didn't. At least that had made her laugh. 

I was sitting in the locker room, watching everyone get ready when I heard Gordon say, "Alright, are we ready for warm-ups?" 

I looked over at the sound of his voice to see a new man. He was dressed up fancy. A nice suit and his hair heavily slicked back. It reminded me of the movie The Outsiders and how all of their hair was just greased back. 

I couldn't help but start laughing at how stupid this man looked. Everyone else started making fun of him. 

Hey, who's to blame us? 

"Hey, nice jacket. Did you get two pairs of pants with that?" Averman joked. I couldn't help but snort at him. Next to me, Adam did the same. 

I'm about to turn to talk to him when I see Dean and Fulton approach Gordon, I move closer to eavesdrop. 

"Have a good night last night, Coach?" Fulton asked, leaning on a table. 

Gordon looked back at him quickly, "Yeah, it was fine." 

"What'd you do?" Dean asked innocently. 

"Oh, I...you know, just watched some TV, got to bed early." Gordon poorly tried to cover up who he had been with the previous night. I rolled my eyes. He sucked at lying. 

"But not without a little dessert, right?" Dean pressured. 

"A little ice cream, maybe?" Fulton and Dean walked away from Gordon, clearly pissed off by my brother's actions. 

I was gonna turn away again until Averman approached Gordon, "Nice haircut. What, you lose a bet?" He asked seriously. When he saw Gordon's reaction he turned away quickly. 

"Have you even heard a word I've said?" Adam's voice asked from next to me. 

I quickly snapped my attention towards him, "Sorry, what?" 

He rolled his eyes playfully before putting a hand on my shoulder, "It's okay. I know you struggle with simple things." 

I rolled my eyes as Adam's face broke out into a grin, "Shut up, Cake-eater." I bumped my shoulder into his as I walked away from him. 

"Cake-eater? Really, Queens?" 

"Get your ass out on the ice, Banks!" I called out as I continued to walk away. 

The team was now doing their warm ups on the ice. I leaned on the railing of the box, watching them. I could hear more skates on the ice and I turned to see the Iceland team warming up. Their coach entered the box next to use and I looked over at him. He gave me a grin. 

I just looked away and watched the Iceland team now. 

It was easy to find Gunnar, no matter how hard I tried to not find him, I couldn't help it at this point. He could probably feel me looking at him and turned to make eye contact with me. He did that stupid little head nod thing that guys do before pulling his helmet on and starting his warm up. 

I felt myself smile. 

Fuck. 

I cleared my throat as I stood up fully now and moved back to sit on the bench; waiting for the game to start. 

Everyone made their way over to their team's side as an announcer came on, "Hi, everybody. Welcome to today's game. This is a very important match-up, Team U.S.A against Iceland; in what could be a preview of the championship game. Iceland coached by..."