𝔰𝔬𝔫𝔤𝔟𝔦𝔯𝔡 [1]

18

About an hour after all of us had fallen asleep, there's a knock on the door. I'm the only one who wakes up to it so I get up and to open it and see Dean standing there, "Oh, hey Dean."

"Wren, are Connie and Julie awake?"

I look behind me to see Julie and Connie still sleeping soundly, "No. Why?" I hear other people in the hallway and look to see almost the full team moving around in their matching gear, "What's going on?"

"We're doing a team workout. We need the two sleeping beauties."

I look behind me and then back at Dean, "Alright, well you can wake them up. I'm not facing their wrath." I move so Dean can walk in the room.

See, I wasn't exactly expecting a nice wake up call for the both of them but I also wasn't expecting Dean to yell wake up motherfuckers at the top of his lungs.

Pillows are thrown and there's lot of groaning coming from their beds, "Gotta get up! Let's go!" Dean calls out before walking out of the room. I follow him, not wanting to be the next victim of flying pillows.

I bump into Guy, "It's probably safest if you're the one to go get Connie up, right now."

Guy sighs, still clearly very tired, "Yeah, alright."

Soon all of us are at the gym that is open for the teams, they're all out on a field, stretching. Dean stands in front, leading the exercise. I sit down a little ways away from him, watching everyone, "And hold, two, three-"

"Coach isn't here. Why do we have to be?"

"We have a game tonight, we have to work out." Dean continues.

Goldberg stands up, "I say mutiny. Who's with me?"

Dwayne stands up, raising his hand, "Goldberg, I'm too tired to mutiny."

"Come on guys, it's not like we couldn't use the conditioning." Julie says, ever the athlete.

"Speak for yourself, babe." Dean says, very cockily might I add.

Adam stands up and glares at Dean, "Her names Julie, not 'babe'."

Clearly the effects of no sleep is wearing on everyone as Dean points at Adam and threatens him, "Don't tell me how to talk, rich boy!" Dean shoves Adam back.

"Hey, Portman, chill!" Fulton says, immediately defending his friend.

Everyone starts yelling and fighting with each other, I'm about to get up and shut them all up when I hear, "Hey yo! Team U.S.A., what are you going to do today? A million jumping jacks?"

I look over to see the kid that was heckling the team at one of the games shouting at them.

"This kid's crazier than me. Forget about him!" Dean says and turns back to start yelling again.

Jesse pushed through everyone, "Hey man, I'm getting sick of you!"

The kid starts moving closer to the team, "And I'm getting sick of seeing the U.S.A represented by a bunch of whining babies!"

"Well, too bad you can't back up that mouth." Jesse calls back.

"Man, me and my boys can take you anytime, anywhere."

Jesse shakes his head, "I don't see no 'boys'."

"I got 'em waiting! Grab your gear and lets go play some school yard puck. Or maybe you forgot what it's like to play for real pride!"

Security notices the commotion and starts to move the kid away from all of us, removing him from the area, "Come on, it's not too far, you little wimps. You coming or not?"

The team starts to grab their things and follow the boy when Adam turns back and looks at me still standing there, "Well, come on."

I smile softly and follow after the team.

Soon we're in a basketball court and I'm watching the two teams face off against each other. Team U.S.A in their little get ups and the other team in everyday clothing.

"My little brother Russ here has been telling me that you guys have been choking big time." One of the kids say. He looks a little bit older than the rest of the group.

"Well your brother's got a big mouth." Jesse shoots back, not being able to control his mouth."

The two teams stare at one another, everyone starts to get a little nervous.

The older kid looks down at Russ, "He does, doesn't he?" Russ smiles, "Anyways, we thought we'd call you all to see what you've got."

"Yeah, we know you can talk to the press and sign autographs." Russ accuses.

"We can do more than that." Luis defends.

"Oh, yeah?" The older guy starts, "We can teach you to play like the real team U.S.A."

"What would you know about it?"

The game starts. The other team clearly knowing more than mine, which doesn't bother me. I was being entertained by the game anyways.

There's lots of checks going around and everyone on the bench is cheering on their friends. I just sit and watch.

"Hey! Ain't no whistles out here either! You keep diggin' until you score that goal!" Russ's brother yells out.

After Russ scores and his team starts to cheer him on he continues the advice, "And then you take a few breaths, slug some water..." He throws his water at Charlie, "And then you get out there and you do it again."

Luis grabs the puck from Russ's brother and scores a goal before slamming into a wall yelling, "Oh not again!"

One of the other team members skate up to him and pull him up, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Use the breaks, baby." He skates away from him, closer to me and winks. I smile back at him as the game continues.

Fulton manages to get the puck and hits it hard, causing it to go over the fence and away from all of us. Charlie yells out to get the puck back and someone throws it. The game keeps going.

Soon, Russ makes an amazing goal with a cool trick and everyone stares in amazement at him, "What the heck kinda shot was that?" Fulton asks him.

Russ wipes his stick, "Ah, you like that, huh? That's my knucklepuck. It's hard to be accurate but it drives goalies crazy."

Everyone keeps shouting encouragement at their sides, when the kid who winked at me earlier skates over to start talking to me, "Hey, what's up? I'm Gio."

He offers his hand out for me and I shake it, "Wren."

"So, uh, how long are you guys here for?"

I smile at him, "Depends on how many more games these nerds win."

Gio smiles, "Well, I hope you guys keep winning."

I'm about to say something when I hear Russ's brother yell out, "Aw, you done messed up now! Come here, I'm gonna get you!" As he skates quickly towards Kenny. "Come here! Come here, junior! Come here! No. I'm just messin' with you okay? Listen, when a guy comes at you like I just did, you do this." He throws his stick on the ground, along with his gloves and moves to pull Kenny's shirt off of his back, "Stick, gloves, and shirt."

Kenny smiles at him, "Yeah, ok. My turn." And he copies the other kid's actions. "All right?"

"All right." The other kid smiles at him.

Everyone cheers and the game is over. We all leave to get on a bus to take us back as the other guys yell at us.