Lead Me Astray - Updated Every Monday

Chapter Two ~ Hunter

I skated effortlessly over the ice, listening to my skates shred the ice into fresh snow from my quick strides. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to (as usual) but instead loving the sound and stillness of the late afternoon.

It brought me peace, which I desperately needed right now. My life was in shudders. That was the word, right? Either way, my life was going up in flames but I couldn't help but to think everything would work its way out.

Maybe it was just my nature or because I had it easy (even I knew I led an easy life) but I truly believed everything would work out the way it was supposed to in the end. If it was meant to be, it would be. Que será, será.

At least my Spanish was getting better...

My head dipped as I decided to do drills like I'd come in here to do. I aligned myself up with the line of pucks and began slapping them one behind the other into the goal. All but one went in.

"Getting sloppy, Captain?!" A voice yelled in joy.

I knew that voice anywhere. It was my best friend, Matt Rogers. I turned to see him walking down the stairs of the bleacher stands at the hockey rink of our high school. I leaned on my stick and waited for him to hobble across the ice to me like a newborn deer.

"I don't know how you do this!" Matt grumbled.

I gave my lopsided grin. "It's easy."

"Give me a field any day!" He grumbled louder. Matt was the quarterback and captain of the football team.

"I'm right at home." I skated circles around him. I was telling the truth. Mom was a big hockey fan and had me and my brothers in peewee by the time we were able to walk. I felt way more natural on skates than I did on my own two feet.

"I see!" Matt wobbled a bit more. "Why don't we go sit down?"

"Why are you here?" There was no heat to my tone.

"I heard Ball Buster Baker had you in her office this morning."

"That's unkind to say about our principal." I sang.

"She is a ball buster. And don't change the subject. Why did she want to see you?"

I shrugged but I knew, a small frown pulling at my lips. "Something about grades."

Matt's expression changed. "Man! What about grades?!"

I shrugged again, a tightening settling between my shoulder blades. "I might be held back a year."

Matt's hazel eyes grew. "What?!"

I frowned as I went to retrieve the pucks and line them up again.

"Hunt! This isn't going away! You've got to go to class and study!"

I scowled. "I hate school! I feel so stupid!"

"I know but-!"

"No buts." I shook my head and took a shot, missing by a mile.

He sighed roughly. "So what's the plan?"

That was Matt, always about planning and solutions. I huffed. "They set me up with a tutor at the beginning of the year. A couple actually."

"Why a couple?" He gave me a look he wore too often with me but I didn't know the name of it. Actually my teachers did, too.

I scratched my head through my helmet. "They all kinda... quit."

Matt laughed. Loud and hard.

I hated when people laughed at me when I was serious. Maybe it was because I was so rarely serious, they thought I never was?