the only exception - kenny wu

16. alley oop

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that's how the team landed on an old court, standing in front of a bunch of russ's friends. russ and another boy stood in front of their group, while jesse and arabella stood in the front of theirs.

"my little brother russ has been telling me that you've been choking big time," the boy next to russ said. arabella took note of that, 'taunting kids name is russ.'

"well your brothers got a big mouth."

most of the team backed away, assuming the worst. but russ's brother just looked down at russ, who grinned back up at him. "he does, doesn't he?"

"we thought we'd call you all to see what you got."

"we know you can talk to the press and sign autographs."

arabella rolled her eyes. "don't forget getting beaten up by iceland giants."

luis didn't take that, and he spoke up. "we can do more than that."

"yeah? we can teach you to play like the real team u.s.a."

dean, who was still mad about earlier, stepped up next to jesse. "and what would you know about it?"

the boys looked at each other, and arabella knew something would happen to dean. the game started, and almost immediately, dean got smashed into the fence, making arabella laugh.

"you gotta earn every inch!" russ's brother told him, as he skated off to continue playing. arabella had to admit, these boys knew how to play. this was one of the most fun games she had while at the goodwill games.

after a few minutes of shoving and skating, the street hockey players scored, making them cheer. arabella realized that they really knew what they were doing, and they were fun.

arabella took a faceoff, and winked at the winger from the other team. "hey handsome."

this distracted him, and jesse passed her the puck. it was something they did whenever they were on the same line. they would come up with a code word, and when either of them would call it out, arabella knew to flirt with the other player, then jesse would pass the puck to her. arabella skated past the other team and scored in the metal bin that acted like a goal net.

the team cheered, and the other winger came up to her. "hey, nice strategy. i'm luke."

kenny noticed the boy talking to arabella as he went to go play, and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. he saw arabella laugh and say bye to the boy after talking for a little bit. she went to the bench and sat with dwayne, who was grinning.

the next play, russ scored a goal, commentating his own actions. he grabbed a water bottle from his teammate before skating over to the team. "you take a few breaths, slug some water, and get out there and do it again!"

he threw the water bottle towards charlie, who took it and drank some water himself. charlie skated out and joined the play, making the team cheer for him.

"let's go spazway!" arabella cheered. charlie looked back at her and smiled, happy she was talking to him again. she smiled back, and watched as luis took the puck from behind russ's brother, skating towards the goal.

he scored, but he was skating so fast that even if he knew how to stop, he wouldn't be able to. he crashed into the fence, and someone from russ's team went up to him to help him up. "hey, hey, hey, use the brakes, baby!"