On Thin Ice

The one where Lexa's back

"Where's Woods?" Coach Kane's voice rang loud and clear in the small space of the dressing room. No one answered him. Clarke hung her head in the corner, unable to make her voice sound.

"I said where is Lexa Woods?" Kane spoke again, this time a little more forceful. Clarke raised her head, about to say something, anything when the door swung open, banging against the wall.

In strode Lexa. Clarke couldn't look at the girl, but everyone else did. They stared at her appearance- the messy state of her clothes, the blotchy redness on her high cheekbones, the disheveled state of her usually pristine hair, but most of all, the emptiness that lurked within usually striking eyes. Clarke saw none of this, refusing to lift her head up. There was complete silence as Lexa walked in and through the room, immediately setting her gear bag down and getting dressed.

"LEXA WOODS!"

Raven flinched. Whatever happened to Lexa to make her this late, Coach didn't care. Lexa was about to get dragged down to the pits of hell.

"Where were you, hmm?" Coach stalked towards the girl, who was in a frantic rush to change into her hockey gear. The Zamboni was already on the ice making its laps. It only had 6 more passes before it was done. Lexa stood no chance of getting dressed before warm-ups.

"What part of one hour before do you not understand?" Coach Kane's voice rose at the end of his sentence and he stopped. He stood in the middle of the room, body tense and arms crossed. He took a deep breath and his voice was a touch softer when he spoke to the brunette again.

"What happened Lexa? Where were you?"

Lexa didn't answer, instead, started dressing faster, if possible.

"Lexa?"

Silence.

"Lexa!"

"What! Nothing happened!"

"Then why-"

"I forgot okay?" Lexa said nothing after this, choosing to stay silent. Marcus took a deep breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You forgot?" Lexa's teammates' eyes moved back and forth to their coach, to Lexa, and back again. Raven and Octavia could not believe what they were hearing. Coach Kane sighed and grabbed his board roughly from the bench. He moved on to going over some plays and strategies, reminding the girls that even though this team wasn't very big, they were fast and clever. Having played them before, the Arkers went into this game with some knowledge of how the Stingers played.

Lexa was somehow dressed and ready when the rest of the girls stood up. Harper, their goalie, led the way out of the dressing room, down the short hallway and towards the ice. Coach Kane opened the rink door and the girls stepped onto the ice.

Octavia dumped the pucks out onto the ice and the girls started their warm-ups, skating up from the corner, passing the puck quickly off to each other before shooting on the net. Clarke tried to stop thinking about everything else other than hockey, but she found herself stealing glances at Lexa as she went through the drills halfheartedly. The strong defenseman was off her game, it seemed. That was clear to anyone who looked.

For the start of the game, Coach Kane put out his first line consisting of Clarke, Raven, and Octavia. However, he glanced at Lexa quickly and said that Natalie and Sarah, the second line defensemen, were starting. Lexa said nothing, just skated silently onto the bench, followed by the rest of her teammates.

"You ready, Clarke?" Clarke turned her head. It was Raven, smiling at her. Clarke gave a tense smile back as she lined up for the opening face-off. The referee blew his whistle and Clarke's body stilled until, in the blink of an eye, the puck was snapped down and she moved her stick as fast as she could to win the puck back to her defensemen. However, her timing was off and the other center-man took control of the puck. Clarke shook off the loss and skated hard towards the girl with the puck, trying to make her cough it up. The other team's defenseman passed the puck hard to a waiting forward, who tried to make a rush into their zone, but was quickly angled off by Natalie. Octavia started up ice and Natalie hit her with a break-out pass. She dropped it to Clarke, who was skating a little behind her, could pick it up and continue the rush, but the blonde was caught off guard and missed the puck. The opposing team took possession once and again, and it was back down in their zone. Play went on in the Arker's defensive zone for a while before Sarah iced the puck and the whistle was blown. Clarke was breathing heavily, tired from the too-long shift she just had.