Fitness Crimes

Chapter 18- League matches and Lollipop maneuvers.

The league match. The same three words that are coursing through every hockey player's mind today. It is finally time.

"River where are my shin pads?" Hein yells from his room, I can hear him scurrying around as he throws stuff out of his way in search of his shins.

"They are in the car!" I answered back and continue with the task at hand. I was busy making a jelly dessert for tomorrow night. It was the night that Alex will finally come and visit. I have kept him informed about the whole ordeal with the hockey and he has offered to help me as much as he can. He will be staying for a week before he goes on tour with his team for the year.

"When will Coachie be here?" Gary questions as he steps into the kitchen dressed in his game attire. He had been very cranky about the whole ordeal of Alex coming to visit and had decided to call him Coachie from now on.

"Tomorrow night, for the 100th time." I mumbled the last part softly, placing the dessert in the fridge and turning towards Gary. I had a stern look on my face with one eyebrow raised and both arms crossed over my chest. "Remember you will not be calling him Coachie when he gets here. I told him all about you guys when I was there and he's really excited to meet the two of you; therefore I ask very nicely that you be nice."

"Fine," he grumbled, spinning on his heel and stomping out of the kitchen like a little child. A scowl was etched on his face and I knew that he was planning to taunt him when he got here.

Yesterday at practise Coach had called me aside, and asked me to rather be a reserve and a watergirl for the team. He didn't want to use those exact words, but that was basically what he wanted me to be. I assume that he only wanted to give me a job in hope that I would be satisfied that I actually had the opportunity to do something. That, of course, was not the case because I was absolutely pissed off.

"Everyone ready?" I questioned as I stepped into the living room where both were waiting. I had the case with all the bottles tugged underneath my arm. A smile was etched on my face, but on the inside I was scowling. I wanted to be the one that's playing.

"Yeah," Hein looked excited as he nearly sprinted out of the door leaving his hockeybag behind and only returning a few seconds later to fetch it."Now I am."

"Come on,"Gary grumbled and stepped aside so that I could walk through the front door. He looked it behind him and fell into step beside me as we made our way downstairs. I was dressed in something similar to them since I was 'part of the team'. The uniform consisted of navy shorts and a white shirt that has every player's name on the back's bottom with their number and lastly the school logo printed in navy. Apparently this was only the warm-up uniform, but it was necessary on game days. The game shirt was a shirt that matched the shorts, but the printing was in white and it did not have the player's name on the bottom since it was too 'high school'. The first teams had a say in what they wanted to wear for game days. They had 3 different uniforms and all three included the game uniform plus the warm-up one. I didn't understand why it was such a big deal to have so many clothes since everyone should be focusing on the game and not the outfits that they are wearing.

I also had the uniforms, but since I wasn't playing I had to wear a different colour shirt. This one was three sizes too big for me, it was a mustard yellow colour and it had the word Water printed in black on the back along with the school logo on the front like the others'.

"I won't call him Coachie," Gary said softly as we reached the car. Hein was already sitting in the passenger seat, jumping up and down like a little kid. He really looked excited for this, probably since the last game he played was our championship. Gary is also part of a club that plays league matches over the holidays so he seemed quite calm about the whole ordeal.