Bombay's Twins

More Practice

Garrett passed a few skaters as Bombay rode in a golf cart down the street, the rest of the kids following in tow. Luis was up ahead, but started falling behind as he was talking to the others and wasn't able to skate and yell. Elliott passed the outer circle of kids and skated up next to her brother. Their roller skates were the exact same, one was bigger than the other. The bigger pair was Garrett's while the smaller one belonged to Elliott.

Going to pass Coach and the cart, the rest of the kids on the team grew quiet, unsure if they were allowed to do that. The twins passed the cart and Bombay looked over at them. Seeing who it was, he wanted to speak up to his kids, but left them. He hadn't had a proper conversation with them. He wasn't sure how they'd react. It was harder because they weren't really socializing with the Ducks, but more with the new recruits. As long as they spoke to others, but he wanted them to talk to the Ducks as well.

Coach Bombay sped up in the cart, having to do something now. An arm on the seat, he looked over at them. "What are you two doing?" He asked.

Garrett looked away, wanting nothing to do with him at this moment. Elliott looked down from her brother and over to her coach. She shrugged. "We're skating." She answered, a little shy to speak to him. Haven't seen him in almost five years.

"Stay behind the cart, please." He told them. The two nodded and pulled back from beside the cart. Behind now, Coach hollered out the beginning of a song, the rest of the team repeating it. "I don't know what I've been told! Team USA's gonna win the gold!"

"Team USA's gonna win the gold!" The team repeated louder.

"Listen up and listen good!"

"Listen up and listen good!"

Ellie rolled her eyes lightly with a sigh, not sure why they were chanting such a song. They didn't need a song for motivation, they needed each other for motivation. They need practice and hope, not a song, but she joined along as well as Garrett.

"We're all headed for Hollywood! Sound off!" Coach called.

"One, two!"

"Sound off!"

"Three, four!" The team shouted.

"Sound 'em off!"

"One, two, three, four!" The team called out loudly and laughed, spinning on their skates, turning and jumping as they cheered. Soon, they went over a hill and everyone surpassed the cart and Coach.

"Seriously?" Garrett spoke. "Now, we can pass. Like now?" He retorted, crossing his arms as he passed the cart nonchalantly. Elliott did as well, glancing at the road ahead as she skated.

Later that day, they had a class outside with Miss MacKay, she stood in front of the group. The players were sprawled across the grass on rocks, a picnic table, or simply sitting on the grass. The twins sat near one of the corners by Fulton Reed, the tall defensemen from the Ducks team. Elliott was playing with some dead strands of grass while Garrett leaned against her, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket.

Miss MacKay noticed that everyone else had been talking and answering questions or discussing the topic, except for the Caldwell twins. She sighed and looked down at them with a smile. Noticing how close the two were, she realized they weren't like most siblings. Seeing how close they are, they must've experienced something together that had re-enforced their relationship to become stronger rather than weaker.

Thinking of something to ask to the quiet twins, she spoke up as the rest of the team had kept quiet and watched. Leaning over to see the twins, the team looked at one another with shrugged shoulders. The twins hadn't noticed Miss MacKay's stare at them and nor did they see her feet move forward by two steps. They seemed quite oblivious.

Her hands together, her hair blew behind her. "Garrett? Elliott?" She spoke up, the two looked up, wincing from the blinding sun. "Garrett, can you tell me what globalization is?"

"The process of an interaction and integration come together, or between, with people, companies, and government stuff. For instance, an example, without the Industrial Revolution, we wouldn't have been able to be here today." He said nonchalantly with a smile, knowing he wasn't super dumb or super smart. Something he picked up in his advanced History class, with his sister, of course.

"Elliott, what's the industrial revolution?" Miss MacKay asked, impressed with Garrett, but wanted to see if she was paying attention as well. Garrett leaned back against his sister and went back to playing with his zipper, his knees up, blocking his view from a few of the players in front of him, which wasn't purposely done.

Elliott looked up bringing her hand up to her head. "Industrial revolution was the era in the late 1800s and beginning 1900s. Factories were built. They built technology such as cars, steamboats, planes, and trains. With that, communication evolved, allowing people to communicate together around the world."

Miss MacKay looked at them, her mouth agape, and the other players looked bewildered. Not knowing what either of those words were until they explained. "You two are quite intelligent."

"What our mother used to say." Garrett spoke up, zipping and unzipping his USA jacket, which matched everyone else's.

"Well," She brought her hands behind her back and looked at the rest of the class. "Class is dismissed for today and thank you Goldberg for explaining what 'falafels' were." She smiled. Team USA got up and started walking back to the arena. Miss MacKay stopped the Caldwell twins.

"Elliott, Garrett. You two are really smart, how did you two know all that stuff?" She asked them, looking back and forth between the two kids.

They both shrugged, looked at one another, and turned back to her. "We like history class quite a lot, so we're in an advanced class." Elliott explained.

She nodded. "Well, I'm always looking for extra hands. If you two ever want to help explain to the class various points of history, I'd be happy to let you."

They nodded. "Anytime." They spoke unison.

"Can we go?" Garrett asked.

Miss MacKay nodded and allowed them to leave. The two left and she ran off to go Coach Bombay's office. She arrived at the arena where all the kids were sitting in the shared locker room talking amongst themselves. Various conversations were up and some even punched the punching bag, seeing who was stronger after Portman and Fulton.

MacKay knocked on Bombay's door and entered, shutting the door, she smiled brightly and took her seat in front of them. Miss MacKay doesn't know that the twins are in fact his kids. He hasn't told anyone and seeing that they're going by Caldwell, he might as well forget his last name on the back of his kids' jerseys.

"What can I do for ya, Miss MacKay?" He smiled, bringing his hands above the desk as he leaned back in his comfortable office chair.

"Well," She crossed her leg over the other as she leaned on the desk. "Elliott and Garrett are extremely smart. Not paying attention during class and I can ask them something about the topic, and they can answer it with a paragraph."

"Each of them?" He asked. "A solid paragraph?"

She nodded. "Garrett explained globalization and Elliott explained industrial revolution. Two big topics in World History."

Bombay grew curious. Apparently there was a lot about his kids he didn't know. There was nothing he knew about his kids. He knew they were good at hockey, but not this good. Garrett being crowned Captain and Elliott behind in a close lead, he couldn't believe it. He knew he needed to have a proper talk with them. Seeing as they had already spoke to him, well Elliott has, and that was merely a full sentence, he knew he needed to talk with his children. Not knowing what has happened in their lives over the past five years, even more, he needed to catch up.