South || Benny Rodriguez (Book 2)

7

Naomi's P.O.V.

Flashback

June 30, 1962

Lucy held my wrist as we walked down the downtown streets of Minnesota. Charlie stood in front of us talking to Cam who decided to come along.

I look around taking in the scenery. It was pretty up here. Everything was alive, and the air was fresher. The weather wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too cold either. It was perfect for street hockey, but since it was the end of June, July being tomorrow, where would they play?

Soon my questions were being answered as we showed up to an ice rink. I take in the building like I have been doing with everything else around here. It seemed like a nice place from the outside, not like someone rich owned it, or would even come here. It more along the lines seemed like a place for kids to come and skate around. It was a family place to come and have fun.

We walked over to the main desk, paid, got our ice-skates, then walked through another big door. As we walked through there was a big wall, with glass windows so you could look out at the rink.

There wasn't very many people here, just some kids goofing around the rink, laughing and playing. Something I wish I was doing with the guys back at the sandlot.

You never really realize what good you have until it's taken away from you. A very short time with them and they truly made a big mark on my life.

We walked down the hallway, through a door opening, and walked down some stairs leading to the teams "dugout" if you will. It's really the box where the team stays at when getting benched for a game.

Some kids, maybe around Cam age, stood around holding hockey sticks while others were skating around.

That's when they noticed us and stopped their conversation.

"Hey! Guys! Come here for a second!" Charlie yelled as he cupped his hands around his mouth.

Soon there was many of them standing around looking between me, Cam, and Lucy. But with the mood I was in and also not knowing who they are, I probably looked like a bitch.

"Guys this is Cam, Lucy, and Naomi. They came here from Utah." Charlie explained as he pointed to all of us with the corresponding names.

"You are from Utah?" A short guy asked, I looked at what he was wearing and then the rest of them.

None of them were wearing the same thing, in fact it looked like this is what they would normally wear. It didn't really phase me much, I mean the sandlot gang didn't really wear the same thing either. Just how I liked it.

"Yeah, ain't that what he just said?" I sassed back. Told you my mood wasn't a very good one.

"Geez. Feisty." He mumbled, making me chuckle.

"She actually played hockey herself and is willing to coach us." Charlie added before anymore comments came rolling in.

"From Utah and played hockey? Charlie, who even is she?" Another boy asked.

I rolled my eyes, picking up Lucy.

"Is there something wrong with where I came from? I don't have time for little kids to be criticizing where I came from when their own team can't even skate." I sassed, as I turn to walk away.

"Oh, so you a pro hockey player?" I hear from the group.

I turned back around, and looked between them, "Probably one better than all you put together." I smirked.

"Do you wanna bet on that?" The voice sounded like it belonged to the same person that said the last comment.

"Show me what ya got and maybe I'll take that bet."   I smirked and looked over at Charlie, who was smirking back at me.

—

I started to noticed the more trash talk I have, the more they were to defend themselves. They could talk all day, but fall and prove I was right all night long.

"Why haven't you got on the ice yet? You wanna keep talking like you play, so let's see you play." A girl said, panting as she stopped skating.

"I don't have skates. I don't play real hockey, I play street." I explained as they started to come over to the box.

"So how are we supposed to trust you, if you don't really know it yourself?" She asked.

"That's a chance I'm willing to take." I said looking around between them.

"But this isn't your team." The goalie said, I think his name is Golberg.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is there a winning streak or something you are trying to keep." As I locked eyes with whoever said it.

"Actually, we are trying to keep the losing one." Peter mouthed, I learned his name real quick.

I chuckled at him, "That's pretty nice. Okay, well, what do you guys do during practice?"

"Try to hit the puck and stay upright on our skates." Charlie explained.

"Okay, lets started with drills then." I said starting to walk on the ice, "Form lines of 3 at the circle."

They skated to the center as I walked over to them, "Okay watch. We're going to do basic skating, just learning how to stay up." I paused, "This is the ground breaker, all your going to do, is move in unison, 2 paces to the right then to left, as you pace you'll stop yourself then move back to the right."

"How exactly do we stay in unison?"
"How exactly do we do what she just asked?"

"We're going to be here awhile." I mumbled to myself as I started to explain my drill.

—

"Can we stop yet?"
"Yeah, we've been out here for 5 hours, give us a break."

"You can go home, you guys have done really good today, I'm proud of you guys. Meet back here at what? Uh, noon?" I asked.

"See you then Coach." Peter said.

"Bye Peter."

I walk back to the box and see Cam and Lucy standing there, "Well this was fun, can we go?"

I chuckled, "Wait for Charlie."

—