Plié and Clout

Chapter 11: @s.sagamore.53 and His Sister Have the Moves Down, No Denying

quarantine update because I'm being driven insane by the family

Music comes inside this one, and I hope you enjoy it.

-rabid

***

STEPHAN:

"First game boys!" Nico hollers from the table she's standing on. We yell back. A home game against the Blackhawks, pre-season opener. "You know what that means. We play as hard as we can, we burn it all. This is the test of our chemistry as a team. We fight as hard as we can, and we win." She starts slapping her stick against the table. "This year we're doing something a bit different for warmups. We all know the warmup routine, we've practiced. But the music in the background is going to be a little wild. We have a new and fresh fanbase. We're a developing strength in the league. I want you guys to engage with the crowd, start dancing. Keep it loose. Do what you want. Don't be serious, that will scare the hawks when we get out there and physically overpower them."

"You sound cocky, Nico." Fen stands near her in the locker room.

"I am cocky, Sauerkraut." She retorts. "And I want all of you to act cocky. We will win. We gotta."

"Hey Rocket," I lean over to him. "Did your mom get Jilly on the way here?"

"She shoulda, I told her to," He chuckles. "We'll find out once we get in there."

"I guess we will." I snort.

"WOLVES ON THREE!" Nico hollers. "ONE!"

"TWO!" We yell with her.

"THREE! WOLVES!"

"GO GET 'EM BOYS!" Nico waves us all on, and we sprint onto the ice by line. Goalies first, then offense-defense pattern by lines. First-line offense and defense go first, then second-line, so on and so forth. I'm a second line defenseman, so I'm a good way back.

When my skate hits the ice, my blood fills with adrenaline. Just like it does every time. My edges catch and I take the lap with the team. The stands roar and cameras focus on us. My Wolves jersey flows behind me and I slide into a warm-up position, ready for anything. Rocket spilt the pucks and I catch one on my stick, mindlessly noodling around with it.

I hear a racket on the glass behind me and turn.

Jilly

I grin and give her a thumbs up. One of the older guys' wives must have given her the front.

I take an easy pass to Fen and he shoots on net. I return to the line.

This music sounds wildly familiar.

Come on Eileen.

Oh my god.

I grin immediately and turn back to Jilly. She's wearing my jersey over a hoodie and knows exactly what's up. She can't hear me through the glass but I start to dance with her anyway. It's a dumb little jig that Mom taught us. It looks stupid from any angle but the one doing it. I'm having a blast. Rocket comes over after stretching and joins us, picking up on the jig slowly.

I break away to take another pass at the goal, but come right back, lifting a leg and hopping around to keep on with the dance. Before I know it, it's me, Rocket, Greenbean and Jilly all dancing. Nico gives me a thumbs up from the bench and I give her one back.

We control the music, therefore, the next song is equally as stupid and funny. The Blackhawks on the other side of the rink look pissed. I take a third pass at the net.

Hips don't lie.

They're playing Shakira at a professional hockey game.

A couple of us start laughing uncontrollably. I wheeze a bit but stay focused on the warm-ups. Just me dancing turns to Fen on the other side, joined by Yeti, then that guy I've only ever heard referred to Pikachu because of his yellow bandana that he wears all the time. Rocket and I line up and have a dance-off with the three over there. Jilly is laughing behind me. Paxton kicks his padded leg into the air and we start a kick line. Whatever those are called. A couple more guys join. They break off to take a run through the drill and then tack on the end when they're done. The kickline turns to a half-assed macarena with too much hips and not enough of the rest.

After Hips Don't Lie,

They play none other than:

Panic! At the Disco.

High Hopes.

Jilly knows this song by heart and I hear it played around the apartment too much. I turn around to her completing the full lip-sync and choreography. I join in on the parts I know, pausing halfway through to take a pass at the goal. She laughs as I come back around and spray the boards with snow.

Warm-ups wrap up, sadly, and the starting line stretches across the blue line facing the flags. I'm bench bound, and we stack ourselves facing the flag. My helmet comes off and my glove goes over the little NHL symbol on my jersey.

After the two anthems, I flop down on the bench and watch the puck drop. Thirty seconds later, I'm iced. 

Ah yes.

Home.

My head is dead blank, all that I need to know is habit, instinct. I don't think, I act. Natural. This is natural. Puck on my stick, I take it up the ice, to Pickle. From Pikachu to Keegan to Langley. Tic-tac toe. Nico is fluent in nicknames and trash talk and that's all I'm hearing from the bench.

***

"That was insane," Jilly is finishing up her homework on the couch when I walk in. I'm sweaty and gross. Games are only warmups, considering I don't play all that much. Afterward, the team goes and works out, heavy lifting type things.

"I know right?" I laugh a bit. "I knew it was game over after Sauerkraut scored, you could feel it."

Jilly closes her book and stands to stretch. "Oh, hey wait, we made the NHL Instagram."

"We did?" I walk over to her and look down at her phone. There's an up-close video of us dancing to Come on Eileen through the glass. The caption is '@s.sagamore.53 and his sister have the moves down, no denying.'

"Oh god," I laugh. She scrolls up to the Wolves post about tonight.

"Look, look," She points. @nhl.wolves posted a picture of the final score and then a video of the whole team doing the kick-line. 'New season, new moves. 2-1 win over the @nhlblackhawks in the first preseason game. Go Wolves!'

"This is going to be huge," I laugh. "Making fools of ourselves for fun."

"You had fun though," She pokes me.

"Duh," I chuckle. "Alright, I need to stretch." I flop down onto the ground and grab my roller from under the couch.

"Oh boy," Jilly laughs. "I need to get to bed, I've got a math test tomorrow, I need to sleep for it."

"Alright, I'll be out here, stretching and things." I groan to myself as I hit a particularly sensitive spot on my hamstring.