𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙢 / 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚

"i'm out"

"Are you lost little Duck?"

I had only gotten a few steps into the Varsity locker room before being stopped by one of the players. He was tall and one of the guys who regularly took Kenny's lunch.

"No, but I wish I was." I frowned at him and he looked surprised that I had talked back to him.

"Yeah well this is Varsity. Junior Varsity is that way." He started to push me out the door when a familiar voice stopped him.

"Cut it out Cole." 

I turned to see Adam standing next to the guy, Cole, with his arms crossed. "What are you doing here Ella? You don't even have practice today."

"I'm not an idiot Adam, I know where I am." I rolled my eyes in frustration. Clearly no one had bothered to tell the Varsity team that they were getting a new player. "I'm on this team now."

I heard a few laughs from around the room and awkwardly walked to the farthest locker I could find, away from everyone else. I set my stuff down on the bench and started to to take my sweatshirt off. I looked up to see every single varsity player staring at me. 

"Can I help you?" They all immediately looked away and resumed what they had been doing. I guess I was the first girl to ever been on their team. Shocker.

"Good afternoon men." The Varsity coach walked into the locker room and stopped in the middle. He glanced over at me. "And woman. Team, this is Ella. She will be joining us for this season. I'm sure she'll make a great addition. I'll see you all out there!" He walked back out and the room slowly cleared out until just Adam and I remained.

He took a step towards me and stood there for a moment. "Look Ella, I don't want this to be weird for us and-"

"Then don't make it weird Adam." I interrupted. "I know it probably really sucks for you to have me here. I get that."

"That's not what I meant Ella." He shook his head sadly. "I just wish things were different, you know?"

"Yeah." I rubbed my lips together, unsure of what to say. "I'm gonna go. We're already late." 

"Right, of course." He nodded and followed behind me, out the door. 

I joined the other players on the ice and began doing laps. I shook my head at the thought of the conversation with Adam. 

This was going to be a long season.

_

I took my seat next to Adam in the bleachers and sighed. We had just arrived at the Junior Varsity's first game of the season, the game I should've been playing in. 

Around me was the rest of the Varsity players and their cheer-leading girlfriends. Some crowd this was going to be.

I perked up a bit when I saw the Ducks- I mean the Warriors, skate onto the ice. I watched them do a few laps and skate back to the bench, next to Coach Orion. 

"You guys better hope your friends are as good as they say they are." Rick leaned down a row and put his head between Adam and me. "Otherwise my dad is gonna take all of your scholarships away."

I waited for Adam to say something but he just rolled his eyes and turned his head back towards the ice.

"They'll be fine." I smiled at him and focused back on the team's bench. They had just lamely shouted a "go team" and were skating to their positions on the ice. I said a silent prayer that they could pull through and prove everyone at Eden Hall wrong.

Charlie was at the drop and got the puck from the Bears right away. He kept it all the way down to the net and within seconds the Warriors got their first point.