𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐘 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 || 𝐀•𝐁

𝟎𝟎𝟏 || 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒

"𝐀shley, in all due respect..are you sure hockey's doing good for you?"

Kate, her concerned mother, questioned as she folded some clean laundry into the basket on the arm of their light brown linen couch that sat at a slant from a pillow war last night between Ashley and her bestfriend, Averman.

"It's fine, mom. I'm fine."Ashley reassured, smoothing down her colorful striped sweater in front of the hanging mirror nailed to the wall before the stairs. She heard Kate sigh, and shrugged before grabbing her black Chuck Taylors that had been worn out quite a bit.

"Be safe, it's slippery out there!"Kate exclaimed quickly before her daughter could leave the house. Ashley nodded with an exaggerated sigh, tying her navy blue laces tightly on the polished oak floor.

Her mother smiled, swiftly grabbing the swinging photo frame before it shattered on the floor. It was like a reflex at this point, Ashley liked the sound of her voice and slamming doors.

Outside, the frost bit her nose and fogged their breath when they laughed out loud at Averman slipping on the ice. A taller girl, named Connie joined in on that laughter, holding her hockey stick to keep herself up from falling like Averman did.

"A little help here?"Averman smiled, holding his hand for assistance. Instead, he got a stone placed in his hand and a proud smile from his bestfriend.

"Why should i help you?"Ashley questioned with a slight smirk twitching at the corners of her pale lips. Her hands behind her back, an amused look plastered on her face as she skated around her helpless friend carefully.

Averman thought. "Because i am amazing and my name is Lester?"

She chuckled, grabbing ahold of his hand and attempting to pull him back onto his feet. It was a struggle, her skates weren't much grip and the ice wasn't helping.

"Why are you so heavy?!"Ashley groaned, feeling her skates slide ahead and a harsh hit to the back of her thighs. The ice stung to her legs, even through her black sweatpants. The team laughed at the misfortune, it was definitely karma for laughing at Averman.

"Hey, maybe now that you've fell, you won't at the game tomorrow." Charlie smiled, only meaning well. Ashley rolled her eyes jokingly, pulling herself up and wiping the snowflakes that stuck to the damp fabric off back onto the ice and sighed loudly.

"Where's the puck?"They questioned, everyone's heads turned around in search for the weighted black circle. Confused questions started to go round, until a loud yell was heard from the makeshift goal.

The team slowly turned around, looking down at their goalie, Greg Goldberg, who in truth wasn't that good at hockey and needed some improvement. The puck slid out from his hands, a tired grunt left his lips and his breath disappeared into the day.

"Found it."Ashley stated, skating forward and sliding it back. Her hand shot out, hooking onto Goldberg's wrist and managed to pull him up with the help of Connie and Guy. The three panted, patting the boys shoulder with a smile before skating back into their positions to try and at least practice.

The coach, Coach Tyler, had died from a heart attack a few weeks before the season started, and nobody wanted to coach some hockey rejects. It was hopeless, they couldn't skate left from right, and couldn't defend a goal.

"Hey..is that a limousine?"Ashley stopped in her tracks, her eyes squinted and her eyebrows furrowed deeply at the black car that was seemingly driving towards them instead of past.

The team shared a look of confusion, huddling in and eyeing the car with shared thoughts. Jesse Hall, being the loudmouth he is took the role of leader and pushed himself forward.

"Hey."Ashley groaned, rubbing her shoulder while glaring at her teammate. Her eyes diverted to the drivers tinted windows, the car looked fancy and rich people have fancy cars. It reminded her of the cars she saw on TV, and some in Edina. A rich people town, Cake-Eater town.

"Riley, Ashley-"Her head picked up, looking around frantically to see who said her name backwards. Connie nudged her shoulder, making her face forward and look at the man in front of her. He didn't look happy, who could blame him?

He looked at the brunette, she was the one they warned him about. However, she looked harmless, just a child in his eyes. The two stared, both having their own thoughts before the man broke it and carried on down the list.

"Listen, i hate hockey and i don't like kids."He stated proudly almost, a hint of exhaustion laced in his voice. He looked around, seeing a hand shoot up and trailed the hand down to Ashley, who looked very confused.

He nodded, letting her speak.

"I have two questions, If you hate hockey, why are you a hockey coach?Secondly, if you don't like kids, why are you coaching kids?"Ashley questioned, looking him up and down and kissing her teeth quietly as she looked back down at her skates.

"I'm not a coach."He responded, turning back to his car but obviously, he couldn't quite go back to hide yet.

"Then what are you?"Ashley asked, pushing past her teammates and putting her hand on the handle. Gordon groaned, he wanted nothing more than for this to be a bad dream.

"A lawyer."Gordon sighed, he knew deep down she wasn't gonna give up until she made him crack. He took her hand off the handle, but it made it ways back onto it.

"Lawyers defend clients in court cases, they don't coach hockey."Ashley explained to him, even though he already knew.

She could tell he was getting annoyed, and she wasn't gonna stop annoying him the whole season.

i rewrote bc the whole story was sloppy, and just wasn't working.