Plié and Clout

Chapter 63: USNTDP and the OHL

this is long but you figure out a little more about Steph's history with the league and other hockey details

WEIRD QUESTION: those of you with stories on here, are your 'unique readers' statistics not updating? Like, since july 23rd? mine haven't and all the other statistics have updated. It's just my most interesting stat board and I wanna know sometimes, ya feel? 

EDITED TO FIT

-rabid

***

STEPHAN

They manage to get me in at RGH mid-afternoon on Sunday. And I have August pick me up.

"So?" She asks, looking up from her phone in the waiting room.

I break into a grin. "Cleared! I've got three days of rest and another scan and then they say it's probably going to be fine to keep going on. I didn't do tendon damage at all and it was just a tiny little overuse issue."

She smiles up at me. "Hell yeah." She stands up and joins me while I sign out and fill out a couple of papers. "So, the collapse at the game was just an overuse issue?"

I blush. "Uh, no, that was because I taped it badly."

"I, wait? How did you mess it up this time?" She looks up at me, a cute little crease between her eyebrows.

"Hm," I sign off and finish up. "That's for me to know and for you hopefully not to guess."

She frowns, looking down and thinking. "You work out after games right? You told me that once."

I shake my head, grabbing her hand and beginning my awkwardly stiff brace-leg walk out of the orthopedic wing. "Yeah, but it wasn't that."

"Okay, wait." She gapes at me for a second. "No, hold on, it was that wasn't it."

I run my tongue across my broken teeth, trying not to laugh. "Maybe a little."

"I almost gave you a season-ending injury? Steph!" She gapes at me. "You should've stopped! Just because I was mad at you doesn't mean you should've pushed the boundaries!"

I raise my eyebrows. "Here's the fun thing, though, it's fine when my blood pressure is up, so I just missed a couple warning signs."

She slaps her hand against her head. "God, you're not real smart."

"I know," I laugh, pushing open the door and pulling up my hood against the wind and the unfortunate blast of snow that hits us. It's not snowing right now, but the freezing cold temperatures mean that the snow is powdery, and the wind means it's constantly blowing around. Walking around Regina in the winter is like standing under the snow machines at a ski hill. To add onto that, it's a balmy -10 and I gave August my hat on the way in.

Plus, I have one car. A camaro. Great back in Boston because I could get around that city in the winter without it and I only really used it in the summer, but now that we're up here in a city that I definitely need a car for, the snow tires sometimes just don't cut it. I'm pretty sure I'll spend some of the summer looking for a car that can handle the snow. Maybe something with a larger back seat so Jilly and her friends aren't jammed back there with their knees in their chests. The camaro was great style points when I was a guy that lived alone in a city that I didn't need a car in the winter to handle, but lord now it's inconvenient.

"Maybe you should get chains for the wheels too." August says, pulling off her hat upon getting into the passenger seat.

"Maybe I should consider a completely different car entirely for next winter." I put it in gear and back out of my spot.