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we had breakfast and went to class with ms. mackay. i noticed banksie was having a little trouble focusing in class and everyone else noticed this too but i just waved them off, saying i would talk to him. so when they all left, i stopped adam from getting up.
"adam, you okay?" i say, putting my hand on his shoulder.
"yeah i'm fine." he shook my hand off of him.
i gave him a 'really? you can't fool me look' and he sighed, "fine. i may be bothered that i can't play because of this stupid arm injury."
i nodded and turned to face him, "why do you play hockey?"
he looked at me confused, "what does that have to do with-"
"just answer the question. why do you play? what's your motivation? to impress someone? to make someone significant in your life proud? to have fun? what's the reason?"
he thought about it for a second before saying, "well part of the reason i want to play is because of my dad. i have a big hockey family and i don't want to disappoint."
"banksie, but don't be like that."
"what do you mean?"
"don't push yourself over the edge to make your dad proud. i used to constantly practice and beat myself up about not being good enough because i want to make my old man proud. but you should want to win because you want to, not because he wants you to. trust me. when you're back on the ice with a smile on your face, he'll be proud of you banks."
he smiled, "thanks monroy. that means a lot."
"no problem, banks. now let's go, we got practice." i grab my stuff and nod towards the door.
****
we've been training our asses off. we've been watching and studying iceland's tapes, having longer workout sessions and practices and have been finishing our school work early to get a lot of sleep.
now, it was our last practice.
we were on the ice in our regular clothes because bombay has told us to not wear our gear. it was questionable but we just obeyed his orders.
"coach, shouldn't we have our gear on?" luis asked coach as we huddled up.
"guys, this is our last team practice so this means-" bombay was saying until averman cut him off.
"the return of captain blood?" averman asked, making all of us laugh.
they called bombay "captain blood" because when they lost their first game against iceland, coach was caught up in the hall of fame and got pissed at them. so he made them practice to no end. it was a dick move but he fixed up his act.
