“By tonight? With no practice?”
Coach sighs. “You are Olympic athletes. You’ll handle it. You have to. I want a win.”
I change tactics. “But what about Evan? How can you put him on the second line?”
“This is not your business, Axel,” Coach says.
“It’s fine,” Evan says. “I’m getting older, Axel. I had that concussion earlier this season. I don’t mind pulling back. I’d already talked to Coach about it.”
“I encourage you to be more welcoming to your new team member,” Coach says.
Right.
Everyone is upset with me.
I tried to warn everyone, and I got in trouble.
“Just call me Cassandra,” I say, then saunter from the room.
“Who’s Cassandra?” Luke asks.
I go to the exercise room and put on boxing gloves and start tackling the punching bag.
Vinnie frowns. Normally the punching bag is relegated to defensemen.
I punch it once, twice, three times.
“Feel better?” Vinnie asks.
“No.”
“Is there a real problem the team should know about?”
I open my mouth, then close it. I punch the punching bag again.
Enzo shows up for the game at the last minute, looking exhausted. He clutches a Styrofoam coffee cup from the break room.
He’s so unprofessional. He didn’t act like this in college, but then he didn’t randomly start hating perfectly fine people in college either.
I sit far from him in the locker room and pretend I don’t notice the redness in his eyes, the sallowness of his skin, and the way his hair sticks up in all directions. My chest gets a strange ache, and I remind myself to drink more water.
I’m the first person out. A reporter stands near the tunnel entrance, where they’ve mounted a Blizzards logo the size of a car on the wall.
She looks new-reporter eager in a sleek skirt suit and Texas hair. The previous reporter, Cal Prescott, is now in a relationship with Jason.
“Mind if I ask you a few questions about tonight’s game?” she asks eagerly.
I swallow back my sigh. “Sure.”
I’m not as popular as Finn or Evan, and lately Luke has been getting more attention, but I’ve played with the Blizzards for years. I’m one of the most familiar players to viewers and am often interviewed.
“Are you excited for tonight’s game?” she asks.
“I always love playing hockey.”
“You have a new player on your team. How do you feel about Bellanti playing with you?” She continues to beam, as if I should be happy that Enzo is here to ruin everything.
“I hope it goes okay.”
