Petra’s smile doesn’t fade. Okay. Just taking my shot. Look, why don’t I give you my number? Then, if you want to chat anytime, it’s easy.
Fuck. There’s no polite way to say no, so I hand over my phone and she inputs her information. Then she gives me one last consoling pat on the arm and heads back towards campus.
That was weird. Not that someone would ask me out, because being a hockey player at Monarch vastly increases my level of attractiveness. More that someone I’ve never spoken to before would ask me out in such a pitying way, like I’m wallowing in misery. Sure, I’m unhappy about my breakup, but I don’t think a total stranger can tell.
Instead of going straight home, I detour to the house next door. Our street has three hockey houses in a row, and I need to see Vik Zelenko.
Hey, Mats, Zee greets me at the door. He’s the captain of our team and not only a great hockey player, but very attuned to the mood of the team. He’s good at lifting us up when we’re down or laying down the law if we’re fooling around too much. I have a ton of respect for him.
I need to talk to you in private, I say.
He nods like that’s no big deal. Zee probably has players coming to him for advice all the time. He leads me into a small back room with lots of windows.
It’s our parlour. Too small to be another bedroom, he explains. Their house is older and bigger than ours. It’s mainly the seniors on the team who get to live here. Zee is only a junior, but he’s the team leader, on the ice and off.
You want a drink or anything? he asks.
I’m good, thanks. I’m going home right after this, I say.
We sit in armchairs. Zee seems relaxed but wary, like he’s ready for bad news.
So, I hit him with my issue. Remember Jordan Nelson?
He nods. Zee is on the Athletic Council with me, so I’m not breaking any confidentiality rules in discussing this problem with him.
Did you know that Cleo Nelson is his sister? I ask.
He nods again. You weren’t here then, but at the time, I’d heard she helped him get on the Monarch team. Apparently, there was a similar incident on his high school team that made Coach Norman hesitant to admit him.
I nod. Zee is a year ahead of me, so he knows more about the history of the team. How did Cleo help?
She’s a character player and well-liked. She vouched for Jordan and said that the incident in high school was blown out of proportion.
But then the same shit went down again here, I say. What did she say about that?
Zee scratches the light stubble on his chin. That’s a good question. Since matters of team discipline are strictly confidential, she probably wasn’t ever asked. Of course, her brother must have told her. He gives me an appraising look. Why all these questions now?
Well, I’ve been asked to work on a fundraising project with her. It’s close enough to the truth. No way I’m telling anyone about the fake-couple aspect. I noticed that Cleo disliked me, but I didn’t stress about it. Now she tells me it’s because I got her brother kicked off the team and killed his hockey career.
Zee raises a skeptical eyebrow. That’s a bit of a stretch. The fact that he’s a racist asshole is what got him kicked off the team. As for his hockey career, he’s good enough to get a chance to play somewhere else.
Unless the other coach called Coach Norman first. Our coach wouldn’t be allowed to give specifics on a player’s dismissal, but there are ways to hint that someone might not be an asset.
Jordan Nelson was involved in an in-game incident with a Black player from another team. That team filed a complaint, and during the investigation, Monarch administration asked if there had been any other problems with Nelson.
Ordinarily, I don’t complain to anyone about racist crap. I’m only half-Japanese, but the name on the back of my jersey answers any questions about my ethnicity. Still, I haven’t experienced as many issues as other minority players, like Black or Indigenous guys.
Players insult your hair, your face, your hockey weaknesses—it’s always something, and if it’s about my race, I don’t really give a shit. Guys like that are morons, so they attack the first thing they see. I prefer to handle these things on the ice, even if it gets rough. And that goes double for a teammate, because we still have to play together. No point in making enemies.
With Nelson, it had been different. He’d targeted me from the first puck drop. There were only a couple of racist insults, and I never would have reported him because that’s not what I do. However, as one of the few visible minorities on our team, I was asked point blank if anything had ever happened with him. The administrator caught me off guard, and I answered honestly, even though I felt like an idiot repeating his juvenile taunts. I’m not sure if my complaint was the last nail in his coffin, or just further proof of what kind of person he was. But I wasn’t unhappy to see him go.
So, Cleo’s never given you grief about her brother? I ask. Because if she blames the whole Athletic Council, then her animosity towards me isn’t personal.
Zee considers this. No. And we’ve had to do some captain stuff together this year.
I don’t want to have to spend time with her if she’s racist too, I state bluntly. It’s not up to me to educate people about their own stupidity. And why does she blame me and not Zee? Is that because of my race?
He nods. I get it.
