To distract themself from the stress, Charlie tried to think of what Blake was doing in their locker room, the teams finally separated as they played against each other.
They were probably obnoxiously joking away the stress, or texting their new boo. Charlie wasn’t quite sure what Blake was up to these days, as they were clearly more distracted by their own love life and trying to secure the win for Team USA, but she was sure they’d hear about it soon.
Tam chose that moment to start chirping at Plaker, and never one to miss an opportunity to dunk on her, Charlie tuned in to that. Far too soon, it was time to go back out onto the ice for thelast period. Evenly tied, that both sides played with more desperation than earlier.
Charlie had no thoughts of anything but the game, the way they needed to skate, the way they needed to pass the puck to Plaker or Fensworth at exactly the right time, the way in which they silently prayed that Campbell kept blocking any attempts at goals.
Back on the bench, Charlie was starting to get a bit panicked. There were only a few minutes left of the game now, and they really did not want to go to overtime. They were sure that the teams could handle themselves well in overtime, but the risk of losing was much higher then. At least if they scored a goal now, they could hopefully score more and widen the gap.
With only three minutes left on the clock at a TV timeout, Charlie glanced at Coach, as did most of the other players on the bench. Campbell and the rest of the players that were out on ice had come to their bench now, crowding around the coach as they listened to his direction.
“We’ll need to pull you from net, Campbell. It’s a risk but let’s try this play to get that goal. If we get the puck across the blue line, do you think we can make it?”
This question was directed more to Captain and Campbell than Charlie, but they nodded determinedly, just as the players being directed did.
“Great, let’s do this. Bring it in.” Coach placed his hand out, and the rest of the team joined him in a mini huddle.
“Canada!” the players all shouted as they geared up to go back to the ice, Charlie now replacing Rosemary.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Blake yelled to them as they skated up.
“Prepare to lose!” Charlie yelled back.
Though they usually weren’t the type to chirp, they couldn’t resist. They could taste victory, it was that close. When the puck dropped, Captain made quick work of securing the puck for their team. Plaker and Charlie forechecked hard, making sure the puckstayed in the offensive zone while they figured out the best way to score. With all six of Canada’s players out near the Team USA side, they were evenly matched out on this side of the ice, though it still took some work to keep the puck moving and away from Team USA.
After taking a shoulder check into the sideboards, Charlie gritted their teeth.
She’d had enough. This was their game to win, and they were going to do it.
It didn’t help that the player that checked them was trying to chirp at them, teasing at them about their lucky streak.
I’ll show them lucky,Charlie thought as they broke up a battle on the boards with Fensworth, rescuing the puck from where it was trapped between Charlie’s skates.
Skating back towards the American goal, they knew they’d have to get lucky. They skated close to the goal, too close to comfort really, where they knew that their trusted sidekick would be. As predicted, they stilled as Plaker shot a puck towards the goal. Charlie acted on instinct as the puck rebounded off the white net and back towards them.
Thunk!They hit the puck with all their might, and the stadium faded away as they waited with bated breath to see whether the puck would go in. The world was silent as the puck glided by the goalie’s skate, sliding smoothly into the net.
“Holy shit, you did it!” Fensworth was saying to them. The cheering was deafening, and Charlie couldn’t think past the helmets and padded uniforms enveloping them as they skated towards the bench to hop off the ice.
They watched the last thirty seconds of play from the bench in still silence, shocked as they watched the rest of the players on the ice work equally hard to make some sort of play for the goal, but it was clear in the American team’s movements that they were defeated. The game was done, over, and Charlie still couldn’t believe it.
Charlie Lajoie scored the winning goal.
She did it.
Despite everything, even their father’s negativity, theirdistraction,their worry about the future, despite it all… they had accomplished what they wanted to do.
And Charlie knew exactly how they wanted to celebrate.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
OLIVE
If Olive were a morereasonable person, she would’ve waited for Charlie to wash off their post-game sweat before devouring them, but she was finding herself less and less levelheaded when Charlie was around, especially when they were around her hotel room.
“Wait, baby,” Charlie was saying as Olive kissed the side of her neck, “I’m sweaty.”
