I could be getting the worst news of my life. I don’t want to be alone.
I take a breath and answer my phone.
“Hey, Coach.”
“St. George. Hello. Sorry to call you out of the blue like this.”
His tone is stern and even, like it always is when he speaks. I have no idea where this is gonna go.
He clears his throat. “I have some news about your standing on the team.”
My stomach falls to my feet. Shit. Here we go.
“Your suspension has been lifted.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t. I’m too shocked.
Poppy squeezes my hand. When I look at her, her eyes are big with shock.
“Coach, are you serious? I’m not suspended anymore? I can play on the team again?”
“I’m dead serious, St. George. The team and the school have been bombarded with support for you. It’s been…” He huffs out a breath. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career. In my life, honestly. The support you’re getting for what you did is mind-blowing. The school and the team are experiencing quite the backlash for your suspension. I’m guessing you’ve seen it?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s crazy,” I say, still struggling to process the whiplash of the last eighteen hours.
“I had a meeting with the dean earlier today, and we realized that we acted a bit too harshly,” Coach Sawyer says. “No more suspension. You’re free to play at our next game on Monday.”
I grin and let out a laugh of pure disbelief. “This is awesome. So awesome. Thank you, Coach.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m the one who suspended you, remember?”
I smile at the hint of joking in his tone.
He clears his throat again. “In all seriousness, I’m sorry, St. George. After you told me off, I thought long and hard about what you said. You were right. I would have done the same thing to protect the person I love. I’m sorry I reacted the way I did.”
“It’s okay. You were getting a lot of heat too, so I understand why you were upset.”
“I still shouldn’t have come down on you so hard. I should have defended you as my player. I really regret that.” He sighs.“Especially when I woke up this morning to emails from your teammates refusing to play while you were suspended. That’s when I knew I really messed up.”
I feel myself soften. Yeah, it sucked to have Coach Sawyer go against me. But he’s realized that he was wrong and he’s trying to make it right now.
“We all make mistakes,” I say.
“I know I’ve told you that you’re a great hockey player, St. George, but you’re also a fine young man. I’m proud to have you on my team.”
Emotion courses through me. “Thank you, Coach.”
We say goodbye, and I hang up. I turn to Poppy. “Holy shit. No more suspension. I’m back on the team!”
She squeals and jumps into my lap. I grab her face and kiss her.
“Looks like that backlash hit the team and the school pretty hard,” I say. “Coach said it made them rethink things, and they realized they were wrong to suspend me.”
“You should text your family and tell them,” Poppy says.
“Oh, yeah, good idea.”
I fire off a quick message to my family group chat, then turn back to Poppy, kissing her hard.
