“Hey,” I say, and they all straighten up. Lily, with big brown eyes, stares back at me.
“Hey, what’s up? How about that practice, eh?” she asks, and I have to bite back the grimace. They’re so eager, and something about it grates on me.
“Yeah,” I shove my hands into my pockets, “That’s pretty normal for Coach. Look, I’m gonna level with you, but you gotta stop talking to Harper."
A couple of the girls eye me, but I nod. “She’s gonna take your spots; she’s going to make you look bad,” I say.
Lily narrows her dark brown eyes. “She seems fine–”
“She’s a snake. You’ve seen her play. Do you really want to lose your spot to her?”
“I—”
The door opens suddenly, and Brynn stares at the group of us. Her eyes narrow, looking at me and then the rookies I’ve cornered. My face grows hot, and my stomach sinks when she points at me and then the door. “Five minutes, or you find a new ride,” she says. I nod and watch as she leaves.
The rookies watch me as I gather my stuff and leave, walking quickly with Brynn. She’s already much farther down the corridor than I was expecting her to be, and I have to do a weird half walk, half jog to catch up with her. She doesn’t turn to talk to me or acknowledge my presence, and I wonder if maybe she had a meeting with Coach that went wrong.
“All good?” I ask, trying to seem calm and nonchalant.
The regret is already sinking in; that was so stupid. I’ve never been this fuelled by…idiocy?I don’t know what to call it.
She grunts, getting into the car and barely waiting for me to close the door before we drive off.What a confidence booster.
Six
Eloise
There’s a sharp blow of a whistle, causing the drill to end. Lawson isn’t smiling per se, but he is watching with careful eyes as he looks down at his clipboard and then at us. “Harper, Matthews, this way.”
I catch Taylor’s eye as we skate over to him. I think that I’ve done a great job avoiding her at all costs in the past week, to keep things simpatico on the ice, but fate keeps seeming to want us to interact. Her green eyes flash with something that makes me nervous, and I can see the way the rest of the team near the boards watch us skate over as well.
“What’s up, Coach?” she asks, sounding slightly more chipper than I think she’s ever been near me, and he raises an eyebrow. From that alone, I assume he thinks her attitude change is weird.
“You two are getting paired up for a line; you’re both strong defenders, physical and can work well together.” I bite my cheek to keep from reacting to the thought of us working together. Taylor doesn’t hide the look of horror on her face.
Comforting.
“Coach, are you sure?” she asks, and then the assistant coach, Megan Ross comes up behind him.
“We’re sure. Your numbers together are pretty similar to Rosie and your numbers from last year,” Ross says.
Taylor’s face shuts down at the mention of Rosie, and I wonder if there was more to their relationship with how she’s been pushing back against me.
The rest of the team seems to be reacting well to my being in the locker room, minus a few of the rookies. Lily tried to mention something when I went to talk to them and they skated away, but I shrugged it off. My agent is pretty pleased with how I’ve been able to represent myself and has mentioned that contracts are in talks. Which has eased the anxiety I’ve been feeling significantly.
“What do you want us to do?” I ask, trying to push past the awkwardness of talking about her ex.
“Just see how you play together, we’re going to be running some two on one drill, you two see how you can communicate and we’ll go from there,” Ross says and I nod. Taylor nods as well, although a little more shaky than I would have thought.
As we skate back towards the centre of the ice, I nudge her slightly. She turns to me, furious. “You okay?”
“Fine, ” she spits the word out, and I shrug.
“I know you don’t like me, but if you ever need totalk–”
“No. What side of the ice do you want?”
“Left.”
