Olivia Montrose
Business Department
London Lightning
From: Stanley Easton III
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2025 1:45 PM
To: Olivia Montrose
Subject: RE: Good Luck
Thanks, Liv. See you when we get home ;)
Thanks,
Stanley Easton III
Head Coach - London Lightning
Chapter Fourteen
TAG
The first game of the season is finally here. It’s always my favorite time of the year.
There’s no wins and losses yet. Everyone is starting out as equals. We’ve got a clean slate and have the entire season laid out ahead of us.
The guys are all joshing around together in the visitors’ locker room. Hard folding chairs sit between metal lockers. Harsh overhead lights glare down on us.
The sense of excitement and nerves is palpable.
“All right, men. Are you ready?” I call out.
“Hell, yeah!”
“Let’s fucking go!”
“We’ve got this!”
Cheers echo all around me in the locker room. It’s the kind of energy I love seeing before a game. Practice has gotten better since our bonding event. We still have a long way to go, but I like what I’m seeing.
“Edinburgh has a good team. I’m not going to deny that. I want you to use everything we’ve learned in practice and work together as a team.”
I look around the room and take in my team. A frenetic energy is coursing through them. “We’re ready. Go out there and play your game. Don’t try to do anything extra or fancy. Just do what you do.”
Jack and Alfie are nodding along next to me as I finish my pregame speech.
Simmons pulls everyone together in the center of the room. “You heard Coach. Play our game and do what we do. Lightning on three. One, two…”
“Lightning!”
Guys grab their sticks and helmets and head down the tunnel toward the ice. Seeing as how this is my very first EIHL game, I don’t know what I’m in for.
But what I see when I get out there shocks me.
The arena is smaller. I knew that. But based on Liv’s emails, I assumed it would be a crowd of a dozen or so people.
