Ashton
Julius swept the puck away from one of the Panthers and shot it at their goal. The goalie went full butterfly, but not before the puck sailed in.
The crowd went wild as the announcer yelled, “Goal. Goal for the Scented Scorpions."
On the scoreboard, it changed from 2-2 to 3-2.
Holy shit. We’d been tied most of the game. Which had been fine. If we stayed tied we went into overtime.
But now, we were in the lead. There was only a minute or so left on the clock. If we could keep them from scoring, we’d win.
Music played over the speakers. The crowd was alive tonight, but I could understand that. We were the underdogs in our home arena, playing in the first game of the finals.
Winning tonight wouldn’t secure us the championship, but it would tell everyone that we really did belong here in the finals. That it wasn’t a fluke.
Also, given the championship went to the first team to win two games, it would be a lot easier if we won tonight.
The Puck Panthers had been giving it their all. They weren’t playing overly rough or dirty, but they were all business. They were here to win.
But so were we.
It helped to have Kai in the audience. Though there were a few times it looked like they were sad. At the same time, they were leaving. I was sad Kai was leaving, too.
Right now, Kai seemed fine, talking occasionally with Billie and Carys, looking cute in a Scented Scorpions shirt and jeans.
Coach sent me and Rhett in. We guarded our goal and goalie as the Puck Panthers tried to score on us before the time went out, so we’d at least go into overtime.
One of the Panthers shot at our goal. Before it could reach, I backhanded it, passing it to Rhett to get it away from our net.
The Panthers came back at us as the crowd started to count down. I chased the Panthers forward behind the goal as Rhett came around the other way.
The buzzer echoed through Pinnacle Arena.
“And the Scorpions win, 3-2 over the Puck Panthers. Look at that,” the announcer bellowed.
The crowd erupted in cheers. I turned and saw Kai jumping up and down. I waved and they waved back.
We’d done it. We’d won our first game of finals.
The whole team celebrated on the ice. We returned to the locker room full of excitement.
“Good job out there,” Coach Miles said. “But we still have to face them on Monday, in Portland. Stay focused. See you in the morning for practice. Have fun tonight, but not too much–Marilyn’s got enough on her plate.”
“Carys texted me that Kai was crying a couple of times,” Rhett said as we got changed.
“Yeah, I saw that she looked sad. Her plane leaves in the morning. Spring break is over, back to class,” I sighed. “I think we’re taking her out after this.”
Rhett frowned at his phone. “I also got a weird text from Jackson.”
“Oh?”
“You know, he asked me about you and Steven earlier in the week. Monday morning maybe?” Rhett texted someone.
I paused. “He was? Why?”
“He wanted to know if you were nice guys. I told him yes.” His look went puzzled.
Huh.
