Coach hollered at him in the locker room, but I don’t think Nick gave two shits.
He and Duke were both oddly quiet as we rode back to the Callahan house.
Once inside, Nick quickly ran up the stairs holding the pink teddy bear, leaving Duke and I standing there alone.
Beside me, Duke threw down his hockey bag with force, grabbed his stick, marched his way to the basement door, slamming it hard behind him.
“And then there was just me,” I mumbled to myself.
I figured I’d tackle the only issue I really could, which was Duke.
As I climbed down the basement stairs, I could hear him already swinging wild slapshots, completely missing the net and littering the back wall with even more puck dents.
“Woah, woah, woah, there buddy!” I called after him and quickly grabbed his stickaway.
His face held a tight grimace and he picked up a puck and threw it at the wall instead.
I kicked the rest of the pucks away from him before he could add any more damage.
“Dude, what’s this all about?” I looked down at him.
“Nothing,” he spat and tried to tear his stick from myhands.
“You’re not getting this back until you tell me what’s goin’ on, bud,” I told him, holding his stick high above my head.
He stopped struggling then and his shoulders slumped.
“My dumbass coach,” he snarled.
“Hey, just because your sister isn’t here doesn’t mean you can start swearing up a storm. Wait a few years for that,” I said with a smirk.
He gave me the side-eye. “Coach said I’m gonna get cut off the team because of my attitude and penalty minutes. I’ll have to go down to the house team because Savannah won’t drive me to another rink and my parents can’t either.”
Wait, was that true? I mean, I knew they called him “the little ball of hate” around the rink… but he was their best skater by far… and that wasn’t even fair. Usually kids who were on the fence were at least given the spring as a grace period to figure out other plans for the next fall season.
“How about I talk to your coach to get you another chance. Maybe rope Craig into the talk too. I’ll promise them that you’re myprotégé. Let’s work on this together. I have an idea.”
He looked up at me with his worried little eyes. “What idea?”
“Okay, well, when I’m reffing your games, I can’t just give you a free pass, but I’ll give you a sign to remind you to chill the F out.”
He blew out a breath. “What kinda sign?”
I took a second to think about it.
“Okay, I’ll go like this.” I showed him the ASL sign for calm which I remembered from an old high school class that I loved. “When you see me do that, remember this feeling. Remember that you don’t want to get kicked off the team. What do you think? It’ll just be a little reminder so you don’t forget. Just between us.”
“And you’ll really talk to Coach and Craig for me?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah, I promise. I’ll do it tomorrow,” I said, reaching my fist out to him for a knuckle punch.
He nodded at me and hit my fist. “Can I have my stick back now?” He eyed it in myhands.
“Sure,” I chuckled. “But first I’m gonna help you with your slap shot so you don’t take this whole wall down.”
14. Griff
Duke wasn’t the only Callahan I was trying to calm down…
