“Everything okay?” Ricki said, shuffling over toward Jacob as he sat on the replacements bench.
“Yeah, I’m good, no injuries,” Jacob said, a hint of anger in his voice.
“No, I mean areyouokay?” Ricki replied. “I can tell you’re not happy. I just wanted to check in on you.”
“Urgh. Sorry, Ricki,” Jacob said. “I didn’t mean to snap. I’m okay. I guess I just don’t like being taken off for the dude who bawled at me for partying too much or whatever.”
Jacob felt silly for admitting this, but he trusted Ricki.
Jacob knew from experience that in a team environment, not everyone can be trusted. There would always be agendas and people would use any kind of perceived weakness in others to progress their own cause.
But Ricki was different. For a start, he was a physiotherapist rather than a player. But secondly, he was a young guy who loved to party just like Jacob – and from what Jacob could tell, Ricki truly had a heart of gold too.
“Shall we go out this evening?” Jacob said. “We could have some fun at the club?”
“Yeah, I think that would be good,” Ricki replied, smiling and handing Jacob a bottle of electrolyte water to help keep his hydration on point.
“Cool, I’m in the mood to let loose in all kinds of ways,” Jacob said, his eyes now back on the game as Tane Rivers made his first significant play of the game by stopping a Blasters attack.
The game continued to ebb and flow, with the Blasters seemingly in the ascendancy and bringing the scores level at four goals apiece.
Jacob was growing frustrated though and not being brought back on to help the cause. Other players were being rotated in and out, but somehow it felt to Jacob like Tane steel was being kept on the ice because of his reputation rather than how he could actually affect the game.
“Get me on there!” Jacob hollered, angrily kicking his feet and tossing his bottle of water up against the barrier.
But neither the head coach nor his assistants took heed of Jacob’s words.
The game continued and with the clock ticking down, it seemed like the game was all set to go into overtime.
“Bring. Me. On!” Jacob said, stomping his feet even harder. “We were two goals up when I was on the ice…”
With the crowd tense and a sense of unease coming over the Enforcers stadium, it looked like the team might actually blow the game and end up losing.
But what Jacob wasn’t factoring into the equation was the fact that Tane Rivers was ready to demonstrate each and every one of his twenty years of being a professional hockey player.
All it took was a tiny mistake from the opposition defender, a moment of barely tangible hesitation, and Tane Rivers fired in the winning goal with less than five seconds left on the clock.
With the crowd wild with pride at their team’s last-gasp victory, and Tane Rivers’s name being sung from the rafters, Jacob’s mood was mixed.
On the one hand, Jacob was happy that the team had won.
But on the other hand, Jacob felt like the coach had shown an obvious preference toward Tane. And now that Tane was creeping closer to full fitness, Jacob’s role in the starting team was suddenly looking a lot less secure.
With his mind full of doubt and his emotions all over the place, Jacob trudged back into the locker room and was immediately met by a cacophony of his teammates and various members of the coaching team singing the Enforcers anthem.
Jacob simply began to undress and decided that he wasn’t in the mood to take part in any jolly behavior.
“What’s the matter golden boy?” Connor Valley barked, his thick beard and strong upper body both looking thicker than ever. “The big man of the Enforcers is back. You’ll be sitting your ass on the bench a lot more from here on out. I guess you’re just going to have to learn that we value team work here, huh?”
“Whatever,” Jacob said, angrily slamming his skates down on the floor and beginning to dress without having had a shower yet.
“Easy, Connor,” Tane interjected. “We’re all on the same side. And, Jacob, you scored two great goals. Good contribution, kid.”
While Tane’s words may have seemed like he was keeping the peace to the other men in the locker room, to Jacob it felt like he was being patronized.
“I would have score four if they’d kept me on the ice,” Jacob said, angrily pulling his t-shirt over his head. “But, sure, well done on finally scoring in the last play.”
Jacob’s heart was thumping inside his chest.
