Mercer shakes his head but doesn’t push further.
And in the end, it’s not unanimous. But it’s clear.
Calloway nods once.
“Alright.”
He picks up the phone again.
“Then this is what we’re saying.”
He reads the statement about how we don’t see her actions as deception. And that she’ll play in the Giants’ final game.
The room is quiet when he finishes reading it out.
Calloway looks around once more.
“Once this goes out,” he says, “there’s no taking it back.”
33
LEONORA
The knock on my dorm door comes at 8:43 AM.
I’m still in bed staring at my phone and reading the comments section on Craig Tennant’s article for the fifth time. Willow is still asleep and Katie is somewhere on campus, probably already in the library.
I pull on a sweatshirt, pad to the door, open it.
Coach Calloway is standing in the hallway.
He’s in his Blackwood jacket, a coffee in his hand. His face is unreadable - the same expression he wears behind the bench when the game is on the line and he’s already three moves ahead.
“Coach?”
“I read the article. My office. Twenty minutes.”
He turns and walks away before I can answer.
I get dressed and walk across campus in a fog. The cold air does nothing to clear my head.
His office is small and cluttered. There’s a Blackwood Giants banner on the wall, a whiteboard covered in plays, a framedphoto of the team from five years ago when they had just won the league - back when my father stood behind the bench as coach.
Coach is behind his desk. He gestures to the chair across from him. “Sit.”
He looks at me - the same way he looked at me at the tryout. Measuring.
“I read the article,” he continues. “He’s right. I should have asked more questions. I should have wondered why a player with your skill wasn’t already on a roster somewhere. I should have-” He stops. Shakes his head. “But I didn’t. And now we’re here.”
“Coach, I’m so sorry-”
“Don’t apologize for wanting to play hockey.”
He reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He slides it across the desk.
I unfold it.
It’s a statement typed out on an official letterhead.
