Chased by The Hockey Stars

Chapter Seven

After the first week of my new job, I was finally beginning to feel more settled in the position. Despite the ample homework that I was struggling to keep up with from my university classes, I had stayed up late every night this week memorizing the rules of hockey and my teams playbooks. There had even been a few times that I’d managed to impress the coach by slipping some hockey terminology into my comments during practice.

I headed to our usual Saturday morning practice with my head hard and focused in. For the first time I felt fully prepared for whatever the day had to throw at me. I arrived at the arena and pulled out the equipment, smiling by the side of the rink as the players began to hop onto the ice.

It felt like routine now, working along side the coach and watching the players run their plays. Every so often I’d make a comment, but mostly I stayed quiet and waited to be asked for help. It was what I was best at, remaining invisible and only appearing when someone needed something.

All the players began to head towards the change rooms for their first break of the morning. However, I noticed that one play stayed on the ice.

My eyes narrowed in, recognizing the clear 77 on the back of his jersey.

Damian.

I watched as he remained as focused as ever, skating laps around the ice. He picked up a puck, heading straight towards the opposing teams net before making a series of complicated and sharp turns. On the last sharp rotation, he shot the puck at the net. It hit the fabric so hard, on a bad day it might have burned a hole right through. That wasn’t what I was focused on though, I was still focused on the way Damian placed all his body weight on a sharply turned ankle , fully risking a bad injury.

“Damian!” I called across the ice without hesitation.

His head sharply turned up to mine, but it wasn’t just his attention that I’d caught. The coach had turned as well, taking his sights off the clipboard he’d been holding to make notes and fully watching the interaction that was about to happen.

Damian made his way across the ice, skidding to a halt directly in front of me and nearly hitting the boards. Startled by his sudden approach, I took a step back. My eyes widened, suddenly feeling unsure of myself.

“Yes, hockey girl?” He asked, slipping his mouthguard out and holding it between his clenched teeth.

“That move, it’s new,” I managed out.

“It is,” he reiterated back to me with a sharp nod of his head.

“It’s dangerous,” I said quickly before I lost my nerve. Mentally, I replayed the motion he had made and reminded myself why I had called him over here. Meanwhile, Damian clearly beginning to feel a little insulted, had narrowed his eyes on me.

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing it like that. On your last turn you’re putting all of your pressure on one ankle,” I explained myself. Damian continued to eye me up carefully.

“So you’re saying I should pass the luck?” He said rather bluntly, already making it clear that that wasn’t the answer he was hoping for.

I shook my head. “No, I think it’s a good move. Something this team needs, but you need to be careful with it. Evenly distribute your weight on both ankles and watch the net on that last turn and I think you’ll still make the shot.”

Damian’s eyes lit up in response to my answer. He approved, and I’d clearly just won myself some points with him.

“You learned my moves from the playbook?” Damian asked, his eyes carefully analyzing mine as if he were trying to figure me out. He shifted the conversation so easily, it took my awkward social skills a moment to catch up.

“Well I’ve been rewatching old games too,” I added, shrugging my shoulders as if it weren’t a big deal.

“You’re turning into a Damian fangirl, eh?” He was quick to say, his eyebrows wiggling at me as if suggesting something more.

“Don’t be flattered, I’ve learned everyone moves,” I blurted out, before he could notice the way my cheeks were blushing to him. Damian’s gaze darkened, but I still noticed the way his bottom lip turned up in a smirk.

“Impressive,” he said.

“I have a photographic memory, it’s not that impressive,” I shrugged off the compliment, the same way I always had. Anything to get the attention off of me. Besides, having a photographic memory wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Far too many times in school I’d been called into the principals office and accused of cheating for getting every question on a test right. They just didn’t realize that I’d memorized every page of the textbook.

“Don’t sell yourself short, it’s impressive.” Damian grunted again and this time I felt my cheeks burn hot.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, offering a small smile before backing away from the ice.

All at once Damian’s arms were around me, pulling me sharply back against the baseboards.

My chest pressed against his and automatically my hand raised to his shoulder to steady myself. My breath sharply caught, feeling the heat radiate off his body in this cold arena. He looked down at me, his eyes seemingly locked on mine.

“Saved ya,” he suddenly smirked, releasing his hold on me.

I blinked, taking a moment to register what had just happened. Saved me from what?

Damian’s eyes darted to the side and I followed his gaze, turning to see a grumbling Leon just walking by me.

“Watch where you’re going hockey girl,” Leon muttered and my blush only deepened with embarrassment.

If Damian had let me step back then I would have slammed right into Leon, my own personal nightmare.

I turned back to Damian, uttering a quiet thank you. His eyes locked on mine once again.

“Thank you,” he repeated before skating back out onto the ice. I watched how he repeated the move once more, this time keeping his weight equal between both ankles and still killing the shot.

“Leon, watch where you’re going! First you almost run into Carolyn over there and now you’re running into me!” A booming voice called across the rink and I jerked my head to the side.

Sure enough, Leon had come close enough to Cameron to almost collide with him, stepping to the side just in time.

My eyes widened, surprised Cameron had even noticed our little run in over here. But then again, he was the captain, and Cameron seemed like the type to never let his guard down. He noticed everything.

Leon might had tried to utter some kind of apology or explanation, but it was too quiet for my own ears. Yet, Cameron made his voice known.

“You always have your head down. I’ve told you over and over again on the ice but now are we going to have an issue off the ice? Get your head up or I’m putting you on the bench,” Cameron’s statement came sharp and direct, making Leon now his head and walk away like a dog with his tail between his legs.

I stared at the situation in shock, but couldn’t help but feel a little smug. It was nice to finally see Leon get reprimanded.

At the end of practice, I finished cleaning up the equipment while one by one the team members changed and headed home. I had to admit that this was my favourite part of the workday. There was something so soothing about being in the arena all by myself, not constantly looking over my shoulder and worrying that I might be doing something wrong.

I was just changing out of my ice shoes and getting ready to head home when I heard someone else talking. The noise was coming for the change rooms, so I slowly crept towards them.

“Tomorrow at 5 works great,” the voice I vaguely recognized said. Was that Leon talking?

I took a few slow steps forwards until I could just see around the corner of the change room. Leon sat inside with his back to me, his phone held up to his ear.

Who was Leon talking to? The way he kept his voice hushed and low told me he didn’t want to risk anyone listening in, but that only made me more curious.

Cautiously, I took a step closer. At this point I was holding my breathe, knowing that Leon was the very last person I wanted to catch me eavesdropping.

“Yeah, this stupid team, I’ll never get anywhere with them. We don’t stand a chance at the trophy this year,” he said and I quickly realized what we were talking about.

My stomach dropped and instantly I felt nauseous. As if I hadn’t already thought about it, I now knew with absolute certainty that this was a conversation I shouldn’t be listening in on. Yet, I was so glad that I had.

I backed away from the room when I saw Leon hang up the phone. I was far too distracted by what I'd just heard though. Leon had so blatantly just trash talked his own team, but there was one burning thought clouding my mind right now.

Was Leon thinking of transferring to another team? Was he being scouted?