Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (2 page)

The D quickly fired and Scottie blocked it, sending the puck right onto Alex’s stick. He nailed a one-timer, sending it over Scottie’s glove shoulder.

Scottie fished the puck out of the net and gave it to one of his defenseman to start play again. During the transition Alex, Trent and I went to the bench.

“That was good,” Alex said. “It took several shots to get past him.”

I watched Scottie watch the game as it played on the opposite end of the ice. He never took his eyes off the action. He stood while the offense was banging away on Marco, but every time the defense got the puck he went into a crouch even before it crossed the far blue line.

When the buzzer sounded at the end of the ten minutes, the team gathered around Coach Rapp as usual. Scottie stayed by his net, drinking from his bottle and stretching.

“Mr. Polan,” Coach called out after he made his comments to the team. “Join us, please.”

Scottie sprinted to our group and some guys made room so he could be inside our circle.

“Yes, sir?”

“Good work today.”

“Thank you.”

“I understand from Roberts and Miller that you’re not currently playing in the area. I hope that changes because you’re someone I’d like to keep an eye on.”

Scottie was speechless. I wasn’t sure that was possible given what I’d seen from him so far.

“I appreciate that. I hope I’m playing soon, too.”

Coach nodded. “Alright guys. Have a good weekend. We’re back Monday morning. Roberts and Miller are going to take some more shots on our guest, you’re welcome to stay if you’d like to join them.”

Coach Mayer, our goalie coach, stayed behind and talked with Scottie. They skated back towards the net Scottie used as they chatted. Once at the net, he put Scottie through some movements, particularly on his blocker side.

“That’s cool,” I said to Alex. “I didn’t expect Mayer to spend time with him.”

“He was solid in net and he’s only a high school junior. Imagine how he could be by the time he’s ready for college.”

“So what can we do?” Danny asked. “A couple guys had to get going, but the rest of us are happy to get the extra ice time. How do you want to do this?”

We thought it was going to be the two of us taking various shots on him. It was cool most of the team wanted to participate.

“We’ve got thirty minutes before they need to clean the ice,” I said. “Let’s split it up into three segments. Ten minutes with a horseshoe drill where we’ll just keep firing on him. Next ten we’ll do some of our drills where we come in on him three at a time. Finish it off with ten minutes of half-ice scrimmage. Sound good?”

Everyone agreed and Alex tossed out a bunch of pucks so we could get to work. We were unrelenting. The horseshoe in particular was almost like an automatic weapon firing pucks as we gave Scottie very little time to set up between each shot. He never complained, and he only took a moment as we re-set drills to grab a drink. Coach Mayer watched from the bench. It was only when the Zamboni showed up that we stopped and everyone, including Scottie, helped get the pucks off the ice.

“Guys, that was freakin’ awesome,” he said, the exuberance we heard in our first meeting coming through again. “Thanks for letting me play.”

Several members of the team fist bumped with Scottie and gave encouraging words as they departed the ice.

“You weren’t kidding about being a fabulous goalie,” Alex said, clapping Scottie on the back. “Your old coach must’ve hated losing you.”

“I hated leaving and he hated me leaving. Coach Rapp is right, this needs to be seen.” He made the same wave of his hand in front of his body that he did yesterday. I suspected it was a move he used a lot. “I want on a college team like this and if I’m not playing routinely and being seen by scouts, it’ll never happen.”

We nodded, knowing exactly where he was coming from.

“We want to help,” Alex said. “We’ve got to figure out how to do it so we do right by the team.”

My mouth dropped open. This was the first Alex had said anything about actually doing this. Maybe I’d rubbed off on him a bit.

“Awesomeness!” Scottie’s voice filled the arena.

“Don’t get too excited yet,” Alex continued. “Simon and I have a lot to discuss.”

It was obvious he wanted to bring out his pout face, but he managed to keep it in check.

“While we’re figuring logistics,” I said, “keep recruiting. If we say yes, the team’s going to have to be ready to go since the season starts in a month.”

Scottie nodded. “I’ll keep at it. Thanks for taking the time, and please thank your teammates, too.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Come on back to the locker room, you can get cleaned up.”

“Actually, I’d like to talk to him before he goes,” Coach Meyer said, skating up to us, having finished putting the nets away.

“We’ll see you in a few then,” I said.

Alex and I cleared off the ice.

“You had a change of heart,” I said as we went into the locker room.

He gave a sheepish smile. “Yeah. He’s really good. It sorta feels like we have to help him. But I was serious when I said we had to figure out how to make it work for everyone.”

“If you guys end up coaching, let me know if I can help,” Danny said as we settled in next to him. “He deserves to be on a team somewhere. I can’t believe there’d be many goalies good enough to beat him out. We’d have killed for a goalie that good when I was in high school.”

“Thanks, Danny,” I said. “We’ll need the help for sure.”

“We’ve become Sunday brunch gays,” Alex said as we drove to Moonstone in my truck.

We found this place when we were freshmen. Back then it was a treat, something we’d do maybe once every couple of months. Now it was a weekly thing with Mimi and Hillary, a couple who were among our best friends. Our schedules were so packed these days, Sunday brunch was one of the few times we could all agree on. The only time it changed was if we had an away game.

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, pulling into the parking lot.

“No. Just didn’t expect it to happen while we were still in school.”

“We’ve always had a thing for breakfast. In some ways you might say we’ve always been brunch gays. I think IHOP sales figures, if nothing else, would support that.”

“
Touché
”

“Oooh, sexy French words. Oh la la.” We laughed as I parked.

“The kind of brunch I look forward to is one that we cook.” Alex painted this picture as we got out of the truck. “In
our
house. Roll out of bed, pull on a robe, cook, and then eat it in bed. Dessert would be, well, whatever we wanted to do to each other.”

We leaned in close and kissed.

“I do like the way your mind works, Alex Miller. That’s one more thing to put into the future file.”

We scanned the tables as we entered but didn’t see Hillary and Mimi. We didn’t carpool to brunch anymore because they’d moved off campus at the start of the year.

We’d discussed moving off campus, but our scholarships took care of the dorm so we were happy to stay put. Plus it seemed good to be there since we were the team captains. Most of the team lived on our floor with only a couple seniors moving off campus. Danny was one of the few who moved, and we were sad to see him go. He and Sara really wanted to move in together so it was hard to fault his reasons for leaving.

We grabbed a table for four and got the coffee ordered. Just as we sat down, Mimi texted that they were five minutes away and sorry for being late. Normally it was us who sent that message, so it was easy to give them a pass.

“I hope Hillary says yes,” I said. “It’s just about the only way I can see this working. She’d be able to cover when we’re having a practice or game.”

“We’re crazy to do this, aren’t we?”

“Not even out of school and we’re already workaholics.”

“That doesn’t sound good for our future,” Alex said. “Sometime we should think about actually doing nothing.”

“I think it’s good we’re doing a lot, and most of it’s stuff we like. Sure we’re working a lot, but it’s got to be good for our futures. It’s better than just wandering around campus aimlessly wondering what to do next.”

“True. True. Mind you, I’m not complaining. And at least we get to come home to each other every night. I just worry sometimes that we’re doing too much. I don’t know. You know how I can over think.”

“Yeah, like a crazy person sometimes.” It was Hillary, who managed to sneak in from behind us. She planted a kiss on Alex’s cheek.

“Please don’t mind her,” said Mimi, taking her seat as the coffee arrived. “She’s clearly not fully awake yet, and, full disclosure, she’s why we’re late. She was a complete pain to get out of bed because she was up late working on lighting patterns for a show.”

“At least she was up late for her art,” said Alex. “What’s the new show?”

“Some guy’s graduate thesis,” Hillary, a theatre technology major, said. “It seems more like performance art. I’ve no idea what it’s about, but whatever. It’s got an elaborate lighting scheme. The good thing is, I’ll get credit in my four hundred level course for working on it. I was the only one who volunteered to take on the dude’s specs.”

“She’s doing some cool stuff,” Mimi, her dancer girlfriend, said. “I saw a preview before I went to bed. So what were you guys talking about? Something about too much going on?”

“Yeah. It’s the old discussion of how much is too much.” I flipped through the menu one last time even though I knew what I was getting. “We wanted to talk to you guys about it. There’s a project we’re thinking about taking on that Hillary could, maybe, help with.”

The waitress arrived before I could continue, so we ordered. As usual, Alex and I got enough food to feed a small army while Hillary ordered enough to feed a small family. Mimi surprised us all by going for waffles instead of her usual egg white omelet.

“What’ve you done with the real Mimi?” I asked.

“Caramel glazed waffles with pecans cannot be ignored. It’s called a special for a reason.”

Her super dramatic response had us all laughing, including the waitress.

“So how can I help you guys?” Hillary asked before doctoring her coffee.

I told her Scottie’s story. I made it clear it was still in the formation stage, but if Alex and I agreed to coach, we’d need help from someone who could guarantee being at all the practices and games.

“The conversation we walked in on makes sense now,” Hillary said. “How do you guys have time for this and yet not seem completely stressed out?”

“We do have the ultimate stress relievers,” Alex said. “With the physicality of games and practices, it’s hard to get too stressed about anything.”

“Good point. Maybe I should take up MMA or something,” she said.

“We keep trying to get you to take up hockey,” I said. “That offer is always open.”

“Do you think I’d be okay working with them on my own?” Hillary asked. “I’ve never coached.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “You know the game so well. Some of the more experienced players can help by demo’ing anything you want them to do. We’ll be there as much as we can, but there’ll be weekend conflicts for sure.”

“I think you’d be good at it,” Mimi said.

“All right. I guess I’m in,” Hillary finally said, after having left a good pause where I thought she might actually say no. “I’m trepidatious about coaching something I don’t play. But, if you guys think I can, I’ll go for it. Schedule-wise it should be good for me since I’m pretty flexible in the afternoons and if something comes up, we’ll work it out.”

“Awesome,” Alex said as he offered his fist for Hillary to bump. She looked momentarily confused, but ultimately met his fist.

“So when will you know if the team’s happening?” Hillary asked.

We loved this place because the food was good and always showed up fast. As we talked, the waitress doled out our orders.

“The deadline to signup is in two weeks,” I said.

“Do you think he’ll make it?”

“The kid’s driven to get it together. Plus, he’s really good. It would be a shame for him to lose a season because some coaches were too short-sighted to give him a slot.”

“Can we make them winners?” Hillary asked.

“I’m not sure that’s the point,” I said. “Most of that will be decided by the players he gets. I think Scottie can carry the team a long way, but no goalie is infallible. You need a team that can defend the goalie and score goals.”

“We’ll make them as competitive as possible,” Alex added, “while keeping it fun, too. It’s gotta be a team that enjoys playing.”

We all nodded at that.

“I’ll keep you guys posted on how things are going. Scottie owes me an update Tuesday, so I’ll know more then.”

I’m used to starting the day with the alarm piercing my consciousness. It didn’t matter what sound we used or whose side of the bed it was on, its sound would cut through me, waking me instantly. It’d been that way since middle school when I once slept through the alarm and missed the bus. Now it was like part of my mind was on alert, ensuring I didn’t oversleep.

But not this morning. Before the alarm could go off there were kisses. Repeated kisses on my nose. It seemed like a dream, but they kept coming. Opening my eyes I found Alex over me, supporting himself on arms that were on either side of my head. He kept leaning in to kiss the tip of my nose.

“Morning,” he said between kisses.

I smiled up at him. The room was lit by his desk lamp and he was only in sweatpants. It was odd he was up early, especially on a practice morning. I guided his head so the kisses would land on my mouth. He quickly took the hint and we shared a deep, good morning kiss.

He pulled back after a minute or so. “Time to get up.” He was a touch too excited for this early. “I decided to wake you instead of the alarm.”

“You’re a zillion times better than it is, that’s for sure. And you can make this a routine if you want. It’s the best way ever to wake up.” I pushed myself off the pillow so I could flick one of his exposed nipples with my tongue.

“Hey now, none of that. We’ve got to get to practice. If I’d known you were gonna be like that, I’d have woken you earlier.” He yanked on the sheet, revealing my chest and swirled his tongue around one of my nipples.