Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (5 page)

“What he said,” Trent added, with a grin.

As soon as we were at the top of the stairs, leading down to the section where the team sat, Scottie bolted up to greet us.

“Hey, Scottie,” I said, putting out my fist for a bump. Instead of a bump I got a hug.

“So great you’re finally here,” Scottie said, moving to Alex to hug him, too. “Exciting getting everyone together.” He didn’t leave Danny and Trent out, either. Danny was caught off guard by the exuberance and gave an “uff” as Scottie attempted to squish him. “Danny and Trent, you guys are here, too. Yay!”

Suddenly I realized we hadn’t created any notes about what we wanted to talk about. There was a lot of stuff to cover. The opening games for the league were two weeks away and we needed to get practicing. We followed Scottie down the stairs, though at a much calmer pace.

“Guys, guys…they’re here. Our other coaches, Alex and Simon and their teammates Danny and Trent. These guys are going to help us become a proper team.”

Scottie had these guys well in control. As soon as he spoke, people put away their phones, music or whatever and paid attention. Impressive. Getting attention from a group of teens was not always easy.

“Let’s get everyone introduced,” Scottie continued. “We’ve got twenty guys plus me in net. Everyone’s officially on the roster, including Walt.” Since we hadn’t met Walt yet, Scottie pointed him out. Walt waved to identify himself.

As Scottie started rattling off names, ages, and other stats, each of the guys raised a hand so we could see who they were. Hillary recorded it all with her tablet. I was glad she was so detail-oriented because I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember all the names.

“It’s good to meet you all,” I said, once Scottie was done with the intros. “There’re a few other people who’ll be working with us. Hillary’s got the tablet. She’ll always be at practices and games. Since she’s not a member of the Wolverines, she won’t have the conflicts we’ll have. While she doesn’t play herself, she knows the game and will coach you guys when we’re not around. Next to her is Danny.”

“Hi, guys,” he said.

“Danny is the Wolverines’ alternate captain and next to him is Trent.” Trent waved. “The four of us will be coaching as much as possible, especially early on.”

I looked to Alex so he’d start talking.

“We want to get some basic information,” Alex said. “If you could raise your hands to answer these questions.”

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He’d made notes. Excellent.

“How many of you have played together before?” Three hands went up. That was good. They could be the foundation for a line.

As Alex moved through finding out how many years each person had played, Hillary captured the information.

“Okay, good. Now let’s look at positioning.”

“Isn’t that a bit personal since we just met?” one of the players said, before laughing. He got elbowed by the guy sitting next to him.

“None of that,” Scottie said as he stood to face the guy who said it. “This is serious.”

“Oh come on, Scottie, who here doesn’t want at least one of these guys? They’re crazy hot.”

“I want, especially that one,” said a redhead who pointed at Danny.

Swallowing my laugh wasn’t easy. Alex struggled with it, too. Danny went beet red, although he smiled, accepting the compliment.

Meanwhile, six guys raised their hands, apparently in answer to the question.

“See,” Scottie said, “not everyone here is looking for a boyfriend.”

“All right,” I said, pulling out my
teens-behaving-badly
voice, “enough of that. Alex, get us back on track, please.”

Without missing a beat, he continued to find out everyone’s positions for Hillary to record.

“Okay, we’ll sort out some initial lines,” Alex said once we had all the information. “Keep in mind everything is subject to change. We’ll have to see how it goes.”

It was subtle, but I heard Alex’s breath catch and saw the slightest hint of distress cross his face. He shifted weight off his left leg and slid into a row so he could sit on the back of a seat.

“With so little time before the season starts,” I said, taking over, “we’ll focus practices on getting the fundamentals of teamwork down so each of the lines runs as smoothly as possible. Scottie, when do we get to start practice?”

“I’m still working on the full schedule. We will be here at four tomorrow. I also got us time here the next three Saturday mornings. I should have everything else in place by practice tomorrow. Also, I need the fees from everyone by the end of next week.”

“So, any questions for us?” I asked.

“Do you think we have a chance of winning games?” asked one of the defensemen in the front row.

“Won’t know that until we see you all on the ice,” Alex said. “We’ve seen Scottie and know he’s good. Based on the experience you’ve got as a group, we should win at least a few.”

“Why are you helping him? What’s in it for you?” asked a bitter sounding person in the back.

“Be nice, Fred,” Scottie said.

“What? It’s a fair question. Have you considered what happens when they’re further into the semester and get busy? We’ll be the first thing that gets dropped.”

“Fred’s right, it is a fair question,” I said. “Alex and I thought a lot about this. Scottie can tell you that our first concern was ensuring that if we took this on, we could commit for the long haul. That’s one of the reasons we asked Hillary to work with us. Her schedule is different, so you’ll have support all the time.”

“We also want to help guys play that want to play,” Alex continued. “We had it good with a supportive coach, teammates, and so on. Scottie and the rest of you deserve the same. Now, let me ask you guys, what’s got you here?”

Walt raised his hand and Alex acknowledged him. “Scottie’s my friend and he got robbed at tryouts. He’s got mad skills and I wanted to be on the team that took him. My two friends here,” he gestured to his left, “play for a high school, but they can also play for us. They wanted to help out, too.”

Alex nodded. “Anyone else?”

“I’m here because it’s a place to play,” said a thin, curly-headed guy. “My team from last year didn’t take me back, so when I heard there was this I jumped at the chance.”

“I saw Scottie’s flyer at the community center,” said one of the guys who’d identified as a defense player. “I moved here this year, too, and didn’t think I’d get to play because of timing. I for sure didn’t expect to find a hockey team at the center, so that was way cool.”

“How many of you came from the community center?” I asked.

Nine people indicated yes. Scottie managed to get a mostly gay team, or at least an extremely gay friendly team together. Incredible.

“Let’s just tell him what he’s trying to figure out,” Scottie said. “How many of us are gay?”

Hands went up, some slower than others. Fourteen of these guys, including Scottie and TJ, were gay. Amazing. I didn’t know fourteen gay guys to
talk
to during high school. Of course, I wasn’t as driven to find them as Scottie was.

One hand stayed up after the others were lowered. It was TJ, who gave a look to Scottie and then to me.

“Go ahead, TJ,” I said.

“I’m trans, too,” he said, sounding a little nervous. “I’m here because it’s a chance to play again. This is the first team, boys or girls, that would take me since I started identifying as a guy. I’m psyched to be here.”

Luckily no one said anything stupid, or even so much as giggled.

“So, with TJ. We haven’t told the league that we’ve got a trans player and we don’t plan to. He’ll change in our locker room, but he plans to do some of his changing in the restroom. If anyone has a problem with this, this is not the team for you. Are we good?”

“This is going to be awesome,” someone, who’d identified as gay, said. “It’s a GSA on ice.”

That got some good-natured laughs, which was perfect.

“What about our coaches?” asked a person next to TJ. I couldn’t wait until I knew everyone’s name. “We know two of them are on our team, what about the others?”

“Straight here,” said Danny.

“Same,” said Trent.

“Lesbian,” said Hillary.

“Damn. Not fair,” said one of Walt’s friends.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Can I try to bring you over to our side?” he asked.

“Bryan! Please,” Scottie sent a stern look to Bryan, which was met with a pleading expression. “No.”

“So,” I said, getting us back on topic, “practice tomorrow afternoon. Anyone have issues with the timing?”

Calls of “no” and shaking of heads went around the group.

“Cool. Everyone come ready to show us your best game. Danny, Trent, can you take these guys down and show them the visiting locker room so they know how to get in and out of here?”

“Can do,” Trent said. “Let’s go.”

A parade formed behind Danny, except for Scottie, who already knew the layout. Hillary stopped recording and I moved in next to Alex. We sat down in seats, facing out towards the ice

“What do you think?” Scottie asked, barely able to contain his enthusiasm as he sat next to us. Hillary slid by to take a seat.

“They seem excited, which is good,” Alex said. “I’m concerned about the players with two years or less of experience. We’ll do the best we can to get them ready.”

“I’m going to take this,” Hillary said, indicating her tablet, “and create info for what we know on each person along with their picture so we’ve got reference info.”

“Cool,” Scottie said. “I should go catch up with the guys. Thank you all!” He ran up the stairs two at a time and was out of sight fast.

“Glad you’re on board?” I asked, looking at Hillary.

“Totally. I’ll email you what I put together so you can review before practice.” She headed out.

“Great. See you later,” Alex said as she departed. “I’m glad we said yes.”

I leaned over and we exchanged a brief kiss.

“When are you going to get that looked at?” I bumped his leg. “I saw your grimace.”

“I’m gonna go down now and see if Doc Kirk is still here. He was going to work on Chuck after practice. If he’s here, he can look at it while it’s still pissing me off.”

“I’ll come with.” I gestured for him to take the lead to the doc’s office. “I’ve got a few minutes and I want to hear what the deal is.”

“All right, let’s go.”

Chuck passed us on his way out, so, not only was Doc Kirk still here, there’d be no waiting. At his office, however, we found Coach. Before we could knock, Doc looked up and saw us.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Kirk asked as Coach turned to face us.

“Um, would you have some time for me?”

“You okay, Miller?” Coach asked.

This was pretty much the last thing Alex wanted, having to discuss this around Coach.

“Leg’s feelin’ a little weird sometimes,” Alex said. “It’s probably nothing.”

Coach nodded. “Better to get it checked now, before the opener.”

“Take the room next door and I’ll be right over.” Kirk slipped some papers into his clipboard as Alex and I went into the exam room.

“Fuck me,” he said quietly. “Now Coach knows.”

“He would’ve known anyway. He gets reports of who Kirk sees. You’d have been on that tomorrow.”

“‘Spose you’re right. I still don’t like it.”

The room was small with an exam table, which Alex hopped up on, and there was a desk and a chair in the corner. One wall was taken up with cabinetry. Everything from dealing with sprains to doing stitches took place back here. I’d had few injuries, so I’d spent little time here, and I hoped that continued in my final season. Alex had been back here only once, for an exam to make sure he hadn’t separated his shoulder during a game, the result of a rough check into the boards.

I squeezed his knee as I parked myself in the corner, out of the way.

“So, what’s the problem, Alex?” Kirk asked as he came and closed the door behind him. “And before you answer that, I need you to confirm that you’re okay that Simon’s here.”

“Of course.” He shifted a bit, sitting on the table. I wondered how much the leg was bothering him right now. “My left leg’s been bothering me on and off for a few months now. It just got tingly while we were upstairs, so I thought I’d come see you.”

“Few months?” Doc scribbled notes as he talked. “How far back?”

He looked to me and shrugged. “Summer?”

“I don’t know.” I sighed in frustration. “I wonder what we may have ignored even before that.”

“I swear you guys make me crazy. If something seems wrong, it probably is. Come to the doctor.” Now Kirk sounded frustrated. “Get out of the jeans, please. What’s it feel like and is there any pattern to when it happens?”

Alex hopped off the table and took off his shoes and jeans, leaving him in only his black and blue striped boxer briefs, socks, and sweatshirt.

“It feels like it went to sleep and it’s trying to wake up again. Very prickly. Usually below the knee cap.”

“Go ahead and lie back.” Kirk dropped the back of the table from the seated position so Alex could be horizontal. He also brought out the extension so Alex’s feet wouldn’t be dangling off the end.

“I haven’t seen a pattern. It woke me up last week. It just happened upstairs while I was standing. It seems random. I haven’t noticed it during practice.” He paused. “I don’t think it’s happened during a workout either.”

“Okay, I’m going to feel you up now.” He winked at Alex and then me. I liked that Kirk always led with a sense of humor.

“If Simon’s okay with that, I guess I am.” Alex said, rolling with it.

“As long as I can see his hands,” I said.

“Some of this will hurt. I’m going to be digging around, feeling for nerves, muscles, tendons. Grip the table if you need to, but try to keep your legs still. I’m going to do it to both legs.”

Alex nodded, looking apprehensive.

Kirk started on the knee and at first it looked like he might be massaging it, but then it was more aggressive. From where I stood it looked like he was actually trying to get inside Alex’s skin. Alex gripped the edge of the exam table and his face contorted.

“Sorry, sorry.” Kirk said and it sounded like he meant it even though he kept digging.