Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Travis
“Trav, you gotta get up. Mr. D says it’s time for the stupid stop,” I heard a gentle voice say. My eyes fluttered open and I saw Sarah beckoning for me to stand up. I begrudgingly got out of my seat and began to walk down the aisle of the bus. You see, my name’s Travis Lindsay, and I’m the proud captain of the Screech Owls peewee hockey team.
We currently were making the long 15 hour drive to Nashville from small little Tamarack, Canada, which is where we’re from. As I stepped off the bus, Mr Dillinger handed me a $5 bill. As a part of his “stupid stops”, we all had to buy a useless item to bring back home to Tamarack. I found a pair of obnoxiously large inflatable boxing gloves, which I quickly grabbed and walked over to the checkout line to pay.
The Smashville Cup was a pretty big tournament. It had the best teams from around the US coming to it after all. When our coach, Muck, had received the invitation, he had quickly agreed.
“Hey Travis! Look at what I found!” I turned around to see an old fashioned goalie mask shoved in my face.
“That’s great Nish,” I replied. Nish, the big, round, trash talking, sometimes my best friend, sometimes greatest enemy, was a defenseman on our team. I reached the front of the line and paid, followed by walking back toward our bus. Once everyone was back on the bus, we got moving again. I planned on sleeping the rest of the way, but couldn’t fall back asleep. So I ended up closing my eyes and letting my mind wander. First, I wondered about how we would do in this tournament. I ended up thinking about Sarah. I’d recently discovered that I had a crush on her, we were 13 years old now and I started to see her as more than just a friend. I of course hadn’t told anybody about this yet, and certainly wasn’t planning on it.
“Woah!” I suddenly heard someone say, jolting me back to reality. I turned and saw Nish staring wide eyed out the window. There was the city of Tennessee, looming large. The buildings were high and Nish pressed his face up against the glass, trying to see the top of the skyscrapers. I also stared out the window and continued to for the next few minutes. Suddenly, the bus screeched to a stop.
“We’re here!” Mr. D Exclaimed. We all cheered our approval. The hotel we were staying at was quite nice, and the rink was only three minutes down the road. I checked the rooming list. Travis, Fahd, Jeremy, and Simon. I mentally celebrated. For the first time in what felt like years, I wasn’t rooming with Nish. I went up to our room and dropped off my suitcase before heading back down to the lobby.
We had our first game in an hour and a half, so I had some time to kill. I hung around the lobby with Dmitri and Sarah, my linemates, for a while before Muck told us it was time to head to the rink. We then made the quick drive to the rink. When I entered the locker room, I saw all of our gear laid out perfectly and arranged by player. Above each player’s stall was a nametag. Mr. D’s handiwork for sure. I found my bag wedged in between Jenny Staples (one of our goalies) and Fahd. I got dressed in the same way that I always did, and when I pulled my jersey over my head I kissed the C as it slid past my lips. Muck then walked in and said “Be ready for these guys. They’re good and came just as far as we did and they’re ready to play.” We were playing the Worcester Jr. Railers, and as I skated around the rink for warmups, I noticed two very good players. Number 19, who had long black hair dangling from the back of his helmet, skated with grace and had a beautiful shot. Number 64 was a bit shorter but had really good hands. On my just my second attempt, I wrung a puck hard off the crossbar and high into the air. A pregame ritual of mine. This was going to be fun.