The Life of a Hockey Sister

Chapter 1

That night at dinner I can't stop going on about the trip we're going on tomorrow.

"What do you think it will be like? Will we get to hang out with the boys a lot?"

"Angie!" My brother Grant cuts me off. "Shut up! I'm the hockey player and you're more excited than me."

Grant's my older brother. He's a freshman in high school and he's an obsessive hockey player. He's always training, shooting, stickhandling you name it, he does anything that can improve his game. This is Grant's first year playing for our school, The Southview Lions.

"Grant this is my first time leaving the country! Excuse me for being excited!" He rolls his eyes. Grant can sometimes be a little much.

"We're just going to Toronto." he says like it's no big deal.

"Toronto Canada!" I yell.

"Alright alright!" Mom says intervening. "Both of you chillout! Angie how about you go finish packing?" Mom suggests.

"Gladly!" I say leaving the table and going up to my room.

Even though what Grant said is true, hockey is my life. I was raised on the sport so I automatically fell in love with it. I’ve been skating about as long as I’ve been walking. It’s always been playing it with my brothers and keeping up.

I go up to my room which I have all to myself. It’s a bigger size room with all the walls painted a light yellow with a white trim. I have a big queen sized bed right in the middle covered with a white comforter. Besides my bed my white dresser and the end table by my bed is the only furniture in the room.

I go and grab the list of things I need off my end table. I glance at the family photo of my family sitting there. I live with my family in our nice 2 story townhouse in Sylvania Ohio. We also have a basement that is left unfinished which gives my brothers and I practice hockey.

I'm the middle child out of 3 kids. I also have a little brother 2 years younger than me named Drew. He also plays hockey. Drew's goal is to keep up with Grant and his teammates. Drew's a pretty good hockey player but the week of the Peewee tryouts he was sick. I mean he was vomiting so bad he couldn't even stand up. So he didn't get to tryout making him play House this year. Trust me that's not easy on him since he's played Travel ever since he was a Squirt. Since his team's not very serious Mom and Dad are forcing him to skip for Canada. He's a little annoyed but not too bad.

I go through my list and throw a bunch of stuff in my suitcase. All of a sudden Drew enters my room with a hockey stick.

"Floor Hockey?" he asks.

I'm not the sidelines kind of sister. No I don't actually play, I prefer watching to playing. I do like joining in on shinny and family stick + puck. Playing floor hockey is one thing I love to do with my brothers. I've played with them long enough that I can keep up with them.

"Sure Little Brother." He rolls his eyes I love how it annoys him when I call him that.

"Hurry up Grant's waiting." he says leaving. I grab my stick and gloves and run down to the basement. I find Grant stickhandling and Drew taping his stick. I go towards Grant and steal the tennis ball. He glares at me but decides to let it go.

"You two against me." Grants says.

"Whatever, I get faceoff." I tell Drew

"Okay," he says backing me up on defense. We get into position for faceoff.

"Come on loser!" Grant taunts. I'm the kind of person that puts anger towards the game. I win the faceoff and pass it back to Drew. Drew brings it up as I screen Grant.

"If we didn't have a no checking rule you would be dead!" Grant says. Drew snipes it and it goes in.

"Nice shot!" I compliment.

"Thanks." Drew says smiling. After a while the score is 5-3 us. Mom comes down then,

"It's 11:00, bed now!" she tells us.

"Why?" I ask, "We don't have school tomorrow." Mom got us out of school Friday so we have enough time to get to Toronto for the game.

"But we have to leave by 6:30 to get Grant to school. So get to bed!" We all moan,

"Okay," Drew says. We run upstairs to the second floor where all our rooms are.

"Goodnight people!" I say. Grant shuts his door in response.

"Night Angie." Drew says shutting his door.

I go into my room and shut my door too. I dive into bed even though I already know there's absolutely no way I'll sleep tonight. Well at least I thought, however it didn't take long for my eyes to start to get heavy and for me to drift off to sleep.

The next day my alarm goes off at 5:00. I moan, this is earlier than what I wake up for school. Grant's in my room in a nanosecond.

"Let's go! I need your help."

"With what?" I ask half asleep.

"Saucer passes. What else?"

"Get Drew to help you." I say rolling over.

"He can't he's still packing. Please Angie!" I sigh,

"Give me a half hour." I say getting up. Grant smiles,

"Have I ever told you what a great little sister you are?"

"Yeah, now go away!" I say pointing towards the door.

He quickly leaves the room. I go and grab some warm clothes and quickly shower. After I'm done showering I head downstairs to get breakfast. When I get to the kitchen I find Grant with a bowl of cereal for me.

"Hurry up and eat!" he tells me.

"Alrighty then," I say sitting down. I turn to him, "Did you poison it?" I ask playfully.

"Really? Just hurry up and eat." he says leaving. "I'll be in the basement waiting." I should know better than to joke with Grant on game days. He’s the epitome of what a good hockey player should be. Dedicated and completely focused. I hurry and eat then run to the basement.

"You know there's something wrong with us. We're doing saucer passes at 5:30 in the morning." I say hitting the last step.

"Nothing wrong just dedicated." Grant says quickly giving me my stick, "You know, you're more dedicated than some of my teammates and you don't even play!"

"I know," I say passing him the puck.

"You know you could play if you wanted to, you're good enough." he says passing it back.

"Yeah I know but we're too close in age. We would be on the same team." Grant doesn't respond.

I know he wants me to play but he's unsure about us being teammates. We silently pass the puck back and forth. After a while Dad comes down,

"Hey get your stuff out in the trunk of the van. Angie grab your gear."

"Why?" Grant and I ask in unison.

"In case we find some shinny for you and Drew." he says confused.

"Sweetness," I say glaring at Grant. I walk upstairs to my room. Grant follows me,

"I didn't mean it like that!" he says following me into my room.

Grant knows I love hockey and doesn't want to verbalize that he doesn't want me to play. He thinks that I would consider holding back if I knew that.

"Whatever," I say flatly.

"Angie come on I'm serious."

"Grant I don't care. As far as hockey I'll do what I want. You don't have a bearing on it." I tell him.

"Really?" he asks shocked.

"You're not as awesome as you think you are." I say as I grab my suitcase.

"Ouch that hurts!" he says sarcastically.

"It wasn't supposed to." I say going to get my hockey bag.

"Need help?" he offers trying to patch things up.

"I got it." I say heading downstairs.

"Okay," Grant says heading to his room. I go outside and throw my stuff in the trunk. I find that Drew already did. Dad and Mom walk out,

"Grab your sticks then get in the van." Dad says

"Okay," I say running into the house.

I run to the basement and get my sticks then go back out to the van. Everyone is in and it's running. I lock and shut the front door and jump into the van. It's a quiet but quick ride to school. When we get there I hop out so Grant can get out. Grant's teammate Jon comes over, he's a freshman like Grant. They hangout a lot so I know Jon pretty well.

"Hey Angie!" Jon says smiling.

"Hey Jon,"

"Excited for Canada?" he asks.

"You bet! Drew and me are hoping to play some shinny while we're up there."

"Sounds like fun." Grant walks up with his stuff,

"Hey Smith," Grant says calling Jon by his last name.

"Hey Grant," Jon says

"Angie get lost." Grant tells me.

"Now why would I want to do that?" I ask Grant. Jon smiles,

"She doesn't let you push her around, does she?"

"No she doesn't," Grant says annoyed.

"Never have never will, you’ll get used to it eventually." I assure Grant.

"MILLER, SMITH GET OVER HERE!" Their Coach, Coach Benedict, yells.

"Bye Angie," Jon says winking at me. Grant just leaves without acknowledging me.

"Ooo Angie and Jon!" Drew says as I step into the van.

"You’re delusional," I tell him

"Ready for a 6-and-a-half-hour car ride?" Mom asks ignoring what Drew said.

"I'd rather ride the bus." I say thinking of how fun it would be to ride with the team. It's a long boring 6 and a half hours. I'm restless the whole time. I'm constantly shifting and moving.

"Angie would you chill!" Drew says.

"Sorry," I mutter. Finally, we're at the border of Canada and USA. They simply ask us for our passports and we cross. I feel my phone vibrate. I got a text from Jon.

"Who is it?" Drew asks looking over my shoulder.

"Just Jon," I say absent mindedly. Drew gives me a look. "What?"

"Nothing," he says smiling. I open the message.

Welcome to Canada Angela! :) it says.

Angela? None of Grant's teammates call me Angela even though that's my real name.

LOL feels like home sweet home. I respond. Drew snickers,

"What?" I ask confused.

"Nothing Angela," he says smiling.

"No! I know what you're getting at and we are not!" I say.

"Who's not doing what?" Dad asks.

"Angie's not dating Jon." Drew says.

"I didn't know you and Jon had a thing or have a thing?" Mom questions.

"We don't have a thing or ever did." I say, "Drew's just hopelessly confused."

We pull into the parking lot of the Ice Arena. The boys are just getting off the bus. I quickly jump out of the van. Alex quickly walks up to me,

"Hey Angel," He says smiling. I laugh, Alex is a total flirt but I know it's harmless.

"Hey Alex," Jon slowly gets off the bus, he catches my eye and smiles. He walks over,

"Hey Angie want to help with stats?" he asks. Jon's a good hockey player but we have too many defensemen. So he plays about every other game. Drew runs up to me,

"Let's go see if they’re running shinny!" I look at Jon,

"I gotta go." I say walking away.

"Later Angel!" Alex says. I smile and walk into the rink.