The Life of a Hockey Sister

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

We walk into the Ice Arena where we will be spending most of our time this weekend. It's pretty nice, a lot better than ours back home. There are two different rinks and it's painted in the colors red, dark blue, and white. Drew and I go to the front desk where there is a flat screen TV showing the schedules for what activities are happening on each rink. We’re busy checking the schedules when Grant walks in.

"There's my Little Sister the heartbreaker!" he says grinning.

"What are you talking about?" I ask confused.

"Don't play dumb." Grant says walking away.

"Wish I was," I mutter. I turn to Drew, "Well there's no shinny so what are we going to do?"

"Pass the puck?" he asks.

"Beat you to the van!" We run out of the Arena into the parking lot. I hit a slick spot and slide falling into Jon. He catches me holding me in his arms. "Sorry!" I say standing up meekly.

"No problem it's slick out here." he says winking at me before going towards the Ice Arena.

"Still need help with stats?" I call after him. 

"You betcha!" he says smiling.

"It's your lucky day, I'll help." I tell him.

"You're right, it is my lucky day." Jon says going into the Arena. I go to the van and Drew hands me my stick.

"You're so clueless!" he tells me.

"What are you talking about?" I ask passing him the puck.

"Jon obviously likes you!" I roll my eyes,

"Whatever,"

"I'm serious, he's flirting with you nonstop!" Drew says.

"So, does Alex but he doesn't like me." I reason.

"Yeah but Alex is a flirt, and everyone knows that, Jon is a different story." I know he's right, but I won’t admit that.

"He's not flirting." I tell him flatly.

"Oh really? Let's see he meet you as soon as we got to the high school, he sent you a welcome to Canada text, he called you Angela, he's nonstop smiles, he winked at you, he asked you for help with stats, and he caught you. Angie he's hopelessly crushing on you!"

"He caught me?” I ask laughing “Drew that’s literally just being polite when someone falls into you, you are reading way too much into this." 

"If that’s what you wanna think." 

We pass the puck for a full hour. My fingers are starting to go numb. It's definitely colder here.

"We got 15 minutes until game time. I need to go get set up for stats." I tell Drew tossing my stick in the van.

"You're leading him on." Drew says.

"Drew, he doesn't like me, therefore making it impossible to lead him on."

"Yeah okay go have fun with your boyfriend." he teases.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I say walking into the Ice Arena. I find Jon sitting in the lobby.

"Hey Jon, what ice are we on?" I ask.

"Rink 2," he says handing me a stat sheet.

"Thanks!" I say walking towards rink 2. I walk up to the stat box and find Alex,

"Hey Angel, are you helping with stats?"

"Of course!" I say going and sitting by him. Our team manager Mike walks up,

"Well if it isn't Jon's girlfriend!" he says sitting down.

"Excuse me?" I ask taken back.

"Come on Angie, Jon flirts with you more than I do." says Alex.

"Two things, one he isn’t flirting with me, two you guys have all flirted with me at one point." I tell them.

"Yeah but not like this!" Mike says.

"Look I'm not really someone to be flirted over." I say flatly.

"It's just hard to find a pretty girl like you that plays hockey." Alex says.

"Yeah but you're missing one key point, I don't play!"

"Yeah but you easily could if you wanted to, I mean you're better than Alex." Mike jokes. I laugh, and Alex rolls his eyes.

"Look everyone has taken the respect of you being Grant's little sister. That's what's preventing everyone from seriously flirting with you, but it seems Jon doesn't care anymore." Alex says. I see Jon walking up.

"You two are delusional and this discussion is over!" I say motioning towards him.

"Can't we at least tease him?" Mike asks. 

I ignore him and set up my stat sheet. Before we know it, warm ups are over, and the first period is starting.  The first period is rather boring. Lots of shots, of course since that was my stat job, but no goals. Finally, the period's over.

"Hey Angie, wanna go walk around?" Alex asks.

"No thanks, I need to check over my stat sheet." I tell him absent mindedly.

"Jon?"

"No thanks," Jon responds. Alex grins,

"Mike?"

"Sure!" 

It doesn’t even phase me that they left until Jon starts talking.

"So how do you like Canada?" Jon asks.

“It’s nice I guess, haven’t really been anywhere but the rink.” I say nonchalantly.

“Well obviously we just got here.” Jon says grinning. I laugh,

“Shut up! You’re the one who asked.”

“Well, I’m just trying to get a pretty girl to talk to me.” Jon says. I find myself blush at that.

“Yeah whatever,” I say brushing him off.

“I’m being serious Angie.”

“Jon you always talk to me, we’re good friends, it’s not hard for you to talk to me.” I assure him.

“Yeah good friends,” Jon murmurs. 

“What was that?” I ask trying to get him to speak up.

“Nothing,” Jon says with a small smile.

“Fine, be difficult.” I say still working on the stats.

“Hey Angie,”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you stop worrying about those stats and actually talk to me.” Jon says coming over pushing my hair behind my ear. I pull back,

“And I should do that why?” I ask being difficult.

“Cuz like you just said we’re friends, so why wouldn’t you actually talk to me?” Jon asks.

 Luckily Mike and Alex are coming back so I don’t have to answer that.

"Popcorn?" Alex offers when he walks up.

"No thanks." I say burying my head in my arms.

"Tired?" Jon asks concerned.

"No,"

"Annoyed?" Mike guesses.

"Yes,"

"Really? Why?" Alex asks.

"Because we're playing 20 questions." I say. They laugh, and I can't help smiling. When it comes to friends I really don't have any except for guys. 

About half way through the second period Grant's line is out again. Grant's a center on the second line. Blake and Max are his wingers. Grant wins the faceoff and passes it back to Jake on defense. Jake then passes it over to Blake. Blake skates it in and passes it back to Grant. Grant snipes it and scores! I'm screaming on the inside. That was his first goal as a high schooler!!! 

"That was a beautiful shot!" I say playing it cool.

"Yeah it was." Alex says. I reach for his popcorn, "Hey no!" he says yanking it away from me. I eat what I got as Drew walks up,

"Hey Baby Brother!" I say when he walks up behind the table.

"Really?" he asks.

"Really," I say

"Grow up," Drew mutters.

"What do you need?"

"I got bored, so I figured I would come join you."

"You got bored at a hockey game?" I ask not buying it.

"Since when?" Jon asks almost like he agrees. 

“Well watching with Mom and Dad gets boring.” Drew says.

“Well we make it pretty exciting don’t we Ang?” Jon asks throwing me a wink. I laugh,

“Sure, if you call taking stats fun.”

“It totally is, if I’m doing it with you.” Jon says to me. Drew, Alex, and Mike all share a smile and I give them a confused look.

“Yeah okay,” I say laughing even more. Drew goes over to Alex and whispers something in his ear. Alex glances at Jon then me and laughs.

“What?” I ask them.

“Oh, we’re just all agreeing that you and Jon are a great couple.” Alex says.

“Whatever,” I say rolling my eyes.

“Alex stop talking.” Jon says growing serious. The buzzer sounds signaling the end of the period. I get up,

“I’m going to go, I’ll be back.” I say leaving and going down the steps.

“Angie! Wait!” I hear Jon call as I go down the steps.

“Yes?” I ask waiting for him to catch up.

“I’m sorry that Alex said that.” Jon says meekly as he comes up.

“I don’t see why you’re apologizing, it’s not your fault.” Jon laughs nervously rubbing his hand behind his neck. 

“It’s not?”

“How would it be?” I ask walking leaving him to catch up. “I don’t see why there is sudden interest in us as a couple.”

“Angie how about you slow down and actually talk to me.” Jon says.

“What?” I ask stopping abruptly causing him to run into me. “Sorry.” I mumble.

“Angie?”

“Yes Jon?” I ask looking at him.

“So, you know how you said we’re close friends?”

“Yeah, why?” I ask confused.

“Have you ever considered being more than that?” Jon asks causing me to laugh. One look at his face and I know that wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

“Oh, you weren’t kidding?” I ask.

“Not exactly, but if you don’t wanna take it seriously we don’t have to.” Jon adds with a light laugh.

“Jon you’re really sweet and you are an amazing guy, I just haven’t ever thought of you in that way.” I admit.

“Why?” Jon asks curious.

“Well one reason is that Grant is my older brother and I don’t know how he would feel about me dating his teammate.” I offer.

“I already talked to Grant he doesn’t care.” Jon says shrugging his shoulders.

“Wait you brought my older brother into this?” I shriek.

“Angie like you said he’s my teammate. If I’m going to be serious about this I had to talk to him about it.” Jon explains.

“So, you’re really serious about this?” I ask surprised.

“Yes Angie,” Jon says patiently.

“Why now?” I ask.

“Well I was actually planning on waiting and actually asking you out on a date to have this discussion. The boys kind of ruined that for me though.” Jon says laughing nervously. I laugh,

“I guess I see your point there.” I agree.

“Honestly though Ang? Like you said we’re close we don’t need to go on a date for me to make it obvious I care about you.”

“So, what you’re trying to say is…” I say trailing off.

“That asking you to be my girlfriend really isn’t all that much of a rush since we’ve known each other forever.” Jon says.

“Oh,” I say surprised even though I totally knew that was coming.

“So?” Jon asks. 

I think about everything Jon said. He does have a valid point, we are really close, and we’ve known each other forever. I’m pretty comfortable around him and we get along good. I genuinely enjoy being around him.

“What if it doesn’t work out though?” I ask curiously.

“I’m so glad that you have so much faith in this idea.” Jon teases, “But if it doesn’t I say we agree to return back to being friends. No harm in that right?”

“Just one more thing.”

“Anything,” Jon says quickly.

“We take it slow,” I tell him.

“You just tell me the boundaries and I’ll keep them.” Jon agrees. I slowly take his hand, 

“Let’s just start here.” I say as we walk up the bleachers back to go do stats.

"She said yes?" Alex asks shocked.

"No, I said no. I'm just holding his hand for no good reason." I say sarcastically.

"Oh, good you had me scared!" Mike says smiling.

"Does this mean I can't flirt with her anymore?" Alex asks Jon. He doesn't answer.

"That's exactly what it means." I answer for him. I see him smirk, I think I did a good job emphasizing we have to take it slow.

"Fine then I give you full rights to the nickname Angel." he says.

"I always thought that was clever." I admit.

"Can I use it?" Jon asks me.

"Sure," I say glancing at the scoreboard not really caring.

We’re actually in the lead which I find impressive. Not that our team isn’t good just sometimes we don’t always have the best focus. I have to give it to the boys though, they showed up ready to play.

"Third periods about to start." Jon says. 

I let go of his hand and grab my pen. The boys skate out onto the ice. I'm impressed with how good they’re holding up. Grant skates up to the faceoff circle. Even though he's a freshman the Coach has definitely recognized his talent. The puck drops, and Grant loses the faceoff. The other team skates it in and shoots but our goalie saves it. Our defense takes it and passes it up. Grant gets it but gets wrecked!

"Wow what a check!" I say as Grant gets up.

"It was clean!" Alex says.

"Yeah I know." I say but knowing Grant he's irritated. I was right because he just tripped someone. I'm not the only one who notices, the ref sees it and calls it.

"2 minutes number 3 tripping." I roll my eyes,

"I'm not related to him." I mutter.

"Really since when?" Jon asks.

"Since I know better than to take a penalty as dumb as that!" It turns out to be really costly too. The other team dumps the puck into the zone and they get a powerplay goal making it a tied game. I sigh,

"It's no biggie we'll get it back." Jon encourages.

"We better," 

Apparently, Jon was way off because instead of us scoring again the other team did winning the game 3-2.

"I'm disowning him." I tell Jon. He stands up,

"Aw it's not that bad." Jon assures me. Mike and Alex are running down the steps to join the team. "So, see you later?" he asks.

"Yeah, probably here." I say

"Bye Angie," Jon says going to catch up with Mike and Alex.

"See ya!"