Chapter 31
Cole pov
Practice ended better than it had all week, Coach clapping me on the shoulder as I skated off the ice.
"There he is," he said. "I was starting to think I'd have to bench you permanently."
"I just needed to work some things out," I said.
Behind me, Aaron shouted across the locker room, "Captain's finally awake again!"
I didn't argue. He wasn't wrong.
A few of us headed toward the academic building together after changing, the usual post-practice chatter filling the air, though most of it seemed to have shifted focus today.
"She's really nice," someone said, a few steps ahead.
"She already joined the literature club."
"She seems cool."
I only half listened, catching fragments about the new transfer student everyone had apparently already decided they liked. I
