Looking Up

-----Elle's POV

The combination of Steve's gentle snoring and sung light pouring through the curtains wakes me up gradually. The clock reads '7:05' and I realize I woke up 10 minutes before the alarm on my phone so I turn it off as I climb out of Steve's bed.

These past two months, I've only driven up here 3 times- and Steve's made even more trips- I don't know how he does it so much. I've spent most of my time at the bakery and visiting my father, while Steve has been traveling from Philly to Oakville and other places visiting his family, training, and participating in charity events held by some of the other guys on the team. There were a couple of times he'd surprise me, and we'd take trips down to the shore for a couple of days on my days off.

As I make my way downstairs in Steve's house in Oakville, I greet George good morning and feed him some breakfast before I turn on the coffee maker. We made the trip up here since we'll both be playing in an annual street hockey tournament his friend's at Bar Down Hockey are hosting. After pouring myself a bowl of cereal I look down at the bulldog sitting at my feet, "Go wake up Steve, Georgie!" and with that he hurries up the stairs.

Within the next several seconds I hear a thump, "Aw! George get off my chest ya big lug!" I hear Steve yell and I can't help but laugh. Soon after, he makes his way down the steps after George, "Why does it have to be so bright in the morning," he groans wiping his eyes.

"Good morning to you too," I say sarcastically and take another bite of cereal as Steve walks over to me and presses his lips against my forehead. "I would give you a kiss good morning, but I believe that George already did that," I laugh as I look at George's pudgy, slobbery face.

"So are you ready for your street hockey debut?" Steve asks as he sits down with his bowl Cheerios.

"Yeah I'm just nervous, I don't want to choke up and start playing terribly or something," I laugh nervously.

"You've never really told me about it, have you played a lot before?"

"Well, a while ago, I used to play all the time with Jamie and some of our other friends- we'd play against different teams- it was intramural. But honestly, I probably haven't played since January. Hopefully, I won't be rusty," I admit.

"I bet you'll be great- seems like you're packing a lot of experience," he says encouragingly as he rubs my shoulder.

After we get dressed and load our hockey gear into the truck, I lose the flip-flops and strap on my black and gray Nike running shoes and try and shake my jitters by jogging in place and rolling my shoulders and neck. When we get to the tournament, I can feel my nerves getting to me but Steve calms me down before we hop out of the truck.

"Don't be worried, you're obviously going to do great," he says and squeezes my hand for reassurance.

-----Steve's POV

After Elle and I grab our stuff out of the back of my truck, we head to our team's tent. When we get there, Matt, Brandon and Kyle are already there along with some of the other guys on our team including Razor Ray. As soon as Brandon sees Elle, he gives her a big hug- over the past two months, they've become friends which is great- Jillian never cared for any of my friends. "You ready guys?" Kyle asks and Elle gives an enthusiastic nod, "yeah I'm really excited- this is gonna be fun."

While Kyle and Brandon ask her about playing street hockey in college, I hear an infamous voice interrupt Ray and I's conversation. "You boys ready for today? I hope you're expecting to lose," Tom boasts.

A fake smile spreads across my face and I can feel my blood start to boil, "Well, may the best man win."

Tom looks past me and smiles, "she sure looks good with those shorts," he bites his lip and before I can lose my temper he starts to walk backwards, "well, I better get going- catch you guys later."

"Wow, what a dick," Ray comments.

"Yeah, he's really not on my good side," I add

"Well, save it for the game- let'em have it then, eh?"

"Sounds good," I pat Ray on the back and walk towards the center of our tent to get my gear on, in an attempt to distract me from Tom. The first announcement sounds through a megaphone telling us to get to our assigned courts and I walk over with Elle and Ray.

"It's going to be so strange seeing you both play forward," she says with a laugh, while strapping on a black baseball cap.

"Yeah I didn't think of that," I comment, "I actually really like playing forward."

"Well let's see what you're better at," Elle says as we walk onto the court with our other teammates who have just started warming up.

During our warm-up drills, I can't believe how good Elle is with handling the ball and how fast she is- not that I didn't expect her to be good, but just not this good. Out of 10 shots, she's made 8- which gets the attention of all of the guys on the team. As we take a 5-minute break before the game starts, Kyle and Matt bombard me about Elle.

"Hey! she fantastic- I was a little wary of her skills at first but damn Mase," Kyle says while running his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I'm surprised too- I didn't have a clue," I say honestly just as Elle walks over to the three of us.

Matt asks the question we are all wondering, "Question Elle, how well did your team do in college?"

"Oh uhm let's see. Well, we won first place 3 times and my sophomore year we won second place," she says nonchalantly, "but I'm certain it's only because Jamie twisted her ankle the game before the final one- all of the teams played really well, so it hurt the team not to have her in."

"Holy crap, Bambi," I say just as the ref blows his whistle and tells the teams to line up. Elle straps on her black and yellow gloves and gives me a wink and smile as she lines up for the face off, "let's do this," she mouths to me before leaving eye contact with me.

When the whistle sounds, our team doesn't need time to start working like a well- oiled machine. Within minutes, Elle scores the first goal and she celebrates by giving some high fives. Throughout the game, whenever I look at Elle, she has a sort of hunger and fierceness in her eyes, a look I've never seen before- which takes me off guard. We end up winning the game easily 5-2, and beat the next 3 teams and get a spot in the finals.
"This is so much fun! I forgot how good it feels to play and compete!" Elle says with a big smile on her face.

"You're like an animal out there," I laugh, "let's go check out who we're playing."

We walk over to the large board with all of the teams next to the first aid tent and food stand, "Hmm, it says -" Elle starts to say.

"'Trail Blazers' my team," Tom interrupts and I sigh loudly, great, Tom's team.

"Oh, hey Tom," Elle says flatly.

"Hope you guys are ready to play- I'm surprised you actually got this far."

"Surprised? We're a great team," I comment.

"Elle, you're playing too? With that outfit, I thought your job was to distract the other team and cheer."

"Excuse me?" I clench my fists and step closer to Tom.

"Save it for the game Masey," Tom spits, "see you at the rink," he adds and winks at Elle.

"I'm gonna kill him," Elle mumbles underneath her breath as we walk to the final game and put on our gloves.

"We'll beat'em, we've got this win in the bag," I say as I pat her back.

With fierceness in her eyes, Elle goes against Tom in the face off and wins it for us- I bet I could feel the tension between the two of them from a mile away. By the middle of the game it's 2-2 and incredibly tough but Elle's skills are flourishing- she gets so into the zone, taking charge, and giving commands, I feel like I don't recognize her.

With 3 minutes left in the game, we're winning 3-2 thanks to Elle's beautiful pass to Kyle who made a great shot on goal. At this point in the game, Tom's getting frustrated with his team and yelling at them, and Elle starts chirping him even more saying things like, "Are you related to Sidney Crosby?" and "I have extra tissues in my bag if you run out of yours."

"Hey! Elle!" I yell over to her to tell her I'm open. She locks eye contact with me, passes over the ball quickly, and Tom comes running towards me to sway my chances of getting a goal. Just as I take my stick back to hit the ball, Tom hits my hand with the side of his stick and a rush of pain throbs through my hand. I drop my stick, lean forward, put my left hand on my knee, and the ref blows his whistle to stop the game.

"What the hell was that about?!" I hear Elle yell as she runs over to Tom and shoves him, "can't stand the thought of losing?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" she gives him another shove before running to my side, "are you okay?"

"No, my hand hurts so bad, I don't even want to move it," I say and wince in pain.

"Let's get you to the First Aid Tent," she says quickly and quietly to me and then notifies the ref that I'm leaving the game. "I can't believe he did that, he's a fucking baby," she spits and I'm taken aback by her cursing.

"Woah, never thought I'd ever here you say that," I admit.

"Sorry," she laughs softly, "I'm just really angry."

"Me too, trust me," I say as we arrive to the tent. The doctors tell me that I have a broken pinky, they give me a splint and suggest that I go to a hospital or an urgent care to get it checked out. Just before we leave to go to the hospital, Brandon tells us that we won and we get a quick team photo.

******

"I'm so glad that this won't affect my training for this season," I say exhaling deeply as we get into the truck.

"I know, you're lucky it won't take long- I still can't believe Tom did that though, at least we won- he's probably crying about it now," she admits.

"He's just really competitive with me for some reason."

"Yeah, I guess so," she chuckles and motions to my splint on my hand, "It's been such a weird, crazy month, first Claude gets arrested because he grabbed a cops butt, then Jamie and Andy getting engaged and to finish off the month of July, you break your pinky!"

"It really has been crazy," I laugh.

On the ride home, Elle asks me about the upcoming season, if I'm excited and when practice officially starts with the Flyers and she comes to the conclusion that she's more excited than I am about hockey starting up again. Before getting back to my house, we pick up some take out and decide to watch movies on the couch for the rest of the night.

Towards the end of the night Elle's phone starts ringing, "hold on it's my mom," she says as she swipes her thumb across the screen to answer the call.

"Hey mom, what's up?
-
Oh my gosh, is it bad?
-
It's okay, I'm glad you told me.
-
Yes.
-
I'll be there as soon as I can, probably tomorrow afternoon.
-
Love you too, bye."

My heart starts to sink as her eye's start to form tears, "what's wrong?"

"My-uh-my dad he's back in the hospital, he- uh- he," she struggles to say but I cut her off with a hug, "You don't have to say anymore."

"Do you mind if we leave tomorrow? I'm so so sorry," she says through deep breaths.

"Don't say sorry, let's pack up our stuff, we're leaving tonight," I say as I get up and lead her off the couch.

"But we just got here yesterday, I can't ask you to drive all that way again Steve."

"You're right, you don't have to ask," I give her a smile and wipe a tear that's falling down her cheek, "let's pack and get on the road."

Notes

Hey guys! Hope you like the chapter! I really wanted to include the broken pinky into the story for some reason lol. These next chapters will be focusing on the start of the hockey season, Elle's father, and some other major drama type stuff that will be happening. Please comment, I'd really like feedback whether it's positive or negative!

Thanks for sticking with the story and I hope everyone's holiday season is going great! Not sure when I'll update next but hopefully I'll get time to before Christmas! Don't forget to comment, rate, and subscribe, thanks!

-Linds