Love And Miracle (Jack O'Callahan Fanfiction)

A part of me wants everyone to know I will be trying my luck and try to make the Olympic Team in few months, but the other, smarter part of me, tells me to keep my mouth zipped. After all, last thing I need is a bunch of jealous teammates and possibly pissed off roommate. But keeping it secret is hard, especially when everyone can see that different, excited side of me I’ve been carefully hiding all those years.

A week later my head is still high above the clouds and I think it’s starting to drive Ali a little nuts.
“Can you please stop smiling like a tard?”
“I am sorry, Ali. But I can’t.”
“Jeesh, who are you crushing on now?”
I look at her with my brows raised: “Again? What do you mean by that?”
She starts counting my “crushes” on fingers of her right hand, nearly blinding me with a purity ring she’s been wearing since the day I know her.
“Let’s see. We’ve had Simon….”
“A summer crush doesn’t count!”
“It does if you got to 1st base with him!”
I smack her arm: “Not everyone has to know that, so keep it quiet, okay?”
She continues in a quiet tone: “Then we have Alec…”
“Show me one girl who isn’t crushing on Alec here. I dare you. Even you nearly fainted when he smiled at you.”
‘That’s not the point! And then we have Nick and Jason…”
“Nick. Jason is a hoser. ”
“Doesn’t matter. And let’s not forget that exchange student, what’s his name again?”
“Valeri,” I answer and blush slightly at the mention of a handsome and quiet Russian.
“Yeah, him. That’s four crushes in two years?”
“That’s not a lot, Ali…”
The bell rings and interrupts our conversation. When our professor, Mrs. Monaghan walks in, the entire class sinks into a deafening silence. Mrs. Monaghan has been teaching here for more than fifty years, she is about eighty years old, but scarier than majority of our professors. And she knows that. Plus, her classes are the only ones where no one dares to chat. She may be old, but she has a sight of an eagle and great hearing.
“Good morning, class. Put away your notebooks, I prepared an exam to see how much you’ve been studying during the break.”
I exchange a scared look with Alice and take a deep breath. This is not okay, I haven’t even open a notebook and I honestly have no idea what is this class about. Sure, I am taking notes, but that doesn’t mean I understand a damn.
“Know anything?” Alice whispers to me and I only shake my head in response. Leaning closer to her, I whisper: “What about you?”
“Do I look like? I have no…”
“Roy and Mayfield!”
Here we are again, being called by surnames. The last thing you want hear from your professors (or coach) is your surname.
“Sorry, Mrs. Monaghan,” Ali and I say in unison. She looks at us once again with her eyes squinted, which makes Ali slightly move back on her chair, before turning back to papers on her table. The silence in the class is driving me insane, everyone is waiting for Mrs. Monaghan to give us tests. She suddenly calls out: “Mayfield!”
Every single glance in a class is now focused on me, including Ali’s blue eyes, which I have a feeling are glaring daggers in my soul.
“Y-Yes, Mrs. Monaghan?”
Surprisingly, her thin lips are curved into an almost invisible smile when she signalizes me to come closer. Exchanging one final look with Ali, I loudly push my chair away from the table and approach Mrs. Monaghan’s desk. I feel curious gazes burning into my back when she looks up at me: “Coach O’Connell asked me to give you this.”
She hands me a folded piece of paper and adds: “You better read it during the break.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Monaghan,” I take the paper and smile lightly to our professor before heading back to my desk. I slip on the chair and dig the paper deep into my pencil case, away from curious gazes of my schoolmates. Ali leans to me: “What do you think was so urgent?”
Now it is a perfect time to tell her about your conversation with coach O’Connell, but my mouth remain sealed for, to me, completely unknown reason. I know we are supposed to be best friends and room mates, but it seems like I can’t tell her that, that I could ruin our friendship.
“Don’t know. Maybe he’s decided he has to punish me for talking back to him…”
“But you said…”
“I know what I said. I don’t know, Ali, I really don’t.”
Damn it, I feel bad for lying to her. But really, I don’t want to discuss that with her, especially not now. Not in the middle of the class.
“Okay, class, calm down,” Mrs. Monaghan calls out completely unnecessarily since the entire class is so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Fifty minutes later the class is done and so am I, probably. At least I will be when I get the results of a test.
“How did it go?” I ask Ali, who just looks at me with tired eyes: “Can we not?
“That bad, huh? Don’t worry, we are on the same boat here.”
She chuckles quietly before asking: “So, are you going to read what coach O has to say?”
“Yeah… but I will do it in the dorm, not here.”
“Oh, come on! Why not? Could be about today’s practice…”
“I am sure it isn’t. Come on, I don’t wanna be tardy for English Literature Class.”
“And I have some tutoring to do. See you later?”
“Sure thing,” I smile and hug her before heading the other way towards my English Literature Class. I slip behind my desk and pull out my notebook, when someone clears its throat above me. I look up and see Alec grinning above me: “So when will you tell Alice your little secret?”
“What secret? What are you talking about?”
He sits down next to me and flashes me that innocent smile which has been driving girls at the university insane. His fingertips tap together repeatedly before he answers: “I’ve over heard coach O’Connell talk to our coach about you. And trying to get you to the Olympic Team. Hmmm?”
I quickly look around the classroom, which is filling up slowly and notice Lauren, Michelle and Andrea, three of my teammates walk in. They notice me and give me a small wave, but Lauren is the only one, who lifts her thumbs when she notices Alec sitting next to me.
“Good job,” she mouths and winks before she joins Mich and Andy.
“You must tell no one. Please, Alec. It must remain a secret.”
He leans closer to me: “I will try to keep it a secret, but it’s so exciting. Just…correct me if I am wrong… isn’t that so that women’s hockey is not a part of the Olympics?”
“Yeah, it’s not.”
“So which sport will you participate in? Are you secretly a figure skater?” he wiggles his eyebrows in an attempt to make a joke. It does make me crack a chuckle, but nothing more: “Nope. Hockey. Really, Alec, I don’t want to talk about it. Not now.”
“How will you play hoc- Wait, you mean you’ll try and make it to the men’s team?”
“Keep your voice down!”
An uneasy sensation flashes through my bones as me get the feeling few of my schoolmates try to eavesdrop.
“You are seriously going to try playing for men’s team?”
“Alec, you must tell no one. Please, at least for now.”
He ruffles his curly black hair with a deep sigh of frustration: “I don’t get it. It’s a huge honor to be even considered as one of the players. Why you don’t want to tell anyone?”
“I want, just…I don’t want other girls to hate me or anything…”
His rough hands grab mine and I look at him. His brown eyes are glimmering slightly: “Listen to me carefully. They are your teammates. If they will hate you for being a great player, they don’t deserve sharing the ice with you. Not just the ice, they don’t deserve sharing the locker room and all of the successes.”
Stunned by his words of support, which I really didn’t expect from him, I don’t answer. When I open my mouth, my tongue becomes numb and I just stare at him wordlessly.
“And listen, would you like to join our practice once or twice? Just to experience how real college hockey is supposed to be played?”
“A-Are you serious? I’d love to…”
“Great! Talk to you after class,” he gets up and gives me a huge smile before turning around and going to his desk. I watch him as he does that and I notice him giving a high five to one of his teammates.

As soon as I enter the cafeteria, half of my team surrounds you. “Lauren said Alec spoke to you? What it was about?” Jenny Lewis, a freshman defense player, asks me as soon as she gets a chance.
Now it’s the right time to tell them I think to myself and open my mouth, but instead of telling them I might be playing for the Olympic team I simply say: “He invited me to join them on their practice once…”
“I hope you accepted!” Susan Parker, another player from freshman year, squeals and looks at the others with excited spark in her eyes.
“Maybe I will…”
“Kim, you should. You are a hell of a great player and practicing with them would not hurt you,” Lauren touches my shoulder and flashes me a wide grin. I smile back and nervously tuck of hair behind my ear.
“Lauren… I have to tell you something. Can you please follow me?”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah… I think. I just want to talk with you about something.”
“Uh, okay. But can it wait until after the lunch?”
“It can… Lauren, I’d rather tell you after the practice. If that’s okay with you?”
“You are freaking me out and it doesn’t sound like nothing is wrong.”
I pinch bridge of my nose and assure her: “I swear everything is fine. See you later at the practice, okay? See you later, girls.”

The rest of the day flies by quickly and annoyingly slow at the same time. Hiding secret before your teammates and your friend is not the everyday thing to do. When the hour of a practice rolls around, I am a nervous wreck, mostly because I’ll have to bite into a sour apple and talk to Lauren.
Even girls who have just joined us and we don’t know each other well yet notice I am not myself. Usually loud on and off the ice, but today I barely speak to anyone.
“What is wrong with you, Kim?” Alice asks worriedly after I hit the boards for the zillionth time during doing a simple exercise.
“Nothing… Really, Ali, I am fine…” I shut up mid-sentence when coach’s and mine gaze meet.
“Mayfield, what are you doing? Put your head in a game!” he smacks his stick against the ice and small pieces of ice fly up in the air.
“Yes, coach. Ali, I am fine, I swear.”
But my nerves are a mess and after I nearly fall over the boards, Lauren, as a future captain of our team, asks coach to let her and me have a word in the locker room. As soon as the door close, she looks directly at me: “Okay, Kimberly, what is wrong with you today? You’ve been weird for the entire day.”
“Lauren, I hope you won’t hate me…”
“Does it have to do anything with Mike?”
Mike is her boyfriend and they have been together for ages. The only thing she is really possessive of is he. And there’s no doubt she would kill me if I tried something with him.
“Nothing. Why? Is there something wrong?”
She sits down next to me and buries her face in her palms, soft whimpers escaping her lips. A second passes before I awkwardly pat her back: “What is wrong, Lauren?”
“I t-think he might be cheating on me…with one of the girls from the t-team. A-And I thought it m-might be y-you.”
“I’d never do that to you. Or to anyone else. I hope you know that.”
“I know…I am sorry.”
“I’d be the same, no worries. Lauren…I can trust you, right?”
“Sure. What’s wrong?” she wipes tears off her cheeks and looks at me. Her selflessness is exactly why she will make a great captain, she was willing to forget her personal troubles to face mine.
“So, uh, coach O suggested me to maybe challenge myself and…and try my luck at the Olympic tryouts…for men’s hockey team.”
“You mean…Olympics in Lake Placid in twelve months?”
“Yes… But you must tell no one. Please, at least for a while.”
“Kim, that’s great! I am so happy for you! And of course I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thanks, but… are you not mad?”
“Why should I be? This is a great opportunity and you are an extremely talented player.”
Words, she is saying, are exactly the right words of support, but I think I can see in her eyes she is wondering one thing.

How the hell did Kimberly Mayfield get a chance like that? Why her and no one else?

Notes