The next morning, all of the Gulls, including the members of the Monarossabergie House, are at the gym that is by the ice arena. All the hockey players are doing their own type of exercise around the room. In the matted area, Max is stretching in a child’s pose. Someone then steps up to him, looming down.

Max lifts his head up, peering up at who is looking over him.

“Hey, Maxi--” Joseph nods down to him. “Coach wants to see you in his office.”

Max straightens up. “Oh why?” He then stands up, facing his best friend.

“I dunno.” Joseph shrugs with one shoulder. “He just wants to see you right now.”

Max nods his head. “Okay, I’ll be there.”

Max breezes past Joseph and exits the room, into the ice rink. He pads down the aisle between the ice and the wall with a pleasant mien. He then enters the dim, tucked area between the rental skates booth and the wall that is to his right. To his right is a wooden door with a window that has its blinds closed.

He turns to the door and pulls it open. He enters through the doorway, closes the door softly, then faces the room.

The room is pitch black except for a spotlight shining down on a typical, wooden office desk. Behind that desk is the sarcastic facility worker with the light casting menacing shadows down on his round, tan face.

“Coach Dallas is that way,” he tells him in an ominous tone, pointing to the right.

Max follows his finger with his eyes to the right, where another spotlight appears. The spotlight is shining down on the happy facility worker, who is next to another office door. He cheerfully opens the door and extends his free hand toward it.

Max steps forward to the door and passes through the doorway. He enters into an squared-shaped, small office with a desk on the other side along with two chairs in front of it. Paperwork and binders are spewed all over the room along with pictures and flags that are Gulls-themed.

Behind the desk is Coach Dallas himself. He has a stern mien with interfaced fingers on his desk.

“Hello, Coach!” Max exclaims happily as he stands on the other side of the desk.

“Glad you can make it, Max.” Coach Dallas extends his hand at the empty seat. “Take a seat.”

Max pulls out the seat closest to him, sits in it, and pulls it close to the desk. He sits there attentively like every teacher’s dream student.

Coach Dallas leans over the desk, getting closer to Max. “I have some news for you,” he states gravely.

Max has a sweet, rosy smile on his face. Yet once he hears the news, his smile immediately morphs into a gawk with disbelief.

---

The Gulls have now congregated in the locker room, suiting up for their on-ice practice and talking among themselves.Then Maxi lumbers in with downcast face. He shuffles over to his stall next to Joseph and sits down.

Joseph turns to him with a smirk. “Hey, Maxi.”

Max reaches over for his hockey bag and pulls it close to him. “Hi, Joseph,” he says without make eye contact. He then zips his bag and begins to suit up with first his jock, pants, shin guards, socks, and skates.

Joseph watches him dress up while in the middle of tying his skates, waiting for Max to exclaim something about the practice or his meeting Coach Dallas. Yet he quickly notices that Max is not talking for some odd reason. Maybe he needs to ignite the conversation.

Joseph clears his throat. “So um, how was the meeting with Coach?” He peers down at Max.

“Good.” Max leans over and pulls out his chest padding.

Joseph knits his eyebrows with a frown. He knows that something is definitely off with Max.

He looks ahead, catching sight of Brandon staring at him. He then looks down back at Max. Max scoots a bit away from him.

Joseph cranes his head to get the best possible eye contact he could get with him, even though it meant just seeing his back. “Maxi…” He starts off lowly with concern. “...what’s wrong?”

Max spins around to face the room. “Um, we have practice very soon!” he announces nervously. “Gotta get ready!” He then turns back to hectically put on his elbow pads.

Joseph turns away from his best friend, looking down with wide eyes and uneasiness.

---

A few minutes later, the Gulls are back on the practice ice, skating around for their warm-up.

Max is skating in a slower pace than before all alone. Joseph rushes up from behind and catches up to him.

“Hey, Maxi.” He taps his stick against his leg. “Wanna race to the blue line?”

“Oh, not today, Joseph.” Max dips his head and mumbles sadly in Swedish, “Aldrig…”

Joseph peers at Max with concern. “What was that?”

Max takes a quick glance at him before turning away. “Nothing…just not today…” He glides ahead of him.

Joseph realigns with him again. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” he asks him, perturbed.

“Not now. I just need some time alone, Joseph…” Max looks at him quickly. “...please…” He then skates off with more speed.

Joseph halts in his skating, gaping ahead at Max in disbelief.

“Wow. What a friend,” Bryan’s voice is heard from behind him. Joseph turns around and peers down at him. Bryan continues talking: “You know, I wouldn’t do that to you if you were my friend.”

Joseph glares at him while growling, “Not helping…!”

Stu skates up to the two. “Excuse him, hehe.” He places his hands on his friend and guides him away.

Joseph watches the two skate away. Then two other teammates join him.

Matt brakes next to Joseph. “You want to join us, Crammer? You’re all alone.”

Anton brakes on the other side of Joseph, equipped with his dombra.

“No.” He scowls ahead. “I’ll be alone if Maxi makes me all alone.”

Anton strums his dombra. “Why Maxi leave you?” he asks in his Kazakh accent.

The three begin to skate together.

“I don’t know!” Joseph exclaims, slapping his stick against the ice. “He’s been off ever since this morning! I’m trying to ask him, but he’s not giving me anything!”

“Well, give him time,” Matt tells him calmly. “He has to come around sooner or later.”

Joseph’s eyes drift to the side with a flat expression. “Yeah, he should… I mean, we’re close as close best friends can be.” He turns to Matt. “We would tell everything to each other. It’s not right for Maxi to be dealing with something on his own without me knowing.”

Anton stops strumming his dombra and then wraps arms around the two. “We here to play hockey. Forget about this rubbish. Play some good ol’ hockey, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Matt shouts happily.

Joseph narrows his eyes with a frown. “Fine…”

Then Coach Dallas blows the whistle: TWEEEET!

He gathers his team for drills, then sends them off to practice them. While in line for the drills, Max would not say a single word to anyone and be apart from his roommates. And when he is paired up with one of his roommates, all the chemistry they built up over the months becomes nonexistent.

After going through the drill, Joseph rounds over to the back of the line, where Brandon and Nick are waiting.

“What’s wrong with Maxi?” he asks the two with disgust. “Why is he acting like he’s trying to dodge us?” He leans against the boards, sulking.

Brandon shrugs. “I don’t know. You gotta talk to him more. You’re the one closest to him.”

Joseph sighs. “I will.”

Nick gazes around his surroundings with a sad, infantile-like expression. “Awww…why isn’t Maxi with us?”

“You idiot, he’s avoiding us!” Joseph smacks his leg with his stick.

Notes

E.2 "Here Comes Trouble...!"
Part 4/7
Episode 2/20

---

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!!!
What is going on with Maxi??? Is he gonna be okay? Will Crammer find out what's wrong? What is it, what is it, what is it???
Stay tuned tomorrow!

Alright, now it is time for sports report with A Shruinger. The part of the show where A Shruinger comes out and says bias reports about sports...

1. Sharks lost to the Oilers 4-1 for their All-Star weekend! No bitterness though, I think the Oilers are cool with Connor! :)
2. Ducks lost to the Oilers as well 4-0. Don't feel too bad...
3. Gulls creeeeaaaammmmmeeeeddddd Tucson 8-1! And Kalle is now famous in the sports world! :))))
4. Stars lost to the Heartbreaks 5-3. Dude, we win as a team, we lose as a team. *sighs* Could've been worse! Now we're 2-1-1
5. Raccoon dogs exist!
Director: (OS) That's not sports-related!
Me: Shhhhhh, it is now!
6. Falcons vs Patriots are your Super Bowl teams! Go Falcons!!! Beat the Evil Empire! XD
7. All-Star weekend for NHL, AHL, and NWHL is going on this week! Yeah, even though it's in LA, I'll not be going :P
8. I think that's all... Is that all?

THAT'S IT! *throws chocolate-covered pineapples in the air*

Okay, see you all tomorrow as I provide you the rest of the episode!

BYEEEEEEEE! :D

PS How does an AAOOOSC! story dealing with minor hockey players sound? ;) *whispers* I'm working on it right now...!