AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!

In the Gulls’ exclusive locker room located at Poway Ice, most of the Gulls are gearing up for practice. Coach Dallas Eakins is moseying around the room, checking to see who has arrived and who has not.

He reaches the empty stalls of Joseph and Brandon and stares at them with a frown. He then turns to Nick, who is next to Brandon’s empty stall.

“Nicholas,” he starts harshly, “where’s your roommate?”

Nick gradually raises his head from facing the elbow pad he has in his hand. “He’s sick.”

Coach Dallas points to Joseph’s vacant stall. “And your other roommate?”

“Sick as well.”

“Hmmm…” He peers down at his clipboard and scribbles something on it with a pen. He lowers it down to see the healthy skater. “At least you didn’t catch the bug.” He then steps deeper into the room.

There, he spots the goalie section, where it is fifty percent empty. He halts in front of Ryan’s lonely stall.

“Where’s your partner?” Coach Dallas turns to Matt with his hand extended toward the empty stall.

Matt peers up at him from strapping on his leg pads. “He’s sick, Coach.”

“Sick as well?” He makes an incredulous expression.

“Yeah…” Matt frowns with massive eyes.

His eyebrows shoot up. “Wow.” He then marks something on his clipboard. “What a day.” He then walks away from him.

Right away, Bryan Moore dashes up to Matt with without his chest padding.

“Wow, Muffins, Slammer, and Metalhead are all sick?” He gawks at him. “Now that’s one huge epidemic. The only epidemic I was in was when my whole family got sick: my mom, my dad, my brother, my grandma, even my dog got sick--”

“Bryan, what are you doing on the other side of the room?”

Bryan peers behind his shoulder to see who just talked to him. It is his best friend, Stu Bickel, who is far taller and saner than him. He is already geared up and ready to hit the ice with his helmet.

“Oh! I was talking to Matt about the time my whole family--”

“Yeah, that can be saved for some other time. You still need to put your chest padding on.” He then grabs his wrist and drags him back across the room.

“Nice talking to you!” Bryan calls out to him as he going farther away from him. “Next time I’ll tell you about the time my whole school was shut down because everyone got sick!” He then peers up at Stu as he is plop back into his stall.

“Ooo, did I tell you the time my whole school got shut down because everyone got sick?”

Stu sits down in his stall that is next to him. “Yes, you have told me three times already, Bryan.”

Bryan’s arched eyebrows shoot up. “Really? Well, because what happened was--”

“Okay, team, listen up!” Coach Dallas barks from the middle of the room.

The whole room falls silent as all attention goes on the coach.

“Today we have three teammates missing. Hopefully they’ll come back before game day, but if not, we’ll work with it. Now, from a request by your captain, I’ll let the captain do the rest of the talking.”

The captain of the Gulls, Joe Piskula, hops into view with a massive grin on his face. He then stands grandly next to the coach. “Oh, I’m so glad all of you guys are able to make it here today!” he exclaims extremely bubbly and enthusiastically. “I know that all of you guys will make closer bonds with each other and score and save and be amazing! This is going to be such a great practice! I hope that our three sick teammates will get better so that they can join in on the fun again with all of us! Now let’s go practice and have fun!” He pumps his stick in the air.

“Alright.” Coach Dallas claps his hands for encouragement with his clipboard in the way. “Let’s go, practice!”

With that, the team gets up and files out of the locker room.

Notes

E.4 "Cat Café"
Part 3/4
Episode 4/20