An hour later, at Poway Ice Arena, the Gulls are skating around their practice facility’s ice rink as their warm up.

Matt and Ryan are skating together in their goalie equipment and black practice jerseys.

From behind, Brandon and Joseph glide up them in a black jersey and a yellow jersey, respectively. They park next to Matt; Joseph taps his stick against Matt’s black leg pad.

Brandon leans toward them. “Try not to sing, okay?”

“No worries, we won’t!” Ryan tells him with raised eyebrows behind his mask. “Trust us!”

“Definitely!” Matt adds in.

“Good,” Joseph states coldly. He then picks up speed and skates off; Brandon follows him.

Ryan gazes at his goalie partner. “Let’s just focus on getting our head in the game. At least it’s just practice.”

Matt nods his head at him, his throat protector clattering against the bottom of his helmet. “Yeah, yeah.”

Suddenly, a crackle from the speakers slices through the massive room. Then the riffs of the electric guitar drift into existence.

Ryan immediately brakes in place, then sharply T-pushes away from Matt. He beings to sing to the music:

Oh, I feel the music,

He sharply T-pushes closer to Matt.

Oh, guiding me to be groovin’,

Matt then joins him by skating around him backward and singing:

Whoa, why are we singing?
Why are we singing?
Oh,

He then twirls as he approaches in front of him, facing him with a shrug.

Tell me why are we singing?

Instantaneously, Joseph breezes by the goalies, skating backward with smooth crossovers and his arms out. He begins to sing:

I never signed up for this,
Oh--

He pops himself in the air for two spins before landing on one foot and gliding backward with his other leg parallel to the ice.

I just want to do some hits,
Oh--

He then twirls around to be back on two blades and facing forward. He does tiptoe motions sideways on the rounded tip of his blades.

But my feet are jiggling,

He suddenly swings his leg across him, pulling himself into a tight spin.

And I can’t stop it--

He whacks himself against the boards-- “OW!” --and crashes against the ice by the kickplate.

Matt gracefully skates up to him while singing:

So, maybe we should follow the flow,

He drops his stick and pulls off his blocker glove, holding his bare hand out at the fallen skater. Joseph takes his hand and pulls himself up to his feet as Matt continues to sing:

Come on, just all let it go,

Ryan brakes next to the two and takes Matt by the hand, leading him toward center ice. He sings:

Put a great performance,

The two then brake sharply in the middle of the Gulls’ symbol on the ice, holding onto each other’s hands, while facing the entrance.

And not look like a bunch of idiots--

Brandon belts out while gliding across the ice with one leg parallel to the ice:

Singing!
I didn’t know that I can be sing-iii-iiin’!
It makes me go like:

He then begins spinning around tightly while vocalizing:

Whoa, oh, oh…
Whoa oh, oh…
Whoa oh, oh...
Oh…

Stu comes into view, pivoting his feet to crossover backward while going around in semicircles with his hands swaying to the beat of what he is singing:

And look at what we’re bringing!
Just look at what we all are bring-iii-iiin’!

Bryan speeds past his friend, then transitions backward while blurting out:

And it makes me go like: Whoa, oh, oh…
Whoa oh, oh…
Whoa oh, oh...
Oh…

He brakes next to most of his teammates, who are now standing in perfect four rows of seven.

And now we all go like this:

They begin skating backward with crossovers and arms out while singing all together:

I feel the musiiic,

They transition backward.

Guiding me to be grooviiiiin’,

They transition forward again, this time forming into one long line while gliding sideways, parallel to the boards.

Why are we singing,
Why are we singing,
Oh,

They transition backward, yet continue heading the same direction.

Tell me why are we singing?

They turn to become perpendicular to the boards.

Now I feel like I’m flying,

Bryan does a high skip, bolting into the air for a moment.

Like you!

They begin turning the long line around in a perfect circle while tapping and skipping their blades against the ice to the beat.

And maybe some figuring skatin’ too!

Then they each grab a partner, hold each other’s hands, and spin around with each other in circles.

Why are we dancing,
Why are singing,
Oh,

They immediately glide back into their perfect rectangular, skating backward.

Why are we doing this?

Then they slide onto one knee and hold their hands up for a perfect finale.

The audience, which is made up of Gulls’ fans, staff members, and adult hockey players, drops their jaws with widened eyes behind the glass. The coaches standing on the bench, including the head coach, Dallas Eakins, have the same reaction.

The only two people in view that do not have the same reaction, except for the performers, are Nick and Corey Tropp: Nick is in a deep sleep in the benches while Corey is too busy taping his stick.

In the front row of the group of skaters, Brandon, Joey, Matt, Ryan, Bryan, and Stu all exchange gaping looks.

“Guys, I don’t think it’s just us affected,” Brandon whispers to them.

Joseph shoots him a flat expression. “No duh, Sherlock.”

---

Practice goes on as usual and finally ends two hours later.

In the locker room, all of the Gulls are dressing out in silence, still humiliated at their figure skating number back on the ice.

Then Coach Dallas storms into the room with a stern expression. He halts in the middle, taking a good look at his team. His team attempts not to make eye contact with him. So he has to speak up without their permission:

“What was that?” he spits out, throwing his hands out from his side.

Right away, Joe hops onto his feet without his chest padding. “That was our flash mob!” he announces to the coach with a mighty big grin. “We thought it would've been something great for the fans, right?" He turns to his team for approval.

Everyone else perks their heads up at each other and exchanges anxious “heh heh heh”s and “yeah”s.

Coach Dallas eyes his team suspiciously. “Okay... Well, don't do that again without my permission. We have a schedule for this practice and I don't want any flash mobs getting in the way of it.” With that, he whirls around and strides out of the room.

After a few silent beats, Shea brings up the topic:

“What the heck was that all about out there?” he cries out, holding his hand out toward the door. “That was some insane flash mob if I didn’t even know what I was doing!”

“We ALL didn’t know what we were doing,” Joseph remarks brusquely from his stall with arms crossed and a dark expression.

Brandon straightens up in his stall. “The question is, what caused it?”

“Well,” Stu starts from the other side of the room in his stall, “it started happening when the music came on. And once it ended, we stopped!”

“So, it’s the music?” Ryan guesses from the goalie corner in the room.

“There’s only one way to find out--” Bryan points to Ryan. “Hit it, maestro!”

Ryan presses a button on the speakers that are on top of a stall by to him.

Beatbox music begins drifting out from the speakers. And so does the singing:

Bryan holds up his leg, which has his skate and starts:

Skates,

Shea holds up his glove and continues on:

Gloves,

Ryan smacks Matt’s leg pad and adds in:

Goalie pads,

Brandon continues on with a rhythmic tone:

The music is on and we’re still singing, lads.

Ondřej grumbles to the tune:

Wanna shut up,

Kyle MacKinnon joins in:

Shut this singing,

Joseph then barks musically:

Kill the music right this minute!!!

Ryan swiftly presses a button the speakers, cutting the music. “Okay, it’s music!” he announces.

“Pooeys, no locker music,” Bryan mutters with a frown and big eyes.

With that, the team continues dressing out in silence.

Brandon turns to Joseph. “Well, it’s good to know that we can’t listen to music.”

Stu steps up to them with his hockey pants and a backward cap. “This is Icemare again, I take it.”

Joseph narrows his eyes up at him. “Yes…,” he growls.

Ryan lets out a heavy sigh.

“Okay, so what’s the cursed object?” Brandon asks.

“When did it start?” Stu shoots back.

Matt pipes in, “This morning!”

Joseph nods to him. “Yeah.”

“The thing is that it has to be something EVERYONE touched since everyone here’s affected,” Brandon points out slowly.

“Except for the bear.” Joseph eyes Nick, who is minding his own business of packing up his equipment. He turns to look at his other roommate. “Did you see him?”

“Yeah, he slept throughout the whole thing!” Matt exclaims with a fascinated expression.

“Okay,” Ryan starts off, “so if it’s something that we all touched, including the others, then it'd most likely be from Matt’s party.”

Matt dips his head with watery eyes. “Awww…”

Ryan pats his thin shoulder. “No hard feelings, Hacker.”

“I’m so sorry…” he squeaks out.

Joseph leans over and pulls him into a side hug. “Hey, we’re cool with it. We’re not blaming you for it, you didn’t put the party together.”

Matt responds by sniffing with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Stu brings everyone back on track: “What is one thing from Matt’s party that everyone touched except Nicky?”

“And it has to be something we hadn’t touched in a while since the effect happened this morning,” Brandon adds in.

Everyone settles into deep contemplation, attempting to figure out the answer to the question.

Bryan bounds up to Stu and pokes his arm. “Pickle Stew--”

Stu peers down at him. “What, Mooresy?”

“Okay, okay, since we sing to music all the time, can we have more karaoke battles?” he proposes excitedly. “I’d KILL it!”

Brandon’s eyes immediately light up at the connection his mind made with Bryan’s suggestion.

“Maybe, we’re busy here,” Stu replies flatly, waving him off.

“Busy here with what?” Bryan peers at the other two skaters and goalies.

Stu adjusts his cap. “Figuring out what cursed us.”

Bryan nods his head. “Ohhh…”

“I got it!” Brandon blurts out, drawing the others’ attention. “It’s the karaoke system!”

“Wait--” Ryan scrunches his eyebrows in confusion. “--didn’t Ritch sing karaoke during ‘Ghostbusters’?”

“He did, but he just sang into the mic, he didn’t hold it or anything,” Brandon explains.

“And we did…,” Stu mutters in realization.

The five all exchange expressions of trepidation. “Oh."

Notes

E.13 "Sing!"
Part 3/4
Episode 13/20