AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!

An hour later, it is practice time for the Gulls at the Kroc Ice Arena. The team are skating around the sun-deluged ice rink as their warmup.

One skater in particular is not warming his legs up, but also his vocal cords…

“H! to the O! to the C-K-E-Y!” Bryan Moore chants with his arms slung around his stick behind his neck. “I-S space T-H-E B-E-S-T!” He grabs his stick and pumps his stick up into the air to the beat of his chant. “Hockey is the best! Best! Best! Best--!”

“Shut it!” Joseph bonks his the blade of his stick against his helmet as he glides by him.

“OOF!” With the force and his small physique, Bryan tumbles downward and lands face-flat on the ice. He then immediately scrambles to his side to get a good look at his teammate.

“Hey, trying to lighten up the mood and you’re not making it any better, Oscar the Grouch!” Bryan shakes his gloved hand at Joseph in growing anger

Stu Bickel, his best friend, halts next to him. He leans down toward him. “You okay?”

Bryan hops onto the blades of his skate. “Yes I am, Pickle Stew!” He flashes a mighty big grin at him.

“That’s good, Mooresy!” With a sweet smile, Stu skates off with him.

Max brakes next to Joseph, who is watching the two skaters of massive height differences glide farther from him.

“I’ll beat you to the blue line!” Max exclaims to him with a determined look.

Joseph peers at him with a growing smirk. “Hah, you’re on!” He then bolts down the ice.

Max pushes after him, gaining wind-breaking speed. He streaks past his best friend and takes the lead. He peers behind his shoulder at him. “You can’t catch me!!!”

“Yes I will!” Joseph crosses-over with a hop around the bend to obtain a boost of energy. Yet the speed he gets is a bit too much for him in so little time. He loses footing of his skating and crashes against a person passing by him.

The two go headlong against the ice, sliding on the its fresh, smooth surface, then halting gradually.

Matt, without his helmet, clamours into his butterfly position and peers at Joseph, who is flat on his stomach. “I’m so sorry, Crammer!” he cries out, his tone strained like as if he is about to cry.

Joseph pulls himself up to his knees with a groan. “Hm, it’s okay, Hacker.” He dusts the ice off of his yellow practice jersey.

Max brakes next to the two fallen hockey players. “Are you two okay?” He hands Matt his fallen helmet.

Matt gives him a small smile. “Yes we are!” He takes his helmet. “Thank you, Maxi.” He slips his helmet on, grabs his stick, and gets up.

Joseph gets on his skates and scoops up his stick as well.

Max nods his head at the two of them with a sweet smile. “Good good!”

Joseph turns to his best friend. “Wanna continue racing?”

“Oh yes!” And with that, Max darts off down the straightaway of the ice. Joseph charges after him vigorously.

Matt glides over to the goalie buddy he now has for almost two-months: Anton Khudobin. “Tell me when Cram and Maxi come flying in.”

Anton, who has his dombra instead of his gloves and stick, strums his dombra with a nod of his head in agreement.

On the other side of the ice, Max and Joseph pass Brandon and Nick in their race. Brandon observes what they are doing, then turns to his friend.

“Do you wanna race like Joey and Maxi?”

BOOF!

Nick and Brandon quickly look ahead and catch the sight of the cause of the abrupt sound: Joseph and Max are crumbled against the bend of the boards. Even though they have just crashed against the boards and are now lying on the ice, they are both laughing hard.

Nick turns to Brandon. “No, I’m good. I like to take things slow…”

Monty lets out a discontented sigh.

Then Coach Dallas Eakins blows his whistle: TWEET!!!

“Alright, men, gather up!” he shouts as he steps onto the ice from the benches.

All of the Gulls skate over to where Coach Dallas is now standing by the benches, next to a whiteboard that is hanging on the glass. They congregate around him, kneeling on one knee and staying quiet.

Once everyone has settled down, Coach Dallas begins to speak: “Okay, so for the first drill—”

“Wait!” Captain Joe Piskula, who is in the back of the mass of skaters and goalies, shouts. “I must do my warm-up speech!”

Mostly everyone glares behind their shoulders and shouts at him: “NO!”

“Awwwww, why not?” Bryan cries out for Joe. He has a large frown and wide eyes.

“Shut it, squirrel!” Joseph hisses from next to him.

Bryan narrows his eyes at him. “Shut what? Your mouth?”

“Look at how great this team is cooperating!” Joe is heard saying from the back of the group.

A series of groans is heard in response to Joe starting his captain speech.

Joe is now standing with glee as he continues on his speech: “It’s all filled with love, happiness, and friendship! I can feel it bubbling out of every single out of you guys! We’re gonna have a great game on Friday and on Saturday! Aw, I love all you guys!” He scoops up the two closest skaters, who turn out to be Shea Theodore and Jaycob Megna, and squeezes them close to him in a side-hug.

The two found friends appear very squeamish.

Joseph leans over to Max and murmurs, “You can do a much better speech than Captain Damaged-By-Country-Music.”

Max’s eyes light up. “Oh, I really like his speeches! But yeah, I would love to do a speech!” He smiles sweetly at him.

Joseph narrows his eyes at him with a growing smirk. “I want to hear your speech.”

“Are you done, Joe?” Coach Dallas asks from across the team.

“Yes, sir-y!” Joe salutes him with a massive grin before lowering himself back down on his knee.

“Good.” Coach Dallas turns to the whiteboard. “Now, for your first drill…”

Notes

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