I grit my teeth. On normal circumstances I would've made a nasty comment back, but I knew that since this was pretty much a tryout, I had to keep my cool. I was sure that the Blackhawks didn't need a player who picked a lot of fights, so I just kept my mouth shut and went back to stretching.

"So now you're too scared to talk to me? Afraid I'll break your ribcage again?" Noah said with a sneer. I whirled around, not expecting to see him standing behind me. "Why don't you just go and bother someone else?" I said heatedly as I glared up at him.

"Because you're cute when you're angry.." Noah trailed off with a smirk.

I only rolled my eyes before getting up and skating over to the pile of pucks. Noah came up from behind me and said, "Oh come on Lex, you-" "DON'T. CALL. ME. THAT." I turned around slowly with glare that seemed to make Noah a little hesitant to taunt me anymore.

If looks could kill, he'd be a pile of ashes right now.

I skated off with a puck and took a wrist shot at the net. The puck bounced in and back out to my stick, where I fired it at the net again.

Noah didn't bother to taunt me anymore, but his silence made me anxious. I know it may sound weird, but you'd rather have Noah taunting you than not. If he wasn't he usually had a big idea that he'd use on you, and I didn't want to be embarrassed in front of the Blackhawks!

I shot a few more times at the net, and on the last time I heard someone call, "Nice shot!" I turned around to see Corey Crawford on the bench and smiling at me. "Thanks!" I replied before I shot another puck.

Jonathan Toews, Michael Frolik, and Duncan Keith came out on the ice right after Crawford. As they stretched I skated around the rink once or twice to get use to the feel of it.

A little while later, the other half o the team came out. Some players cast me curious glances, most likely because I was a girl.

Coach Quenneville came out onto the bench and called all the players around. "I know that you see two new players on the ice. Their names are Lexi Talumet and Noah Bachlef. Today they will practice with us and afterwards, it will be decided if they will stay on the team or not. Be nice to them!" he added with a smirk before he made us start on our five laps around the rink.

I didn't skate next to anyone in particular, being the shy girl I was. After we went around the first bend, Ray Emery skated up to me and said, "Hi! I'm guessing your Lexi?" I nodded with a smile and said, "Guessed right!"

"So, tell me about yourself," Emery said and I nodded. I hesitated before saying, "Well... I'm Lexi Talumet, I have an older brother who plays hockey and a younger sister who hates hockey, my best friend just happens to be a dog, my worst enemy happens to be the new player here, I was born in Washington State, and.... I'm twenty-six years old." Emery nodded and said, "Don't tell me Noah is only your enemy because he is tryingout too." "No... just a bad experience in highschool," I replied quietly and Noah's words echoed in my mind. Scared I'll break your ribcage again?

Noah hadn't broken my whole ribcage, but all of the ribs on my right side had been broken from his collision and at least two were broken on the left from the collision with the boards.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..." Emery said apolegitically and I shook my head. "It's best if I remember what he's capable of so I won't pick a fight with him and get hurt again...." I trailed off.

"So... can you tell me about yourself?" I asked. Emery nodded and said, "I'm Ray Emery, thirty years old, I'm a goaltender, I was born in Canada.... and my best friend is a human. I have an enemy off the ice..." "Oh that's just cruel," I said jokingly. "What? My best just happens to be a human!" Emery said as he gave me a light and friendly shove.

"No hitting the girl!" I heard a joking voice say and I turned around to see a laughing Niklas Hjalmarsson and a smirking Patrick Kane.

I turned around and skated backwards before saying, "Watch it Kane. I'm tougher than you think!" Kane laughed and I laughed along, while Emery couldn't help but laugh.

Coach Q yelled from the bench, "Suicides!"

"Wanna bet on how tough you are?" Kane asked as he towered over me.

"Definitely!" I replied.

"Okay then, first one to sit on the bench loses. If I win, you have to... clean out my locker every week for two months- And if I win, you have to say that I'm better than you in hockey!" I finsihed of with smirk.

"What- fine..." Kane said, and I just skated past him with a smirk still plastered on my face.


Corey's POV

I wasn't expecting anything to be different during practice, so when I stepped out of the locker room and saw long hair come out of the back of a helmet as a new player took a hard shot at the net, I froze.

Why is there a girl on the ice? was the first thing I thought of, but I just called out, "Nice shot!" The girl- or woman I should say, stopped and looked around. When she spotted me she smiled and called out, "Thanks!"

There was no denying that I fell for her the moment I saw her smile.

I went out onto the ice and did a few stretches with a few of the guys who had passed me onto the ice.
When the rest of team came onto the ice, we got up from our stretches and skated around the rink once before Coach Q called us over.

"I know that you have seen the two new players on the ice. Their names are Lexi Talumet and Noah Bachlef. This practice is like atryout for them, and after practice it will be decided whether they will stay or not. Play nice," he added with a smirk as we skated off. I heard a few mutters of dispproval, but I ignored them and skated next to Brandon Saad.

"What do you think of the new players?" Brandon asked me instantly. I hesitated before saying, "Noah looks like he has potential, but Lexi does too... and it also seems like she is underestimated easily...." Brandon replied, "Noah seems to have more potential than Lexi, or at least it seems." I nodded at his statement but didn't make a comment.

While Lexi looked small, Noah was tall with broad shoulders. There was something about Noah that I didn't trust though... and the two rarely ever made contact or interacted. Maybe they already know each other...? I thought.

We were on our second lap around when Emery, who was skating on the other side of me, jumped in front of Niklas and Pat to skate next to Lexi. I looked around to find Noah far ahead, skating with Michael Frolik and Jon.

I focused my attention on Lexi and Emery ahead of us though. I could tell that Niklas, Pat, and Brandon were trying to do the same. I caught a few words such as, dog, best friend, Washington, Canada, and sister. Lexi had put on a fake pouty face at Emery and he gave her a friendly shove.

"Hey, no hitting the lady!" I heard Pat say before someone fell back to skate next to me.

Noah.

"Hey Crawford! What's up?" he asked. I couldn't just trust this guy, I mean could I? He just seemed clever and tricky.... "Oh, sorry, Hi!" I replied and put the best fake smile on my face as I could.

"Hey, just wanted to play a little fun prank on Lexi, we are really good friends, and I was wondering if you wanted to help me out...?" I could here the hopefulness in his voice, but I didn't trust him, so what was I supposed to say, no?

"Um...I'm not really the pranking type..." I trailed off.

Something flashed in Noah's eyes. Hurt? Distrust? I couldn't tell, but whatever it was, it was gone in an instance.

"Oh...Okay.." he replied before skating off. By that time Coach Q called us over for suicides.

I saw Lexie joking around with Pat.

The usual.

I skated over into line and looked ahead of me. Emery, Jonathan, Frolik, Bollick, Bolland, and Saad were ahead of me. I looked back to see Seabrook and Noah in line.

When I looked over to see Lexi on the other team, I felt a twinge of disappointment.

Don't be silly Corey. She was brought up from the AHL to play hockey, not do a free-skate with you. I thought to myself.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lexie's POV


It was after the suicides, and our team had won. Noah didn't seem to happy and he would occasionally glare over at me.

Eh whatever, I thought and I avoided going to the bench. I was out in the middle of the rink when Seabrook skated over and stopped.

"What's up?" I asked in a friendly way. "Oh, ya know... at hockey practice.... " he said with a gleam in his eyes.

I smiled and said, "Do you know what we'll do next?" "Maybe a scrimage, nothing to big," Seabrook replied and I nodded.

Corey skated over and I smiled up at him. He was at least a few inches taller than me, so it was hard to look straight into his eyes from my height.

"Crawford, are we doing a scrimage?" Seabrook asked and Corey shrugged before saying, "I think that's what coach had in mind."

I had completely forgtotten about Noah being there, but I remembered when I felt someting glide past me.

I look back to see Noah smirking at me and I gave him a stony stare back. Seabrook glanced between Noah and me and ased, "What's up with him?" "You don't want to know..." I said as I looked down at my feet. Corey had turned back from talking to someone and he said, "Of course we want to know, you could be our future teammate!" I shook my head and looked away.

I didn't need anyone to help me. It wasn't worth it. They'd run off and tell Noah and then Noah would probably break my whole ribcage. I just shuddered at the thought of hearing more cracking and more intense pain.

Emery skated over and looked worriedly at me to see me shudder.
I just shook it off and perked up when the coach told us what teams we'd be on. "Seabs you will be on defense with Lexi with Corey as your goalie. Toews, Kane, and Hossa, you'll be the wings and center.

Emery, you'll be the goalie for the other team, with Hjalmarsson and Keith as your defensemen."

It went on for another minute like this. Noah was in the starting lineup for the other team.

Great, I thought. I'm not going to have any bone in my body that has been close to breaking after the scrimage, I thought grimly as I got into my position for the face-off.

Once the puck was dropped, Noah won the face-off and skated down the ice towards me with the puck.

I couldn't let him get past me... but I didn't want to get hurt, right?

Hockey is a physical game... protect the goal with your body...I thought and I went out in front of Noah. I neatly stole the puck from him and I was about to make a pass up to Toews when I felt the same weight crash into me and I sucked in my breath, waiting for the crack.

There was no crack.

Noah skated off angrily and followed the puck.

I stood up shakily and felt a throbbing in my side. Kane had just scored and they were coming back happily for another face-off.

Win the face-off, I mentally pleaded Toews.

He didn't and I saw Noah coming down the ice again towards me.

Lord help me.

I neatly took the puck from him and looked back to see him sakting straight at me. I passed it to Kane and waited for the heavy blow I'd recieve this time.

Noah plowed right into me, knocking me over.

I groaned when I opened my eyes and saw the ice at an angle. I sat up and looked around before I stood up completely and skated up to the middle of the rink.

I got a pass a few times and most of the time I tried to do a slapshot into the net, but Emery always caught it.

On one occasion I was put in possession of the puck, and I looked for an open pass. Not seeing one, I skated down the ice carefully until I spotted Toews wide open, so I passed the puck to him and he took a shot, but it bounced of the crossbar and into the possession of Hossa who went into our zone with it.

Seabs went after him and I was about to steal it from him when Coach yelled, "Practice is over!!!"

I was skating off when Noah skated next to me and he said, "You did pretty good... but you won't have a chance when we get outside." And with that he skated of off the ice with me looking after him wide-eyed.

Noah was gonna kill me. I just knew it. I was the last on the bench when i remembered the bet. "Kane! I won! I got on the bench last!" I crowed triumphantly and Kane said, "Switch your end of the bet? Please?" I nodded and said, "Fine. You'll need to hear something first though...After you get changed.."

Aftter I finsished changing and everyone finshed changing, Coach Q walked in and said, "Congrats to Noah and Lexi! They're both staying!"

Uh-Oh

People came up and congratulated me, but I wasn't paying any attention.

This is going to be a long season...

Notes

Okay, I don't have anything to say besides thank you for being patient on my updates and reading my story!