PART SIX: SCORE!

It was time to play some hockey, finally. We divided ourselves up into teams, and as expected, Kaner found his way onto my team.

“Great, it’s you again!” I said sarcastically, pretending to be annoyed that I had to be around him. I decided I would pretend that he didn’t know that I liked him. I had been too chicken to directly admit it to him, and I was embarrassed.

“Yeah, sorry you have to deal with me. I’ll try to behave,” Patrick replied, smirking.

We got all set up for the first faceoff to start the game, which was Kara vs. Tazer. “Try not to get lost in his eyes, I want to win this game!” I told her before she went to center ice, since she was on my team. She jokingly rolled her eyes at me, making sure I saw.

She won the faceoff, although we both knew it was because Jonathan let her. All of the Hawks men had to play extra nice.

I felt ridiculous. I was so terrible at handling the puck and passing at first. I didn’t want anyone to give the puck to me, but it was MY birthday, and the spotlight was on me. Everyone seemed to want me to lead my team. Personally, I would never think of myself as captain material. That’s what Johnny Toews was for!

Most of my friends looked as silly as me on the ice, but Kara seemed to get the hang of it quicker than the rest of us. I could see some chemistry on the ice between her and Shaw. Shantelle, who was on the other team, seemed to be just a tiny bit jealous, but she had nothing to worry about. The chemistry was purely hockey related, and it led to the first goal of our casual game. Well, it was casual, at least, until after that first goal was scored.

“What the hell was that, Shaw?!” Toews yelled across the ice.

“Don’t yell at me, yell at Kara! She passed it to me!” Shaw answered, putting Kara on the spot. I know she didn’t mind, though.

“Come on, Kara, that’s not fair. Don’t give the puck to him anymore!” Toews told her. He was wearing his serious face but the tone of his voice said that he was messing with her.

“It’s perfectly fair. I think you’re just jealous because we’re ahead of you now!” she teased.

“You’re the one who’s gonna be jealous in a few minutes when we take the lead from you,” he replied, and everything became much more competitive.

It didn’t take long for Tazer to score and tie things up, and as soon as he did he went right up to Kara to rub it in her face. She tried to act like she genuinely was mad, but she was a terrible liar. She failed at hiding a smile and ended up laughing.

We decided to make this game the best of three, and then we would switch up the teams a little bit, just to make things interesting. The whole first game, I had tried to avoid Kaner and the embarrassment I had from the recent conversation, but he forced me to give him attention.

“Hey, Destiny!” he whispered to me, not allowing the other team to hear.

“What?”

“I’m gonna get that puck from them and when I head back up the ice, make sure you go up there with me. When we get up to the net I’ll fake Razor out and pass it to you. You think you can score from there?” Patrick’s plan seemed foolproof, unless Emery really stood strong and suspected it from us. I nodded and we waited for the perfect moment. Shantelle had stolen the puck from Kara at the blue line and took it down to the other end. She was about to turn behind the net when Kaner stole the puck away from her. There he went, charging to our goal. I kept up with his speed and just like he said he would, he faked Emery out with his dirty shootout goal moves. Right, left, right, and then the next thing I knew, the puck was coming towards me. It was almost too quick for me to react, but I saw the empty space in the top left of the net and I went for it. Bam, right into the back of the net. We won our meaningless, yet somehow important game, and I found myself Kaner shuffling as some kind of tribute to his perfect set up. He laughed and rushed up to me. He pulled me into a hug and we just looked at each other for a moment. I almost wanted to kiss him, but I felt everyone else on my team surrounding us, and I knew it couldn’t happen.

“What was that?” Kara asked, after we all decided to take a break.

“What was what?” I replied, pretending I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Um, that thing that just happened. With you and Kane,” Kara elaborated, and Shantelle joined in.

“Yeah, I’m with Kara. What’s going on with you two?” she asked.

“What do you mean, what’s going on? We made a good play and we celebrated it, that’s just hockey,” I explained. Were we really being that obvious?

“Oh, come on. I saw the way you guys looked at each other. You know that he likes you, right?” Shantelle said. Was she just saying that to make me feel good?

“You don’t know that for sure,” I assured her.

“I do, actually. I heard him say it. That’s why I…that’s why I told him that you liked him back.” So she was the little birdie! She was in so much trouble.

“SHANTELLE!” I yelled. I wasn’t actually mad, but I wanted to be. I chased after her, hockey stick in hand, and she skated away from me, screaming and laughing. Once again, we were showing off our maturity. Not.

“Hey, you should be thanking me! He might not have gone for it if I hadn’t told him! And besides, I waited until I knew he felt the same way. You can’t actually be mad at me!” Shantelle confessed once I had her cornered. I had to admit that I wasn’t actually mad. She really had helped me, and now I owed her.

“I know, I’m not really mad at you. How could I be mad at you when you’re clearly a very successful wingman?”

“It’s wing woman, thank you very much!” Shantelle corrected me.

“So obviously Shantelle is, but am I invited to the wedding?” Kara asked, laughing.

“Shut up! I’m not getting married at 20 years old, especially since I’ve only known him for a few hours!” I growled. My friends were crazy, but I loved them.

(PATRICK’S P.O.V.)

It was break time, but I was reluctant to take a break. When I headed back to the bench with my team, I couldn’t help but look back over my shoulder at Destiny. Had we almost just had a moment? I could tell she wanted to go for it. I almost forgot there were other people there, and for a second I wondered why she didn’t go for it. Now she was laughing with her friends on the ice. When I was still looking their way even though I was sitting with my teammates, Johnny knew something was up.


“So, no love match yet?” he asked, sitting down next to me.

“Not officially, no. The feeling is mutual though. I think if I could just get her alone, it would be easy,” I said.

“Whoa, slow down there Kaner! You just met the girl!” Johnny warned. I guess I hadn’t chosen the right words.

“Come on, Tazer, you know what I mean. I’m not looking for a one night stand, you idiot!” He really wasn’t living up to his title of Captain Serious lately, with all of his sarcasm.

“I know. Hey, the night is young. You’ve got plenty of time to talk to her.” Suddenly, I had an idea. The team had all decided on one special surprise gift for Destiny. I could possibly take advantage of it.

“Hey Johnny, Destiny’s gift is in the locker room still, right?” I asked, hopeful.

“Yeah, why? We aren’t giving it to her til later, remember?” Toews reminded me.

“I know, that doesn’t even matter. Either way, I’ll have to go to the locker room to get it, right? I’ll go in there and have her come with, and I can sneak it into my pocket so that way we can still surprise her with it later, but I still get a chance with her,” I explained.

“That’s actually a pretty good plan. But just make sure you keep it PG in there! I’m pretty sure her mother is still here, you know.” Dammit Tazer. He knew I had good intentions and that I had matured a lot in just the past couple years, but he still felt the need to tease me. I started to get up, but he stopped me, hopefully not just to tease me more.

“Hey, before you go, I need some help,” he said.

“Sure, what?”

“I’ve kind of got a thing for that brunette I was pestering who helped Shaw score the first goal,” he told me. Of course. I had seen that clear as day when we were on the ice.

“Well, talk to her, then! It seems like she’s got a thing for you, too,” I said honestly.

“You think so?” he asked. He was a great leader and he usually didn’t mind speaking up about things, but when it came to girls, he always got shy. I guessed that’s why he kept me around. I was his wingman.

“Yeah, I really do. Her name’s Kara, right? Why don’t you talk to her after this game?” I suggested.

“Okay, I guess that could work. But if she doesn’t actually like me and I get turned down, I’m blaming you.”

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Now that everyone was used to the ice, the second game went by much faster. It didn’t take long for everyone to adjust to their new teams. To my dismay, I wasn’t on Destiny’s team this time, but I didn’t avoid her. I made sure to check her along the boards a few times. Not hard of course, but just enough to steal her gaze for a few seconds. My team won this time around, and Destiny was left disappointed that she hadn’t been able to win both mini games. She wasn’t sad for long though. We all could smell food and everyone decided to get something to eat. Except for me, of course. Food could wait. My stomach wasn’t growling too much just yet. Nobody would even notice Destiny and I slipping away with their eyes on a delicious, appetizing prize.

“Hey Destiny, do you mind coming to the locker room with me for a second?” I asked, before she could run off with her friends again. She had a very puzzled look on her face after hearing my question, though. I didn’t know any good way to word it to where it couldn’t be taken the wrong way, so I just ignored the look.

“I have something for you, for your birthday, but it’s in the locker room. It’s just from me personally, so I figured it would be better if I just gave it to you instead of making a scene of it,” I elaborated. She still seemed unsure, but she took the hand I was holding out to her and followed me into the locker room. Looking back, nobody seemed to be phased by the fact that we were MIA.

“So, what do you have for me? I don’t see any special gifts laying around anywhere,” she observed. I had originally thought that I would just talk to her, but with one good look at her, that plan went out the window. I had never wanted anything more than this girl, and she was standing right in front of me, looking irresistible in my jersey. I figured I would go with my instinct and instead of answering her with words, I pulled her in close and kissed her.