Puck You

Grace

Grace Gillman 

"Grace, I think you're being overdramatic."

I looked at my best friend through the monitor of my computer screen and shrugged. She was right. Giving my father the silent treatment was a little childish, but he wasn't the one who had to move across the country a month into his senior year of high school. He wasn't the one who had to give up his hockey captainship and leave everything he ever knew behind. If I weren't the captain of Minnesota's best girls select team, then maybe I would have felt differently about all of this. But leaving home felt like a chunk of my heart had been torn out. And my hockey girls? I couldn't even express how angry I felt about leaving them.

"I know he thinks he knows what's best for me, but I think I should be the one to decide that. And your parents were totally cool with me living with you so we could finish senior year. I just don't understand why he wouldn't let me stay," I finally replied, exasperated by the whole subject.

Sammy looked into the camera sympathetically. "At least you know he loves you. I mean, he wants to see his little girl grow up."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm all grown up Sam—eighteen in a few weeks. So if I really wanted to, I could just come home myself."

I could see the frightened look in her eyes. She really believed I would do something crazy like run away. I didn't blame her though. Through the years we'd been friends, I had done some pretty wild things.

"Well, what about this new school?" Sammy said, trying to change the subject.

"Arrowhead High: home of the Jaguars!" I said enthusiastically while pumping my arm into the air.

Sam rolled her eyes at my fake attempt to sound excited. "Do they have a hockey team?"

I remembered the first day I had arrived at our new home. It had only been a week ago, but the first thing I did was look up my school's website to check the athletic page for a hockey team. Thankfully hockey popped up, but my hope was ruined seconds later when I found out they only had one team which consisted of all male players.

"The only people playing on it have a boatload of testosterone running through their horny teenage guy bodies," I said with a sigh.

Sammy frowned. "Maybe you can start a girls team?"

I snorted. "And what? Train a whole bunch of newbies so we can officially suck? No thank you. I have a better idea." She stared at me as if waiting for me to answer. "Well isn't it obvious? I'm going to try out of the guys team!"

"Is that even possible?"

"You're asking Grace Gillman. Anything's possible."

My best friend grinned at me. "You're going to kick ass."

Before I could answer, my father's voice drifted up the stairs. It was a warning—school started in twenty minutes and I had to leave soon otherwise I'd be late.

"I'll text you after tryouts, okay?"

We said goodbye and I quickly turned off Skype. I had been smart enough to get ready before I called Sammy, and as I passed the floor-length mirror in my room I looked myself over once. My brown hair reached just past my shoulders at what I considered to be the perfect length. A lot of girls liked their hair really long but I liked mine just long enough so that I could get it into a secure pony. I'd inherited chestnut eyes from my father, and although I had only ever seen pictures of my mother we definitely shared the same my high cheek-bones and full lips. I was happy with my appearance mostly, although sometimes I didn't like how tall I was for a girl. Yeah, it meant that I had long legs, but it also meant I could never wear heels in fear of towering over every boy in sight.