The Cocky Hockey Captain

Chapter 34 ● The Promise

I took the proposal to the Silver Grove town council three days before the scheduled flight back to Orlando. I was feeling so sorry for myself that it wasn't hard to break into tears in front of the old men — and woman — who led the council as I told them my story. In case the Silver Grove Times article hadn't been clear enough. Yes, I was a girl who had faked being a boy, and I did this of my own volition given the fact that I otherwise would have missed out on education of a level comparable to what I had back home. I focused on that fact and not on the one where my dad had been an unwilling accessory.

At the end of the day, they could give me all the crap they wanted. The fact of the matter was that the girls in this town were severely undercut and the arguments for it were all bullshit.

The old man who seemed to be the head of the council tried that argument on me. The boys will be boys, and all that jazz.

I helpfully supplied him with a nice video of me beating up a guy at an away game that someone in the audience had captured. That quickly shut up the talk about girls being defenseless against boys.

I pushed and pushed. Dad was in the audience and had previously agreed to be used as leverage. I mentioned that they may see dad and I as huge villains for deceiving everybody about that fact that I didn't have a penis in between my legs, but that he was bringing new jobs to the town and they were most likely going to attract people from outside of town as well. Who knew, they might even come with families and daughters. What were they going to do then? Move to East Pembroke so that their kids could go to school there?

The way all their faces lit up as though a fire raged inside them told me that, even if I hadn't won the war yet, this battle was probably in the bag. Having been in the Bears, I knew that that was exactly the kind of button to push.

They decided to make a referendum for the town. It didn't guarantee that the motion would pass, after all, there were a lot of backwards people in Silver Grove, but if a campaign was properly organized to promote the yes vote, there was a good chance.

Too bad I wouldn't be here to help with the efforts.

The biting cold hit me outside like a punch to the gonads, and that was all it took for my eyes to start tearing up. Dad noticed this as we carefully descended the stairs leading down to the curb, where he had parked his car. He held me gingerly against him all the way until he put me in the car.

I was sniffling like a baby once he sat in the driver's seat.

"Why are you crying, chiquita?" he asked and started the car, cranking up the heat until I sighed. "You just did a good thing."

"At great cost," I said. I wiped my face with the back of my coat's sleeve and leaned back. "A selfish part of me wishes I wouldn't have been found out. Then I'd be able to stay here and keep hanging out with my friends."

He shifted around towards me. "Do you want to stay here?"

I looked down at my good hand on my lap. My other arm was in a sling and I was heavily bandaged, and the combination of that plus the pain meant I had very low mobility. I'd been relegated to requiring help from somebody for the most basic things. It forced me to slow down and be mindful of others. I couldn't just think about myself when dad was working, trying to save the company and this town, and I needed his help to wash my hair.

Slowing down my body had made my mind speed up as a result. What it had been telling me was that it was ironic that I hadn't wanted to come to this town at all from the start, but now I was having a hard time reconciling the fact that soon I was going to leave.

"Can I?" I asked, hopeful even though I already knew the answer.

He started to drive, heading back to Main Street. Only the sound of the hot air rushing through the vents was heard for a couple of minutes. Then he sighed.