Thin Ice

𝟏𝟎

LUKAS POV

I slip my jersey on over all of my padding, making sure to remind myself to leave my gloves out so I don't forget to put them on again.

I stare down at my unlaced skates and take a seat on a nearby bench to start lacing them up.

I take my time to make sure each part is tightened but loose enough at the same time, I don't want to fuck up my skates, not today.

During one of our games last year, I tied my laces too tight and ended up cutting the circulation off of my ankles and I had to sit out the rest of that game.. never again.

I loop the lace around the last hook and stuff the rest of the laces into the boot. Some people hate doing this because they say it's uncomfortable but I've never had a problem with doing it.

I get forced out of my zone as I feel a presence take their place in the empty spot next to me.

My eyes wander over to look at them, realizing it's Kent, but he quickly looks away.

I wonder what he wants?

I look back down to adjust my skates one last time and feel a slight nudge to my arm.

"Yes?" I question him.

He stays silent for a moment, looking around the room as if he's stalling his words.

I raise my eyebrow to see if that'll get him to speak and he releases the breath he's been holding.

"So that girl from earlier, Jules.. is that your girlfriend?" he straight up asks.

My eyebrow cocks. Did he seriously just sit next to me to ask about Juliana?

"No, why would you think that?" I quickly answer.

A slight smirk roams on his face. "I just thought because you stuck up for her and all-,"

"Fuck no. Our parents are just close and if they found out I let her get pushed around, I'd get more fucked up by my parents than she ever could by Josiah. Gotta stay looking out for myself, you know?" I explain.

He nods and looks down at his jersey, fidgeting with it. "Do you think she would ever want to go out with me?" he finally asks.

I stare over at him and try to think of the boys Juliana has liked before. They all had dark hair, tan skin, and were tall. Kent on the other hand is blonde, pale, and not the tallest, maybe average height at most.

I clear my throat. "Maybe," I lie to him. I don't want to crush the man's spirit right before a game. Plus, if she does like him then I can stop being on 'Juliana watch' and live my life normally without getting into fights every other day.

He nods and begins to fidget around with his jersey again.

I shake my head to try and forget the conversation I was just having and begin to get into game mode.

I rise up from where I was sitting and make my way over to the middle of the room, placing myself on top of a bench.

I clap my hands together to try to grab everyone's attention. "Alright team, listen up," once I notice everyones eyes are on me, I begin to speak. "I want y'all to remember the exercises we did with the figure skaters. Remember to work as a team and know how each person on the ice moves.. because I don't know about y'all, but I want to win. I want to come out of here and be able to say that we beat our rivals, the Timber Bears. We know how they play and we know how they work. They're going to try and bring us down and shit talk us but don't listen to anything they say. The only person that should be telling us how ass we are is Coach," the coach part gains some laughs from around the room which makes me more confident in my speech. "Now, we're going to go out there and beat the Timber Bears ass, right?" I ask as I finish my speech.

The room begins to grow in cheers and hollers and we finally feel like a team for the first time in a long time.

"Everyone finish getting ready. We have thirty minutes until we need to be on the ice for warm ups," I instruct.

_____________________________________

The ice begins to scrape as the other team arrives to warm up on the opposite end of the ice.

Tension begins to fill the air as the Timber Bears make themselves comfortable in the space provided to them.

I can see glares and mutters being thrown our way but I try to ignore it and not let it bother me. The last thing I need right now is for me to get in my own head.

I look around at our team's side of the ice and decide to join them.

My skates glide onto the ice and stop themselves right in front of Alex.

"Did you see those guys?" he asks. He leans himself closer to me and motions for me to look at the opposite team.

I turn around to watch them warm up for a second and my mouth drops.

These guys are picking up the puck and throwing it around like they're juggling it. I literally just watched one guy do some fucking three sixty shit with his stick, just to have the puck lift up and perfectly land on top of it.

"Ain't no way," I spit out. My mouth remains open and Alex has to nudge me to focus back in.

"Those guys are insane," he states. "At this point they're just showing off," he says to try and reason with the things they were just doing.

"You know what I do think?"

"What?"

"I think that they have too much free time to be learning all of those tricks. Someone who actually practices during call times wouldn't be able to do that.. right?" I mainly question to myself.

Alex shakes his head and digs his stick into the ice. "Maybe?" he pauses. "I think you're just trying to make yourself feel better about them," he replies.

"I think I am too," I chuckle. "They weren't this good last year, were they?" I ask.

"Definitely not," he answers while shaking his head.

I keep staring at them to watch what they'll do next but the tricks just keep coming. I didn't even know that some of the things they're doing are possible.

"Hey now," Alex says while nudging me to focus back on him. "Focus on our team, not them. I know I wanted you to check them out but forget about everything you just saw," he tries to comfort.

I nod and turn my head back to check out our team and they seem to be doing just fine, I don't know why I ever started to worry.

"Everybody huddle up," I instruct, loud enough to get our teams attention.