So, this is my first story! Well, at least the first one that I have put up so far. As usual I don't own any of the characters you recognize.
The excitement was perpetually building in the arena, as each of the boys arrived and found the dressing room; the boys began getting more and more rowdy as they were reunited with their team mates that they hadn't seen since the end of school last year. Some of the boys were traveling from all over the states, and Canada to attend this school that was tucked away in the middle of no where in the mountains of southern British Columbia. They weren't going to this small town for the school however, they were attending here to be apart of one of the most prestigious and well know ice hockey programs in North America. Each of these boys have been scouted and watched closely before they were offered this placement. Now that they have been playing for them, they have adopted their team mates as a brotherhood and a family they confided in and even some went as far to say they loved the other boys.
Jack was the first one of the team to show up in the dressing room. He knew he was tired after traveling all night from Santa Fe to get to the school in time for the first practice, but that didn't stop him from feeling incredibly giddy about being back. This is going to be his third and final year playing for the Falcons. He was excited, but at the same time, apprehensive about moving on to bigger things. There has been a lot of talk about him getting signed to one of the WHL teams that have been scouting him and a few of the other vets on the team, but he had to be sure to keep his penalty minutes down and his playing at top notch. He couldn't help that his bigger frame could give and take much harder hits than some of the other boys; which sometimes would lead to some punches being thrown. But if he kept himself under control, it should all be fine, and he would be wearing a WHL sweater next season.
Since the first practice was typically the day before classes began, the dorm assignments were given out after the on-ice session. He wasn't all that worried about who he got, he was the type of person who generally got along with everyone. The team had their own dressing room that was designated to them and only them, so while Jack waited for the other guys to show up, he stashed his normal luggage in the lobby and began to unpack his gear in the spot he has had for the last two years. The spot's weren't set in stone, but the boys had the unwritten rule between them that they don't change. The spots where they got dressed were important just like putting your gear on the same way every time, or taping your stick a certain way. Upsetting the dressing room arrangements was like upsetting the hockey gods, you just don't do it.
Jack figured he would jog the bleachers to shake off the traveling body so he began to get changed and was tying up his runners when the team's starting goalie showed up. Kid Blink crashed through the dressing room door like he has done every practice for the last two years. Blink was another player who was graduating this year. He was not the most graceful person off the ice, but once he had his gear on and was between the pipes, he was like watching a cat with how fast and elegantly he moved. No one would suspect Blink to be the hockey player he was let alone a goalie with his talent, because of the patch he wore over his left eye. Five years ago, when he was in net, like always, there was a scuffle in front of his crease that had knocked his helmet off, and the ref or the defense man of the other team didn't see until it was too late. Had they seen it, the play would have been stopped; but because the loss of his helmet went unnoticed, the player on the point had the puck and rifled off a slap shot which hit Blink in the eye, causing such damage to his peripheral eye socket it had severed the optic nerve leaving him blind in the one eye. He took only a very short time before he returned to the ice and worked extremely hard day and night at stopping pucks to compensate for his change in depth perception. A feat which would have been incredibly difficult for a normal skater, but for a goalie, it should have been impossible. Blink went against all the odds and was now ranked the top goalie in the league, with the highest shut out record in fifteen years. When Blink righted himself and threw his bag and pads into his corner, he ran and tackled Jack as his greeting.
"Jack you son of a bitch! Good to see you, I should have known you were gonna be the first person here. How was your off season?" Blink said as he literally bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.
"Blinker, you blind fucker. Of course I'm the first, I have the furthest to go which means I have to get here extra early... or something. The off season was good, stayed in shape on the ranch, hit the links a bit, and made some new friends. If ya know what I mean." Jack said as he waggled his eyebrows and made an hourglass shape with his hands and pretended to smack where an ass might be. "How about yours? You spent it with your mom in Washington, right?"
"Sure did, I just worked, worked out, worked on my car, and worked through the ladies." Blink had his own superstition of how he had to turn all the showers on, let them run for a few seconds each before he turned them off again. Jack never understood it, and just chalked it up to be something to do with being a crazy goalie. This is what he was doing as he called back his reply to Jack. When he emerged from the shower he was tossing his hair out of his eyes. Like most of the boys on the team, he sported a bit longer of a cut that could be classified as hockey hair. Jack also had this, but not really by choice, he didn't have time to get his hair cut over the summer so it just ended up growing out and he often ended up keeping it out of his face by tying a bandana around his head when he wasn't wearing a hat, and this is how he had it tied back now.
"I'm gonna go jog the bleachers, want to come warm up?" Jack asked as he got up to leave the room.
"Psh, obviously. I just sat in a car for six hours. You really expect me to turn up an opportunity to prance about?" Blinke joked but started stripping down. Blink was totally a stereotypical goalie and Jack was pretty sure his thinking was addled by all the pucks to the head. No sooner did Blink get his shorts on did the next group of boys enter, this time it was the New York boys, who usually always traveled together .
Racetrack, Mush, Skittery and two boys who were obviously rookies walked in. As soon as Mush walked in and saw that Blink had already arrived, he dropped his bag leaving Race to fall on his face over it. Jack was outright laughing at both Mush's reaction to Blink, and Race falling. Mush and Blink go way back, they have been playing on the same team since they were just learning to skate. Blink used to be one of the New York boys but that changed when his parents split up and his mom moved to Washington state in the middle of their first year on the team.
Race was one of the smaller players but he makes up for his lack of size with his speed, which is part of why he got his nickname. He used to speed skate and the speed from that got transferred while he played hockey. But that was only one reason, he also got his nick name because it was well known that he had a problem when it came to gambling. It didn't matter what it was, Race would find an angle to bet on, which, a lot of the time came down to his own team's performance. Even though he couldn't get any one on the team to take him up on his bets. He was one of the teams' lead scorers, and he had a mouth on him, which made it so Jack and Mush, the teams' enforcers, would have to keep an eye out for him.
Race pulled himself up off the ground and brushed himself quickly off before booting Mush and Blink over into the garbage can. Throughout the years, Blink and Mush had played against Race, so the first year they were all on the team a stiff rivalry was present between the three of them, but it ended after they realized way more goals could be scored for them and less on Blink when they all worked together rather than constantly fighting. Race had a small frame, but he was stocky so even though the bigger boys looked out for him because they couldn't afford to have him hurt, he was capable of taking care of himself. He usually hid his dark hair under a ball cap when he wasn't at the rink but as soon as he got to the rink, he traded it in for a sweatband that he has had for longer than anyone could remember and his hair stuck flat against his head from his hat until his ears, where if flared out with his wings. Race started jumping up and down once he got his headband on and began tossing his gear out of his bag and hanging it up.
"Hey Cowboy! You're looking mighty cute. How was your summer?" He tossed over his shoulder.
"Summer was good, worked the farm, you know the usual. How about yours?" Jack replied, smiling inwardly at the use of his stupid name they had given him.
"Awesome. We running or what?" Race asked holding up his running shoes.
"Well, I think we should just wait till the rest of the boys get here. Shouldn't be too long." At that point, a shoe flew by Jack's head almost hitting him in the face. "Dude! What the fuck!" he yelled at Blink and Mush who were rolling around wrestling on the floor. Jack and Race looked at each other and jumped on top of the two and joined in, causing Mush to let out a roar, not expecting to be landed on like that.
Mush was the teams other enforcer and had the size to put a stop to anything on the ice, the funny thing about him though was that he was a big teddy bear off the ice. He always had the team laughing about something. Mush has always had a way with women because he was genuinely a nice guy when he wasn't playing hockey. Because of that he always tuned the girls to mush, which is allegedly how he got his nickname. He was one of the players that had the most admiration of the rest of the team because of this and he also earned the most shit from the other guys from the school they attended because he often had their girlfriends talking about him, and chasing him. But Mush never had a girlfriend and everyone knew it. He has repeatedly said that he couldn't be strapped down, that he just liked to have his fun and not worry about obligations.
When Jack and Race jumped on him, and he let out his growl, he wiggled his way out of the kafluffle only to be tackled by Skittery who had been standing watching the interaction with the two rookies that rode with them from New York.
Skittery was one of the sophomores on the team, he went through the rookie year last season, and he probably took it the best out of everyone. He was one of those stereotypical hockey boys in every aspect of the sense. He was all about the puck fucks, road trips, partying and always generally rowdy with a permanent dip in his lip. He has some height to him and was a brick wall on the ice. Not many players got by him when he was on the point. The thing about Skittery that people didn't believe when they first learned about him was he had a real talent when it came to his guitar and singing and if he didn't make it far in hockey he had plans on going to music school and making something of himself that way. He always brought his guitar on road trips and led the team in sing-a-longs on the bus. It was things like this that really boosted the team cohesiveness and allowed them to play the way they did.
As the group tussled around on the ground the two rookies looked on, they didn't feel entirely part of the team yet mainly because they hadn't been introduced yet to the other boys. They had really gotten along with Race, Mush and Skittery on the excessively long road trip and had sung so much because of Skittery they almost forgot they were moving for hockey and could have sworn they were going to choir camp or some thing like that. Travis and Riley tentatively shoved their bags into empty spots until Blink popped up from the pile of guys and yelled at Riley.
"Hey! Rookie tender, you sit down here with me!" Pointing to the pile of gear with the goalie pads leaning against the bench.
Riley couldn't get by the pile of boys with out getting involved, so he thought he should wait. He was the back up goalie, he knew this already and he wasn't stoked on going from starter to back up, but there was way more opportunity for him to get noticed playing for the Falcons rather than back in New York. Plus, he also knew that the starter was leaving after this year, so if he played next year, chances were very high he would be the starter for this team. Which was fucking sweet, in his opinion.
Travis continued to unload his bag and put on his running gear because it looked like that was what the other guys had on. He almost didn't come to play for this team because he didn't want to leave his family, he was finding it really hard to be living away from home when he was only fifteen but his mom had convinced him that if he didn't like it he could always come home and there was no pressure. Knowing that had really comforted him and he agreed to give it a chance. He knew he was good enough to be here, there was no doubt about that, he had been the most offensive player his last team had and he was usually the team leader because of his general optimistic attitude about life.
It was just about then that the rest of the team started to show up.
"Damn, its good to be back boys!" Will said loudly as he kicked in the door. He was one of those gangly kids that looked like they should not be an athlete, but he just accidentally happens to be good. He had been playing with the team for two years as well and was graduating this year, but he sounded like he was permanently going through puberty because his voice was so high. He was the player on the team everybody loved to hate and they always gave him a hard time about everything, but deep down he had earned a ton of respect over the years.
The pile of boys finally broke up and Mush walked over to Will and said above the other voices, "Willy, you fucking lush, its good to see your ass again!" and tackled him with a hug.
Dutchy, Swifty and another rookie came in and before long the whole team was there except for David; Jack put off the run for as long as he could but they waited long enough and they just went.
Jack led the run up from the dressing room and around the upper walkway a couple times for a warm up before he started the stairs. On the final set, Jack saw David running from his car to the arena through the windows, and he couldn't help but laugh. For as smart and obsessive about being perfect David was, he couldn't show up on time by himself to save his life. Over the years playing together, Jack and David had become close friends despite the fact that Jack and David's sister, Sarah, had a history of being together.
David was the definite brains of the team, he stratagized plays and drills that the coach, Denton, couldn't even come up with. He was also the player who kept his cool no matter what the circumstances and that was why he was the one who was sent to talk to the refs or to cool down Jack, Mush and even Race when they got too heated up.
David grew up in the town where the program was held, so he let the other boys in on everything he knew, and he also usually had background on the other teams they were playing regularly on the weekends. He was a total asset to the team for the wealth of information he possessed. His parents also became like the team's adoptive parents and were always there for anyone when they needed something and had everyone over for holidays when they couldn't go home.
Jack finished up leading the warm up and hurried down into the dressing room excited to see David and reconnect with his friend. As he walked down the dressing room hallways he took deep breaths, taking in the smell of the hockey arena and allowing himself to revel in the fact that he was back for his final year and get pumped up for what he could tell would be the best year of his hockey career yet.
When he got to the door of their room he smiled at the Falcon logo, knowing he was acting like a sentimental tool before he went in to say hi to David. He didn't get much more out than a "hi" before Mush, Blink and Race came through the door and bombarded David, taking him down to the ground, not unlike how they had mauled each other.
Jack jumped up onto the bench and yelled above everyone. "HEY! Listen up! So, now that all of us are finally here we should go through the formalities of introducing ourselves to each other for the benefits of the rookies that are joining us this year. I'm Jack Kelly, I play defense and I'll answer to Cowboy. Okay, now the most important person is taken care of, go around the room and introduce each of yourselves."
He passed it on to David and it went around the room everyone introducing themselves by their nicknames and then their real names. The boys who didn't introduce with their nicknames were subjected to the other players cutting him off to tell the story of how they earned them. It passed on to Blink (Luke), Dutchy (Tristin), Race (Tony), Mush (Shawn), Ben (Skittery), Rich Swift (Swifty), Victor (Vic or Specs), Andrew, Bobby (Itey), and Will. Then it passed onto the rookies who didn't have nicknames yet, but thay would earn them soon enough. Some of the other boys didn't have they yet, the right time would come though. Just as soon as they finished —which no one expected the rookies to remember all the names until the initiation night, of course, the first real unofficial team bonding activity they would do within the next couple weeks— Mush ran over every ones' bags, grabbed the garbage can, dragged it over to where he was, arranged it in the way he needed and then proceeded to get dressed. No one questioned him, not even the rookies who didn't have a clue what he was doing. It was then that the coach, Brian Denton, came into the room to give his customary start of season speech.
"Welcome back boys, and welcome to the team for the new players. I understand that there quite a few of you graduating this year, so I was thinking that we could maybe make sure that this is going to be the best season yet. I'm going to be running a few new plays and drills this year. I will also be watching all of you on and off the ice to see who is showing the best leadership qualities to give the letters to. And be warned, if could be anyone. We will be playing in this area's midget rep league to keep us prepared for game situations but like always we will be competing in scouted tournaments at least once a month with other elite programs. I expect you all to keep good grades and maintain a respectable reputation while at school, that means even though you will be playing people in your school you are to do nothing in retaliation or provocation towards them, no matter the circumstances. Also, as always, team shirt, tie and jacket on game days. Rookies you'll be fitted and they will be ordered today after the ice session. So just hold back for a few minutes after you are changed. The lovely Medda will be our trainer again this year and Kloppman is going to be the assistant coach, same as every other year; your living arrangements will be posted at the end of ice session today, too, so be sure to look at those and if there are any problems, too bad, work it out. This team is a unit, we're a family, and we need to work as a whole if we want to win and make it the best year ever. With that being said: get dressed, I'll see you on the ice. Today is going to be a fun ice breaker session and tomorrow we will start with the real training."
As soon as he left the dressing room, the boys erupted into chatter as they got the rest of their gear on, and they were all out on the ice within ten minutes with the exception of Blink and Riley who took a bit longer, but not much until they were all out there doing laps to warm up on the ice. Mush and Race lead the team in some skating stretches and then they all stretched on the center circle led by David yelling out each stretch.
Denton ran a few skating drills then some shooting ones to let Blink and Riley get the feel of the puck before he let them have fun. He was a hard coach, but he wasn't a heartless coach, and he knew that the rookies were still getting comfortable with the other boys and that they were all still catching up with each other so he always gave them a fun time on the first ice. He had them play bulldog, some baseball, a Russian scrimige and then finally some honor shinny. It allowed them to get their legs back and to let them laugh and have fun with the childish, age old games. Before he knew it, the two hours were up, and he was going to forgo the dry land that usually accompanies practices afterwards. He just went in the room to announce the living arrangements and post them.
The team rented some of the dorm rooms that the college had, they were put in a different wing in one of the smaller buildings, but they still interacted with the college kids, which wasn't ideal, but there were still rules and consequences they had to try and keep it to a minimum.
"Alright boys, here is the list of who you'll be rooming with: Blink and Riley, Dutchy with Skittery, Jack and Kyle, Race with Will, Mush with Specs, Travis with Swifty, and Tumbler with Itey. The list is posted on the door outside, and once you get to the dorms the advisers will show you what rooms your in and they'll give you your keys. Alright, you have a good night , and good first day at school tomorrow and I'll see you all at practice tomorrow." Denton finished what he was saying and then headed out to go home. He was really looking forward to the season, he had a big feeling that huge things were going to happen for the boys this year.
Blink wasn't surprised that he was rooming with Riley, that was usually the way it went, the two goalies were together, he had been with Maker for the two years they were together until he graduated last year. Maker just had to get over the fact that Blink bumped him from one to two half way through Blink's rookie year, there was bitterness, but they over came it. Blink talked a little bit to Riley during the practice and he seemed pretty cool although shy. So Blink thought he would break the ice giving him a cheesy smile and a wave as he undid his pads. Blink was sure if Riley could have blushed, he would have, but his dark skin prevented that from happening.
Jack had no idea who his room mate was, he knew the new goalie was going with Blink, but he didn't know which of the other two he would be with.
"Ok, which one of you pansy's is Kyle?!" He said, apparently it was muffled as he was taking off his shin pads and bent over, he looked up expecting a reply and they weren't even looking at him. So he said again. "Hey! Fuck-wad rookies, which one of you is Kyle!" The one on the right of race timidly raised his eyes to meet Jack's.
"Ok, good, we're together, welcome to my world." Jack said, Kyle's face suddenly turned to fear and the rest of the boys laughed knowing that Jack was the one player who was the instigator in everything and he often had "people" over from the college side of the dorms even though he wasn't supposed to. Jack was one of those people who looked much older, so he was accepted to go to the college rather than being still in high school. Even though Jack acted like the tough guy towards Kyle and the rest of the rookies, in the end they would all end up really good friends. The people who were done dressing and showering first waited until everyone was done before they headed out, they had to wait a few more minutes for Medda to measure the new boys for their team clothes, but right after that they left. The team didn't have to take the gear with them, but they did have to deal with their luggage that was left in the lobby, they managed to pack it into the five vehicles that were there and they all loaded in and convoyed to the college, which was about a ten minute drive from the arena. David lived at home during the season, but he went along anyways just to stick with the team and help anyone who needed it to unpack.
It turned out that no one even unpacked, they just dumped their stuff in their room after they had the walk through with the resident advisers and then they all headed to Jack and Kyle's room to have a couple beer that Jack had bought when he ran back into town with the money they had all pitched in. No one know how, but Jack never had problems buying the teams' beer. The only one who wasn't drinking was David, but only because he had to drive home; even though Jack offered him to stay over. They stuck around mostly, some of the ones who had traveled all night left earlier, and pretty soon it was just Jack, Blink, Mush, David, Race and Will left. Kyle went to bed and had closed off his side of the bathroom. The six of them that were left were very tight because they had been playing together for sometime now, and they usually kept in touch over the summer pretty regularly.
"So, how do you guys think the team will turn out?" Will asked.
"Awe fuck, Willy, enough about the team, we have eight months to talk about the team," Mush said as he threw an empty beer can at him, which hit him on the shoulder.
"Shit, Mush, it was just a question, you didn't have to do that, plus, you can clean up the cans in here." Jack said as he threw back a can at Mush.
"Come on boys, let's go check out the ladies around here!" Blink said wiggling his eyebrows at them.
"For sure, I'm pretty sure I saw some good looking broads on the way in." Race added jumping up.
"Well, I'd love to, but I should probably head home. My mom told me to have Sarah's car home right after practice." David mumbled, stretching out his legs on the chair he was sitting on.
"What the fuck Davey," Will exclaimed, "What happened to your car?"
"It's getting painted, Les was mowing the lawn and spat up a bunch of gravel and fucked my paint job royally." Everyone knew David's pride and joy was his car, when he wasn't playing hockey out side of school, he was working on his car, he was more of a gear head than Blink, and they often argued about their cars.
"Fuck, how pissed were you at him." Jack sympathized, more of a statement rather than a question though.
"Let's just say he is lucky I was at work when it happened, but I still was close to skinning him." David said, the top of his ears going red from anger just thinking about it, "Anyway, I'll see you dusters tomorrow at school." He finished as he got up and headed out.
As David left, Jack, Mush, Blink, Race and Will all got up, found their shoes and made their way down to the common room to see if they could meet anyone worth meeting. Even though the rest of the team went to bed it really wasn't that late, it was only just before ten, so there were quite a few people in the common room, more than usual because it was frosh week, which meant that the majority of them were drunk and really in the mood to meet people. So, as soon as they walked in, they were recruited to a table where people were playing a version of Monopoly which involved them taking a lot of drinks out of their "water bottles". Mush was immediately assigned to a team consisting of girls who all looked around their age so they must have been freshmen. Blink wormed his way onto another team of girls while Jack and Will were drawn to Sportcenter that was playing on the t.v. They figured they could meet the girls later though Jack knew Will was generally bad with girls. Jack didn't want him to feel bad, so he hung out with Will, knowing his charm could get anyone he wanted when ever he wanted.
They hung out in the common room until on of the resident advisers came down and told them to leave because they technically weren't supposed to be down there. They were just getting ready to leave when they saw they had lost Race. After a quick survey of the lounge, they found him on the second story of the common room sitting around a table with about five other people playing Texas hold-em. Sometimes, Blink thought to himself, he was sure Race could smell a deck of cards.
They pulled Race away form the table and they all went their separate ways to their rooms to pass out for the night after their long day.
Well, there's more to come! Let me know what you think!