Authors notes. This is my first ever fanfiction story so I hope you like it. Wish me look. I have never written anything like this before so please bear with me if you don`t like it. I would really appreciate it if you could read and review to possibly help point me in the right direction. I don`t own anything. The idea for the story line is mine but nothing else is.
The four boys from Minnesota are 11 years old and are busy trying to make the most of the short weekend by playing hockey.
" Come on James, what is taking him so looong?" "Where is he Kendall, he`s not here, make him be here". Kendall, Carlos and Logan had been standing alone on the hockey pitch for the last twenty minutes waiting for their friend James to arrive. Carlos was anxious to get started on the match and was beginning to start whining to Kendall, as though he could somehow open a magic portal into James` house and drag him there.
The boys had quickly become fast friends from the moment they had first met. Despite their differences in personality it had been their shared love of the violent sport of hockey that had brought them together as children.
It was for this reason that they had long since formed the routine of always meeting up to play on late Sunday afternoons as a way of making the most of the precious two days break that they got from school each week. Their weekend matches had become a sacred tradition. Hockey was their way of blowing off steam, venting their emotions and above all else burning off some of their boundless energy before the next week of school.
This was becoming increasingly important for them and also very difficult as the boys were finding themselves at a new stage in their lives where school work, family time and even their social lives were becoming so hard. Things that used to seem so easy were now changing as though new rules were being added to their lives that they could not understand. Why did things like status and other people`s opinions, that used to be so trivial, now seem so important.
Out of all the boys the one who was most effected and who seemed to notice the difference the most was James. This was uncharacteristic of him as James was usually the last one of his friends to notice anything. Usually so caught up in his own world the only time he tended to look at his surroundings was when the fashions changed. However, recently James had, if it was even possible, managed to become more aware of his appearance and where he stood in the schools social ladder. James who had always accessorised his own look to make himself stand out from the crowd now seemed to be obsessing over his appearance more than ever. The school photographer was coming in that week and James had already asked every member of their year group what they were planning on wearing that day to ensure that nobody had the same clothes as him. It really had been impossible for the others not to notice how paranoid their friend seemed to be at the moment. Especially when the classmates had told James that they did not have anything planned and James had practical screamed " They don`t know, How could they possibly not know?
So that is why the boys were finding it so hard to believe that James still had not arrived. He would not of forgotten about them and he couldn't have any homework as Logan had been doing all the boys work for them. " I wonder what could be keeping him"Logan said aloud to the group. " Maybe he went to introduce himself to that new family on his street to find out if there any girls there". "I don`t think so" responded Kendall. "He wouldn`t blow us off and miss a game of hockey just for a girl, we`re his best buds he would have told us if he was planning something".
The boys were just debating whether to start without him and practice some shoot outs till he got there when James came bounding over to them. "Hey guys, sorry I`m late but you know you can't just wake up looking this good you have to be prepared to work for it"."Oh so that's where you've been all this time, combing your hair for half an hour to get it ready to put a helmet on. That makes perfect sense" Logan pointed out. James was about to respond to this joke with a comment about Logan just being Jealous but was interrupted by Carlos, whose patience had already been stretched to its limit. " Come on you guys are we playing Hockey or not I`ve been waiting for Forever"."Okay, okay" Kendall reassured him. "Lets just get started before Carlos Explodes. James, why don`t you and Carlos team up and Logan you can be on my team."
The rest of the practice was going well with the boys having played for about half an hour. However, just as the boys were about to resume play after a brief break they were joined on the pitch by some guys from a rival school. One who they had not long since played against, and beaten, during a friendly school match which had turned out to be anything but. " What do you guys want " Kendall demanded as they came over. He could already feel the slight difference in the atmosphere and was quick to try and avoid an argument".
"oh we just thought we come down for a bit of extra practice, not that we need it, you saw us last month".
" The only thing we saw you do was cheat" Logan joined in, he had not forgotten the bloodbath that the match had turned into.
" Aww and we just felt so terrible about the whole thing" mocked the other teams captain, a huge hairy beast who was surrounded by unfavourable rumours. Thats why we came here, we thought you guys deserved a rematch. Just us four vs you four. To set the record straight and decide the better team once and for all".
" Well maybe we don`t want a rematch" Kendall offered "we won last time and we want to keep it that way, we booked this ice time fair and square so if you want an excuse to beat somebody up you can do it somewhere else".
" Now now, thats not very sports manly of you is it" Chided one of the other boys. This one was thinner and more wiry but what he lacked in muscle he made up for in height and made himself look just as hard as his team mate by treating them all to a manacling scowl.
James Carlos Kendall and Logan all looked at each other. It was clear that they had no way out of this argument. They knew the team would play dirty as they were still angry at their last defeat and wanted revenge but if they refused the story would be twisted to paint them as pathetic children and would be spread all around the district destroying any reputation they themselves had built up. They were going to have to play.
Kendall was the first to break the gaze between him and his friends and as he turned back toward the wiry monster leering at them he made a conscious effort to look him in the eye as he said calmly, " Bring it on"
The boys were now all standing in front of their own goal getting ready to take on the other team.
" Are you crazy?" Logan asked incredulously, "what makes you think we take these guys on again, we barley survived the last time and that was when we were in front of teachers and parents. This time we have no witnesses" "you do realise that you just signed us up for a match with a 94% probability of us getting beaten up".
"He has got a point". James backed up his smart friend. " I mean look at them, that`s not a goalie its a mountain on skates"
" and do you realise I just signed us to a match with a 100% probability of us taking these morons down a few pegs and standing up for ourselves in an epic battle depicting that good always triumphs over evil" Kendall responded.
"ooh I sense pep talk" Carlos joined in.
Kendall stepped in front of his friends.
" come on guys I know we got this. We got more talent and brain cells than any of those monsters. We took them once we can do it again. They might be bigger and heavier than us but that also makes them slower, and maybe we wont be able to score against them but that dosen`t mean we have to let any goals in either. we just have to defend defend defend defend if we don`t let them score we`ll be OK. Lets get out their and play some hockey".
Now twenty minutes into the impromptu grudge match and Kendall`s team were winning. They had managed to score twice against the challengers who Kendall had rightly predicted were sluggish due their sheer size and bulk. Now nearing the end of their practice time the boys had begun to relax. Guessing that they had avoided the painful beating up that they had been expecting and were now becoming more confident that they would not be called cowards but rather heroes for managing to take on such a notorious team alone.
However their success had the opposite effect on their challengers who with each missed attempt to score had darkened their mood. Now they were angry and more determined than ever to start doing some serious damage. They were now for the first time in the last five minutes in possession of the hockey puck and they were going to make this one count. From half way across the pitch toward the goal that James was guarding the captain, the huge kid that he had described as a mountain, came barrelling towards him. Dribbling the puck and looking threatening. James, caught like a rabbit in the headlights, had refused to move and had held his ground in front of the goal in an attempt to look just as scary.
The captain had stopped less than four feet away from the goal and swung his hockey stick back ready to sent the puck flying. James still refused to move even when the stick made contact the puck. As the compact piece of rubber came flying towards his face James had finally been about to brace for impact when he found himself being shoved roughly out of the way. Looking up in confusion from his new position on the ice he was just in time to see His best friend Carlos get the puck that been coming his way just seconds before hit him smack in the face.
Monday Morning
The next day, despite Mrs Garcia worrying, the boys had headed to school as normal.
The news of their match had already been heard around the whole school and the boys were all considered heroes after their classmates had heard the story Carlos saving James.
Mrs Garcia had picked up the boys from the hockey rink and had taken Carlos to the accident and emergency and had phoned the other boys mums to let them know what had happened. The parents had all got together and had called the rival school to complain witch resulted in a suspension for the other team.
The boys had all had their school photos taken with James looking great and Carlos sporting two black eyes and a large plaster across the front of his nose.
"I still can`t get over you pushing me out of the way like that" James told Carlos for the fifteenth time since the match.
"It was really great of you to save me and everything and I am super grateful but why did you do that?" James asked. He had been playing the moment over and had been desperately searching for these answers and could not put off asking the questions anymore.
" Because you had to look good"
out of all the answers James had been expecting this was not one.
"Look good for what?" he asked in shock.
"Well for the school pictures obviously, its all you've been talking about for the last two weeks" Carlos answered "I know your Mum puts a lot of pressure on you because of her business and I know that you worked really hard on choosing your outfit for these pictures. They mean a lot to you thats why I couldn't let you get hit I had to protect to face."
" But you let yourself get hurt for my sake" James said outrageously "Its true I do care about my appearance and how I look in photos but you still should`t of done it because my looks aren`t as important as your feelings". "My friends will always be more important to me than any stupid year book that will get looked at once and then spend the rest of its life in the bottom of the wardrobe". Carlos was surprised to see his friend looked ashamed of himself as he said this. "Is that really all I am just a pretty person. I know that I can be arrogant sometimes but I didn`t think that I was that bad. I mean your such a great friend to of took a puck in the face like that but I was so conceited recently and so wound up in my own looks that I didn`t deserve it."
James definitely looked as if he was about to cry now and Carlos reached up to put his hand on his taller friend`s shoulder. " James don`t say thinks like" that he reassured him. "You might be self conscious sometimes but we all know that underneath that hair you have one of the biggest hearts I know. Your a really caring and generous person who thinks not only about himself but about others as well. Its one of your best qualities and why I love having you as a friend and I know that if the situation had changed you would have done the same for me".
James was so taken aback by this sentiment that he did the only thing he could think to do, bent down and engulfed his shorter friend in a tight bear hug. Carlos reached up to James back in order to return the hug and after he had been released said "Besides this is a win win situation, you get the perfect photo and I get all the attention from the girls for once". With that last statement the boys began to laugh as they made their way outside for break to catch up with Kendall and Logan the air between them completely cleared.