Hey guys, this is my first MCGA fanfiction! It's also posted on AO3 under the same title and username if you'd prefer to read it there! :) I'm very nervous about posting this so positive reviews are hiiiighly appreciated! Thanks! :)

The large, black duffle bag was slung haphazardly across the Magnus Chase's shoulder, weighing his left side down as he dashed through the hallways of the school. It was late, nearly 7pm, yet Magnus had a reason for being there.

A buzzer was heard down the corridor. A loud, aggressive buzzer that made his heart jump and his legs pick up their pace.

The game was starting.

In Magnus' defence, it wasn't necessarily his fault that he was late. He could blame a number of people, however the fact of the matter was that he lived quite a distance away from the school, his family didn't own a car, and the bus into town didn't run this late at night. That meant, he was left with only one other option: to run.

Magnus made it to the end of the hallway, and now his legs were absolutely aching. He wasn't quite sure if it was from anticipation or the exhaustion from running, but he was hoping it wasn't the latter. Now was not the time to be tired or sore. He had to be at is best for this game, because it was the first game of the season, against the Wolves, no less.

See, Magnus attended a casual, typical public high school in the city of Boston. This school was mostly known for it's varsity co-ed hockey team, the Vikings. They were legends, dominating every tournament, and had made it to the National Championship on more than one occasion. As a kid in elementary school trying out for hockey for the first time, Magnus looked up to the Vikings. He wanted nothing more than to attend that high school when he was older and make the team, hopefully playing the starting line. For a moment, actually, he completely lost sight of this dream. Magnus had bigger things and issues to deal with at that time in his life, but soon enough he was back on his feet and being enrolled for classes at the high school of his dreams. Tryouts came up fast, and Magnus was a little rusty having been off the ice for so long.

That was a year ago. Now, Magnus Chase had been guaranteed a spot on the team for junior year, repping his same number 18 once more. He was the best defence player on the whole team, and in general, too, he was probably their best player. Coach always praised Magnus for being such a team player and putting his teammates before himself.

Magnus silently wondered what Coach would say this time, as Magnus pushed open the doors to the school hockey rink about 3 minutes into the first period. A couple heads turned to stare at him in confusion, however most simply sighed in relief as they realized it was Magnus Chase entering the rink. A lot of the parents and fans counted on him to give the Vikings some hope. One person in particular stood out to Magnus in the stands, and that was Samirah al-Abbas, Magnus' closest and probably best friend at school. She was one of the Vikings' biggest supporters, despite the fact that he parents frowned on her for enjoying a game as violent as hockey. Yet, Sam made a point of saying she was supporting her friends and nothing more. Magnus respected her immensely.

Sam noticed Magnus at the door, her brown eyes large and worried, contrasting the olive green hijab wrapped tightly around her head. She pointed to the scoreboard, and Magnus furrowed his eyebrows to notice was she was trying to say.

The scoreboard read 3-0, the 3 goals having been scored already by the Wolves.

Magnus felt his stomach sink. This was the opening game. If the Wolves won, that practically gave them bragging rights for the whole term. Magnus would not let this happen.

He sprinted into the change rooms below the seats, tossing his bag on the bench once he was inside. He tore off his clothes and replaced it with his uniform, which consisted of all of his protective padding, hockey pants, gloves, socks, tape, a neck guard, a mouth guard, and his skates, which he tied exceedingly fast. Magnus hurriedly slapped his helmet on his head, grabbed his water bottle and stick, and then rushed back out the door. Well, he rushed as much as he could while wearing skates.

Back out in the rink, the game was in full motion, meaning Magnus had to wait to get on the ice. He stood at the glass, anxiously tapping his stick against the floor as he watched the game unfold before him. It seemed like the Vikings were doing okay, until #18 on the Wolves took the puck from TJ, the Vikings' best forwards player, and shot it into the top shelf with ease from the blue line. Magnus gaped for a moment as the referee blew his whistle and signalled that yes, that kid just scored an almost impossible shot. Magnus shook his head to dissipate his shock, and opened the door to the ice, leaving the sounds of cheering Wolves supporters behind him.

Coach's angry expression was colder than the ice Magnus was skating on. Still, the blond boy skated his way over to their teams bench, nodding in thanks to the kid that opened the gate for him. Immediately, Coach stepped over and crossed his arms in a huff. "Oh, this better be good."

"I'm late, I know, and I'm sorry, Coach, but I didn't think the Wolves would manage to score 4 goals in less than 5 minutes!" Magnus exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender as his words were slightly muffled by his mouth guard.

Coach paused for a moment, probably considering so cruel punishments to give Magnus during practice tomorrow afternoon. Instead of letting on to this, he simply said, "Get in line, Chase, and make some plays to get us back up there. Also, if this ever happens again, I will bench you."

Magnus grinned. "Sure thing, Coach."

He turned on his heel and walked down the bench, squeezing in beside Gunilla, the other defence player on his line. She was tough and aggressive, which made her a great partner for Magnus, however they also tended to butt heads for almost no reason. Still, she made good plays and was a decent player.

She cocked an eyebrow at him when he fell in line. "Nice of you to show up."

"Thanks, hopefully we'll be able to catch up to the Wolves now." Magnus replied, trying to remain positive despite her sarcastic tone.

Gunilla merely scoffed in response. Magnus took this as a sign to end their conversation.

They watched the game as it went on. At this point, the frosty chill of the rink began to creep its way into Magnus' bones, causing him to shiver slightly. Thankfully, he understood that the shivering and cold wouldn't last a second after he began skating and playing the puck. Everything seemed to fade away when he was in a game. Well, everything except the motivation and determination to win.

Eventually it came time for Magnus to play his first shift. At one point, he stopped the puck from entering their zone. He went to shoot it up the ice, but out of nowhere one of the Wolves bodychecked him into the boards and stole the puck. Magnus pushed himself up and spun around just in time to see that goddamn #18 shoot and score once again.

It was officially 5-0 for the Wolves.

Magnus could only stare in shock. That guy came from literally nowhere. He must've been new, because nobody on the Wolves ever had the nerve to play a move like that, or had been able to score so flawlessly time after time.

"Chase!" Coach hollered from the bench. Magnus glanced up and saw Coach shaking his head disapprovingly, his eyes scrunched tight into a nasty glare. "Do not hold back."

Magnus could only nod in response before taking his position for the puck drop. The kid, #18, seemed to be centre as he was taking the face-off against TJ. He grinned maliciously at the latter boy, radiating pure intimidation. Magnus squinted as he noticed locks of dark green hair poking out from beneath his helmet. Green hair? That was definitely someone new, someone Magnus had never played against before. And he was good.

Well, not only #18. The whole entire team seemed to have stepped it up about 15 notches since last year.

As the game went on, both teams got multiple penalties, which meant that Magnus did not have the pleasure of playing the same shift as #18 again. In the end, the Wolves won as the final score was 6-3. Magnus felt beyond ashamed and embarrassed. He could've done more, he could've tried harder, he could've—

"Magnus." Coach shouted, shaking the blond boy from his torment of thoughts. Magnus came back to reality and noticed he was the last one on the ice. "I need to talk to you."

Magnus gulped, pressure weighing heavily on his shoulders. He skated off the ice and glanced up at his coach, who was surprisingly more exasperated than angry. "Coach—"

"No excuses, Magnus, please. Anyways, I have a theory. And I need a favour. Can you meet me tomorrow morning before class?" Coach asked, rubbing his forehead almost tiredly. Magnus, confused and beyond curious, nodded slowly. Coach sighed in relief before giving him a smile of gratitude before walking down into the change room.

Magnus stared in shock for a moment before he turned and saw Sam bounding down the steps to come greet him. She didn't seem too happy or excited, but she still grinned when she met him. "Good game, Magnus."

"Yeah right," He scoffed in reply. "I sucked. I've never played that bad before."

"You didn't play bad, it's just that the Wolves got better. There's something fishy going on with them, I think." Sam explained, narrowing her eyes at some of the Wolves players who were beginning to exit the change rooms, all of which were glowing with happiness from the win. Magnus wondered how grumpy he must've looked in comparison to them.

"They definitely have gotten better. I'll just have to train more, I guess." Magnus said, sighing in defeat.

"That could start with you bulking up more, scrawny." Sam said in a joking manner, earning a chuckle from Magnus. "Wanna go to Fadlan's for a later dinner?"

The mention of Fadlan's Falafel made Magnus' mood go from 0 to 100 in half a second, momentarily allowing him to forget about the tragic loss. "Definitely. I'll have to shower and put my equipment in the storage room by Coach's classroom. Wanna meet me there?"

"Sounds good. See you in a bit!" Sam said, giving him one last sheepish grin before stalking off out of the rink and into the school.

With nothing but some fantastic falafel on his mind, Magnus finally began to make his way into the change room, but was interrupted once more. This time, by someone he did not want to speak to.

"Oh, so you're the infamous Magnus Chase? Golden boy of the Vikings?" A voice said from behind him. Magnus spun around and came face to face with none other than #18.

He was a lot shorter without his skates on, Magnus first realized. He must've been at least a few inches shorter than Magnus himself was. His green hair was wet with sweat, matted in curly tufts to his tanned forehead. His eyes appeared to be two different colours, and Magnus would've been drawn to that, but it was this guy's outfit that stood out to him most of all. He was proudly clad in tight pink skinny jeans, an a baggy lime green hoodie with the Wolves' logo printed on front. How he managed to get such a sweater when the Wolves' team colours were blue and white, Magnus didn't really want to find out.

"Yeah, I'm Magnus. It's… nice to meet you." Magnus said carefully, because honestly he was unsure what was customary in these types of situations.

"The name's Alex Fierro. I wanted to introduce myself so you could remember my name when I literally and metaphorically crush you each upcoming game." He said, flicking his hair out of his eyes. Magnus furrowed his eyebrows in a mix of both confusion and complete and utter shock.

"Look, dude, I don't exactly want to be on the bad side of some guy I just met." Magnus began, making a point of turning towards his dressing room.

"I'm a girl, actually, but you've already been on my bad side. Everyone says that you're the best high school hockey player in Boston and I wanted to prove them wrong. Now's my chance." Alex explained in a fake-nice voice.

Magnus frowned. "You think you're better than me?"

Alex grinned. "I know I'm better than you."

"When's the next time we play each other?"

"Next Tuesday, 3pm."

"Well, Alex Fierro," Magnus said, with a slight smirk on his lips. "Looks like you've got yourself a rival."

Alex let out a bemused chuckle, and Magnus found himself laughing along with her. She waved goodbye and then Magnus was left to finally get undressed and shower. He wanted nothing more than to cleanse away the loss he had endured that game. However, in the shower, all he could think about was Alex Fierro. She was snarky and all too confident, yet Magnus found himself eager to play against her next week.

Until then, he planned to work hard and improve as much as he could, so he could show Alex Fierro who exactly was the best.