Jo was reluctant to leave the safety of the locker room but she did knowing that if she didn't it would only make the problem worse. She cautiously entered the arena knowing Bombay was going to be livid. Though the idea of having a party at his house was fun at first she figured she would regret it in a few hours. Entering the arena she saw Bombay yelling at Goldberg and Averman. She almost turned around to head back to the safety of the locker room but Coach had seen her.
"JO GET OVER HERE NOW!" Bombay screamed at the top of his lungs. Jo slowly turned around and began to walk towards him.
"Hi Coach," Jo greeted cautiously.
"Don't 'Hi Coach' me! What were you thinking?" What were you doing at my house! You trespassed on private property! You broke the law... again! Do you know how much it's going to take to repair it? More than I have at the moment. How much beer did you drink? I know my team and I know that none of them would have brought it. You seem to be the only problem! The team doesn't know anything about you other than the fact that you definitely have a lot of anger and a bad attitude. You choose to keep to yourself! None of us can help you unless we know what you want!" Bombay yelled.
"You want to know what I want? I want you and the rest of your jack A team to leave me alone! No one has ever had a problem with that simple request besides you and your team! Oh and I didn't drink any beer except one bottle! Luis had some and he's the one that took your Playboy magazines and pictures!" Jo yelled back.
"All right Just for your attitude you get to fix my house," Bobmay replied.
"What! Oh no I'm a mechanic, you know I fix cars. I dont do houses except a little plumming," Jo stated.
"Well I sure hope you can pay someone to do it," Bombay said sarcastically.
"What happened to all the money Hendrix gave you?" Jo asked angrily.
"I'm saving it for something," the Coach replied obviously wanting to avoid the subject.
"What you gonna propose to MacKay," Jo asked sarcastically.
"What! No!," Bombay assured.
"Would you just go ahead and tell me what my punishment is all ready," Jo expressed annoyed.
"Three miles on the track after practice, and I want you to go to my house and get the soda cans from your little "party" and bring them here. I'll tell you the rest once you get back," Bombay assured.
"I'm sure you will," Jo replied sarcastically.
Jo left to the locker room and changed into her normal cloths and her black roller blades. As quickly as she could she bladed out of the rink and to Coach Bombay's old house. Now that the damage had been done she had to agree with Coach. It looked like a tornado had run through the inside of the house. Jo quickly got a garbage bag and picked up all the stray cans.
After doing a double take she bladed back out of the house and locked it before returning to the ice rink. As soon as she arived Bombay gave her a sly smile.
"I dont like the way your smiling at me," Jo stated trying to keep her distance.
"You're not going to like me very much in a few minutes. You dont have to get in your gear now, not for what you'll be doing," the Coach replied.
"And what am I doing?" Jo asked.
"You are going to help Luis. You build a wall with the cans, Luis will skate toward you, try and stop, and every time they cans fall you make the wall again," Bombay expressed with a smile.
"What! You do realize that Luis couldn't stop if his life depended on it?" Jo asked. "And how exactly is this practice?"
"This isn't practice it's punishment," Bombay corrected.
"Well excuse me," Jo replied sarcastically. Jo put on her ice skates and went over to Luis, telling him what would be happening.
After about the third time of having to restack the cans Jo was ready punch both the Coach and Luis. 'It won't make neither Luis or Gorden happy but it sure as hell will make me feel good,' Jo thought. Jo noticed Courtney had finally exited the locker room and was now making her way toward her. 'Well they say misery loves company,' Jo thought.
Luckily, Courtney was able to sneak off to the bathroom before the coach started on Jo. She spent as long as she cold just sitting in the locker room before returning to the ice. Thankfully, when she returned the team was already working on drills.
Courtney laughed as she watched Jo place can after can on top of each other. Adam looked ver out of place as he approached her. He was the only one, besides the coach, not wearing any gear,
"That's her punishment. She's building a wall of cans. Luis is going to skate towards it and try to stop. Every time he runs into it, she rebuilds it," Adam explained. Just then, Luis went whizzing by, but didn't stop. Cans went crashing all across the ice. Jo looked livid, but Courtney burst out laughing as Averman tripped over a stray can.
"What are you laughing at Robertson? That's what you'll be doing, as well as two miles on the track after practice. It better be under thirteen minutes or you're doing four. Get over there," Coach Bombay pointed.
"What!" Courtney proclaimed, crossing her arms. "That's not fair!"
"Sorry," Adam offered, "I've only got to run one." He laughed slightly, lightening the mood.
Courtney joined Jo. Jo made no acknowledgment of Courtney's presence. This absolutely stinks, Courtney thought bitterly. How is this practice? What are we practicing for? The dofus convention? This is supposed to be hockey. They stacked cans for over an hour until the coach called them over.
"You two go work on goal. Shoot on Goldberg. It'll give him practice; he needs it."
"How many miles did you get?" Courtney asked as they skated towards the goal.
"Three," Jo answered. "Like I'm actually gonna run it." Not another word was passed between them.
Courtney met almost every one of her teammates out on the track. Dwayne, Charlie and Ken watched from the stadium. Coach Bombay blew the starting whistle and they all started to run as one massive group. Courtney hated it. The sun was unbearable and they were right in its path. She watched Coach Bombay leave through the hates and heard his car start and then leave. Why are we still running if he's gone? Courtney wondered. Apparently, Jess thought the same thing. He had stopped running, but not one second later was there a loud whistle and Bryan screamed, "Keep running!" He had just appeared from behind the bleachers. Great, Courtney thought, sarcastically.
Courtney ran her two miles in twelve minutes and fifteeen seconds. Jesse and Adam were done as well. The three of them watched Goldberg barely running at all.
"Bets he ends up running like fifty miles!" Jesse joked.
Courtney didn't laugh. She was too tired. She'd had barely any sleep for the past few days. She immediately retreated to the dorm, took a shower and fell asleep.
It wasn't until two-thirty in the afternoon the next day that she woke up. The Iceland game was a day away and she was already nervous about it. The weather seemed to reflect her mood. It was cloudy, with only a little bit of sunlight reaching down. The team had practice again in an hour. Courtney was dreading it. If it's anything like yesterday, I'm faking sick, she thought.
As she left the room to go get breakfast, there was a piece of paper hanging on her door from Coach Bombay.
Don't bring gear to practice.
Just skates and wear regular clothes.
Coach Bombay
Courtney sighed. Maybe this was a good thing. How much work could you possibly do if you had no gear? It seemed as if everyone was already at the arena. No one was eating, not even Goldberg. Courtney felt a little left out being the only one there. She ate as fast as she could and hurried to the arena.
"Hey, guys. What's going on?" She asked as she skated onto the ice.
"We don't know. We're waiting for coach to get here," Russ answered. "He's late for his own practice!"
"Guys!" Coach Bombay shouted from the door. "Come here!" Everyone skated slowly towards him, not quite sure what to expect. "This is our last practice before the big game. I want you to remember something."
"What? This is the only game that matters?" Dwayne asked.
"No. Have fun. And since this is the last practice, we're gonna have some fun!" Coach Bombay pulled a huge bag of beach balls in through the doors. "You left these at my place," he laughed. The team eagerly went through the bag throwing and kicking the balls around.
"Come on," Adam edged Courtney. He grabbed a ball and threw it at her like dodge ball.
"Adam!" She screamed. She picked up the same bright orange ball that Guy had thrown into the pool beside her and aimed at Adam.
"DODGE BALL!" Jesse shouted. He picked up balls and started chucking them through the air. The team was having fun and so was Coach Bombay. Jesse looked to everyone else. "One, two, three…FIRE!" At once, the whole team threw their balls at Coach Bombay.
"Hey!" He yelled. He picked up the balls and started retaliating. He threw a ball at Goldberg, but he ducked just in time. The ball slowly rolled away from him and stopped at the feet of Wolf "The dentist" Stansson. He picked up the ball and looked at it disgusted.
"No wonder you can't win a game. You don't practice. Good enough for us," he sneered. Courtney watched his players behind him. They were moving towards Team USA in a black swarm.
"We were just playin' around," Portman growled skating towards him.
"No," Coach Bombay said, pushing him back. "Come on team, let's get outta here." He and his team started to skate off a little.
"Why don't you stay and play a little?" Stansson mocked him. He turned to Marria, his trainer, and nodded his head. She threw him two hockey sticks and slid a puck up to his feet. Coach Bombay wasn't smiling. "Come on, show me your 'famous triple deke' that your mommy taught you." Coach Bombay's expression was unreadable. He stood, shaking on the ice from anger.
"Let's go," he retorted.
"Gordon, no," Ms. MacKay warned. She had been quiet the entire time up until now. "Don't. You need to prove anything."
"I'm proving to my team that I can beat him and they can beat his team." He turned back to Stansson. "Three Bar. First one to hit both posts and the cross bar. Gotta take it out past the blue line." Stansson nodded his head, approving. He threw the stick to Coach Bombay who caught it and stared at it.
"All right," Fulton and Portman cheered.
Stansson had the puck first. He looked confident as he whizzed down the ice in full control. He did a spinning move around Coach Bombay and slammed the puck. He hit the post with a ding! The Iceland team cheered. Team USA gave them dirty looks.
Now Coach Bombay had control over the puck. Stansson tried to steal the puck, but lost his balance. The coach took an easy shot and hit the post. Now Team USA cheered wildly.
The puck was placed on the middle blue line. Coach Bombay and Stansson glared at each other. Coach Bombay stole the puck and headed down the ice. Stansson was right beside him and elbowed him, stealing the puck. Team USA dropped their heads. Ms. MacKay nervously bit her fingernails. However, Coach Bombay was flying down the ice, catching up to Stansson. He crossed over in front of him and retrieved the puck. He took it back and hit the post. His team cheered madly, jumping up and down.
"One more, Coach!" Goldberg screamed over the cheers.
"Hear that?" Coach Bombay taunted Stansson. "One more and I win."
The puck was placed in the middle once again. But now it wasn't just a competition of the coach's. Ms. MacKay and Marria were cutting eyes at each other.
"Nervous yet?" Marria jeered.
"No, why should I be?" Ms. MacKay snapped. "I know Gordon will win. You should be nervous, you psychopathic, dispossessed, washout, nincompoop!"
"What did you call me? You foul idiot. You dunce. You couldn't be more of a moron in you tried. You lousy, numbskull."
"Who are you calling a moron? You ignoramus, imbecile."
"Ladies!" Coach Bombay cried. "Please! Be quiet!" He returned back to Stansson. "What're you waiting for, madam?"
Stansson scowled at him. "Ladies first," he commented. Stansson stole the puck out from under Coach Bombay and was heading down towards the goal.
'Come on, Coach!" Courtney cried. Coach Bombay pumped his legs and caught up to Stansson, once again crossing over in front of him and stealing the puck. He started down towards to opposite goal. The team felt victory as he inched closer and closer the goal. They screamed at the top of their lungs. None of them were paying attention to the insults still being thrown between Ms. MacKay and Marria. They weren't even paying attention the game itself. They were already celebrating their win against Stansson. No one saw Stansson's stick being thrown up into the air, or it coming down on Coach Bombay's bad knee.
He yelped and skidded down onto the ice. Ms. MacKay rushed forward to him. "Gordon! I told you not to play!" The team rushed forward as well.
"You must leave. We need to practice," Stansson grumbled. "Get off the ice." Portman and Fulton were eyeing the Iceland team. They were slowly moving towards the team.
"Dean, no," Jo snapped. He backed off immediately.
"Team, let's go," Coach Bombay said, limping off the ice.