A/N: Once again, I want to thank my reviewers, specifically MidnightBlue88 and the reviewer right before her that told me I shouldn't put God into this story. I have to admit, I debated it for some time (hence the reason you guys haven't been getting updates as fast) but in the end I decided that I can't keep God out of my stories. I can't say "I'm a Christian, but not when I'm writing." And if you're a Christian then you'd understand that God has done so much for me/us, and I simply can't ignore that in whatever story I'm writing. And, of course, there's also the possibility that maybe there'll be someone who's looking for what Miles is looking for, and they'll read my story and become a Christian as well. This isn't just being posted as an example of my faith, but also, hopefully, as a way of witnessing.
Jesse entered the arena and looked around. He'd skated on an iced-over lake before, but never in a place like this. Nor had he ever tried to play hockey. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to do this, but he knew that he couldn't back out now. He spotted David and approached him.
"Hey," Jesse said. David turned and smiled at him.
"Hey. You have skates?"
Jesse nodded and held up the skates in his hands. "Yeah."
"Cool. Lace up and I'll introduce you to the team."
Jesse sat down and put on the skates, then they went out on the ice and approached the group of teenagers. Most of them were guys, but there were also quite a few girls there. Maybe 1/3 of the group were females, which was more than Jesse expected.
"Coach, this is Jesse Tuck," David said. The coach looked to the two boys.
"You have equipment, Jesse?" he asked. Jesse shook his head. "Ever played hockey?" He shook his head again and the coach looked at David. "OK, then. Take him to the locker room and get him suited up while we do warm ups." David nodded and did as he said. The two boys left and the coach looked at the remaining players. "Let's go!" Everyone then went to their places, the goalies by the goals and the rest of the team lined up for shooting.
Jesse and David came back out in about 5 minutes and the coach skated up to them while the team continued warm-ups. He nodded to David signaling him to get in line to shoot, and then turned to Jesse. "I'll go over rules with you at a later time," he said. "For now, hold the stick like this and don't let it go over your shoulders. Let's see you pass." He gave Jesse the stick he'd been holding and adjusted his hands so that they were correct, then told him to get in a line.
Jesse got in one and while he waited his turn, a girl behind him said something.
"You're holding it wrong."
Jesse turned. "Huh?"
"Right hand below left hand."
"Oh."
"What school do you go to?"
Jesse tried to remember what he'd told David. It was a president, he knew that much. "Washington," he guessed, trying to keep the unsureness out of his voice.
"Oh. Where's that?"
"It's… near my house."
"Oh."
Jesse turned back around and waited for the 2 people ahead of him to shoot at the goalie, then he passed Jesse the puck. Jesse stopped it without much problem, but receiving a pass wasn't difficult so he didn't impress anyone.
"Shoot it as hard as you can," the girl behind him coached. "The faster, the better. Snap your wrist."
Jesse tried his best to do as she said. He snapped his right wrist and let the puck fly above the ice. It was almost in, when the goalie dove for it and kept it out. But he'd been really close to scoring a goal, and it was on his first try.
"Hey, that was good!" the girl said. Jesse smiled as he skated to the back of the line. "Thanks," he said.
When he got there David patted him on the back. "Good job. My first shot, I didn't even get within 5 feet of the goalpost."
Jesse's smile grew. "Thanks," he said again.
"A few more practices and you'll be pretty good. I was a little worried about you being the worst on the team, but as of now we have people a million times worse than you. You got nothing to worry about."
"You have people worse than me?"
He nodded and turned so that they could see the other line of shooters, and pointed. "That guy, Denny, this is his first time on skates. Well, not right now but, this season. No sense of balance. You get within a foot of that guy and he falls down."
Jesse laughed. "I'm not quite that bad."
"What I used to do? Make up balance with speed. Like a bike without training wheels. You feel like you start to loose your balance so you pedal faster. That's what I did until I learned to control it."
Jesse nodded. "When I couldn't control it, I just fell."
David laughed. "That works, too."
"Thanks for hooking me up."
"No problem."
