Adam Banks sat isolated in the locker room of Eden Hall Academy performing his usual pre-game ritual. His teammates on the varsity hockey team were pretty good about giving him quiet and privacy before every game. Adam taped his ankles before he put on his comfortable, worn-in skates—right foot, then left foot. He carefully laced each skate—right foot, then left foot—and then leaned up against his locker and closed his eyes, gently massaging his right wrist.

Adam never thought about it, but this was the pre-game ritual his father taught Adam the first time he put on skates and picked up a hockey stick—when he was three years old. Back then, hockey held some kind of wonderful magic for him. Even as recently as freshman year, hockey was the love of Adam's life. That year was truly one to remember. He and his friends, fresh off a gold medal win in the Junior Goodwill Games in Los Angeles, were awarded athletic scholarships to attend Eden Hall, one of the most prestigious hockey prep schools in the nation. Adam did not particularly need a scholarship to afford Eden Hall's tuition, but it was quite an honor nonetheless.

Adam thought back at some of the memories from that year. He made the Varsity team, third line center and certainly was good enough that year to play second line. However, the second line center that year, Owen Thomas, was a senior and therefore Coach Wilson would not have supplanted him with a freshman, no matter how good Adam was. When the school nearly succeeded in revoking their scholarships, Adam rejoined the Junior Varsity team and his fellow Ducks to actually beat Varsity for the first time in school history in the Varsity/JV showdown. Adam decided to play Varsity hockey again before the year was over and learned how to play tough, disciplined hockey. By the time sophomore year came around, Adam was playing first line center for Varsity, and suddenly hockey became all about winning, piling on the accolades and compiling the skills necessary to impress college and NHL scouts. The next truly memorable moment for Adam came at the end of the season junior year when he was placed on the first All-America team. Now Adam was having trouble remembering of any time after then that he enjoyed himself on the ice.

Adam's thoughts were so concentrated on the query that he did not realize how hard he was massaging his right wrist—Adam was downright strangling it at this point. He swore under his breath and shook his wrist to alleviate some of the pain. He injured it back at the Goodwill Games on a cheap shot that the Iceland's team enforcer, Olaf Sanderson, laid on him after Adam scored a goal on them the first time the two teams met. Like a lot of injuries, this one still bothered him once in awhile.

"Hey, Banks, are we going to destroy Blake today or what?" Adam was snapped out of his relatively quiet reverie and looked over at Charlie Conway, his best friend and teammate. It was odd; no one spoke to Adam before games. He liked to concentrate, get his mind clear. Lately it seemed like clearing his mind took more effort than usual. Anyway, Charlie knew this more than anyone.

Charlie noticed the questioning look in Adam's clear green eyes and plopped down next to him on the bench. "Adam, is anything wrong?"

Adam glanced over at Charlie. "What do you mean? Have you noticed anything with my game?"

Charlie shook his head. "No, it's not that. Your game is looking sharp—as usual. But...I don't know. You seem kind of different—subdued, lately. I mean, more than usual."

Adam pulled his head forward, staring rigidly ahead. He hated when other people worried about him—thought he was dealing with some kind of weakness. "Nah, man, everything's cool. I don't know why you would think that."

Charlie was quiet for a moment. "In that case, I wanted to talk to you about something."

The tone in Charlie's voice alarmed Adam. "Yeah? Shoot."

Charlie hesitated. "Well, last Friday I took Tom home from the Pine Hurst game." Thomasin Logan was Adam's girlfriend since sophomore year. Everyone called her Tom for short. Adam liked calling her Tamsin.

"Why would you do that? Why didn't Tamsin ask me?"

Charlie looked confused. "Well, apparently, she did. You two were supposed to hang out at Francine Hassell's party that everyone went to. You agreed to meet her at the entrance of the gym so you could drive. You never showed and she didn't have a ride anywhere. Tom's parents and their friends were at that retreat last weekend and everyone else was at Francine's vacation house in the mountains—where you know there's never any phone reception. She called your phone several times and you never answered. Tom was stranded at Pine Hurst until midnight when I finally left Francine's."

Adam's expression froze with realization. Pine Hurst was two towns away from Eden Hall. "Oh, my God, I can't believe I forgot about her. Wait. Its Thursday. How come she never brought this up with me? Jeez, Tamsin...Has she been totally pissed at me this whole time?"

Charlie shook his head. "You know Tom better than anyone else. She never said anything because she's too cool to take it personally. Tom was just worried about you. Where were you, anyway?"

Adam spent that Friday night driving around aimlessly to random, God- forsaken places. "I wanted to spend some time alone," Adam said quietly.

"Well, I just want to give you the heads up. Just because Tom doesn't act like it doesn't mean that she doesn't have feelings. Girls like her don't come around that often. And when they do, they certainly aren't interested in guys like YOU." Charlie jokingly elbowed Adam in the ribs.

Adam stared at his fingers. "Thanks and I know. I'll talk to her about it."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, no problem. Just remember to concentrate on the game today--and have fun. At the Pine Hurst you didn't even celebrate when you scored that hat trick. And the goal on the triple deke, stick side was awesome, too." He stood up abruptly and started a conversation with Julie Gaffney, the team's 1st string goalie this year. Last year's first string was Julie's boyfriend, Scott Vanderbilt III, or Scooter as everyone called him. Scooter really did a great job improving Julie's game and for a long time was Adam's only friend on Varsity. In fact, Scooter was the one who introduced Adam to Tamsin back in sophomore year. Ah, damnit, Adam thought as his thoughts returned to Tamsin and last Friday's alleged events. Adam would have to start the mind-clearing process all over again if he was to be anywhere near ready to play today.