Author's Note: Thank you guys for the reviews so far. For this story I will be going back and forth between the past and the present. It will mainly be in Fitz's point of view. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how Fitz first encountered Jake. Hope you Enjoy.

Fall 2007

Fitz was still reeling from Olivia's comments as he continued through his first day. However her comments were quickly forgotten as he headed to Mariucci Arena, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team. Fitz was ecstatic. He arrived at the register booth and signed in. The administrators told Fitz to go to the locker room and get dressed into the practice gear for tryouts. Fitz rushed to the locker room and got dressed with several other potential players before heading out onto the ice.

Being on the ice for Fitz was like putting a fish back in water. He was so relieved to finally be touching the ice again. A whistle was blown and all the players scurried over to the bench to hear what the coach had to say.

"Alright fellas, here is how this is going to work. Incoming players are going to take the ice first. You will all be tested on speed, agility, and stick handling. Players who want to be in defensive positions will be tested on checking while players who want to be in offense will be tested on puck accuracy. Now not all of you will make it to the junior varsity team. There are only twenty-five positions and forty of you are trying out. So do your best. Varsity players, take the bench."

The coach blew the whistle again and each player went to their perspective areas.

The first test was speed and agility. The players had to maneuver around ten cones that were lined up vertically across the ice. The goal was to complete the test close to thirty seconds without touching any of the cones. Fitz was listed to go last in each test because he was the last one to sign up. So the other thirty-nine players attempted to complete the test. It seems like an easy task but not every player was coordinated. A lot of the players hit the cones and a few of them even fell. It was kind of embarrassing how the first test was going. The coach and the varsity players were laughing. The captain of the varsity team, Jake Ballard came onto the ice to check to see if people were skating in the allotted time. He laughed when he saw that everybody who tested so far was taking forty seconds or more to complete the test.

"Hey. I bet none of you newbies can beat my record."- Jake boasted.

Jake Ballard was the captain of the varsity gophers as well as the son of a very wealthy businessman. Jake was wealthy like Fitz however unlike Fitz Jake was selfish, cocky, and bratty. He used money to get whatever he wanted and even paid his way into getting on the varsity team as well as becoming captain. Of course nobody complained because Jake's father donated large sums of money to the hockey program and a lot of the varsity players were just as wealthy as Jake. Now don't get me wrong Jake was good at hockey but he wasn't great. As matter of fact his skills were mediocre which is why the NHL never considered signing him to any of their teams. Jake was a sophomore at Minnesota university and although his skills were mediocre, he still set a lot of records in tryouts like completing the speed and agility test in exactly thirty seconds. Something that no other player has been able to do.

That is until Fitz gave it a try. The coach called his name to take the test. Fitz took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He muted the world around him. When the coach blew his whistle Fitz shot off from the starting point, rapidly gliding around every cone before coming to a stop after the last cone.

The arena was silent until the time keeper shouted out twenty seconds. No one could believe it. Fitz shattered Jake's record and stunned the room into silence. Jake was stunned. Nobody has ever beaten his record. Nobody.

The coach blew his whistle again and told everybody to line up for the next test. By the end of tryouts everyone was in love with Fitz. Well everyone except one. He killed every test that they had to complete and blew everyone away with his skills. Now it was the final test, puck accuracy. This test had two parts. The first part required that each player hit ten pucks into an empty net. The second test was to see how many players could get all ten pucks into the net with a goalie guarding it.

A lot of the players were able to get all ten pucks into the empty net. The second part of the test was proving difficult when the most a player could hit into the net was only four pucks. Fitz however did not struggle with any part of the test. Everyone was excited to see how many pucks he could put into a guarded net. Once again Fitz closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and concentrated on the net. Fitz was good at reading goalies and could easily tell which way they would move. By the end of the test, Fitz had scored seven out of ten pucks into the net. Everyone applauded and circled around the bench to hear further instructions from the coach.

"Ok. My fellow coaches and I will review the results of each player and make a decision. We will have the results posted by Friday."

All the players gathered their things and headed to the locker room showers. Fitz was pleased with his performance and after showering he went to his apartment.

Jake however wasn't so pleased.

"I can't believe that kid. There is no way he is making on the team"-Jake said as he paces the varsity locker room.

"Are you stupid or just stupid?" Edison Davis says as he puts on his casual clothes. "That kid killed out there. I wouldn't be surprised if he skipped JV and made it to varsity."

"Yeah man" a player named Darren said, "Dude was dope on the ice."

"Whose side are you guys on? I'm the captain remember. What I say goes and he will not be on varsity."-Jake

"I don't know man. Maybe he could win us the championship this year"-Edison says.

We don't need him. We could win on our own.-Jake thinks.

About a week later the results were posted: Fitz did not make it to junior varsity but instead made it as a starting position to the Golden Gophers varsity hockey team. Fitz went ballistic.