A/N: After the tiring process of writing the last game I wanted to take a break from football and do a couple chapters about hockey to see what you all thought about it. Now that were are at the half way point I've begun contemplating a sequel but I want to know should it be another football season or should it be a different sport, like hockey or soccer. I'm not opposed to more than one sequel if the readers want it.
A/N II: Once again I want to give thanks to DaveTheWordsmith, KODfreak, and DaBlackGoku for reviewing and giving great feedback. Everyone you should check out and review their works because there is some great stuff there if you haven't already, especially "Choices" and "More than Friends" great fics by DaveTheWordsmith and KODfreak's "The Other Guy". Also check out and review "Life Goes On" by DaBlackGoku one of my favourite fics on the site. Please review this chapter and the one I put up late last night and tell me what you think about both of them as individual chapters and as part of the larger story.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Boondocks, Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures does.
Chapter 26 – The Canadian Game
Riley stepped onto the ice a little awkwardly. It had been a while since he skated, but it only took a lap around the ice to get back into form. As he crossed centre ice moving away from Jason and Caesar he picked a puck and carried it past the blue line snapping a quick wrist shot into the left top corner. Fishing the puck out of the net he returned to centre ice where everyone had gathered around Huey.
"Alright since there are only seven of us we're going to play three on three with Caesar in net. To go on the offensive you need to get the puck past the far blue line and all your players need to pass the red line before bringing the puck back in. When Caesar covers it one of the offensive players must clear the puck to the far end and at that point it is anyone's puck," Huey outline the rules. "There will be full contact and penalties will be called by the opposing team or goalie and penalties will be served for one minute."
"Let's just play nigga," Riley said taking off his helmet and wiping his clear visor with bottom of his shirt before putting it back on. Riley, Jason, and Cindy were the only ones wearing visors and Jason with the only coloured one while Huey wore no face protection, his afro pushed down and back out of his helmet. Jazmine and Hiro had elected to wear full cages with Jazmine using a full metal cage while Hiro used a combination of a visor top and plastic bottom cage.
"We need teams first," Huey said. "I will captain one team and Jay as the most experienced player here will captain the other team."
"Then I'm on ya team," Riley said to Huey.
"I'll be on JJ's team then," Cindy said next.
"Well then I'm with Huey," Jazmine said as they all expected.
"I guess I'm on team Jay then," Hiro said last.
"Now that we have teams we can start," Huey said picking up a single puck while everyone gathered the extra pucks and tossed them into the pail Jason had thrown them from when he first got on the ice. Once only the puck Huey was holding was left, Jason returned the pail of pucks to the bench before rejoining his friends at centre ice.
"So after every goal we'll return to centre ice for a face off," Huey said dropping the puck on the centre dot.
Jason and Riley lined up as the centres to take the face off. As the only right handed players out of the friends they matched up against each other so that neither could get the advantage in the face off. They smacked their sticks against each other three times over the puck before going after it. With his quick hand skills and experience Jason cleanly won the face off and shovelled the puck back to Cindy who was waiting just at the edge of the outer circle. Almost immediately she passed the puck over to Hiro who had begun moving up to the left side.
With the face off won Jason moved past Riley moving a stride behind Hiro so that when Hiro crossed the blue line he was trialing. Hiro being pressured by Huey dumped the puck around the boards passed Jazmine who was the first one back. Cindy grabbed it at the half boards on the other side taking a light hit from Riley to make the pass to Jason who was waiting just under the blue line. The pass came to the open Jason who lined up his shot and unleashed a wicked one-timer slap shot at Caesar.
Caesar stayed up taking the puck off his shoulder but with the force and speed behind it he could not control it and the puck bounced off to the corner where Jazmine picked it up and hastily cleared it down the ice with Hiro bearing down on her. Once the puck left Jazmine's stick it became a foot race between Riley and Jason as they were the closest to the blue line when she shot it down.
Jason beat Riley to the puck by nearly two strides but once Riley realised he was not going to catch him he changed tactics and as Jason scooped up the puck along the boards he lowered his shoulder drilling Jason into the boards, knocking him off his feet. With Jason down Riley grabbed the puck and headed back, but Jason got almost immediately back to his feet and chased after him. Riley managed to get across the blue line and he got the puck up to Huey who was moving between the red line and the far blue line before Jason caught up.
Huey cleared the blue line only to take an open hit from Cindy that threw him off his feet. While he was stopped in his tracks, the puck kept going and Jazmine and Hiro clashed on the boards chopping and digging for the puck trying to break it lose for their team. Soon Riley joined them just as Jazmine knocked the puck loose. Riley scooped the puck up barely avoiding a hit from Jason. Free of the boards, Riley was left with just Cindy between him and Huey who was waiting just off to the far side of the net. With the simple fake shot he got Cindy to freeze long enough to feed Huey a fast pass. Caesar moved across his crease trying to the other side before the puck reach Huey, but it was moving too fast and all Huey had to do was redirect it and it squeezed by Caesar's outstretched leg going under his skate blade and into the back of the net.
Riley threw his hands up and with Jazmine swarmed Huey to celebrate the first goal of the game. "So much for all ya'll skills eh JJ," he said to Jason who was gliding back to the centre dot for the next face off.
"Get me the puck," Jason said to Cindy as Huey's team joined them at the dot. Once again Jason cleanly won the draw knocking the puck back to Cindy who banked it off the boards to Jason who had shot off to the boards to grab the pass. Huey tried to stop him but Jason banked the puck off the boards again into the zone and bypassed Huey to get the puck on the other side.
In the zone Jason moved the puck back to the right as he came to Jazmine, the last obstacle between him and Caesar. As Jazmine went to poke check the puck from his stick, Jason toe dragged it around the blade of her stick and put the puck through her legs. Now it was only him and Caesar. He came in on Caesar at an angle and with a quick series of dekes moving the puck from right to left and back to the left he was right on top of Caesar. He began moving across the crease with the puck still on the right and Caesar moved with his body, but Jason did not drag the puck along with him. Instead as Caesar vacated the right side of the net, Jason with only one hand on his stick tucked the puck into the back of the net.
"How are those skills?" Jason asked skating past Riley. "Don't wake the dragon if you don't want to get burned."
"We'll see who gets burned nigga," Riley said as they lined up for another face off and once again Jason won but not a cleanly as the last two times, Riley was adjusting to Jason's speed.
Jason shovelled the puck sideways this time to Hiro along the red line. Hiro took the puck and immediately dumped it hard into the zone where Cindy and Huey chased it down in the corner. Huey with the distance advantage to the puck made it there first, but Cindy pinned him up against the boards while trying to use her stick to free the puck. They battled for the puck until Jason and Riley joined the struggle all four of their sticks and even a few feet jabbing and sweeping at the small rubber disk.
With a final shove Cindy dropped Huey to the ice and Jason got the puck out throwing a blind pass across the ice to Hiro who was waiting at the top of the far circle. Hiro took the puck and released a quick snap shot that beat Caesar but hit the post and rebounded out to Jazmine who made a quick pass to Riley outside the blue line and pushed hard to make centre ice before Riley came back around.
With a ton of speed Riley brought the puck back in the offensive zone sliding it through the gap between Cindy's stick and her skate, but as he passed Cindy Jason came flying across the ice laying out Riley in between the top of the two circles.
"Better keep your head up Reezy," Jason taunted before returning to the play.
With Riley laid out on the ice Huey quickly scooped up the puck and launched a quick low shot on Caesar who dropped in a butterfly to stop it with his pad and direct the puck into the corner.
Jazmine grabbed the puck bending over low to avoid a hit from Hiro. She continued behind the net making like she was going to wrap it around on the left side of the net but at the last second once she got Caesar moving she put on the brakes and went back around the other way. Caesar caught going the wrong way twisted his body as Jazmine came around feeding Riley with an easy empty net pass. He jumped across his net as Riley released a one-timer and caught the puck in his outstretched glove. Getting back up Caesar gave Riley a wink and a smile.
"Oh da goalie robbed ya Reezy," Cindy said as Caesar threw the puck over to her with his glove. She hammered the puck down the ice and everyone went after it. It did not take long for Jason and Riley to break away from the rest and then Jason left Riley behind following the puck behind the net. He got the puck before it reached the corner and fired a long stretch saucer pass up to Cindy at the red line who simply redirected the pass to Hiro at the blue line. The quick passes caught Huey's team off guard and Hiro got in on a breakaway. Going in alone Hiro wished it had been Jason with the breakaway because he did not know any of the fancy dekes his team captain knew. As he came up to Caesar he tried to fake a shot but Caesar did not bite and he easily absorbed Hiro's real shot by dropping into a butterfly and taking puck in his torso stopping the play.
Hiro shot the puck down the ice through the air trying to hit Jason who was still in the far end doing small circles to get his momentum up expecting the long pass once Caesar made the stop, but Huey at the far blue line jumped up and snatched the puck out of the air with his hand. "Last goal wins," he called out passing the puck to Riley before Jason blew passed him going after Riley.
Riley tried a small dangle on the blue line to get by Cindy but it only slowed him down and Jason caught up. Jason lifted Riley's stick stealing the puck and with a smirk at Riley passed it back to Hiro who was moving to the far blue line. Hiro circled the far blue line as Jason and Cindy hit the red line and threw a pass to Cindy who crossed the offensive blue line. Jazmine tried to hit her on the other side of the line but the strength difference was too big for Jazmine to overcome from her near stationary position near the boards and Jazmine was the one to fall as Cindy pushed through along the boards before passing the puck to Jason.
Jason was faced now with Huey blocking his way to the goal, his captain counterpart having pushed himself to this limit to make it back in time to prevent a free shot on Caesar. Jason easily toe dragged the puck back behind him and to his left foot before kicking it back to his stick and going around Huey to the outside. Huey unable to stop him tried to stay with him, forcing Jason to the far boards and away from any type of decent shot.
Embarrassed by how easily Jason had stolen the puck from him on his last possession, Riley went at Jason at full speed leaving his feet as he got near his rival. Jason sensing the charging Riley at the last second ducked and Riley leaped over him slamming into the boards and falling down. With a good enough reason now Riley decided now was the best time to finally end everything between him and Jason and he dropped his stick skating after Jason who had gone behind the net. Catching up he grabbed Jason around the face with his glove and spun him around, face washing his rival.
Upon feeling the glove rubbing over his face Jason dropped his own stick and gloves and tore off his helmet. "You want this then come on," Jason said a smile splitting his face.
Riley dropped his own gloves and took off his helmet with a smile on his face as well as the play around them stopped and everyone watched. "Come on nigga."
Jason grabbed Riley's jersey at his left shoulder to seal that arm and Riley did the same to him as they circled each other. Riley threw the first punch hitting Jason on the side of the head and then Jason with his right hand pulled Riley toward him and rapidly fed him a hook and than an upper cut as their momentum pushed them along the ice. As they tried to feed each other punches they were also using their other arms to try and pull the other to the ground. They circled for another few minutes throwing punches until they were too exhausted to throw any more and they collapsed in on each other with smiles on their beaten up faces. Riley had a cut over his right eye and another below his other eye that would blacken in the coming hours. On the other side Jason would also have a black eye and a fat lip with the go with the cut on his cheek.
"Penalties both of you," Huey said removing the two best players from the game.
"Oh well," Jason laughed gathering his dropped gear and heading to one of the penalty boxes.
"I fucked ya up nigga," Riley said climbing into the other box as play resumed.
With Jason or Riley off the ice Huey and Cindy took the face off at centre ice to resume play. Huey won the scramble for the puck kicking it back to Jazmine before going to the far blue line to accept the pass and bringing it back to the other blue line. As he crossed the blue line he threaded a pass through Hiro to Jazmine on the boards where Jazmine took the puck to the corner before passing it back to Huey in front of the net, but Cindy lifted his stick and gathered the puck heading back to the blue line.
Cindy took the puck back to the far blue line and brought the puck herself into the offensive zone. She skirted Huey going to the outside protecting the puck on her far side so Huey could not poke check it. She kept going around the net where Jazmine with some forward momentum of her own stepped up again and this time unloaded a hit on Cindy in open ice. Huey grabbed the puck and returned it to the far blue line as Riley and Jason stepped out of the box their time done. Huey connected with his brother who was crossing the ice horizontally along the blue line. Once he got the puck Riley cut in avoiding a hit from the shaken Cindy and getting in on Caesar by himself. He let a quick wrist shot go to the top corner put Caesar got his blocker on the puck. Unfortunately for Caesar he could not entirely handle the puck and it bounced straight out to the trailing Jazmine rather than to the boards. Jazmine flung the puck back to the net and Caesar scrambling to make up for his mistake fell into a butterfly snapping his knees together at the last second, but the puck still snuck through and into the back of his net.
Jazmine looked at the puck in total shock until Huey grabbed her lifting her in the air and turning in a circle on his skates. "You did it," he said in a rare display of his real emotions.
"I can't believe it. I won," Jazmine said happily ripping off her helmet to give Huey a kiss while everyone else just averted their eyes in respect for the image Huey tried to portray, giving them their private moment so Huey could be himself.
"Ha ya lost at ya own game," Riley said skating by Jason on his way to the dressing rooms.
"Yeah but not to you," Jason said following his rival with Cindy, Caesar, and Hiro following closely behind him, leaving Huey and Jazmine alone on the ice.
"See I can play sports," Jazmine said breaking their kiss.
"I never said you couldn't. I just don't want you getting hurt because of Wuncler's stupid gambling problem," Huey said putting her back on the ice.
"I'm stronger than you think Huey Freeman," Jazmine said taking off one of her gloves and Huey's before grabbing Huey's hand as they glided to the bench. "Just give me the chance."
"If we ever play hockey for some stupid bet I'll be glad to let you play, but not football," Huey chuckled as they entered the tunnel.
"I want you to remember those words Huey Freeman because when it happens you can't leave me out," Jazmine said breaking her grip on Huey's hand and entering the locker room she shared with Cindy to change.
"Hurry up and change, we're going to go get some movies and head back to my place," Huey called after her before entering his own locker room where the rest of his teammates were in various stages of getting undressed.
So there ends the hockey game and could it be the end of Riley and Jason's feud? In the next chapter enemies of old will return seeking their revenge, so look forward to it.