Any confidence that Sunny had before was completely gone as he stood in front of the center. When the final bell rang he started to get into his head and started second-guessing himself. He also thought about how disappointed Mari must feel because he was wasting their practice time. He was ready to leave until he felt Aubrey squeeze his hand.

"C'mon Sunny, I'll be with you every step of the way."

It was her supportive smile that made him stay. She made him forget about his doubts and his sister for a moment. Looking at her reminded him that it was fine for him to be selfish.

Swallowing his doubts, Sunny allowed Aubrey to lead him into the center. He directed her to the rink that he practiced on and they saw Omar standing by the rink's entrance with a big bag hanging off of his shoulder. He waved them over when he saw them.

"Hey, Sunny, I'm so glad you decided to do this!" Sunny hesitantly nodded behind Aubrey. It was then Omar noticed the quiet boy's companion. "Hello, I'm Omar Blanchet. Are you a friend of Sunny?"

"My name is Aubrey and I'm his girlfriend."

"That's adorable," Omar said, finding amusement in a childhood relationship. "Well, Aubrey, if you're here to train for the girl's team I think I can squeeze you in with Sunny's practice time."

"Oh, no, I'm here to support Sunny. I'm not interested in trying out for hockey," Aubrey corrected the older man.

"That's fine, you can watch on the bleachers if you want."

Aubrey smiled at the older man before taking Sunny's bookbag and giving his hand a couple of reassuring squeezes before finding a spot on the bleachers. Now alone, Omar placed a hand on Sunny's shoulder and handed him the bag he was carrying.

"I brought everything that you would need. Skates, sticks, a couple of pucks and practice balls, pads, gloves, and a helmet. Let me know if anything doesn't or is too tight and I can buy some that would," Omar told him before pointing to the hallway behind the bench area. "Locker Rooms are back there, and I gotta warn you that the bag is a little heavy."

Sunny took the bag and felt the weight of it drag him down a little. He managed to lift it up a little and carry it slowly across the ice. He reached the benches and slowly made his way down the hallway until he reached the locker room. When he entered the room he saw JJ finishing putting his gear on.

"Hey, Sunny, I'm so glad you decided to do this!" Sunny hesitantly nodded before sitting on the bench in the middle of the room. He dug through the bag and pulled out one of the sticks and skates, which looked a little too big for him. He then pulled out the gloves, pads, a caged helmet, a neck guard, and a pair of padded pants. He puzzledly looked at each item wondering what he was supposed to do.

"Do you need some help?" JJ asked and Sunny nodded. JJ walked over to him and picked up the shoulder and elbow pads. "You're supposed to wear these under a jersey, but since you don't have one you can put them on under your sweatshirt."

Sunny took off his sweatshirt and JJ helped him put on the shoulder pads. He then strapped on the elbow pads and bent his arms to see how much his arm movement was limited. Seeing that he could bend his arms with little to no trouble, Sunny put his sweatshirt back on and JJ handed him the padded pants.

"You can wear these over your pants, and since we don't have any hockey socks for you yet you can use your pant legs to cover the shin guards."

Sunny did as he was told and moved around the locker room to get a good feel for his new equipment. It was a little heavy but it wasn't anything he couldn't get used to. He then moved back to the bag and put on the skates. After lacing them up, JJ handed him the neck guard and helmet.

"These two pieces of equipment are important because the puck can fly all over the place so it's important to protect your neck and face."

Sunny nodded and put on the two pieces of equipment. The neck guard felt a little tight but the helmet fit perfectly. After putting on the gloves and picking up a stick, JJ looked him over and smiled.

"You look good! We just need to get you some hockey socks, a mouth guard, and a cup and you'll be set. I'll make sure to tell my dad that's what you need," JJ walked over to Sunny and tapped him on the helmet. "Now let's go out and have some fun!"

JJ put on his helmet and grabbed his stick before he rushed out of the room. Sunny heard him make a loud "WOOP" noise as the boy sped down the hallway.

Sunny stayed back in the locker room and took a few deep breaths to calm his beating heart. He kept on reminding himself that he chose to do this and that Aubrey was out there waiting for him. Picturing her smiling face helped him calm down a lot faster.

After building up enough confidence, Sunny left the locker room, walked down the hallway, and skated onto the ice. He spotted Aubrey sitting on the bleachers behind the protective glass and he quickly skated over to her. She gave him a bright smile when he got close to her.

"You look so cute in your gear! I wish Basil were here to take a picture!" Aubrey cooed, as Sunny felt his ears burning up. Aubrey peered over his shoulder and saw Omar patiently waiting with a stick in his hands and JJ doing a few stretches in the net. "It looks like they're waiting for you. Good luck!"

Sunny nodded and skated over to the two. Omar smiled when he saw him coming over and instructed JJ to move away from the net.

"Alright, since I only have you for an hour let's get started right away! So first, I want to know what position you're thinking of playing?"

Sunny fidgeted at the older man's question. He hadn't thought about what position he should play since the other guys brought it up at lunch. Luckily, JJ stepped in to answer for him.

"I talked it over with Rudy and Alec at lunch and they thought he would be good as a forward."

Omar hummed as he looked Sunny over.

"You're probably right, JJ. So, Sunny, do you want to be a winger or a center?"

Sunny continued to fidget as he still didn't know what he wanted to be. He didn't know what a winger or a center does or if either position suited him. He tried to force out an answer, but once again JJ came to his rescue.

"How about he plays both center and winger," JJ suggested. "I mean, he is the size of a winger and it wouldn't hurt for him to learn how to do face-offs."

Omar mulled it over for a few seconds before letting out a hearty laugh.

"You know what, let's do it! It's always good to have someone on the team who could play two positions!" Omar gave Sunny a supportive pat on the back, stopping the boy's fidgeting. "What do ya say, Sunny? Wanna try to be a winger and center?"

"Y-Yeah," Sunny managed to squeak out and Omar let out another hearty laugh.

"Perfect! Now, let's get started," Omar announced and waved JJ back into the net. He took one of the many pucks on the ice with his stick and turned to Sunny. "There are four main components to every perfect shot: technique, power, accuracy, and a reason to shoot. For every shot that you take from now until you stop playing, I want you to use those four components."

Omar took the puck and skated toward the net. He made some quick cuts as if there was a defender in front of him. When he got close to the net he used his stick to move the puck around to trick JJ before flicking it up and hitting the open part of the net.

"Today, what you're gonna do is learn some techniques so it's easier for you to get to the net, and if there's time we'll do some wrist shots at the end," Omar skated over to Sunny and directed him over to the blue line. "You're a fast skater but if you don't learn how to outmaneuver a defender then they could easily stop you before you enter the offensive zone. Watch closely at what I do."

Omar skated from blue line to blue line but as he skated he did small little steps from side to side.

"This exercise helps you get quicker feet. It'll make your crossovers quicker and more effective," Omar skated over to Sunny and positioned him where the blue line was vertical instead of horizontal. "I want your steps to be as big as the width of this blue line. I want you to try it this way first and I want the blade of your inside leg to barely be touching the edge of the line. You ready?"

Sunny slowly nodded, still unsure of what he was supposed to do.

"GO!"

Sunny tried his best to do as he was told and mimic what Omar had shown him earlier. He didn't think he was doing it right but no one was stopping him so he must've been doing fine. He looked over at the bleachers and saw Aubrey cheering him on which made him feel happy. After a few minutes, Omar told him to stop and positioned him to face the other blue line.

"You're ready to try the long way. Now GO!"

Sunny took off to the other blue line doing quick steps. Since he had practice and knew how far apart his legs needed to be, doing it the long way wasn't that hard. At least he hoped it wasn't, but no one was stopping him.

After a few minutes of doing quick steps the long way, Omar stopped him and took a spot on the blue line.

"Ok, now that you seem to have a hang on the quick steps we're gonna take that and spread your legs out more. It should look something like this," Omar took off from the blue line and did the same thing he did for the quick feet demonstration but his legs were wider and he was moving faster. "In a game, when you're skating your legs shouldn't be so close together when you're trying to deke the defenseman. The reason why I had you do that earlier was for you to get a feel for how your skates should be positioned when doing a deke. When you cut right, use your skates to push you so you have more speed when moving left and vice versa."

Omar skated back over to Sunny and gave him another demonstration of what he should do.

"You ready to try?"

Sunny nodded and got into position.

"GO!"

Sunny took off from the blue line and did what Omar showed him. It was a little awkward at first but as time went on he slowly got better. The approving looks on Omar, JJ, and Aubrey's faces let him know that he was doing a good job.

After a few minutes of working on his strides, Omar called Sunny over and passed him a puck. He then grabbed a puck of his own and started passing the puck back and forth with himself.

"Look at my hands," Omar told Sunny. Sunny looked at the older man's hands and saw his top hand rotating as he moved the puck. "What I'm doing is cradling the puck. I'm using my top hand because it helps me create a smoother transition between the forehand and backhand of my stick, or stickhandling. Now you try."

Sunny did what Omar instructed him to do. It was rough at first because he kept on losing the puck as he transitioned between the forehand and backhand. He tried using his bottom hand to make it easier, but Omar stopped him and told him it would create a dead stop with the puck and that it wouldn't be a smooth transition as it would be with the top hand. Sunny kept trying with his top hand and after a while, he managed to consistently not lose the puck as he transitioned between the forehand and backhand.

When he got the hang of it, Omar told him to do it while doing the skating exercises from earlier and for him to transition the puck after each cut. When he first started skating with the puck he lost it after every cut but after a few minutes, he managed to hold onto the puck. Omar saw this and called him over for one last demonstration.

"OK, now we're gonna combine all of that together, but one last thing. Watch me," Omar pushed off of his right skate and strode to his left for a few feet. As he did that he used his stick to pass his puck and caught it with his backhand when he finished his stride. He then did the same thing but in the opposite direction. "This'll help you get past the defender easier and faster too. Try it out where you are to get used to it before you do it while skating."

Sunny nodded and did what Omar showed him. He would struggle at first, rocketing the puck past his stick on multiple occasions, but because he practiced stickhandling he quickly got the hang of it. Omar stopped him and directed him over to the blue line where he had a cone placed on each line.

"Those cones are the defenders. When you reach each cone I want you to deke past it. Like this," Omar took off and strode to his left when he reached the first cone and strode to his right when he got to the second cone. He did the same thing on his way back to Sunny.

"You think you can do that?"

Sunny nodded and Omar tapped his helmet.

"Alright, then GO!"

Sunny took off for the blue line and strode to his left but lost the puck. He heard Omar tell him to finish the drill and that's what he did. When he got back, Omar passed him a new puck and signaled for him to try again. Sunny did but this time he lost the puck when striding to his right.

After a few minutes of trial and error, Sunny finally managed to do the whole drill without messing up. He then managed to go on a little streak without screwing up, but it ended on his final attempt.

"That's enough! We're running out of time and I did say we would practice doing some wrist shots today," Omar called out.

Sunny was breathing heavily from all the skating. He had never exercised so hard and for so long in his life. He wonders if this is how Kel feels after running around all day.

He felt a hand on his back and saw Omar handing him a bottle of water.

"You did great today! You keep training like that and you'll make the team for sure!" Omar told Sunny with a bright smile. All Sunny could do was nod as he took a huge swig of water. Omar patted him on the back before skating off. "Let's go practice the wrist shots then you can go home and rest."

"You were amazing Sunny!" Aubrey praised him. The two were walking home and since Sunny's legs felt like jelly Aubrey volunteered to carry his equipment.

"Th-Thanks."

"The way you moved around the ice it was like you were flying! When did you learn to skate like that?" Aubrey asked and Sunny looked down disappointedly.

"M-Mari. Sh-She taught m-me h-how to sk-skate. We w-would always go skating wh-when w-we were y-younger," Sunny answered disappointedly before slightly panicking. "Sh-She must be e-extremely w-worried about wh-where I a-am. I c-can't t-tell her about my h-hockey training, she'll m-make me quit f-for wasting o-our practice t-time!"

"Then don't tell her."

"Huh?" Sunny gave Aubrey a puzzled look.

"If you're worried about her not letting you play then come up with an excuse about why you'll be coming home late," she told him, but Sunny still wasn't convinced.

"Sh-She'll be able to f-figure out that I'm l-lying and she'll definitely n-notice my h-hockey b-bag."

"Then I'll hold onto your bag. My parents won't notice and if they did then I can just tell them it's my softball gear."

"I g-guess th-that could w-work, b-but what do I t-tell Mari?" Sunny pondered and Aubrey appeared to be deep in thought.

"I don't know, but I'm sure you'll come up with something."

The two then reached Aubrey's house and the girl turned and hugged her boyfriend.

"Thank you for walking me home and I hope you come up with something to fool Mari," Aubrey pulled Sunny in close and gave him a small kiss on his cheek. "Be strong."

"S-Stay safe," Sunny told her and the two broke apart. Sunny stayed and watched her walk into her home and waited a few extra seconds to hear any screaming. It was quiet which was enough for Sunny to walk home.

On his way home he thought up some ideas of what to tell his sister. It had to be something school related for her to not be mad about him wasting their practice time. It also had to include his violin to make her believe that he was taking their practices seriously.

He made it home and he opened the front door to see his upset sister.

"And where were you?" Mari's brows were furrowed and her arms were crossed. Sunny flinched under her gaze but he managed to squeak out an answer.

"I w-was at s-s-school."

"Doing what? Did you get in trouble? Do I need to tell Dad what you did?"

"N-No, I a-asked the o-orchestra t-teacher to help me with my p-part in the r-recital."

"Really?" Mari's brows raised but her arms were still crossed.

"Y-Yeah, she said she'll h-help m-me for these n-next c-couple of w-w-weeks," Sunny spat out. Time ticked slowly and Sunny didn't even know if Mari believed a word that he said, but the proud smile on her face told him otherwise.

"It's good to see you're taking initiative. Now come on, let's see how much progress you've made," Mari said before taking his arm and dragging him to the music room. All Sunny could do at that moment was swallow his fears.