Frozen belongs to Disney
Sudden Death
Chapter 1
"Christiansen, you're in," her boyfriend's father, coach Westergard, said as he tapped the top of her helmet.
"Me?" Anna asked.
Anna never expected to be on the ice in the last minute of her first game for the Arendelle University Ice Wolves, much less for an important defensive zone faceoff, but as she looked over her shoulder, she spotted one of her teammates headed to the locker room.
"Must be an equipment problem, this could be your chance!" she thought.
She threw a leg over the boards and hit the ice, striding a few steps to glide to a stop on the edge of the faceoff circle. Merida, the team captain, tapped her shinpad with the blade of her stick, then leaned forward to take the draw. The black-and-white clad referee held the puck over the red dot between the two centers, then threw it down and beat a hasty retreat.
Anna exploded into action as the centers dueled for possession of the puck. Westfall College's two defensemen waited near the edge of the zone, and Anna pumped her legs furiously to try and reach them in case the other team won possession and passed it back. At the far end of the rink, Westfall's goal stood empty, beckoning her should she find herself in possession and with a clear shot. The other team's center won the puck back exactly as Anna suspected they might, and it rolled slightly as Westfall's D gathered it up and slid away from the boards. Anna lunged, but her opponent shoveled it across the zone to the other defenseman, just a few inches out of reach of her extended stick.
"Damn, almost," she thought as she cut a sharp turn to avoid throwing herself out of position. With time winding down and the other team's net empty, they faced an extra attacker on the ice; Arendelle were outnumbered six skaters to five. The puck slid deeper into Arendelle territory as their opponent desperately looked for a passing lane to try and tie the game before time expired. Anna chanced a glance up at the scoreboard.
"4-3, thirty seconds to go," she thought as a ringing slapshot missed the net and bounced off the end boards.
Another pass back to the point, but this time the puck hopped over the defense's stick and into the neutral zone.
"There!" she thought, and she took off again in a race for the puck. She forced her fatigued legs to go, forced her steel blades to dig into the ice and propel her forward, towards the black bit of rubber skittering and jumping just a few feet ahead. She had a half-step lead, and chipped the puck a little farther to give herself more room to skate. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the other defenseman trying to cut her off, while the first slashed and hooked at her stick from behind. She lifted it to get clear for a split second, and fired off a shot from just outside Westfall's blue line. Her heart skipped a beat as she felt the puck leave her stick blade at just the right angle, and it slid straight down the open ice, directly into the empty net.
Nothing in the world, except perhaps kissing your life long crush for the very first time, could compare to the feeling of seeing your shot hit the back of the net.
"Yeah!" she shouted, arm and stick in the air as she turned past the referee's finger pointing towards the goal, and her linemates mobbed her by the glass, all laughs and cheers. She skated past the bench for the obligatory fist bump with the rest of the team, then drifted back towards the center red line. The empty net goal had sealed the win, and, up by two goals with only fifteen seconds remaining, Westfall put their goalie back in; the ensuing puck drop was merely a formality. The final buzzer echoed around the rink, and Anna skated to the bench where she and her teammates congratulated one another again on a good first game. Several gloves rubbed the top of her helmet as she passed by on her way to the locker room.
Blood still singing from scoring the goal, she stripped off her equipment and showered quickly. Slippers squelched on the floor as she made her way back to her locker and toweled off her hair just enough so water wouldn't drip down her back, then, conscious of her state of undress, she left her towel draped over her as she shoved still-damp limbs into underwear, t-shirt, and shorts. The chatter of her teammates nearly drowned out the sound of her phone ringing from somewhere buried in her hockey bag, and she twisted about to wrangle her t-shirt all the way down, then fished the phone out and checked the front screen: Dad
She flipped it open and pressed to her ear.
"Did you see the game?" she asked.
"I saw. You're not focusing. There were at least half a dozen times you were way out of position," her father replied.
"But… I scored," Anna said.
"Into an empty net. From what I saw today, you're going to have to step it up if you're going to live up to your end of the bargain," he said.
Anna bit her lower lip. She'd desperately wanted to live on campus, but they didn't have the money, so she cut a deal… she could stay on campus if she played well enough to cover 70% of her tuition via her hockey scholarship and whatever odd jobs she could find. If not, come next year, she'd have to find her own way to pay for school, or drop out.
"Yes sir," she replied.
"I won't be able to watch all the games live, but I expect some more quality shots on goal, and try work your way up to the second line at least," he said.
"I'll try," she said.
"Good," he said, then hung up.
She folded her phone and sighed heavily. The elation from just a few seconds ago had fled, leaving her completely deflated. She turned around see Rapunzel fiddling with something.
"What's that?" Anna asked.
Punzie turned and handed a puck to her. She had placed masking tape around the edge and wrote in black sharpie: "Anna C. First Goal, Aug 29"
"First game, first goal, couldn't have a better start to the year, no matter what your dad says," Rapunzel said.
Anna tried to shake off the recent phone conversation and forced a grin to her face.
"Whoa, thanks, I totally forgot about the puck," she said, "but… it was only an empty netter."
"Doesn't matter, a goal's a goal," Rapunzel said.
Anna didn't want to argue, and she finished changing, tossed everything haphazardly into her bag, then zipped it up slung it over her shoulder. It felt about twenty pounds heavier after the game than before, and she bent her knees to pick up her sticks, then headed for the exit with dreams of burgers and dogs. She was always famished after a game, and Hans had told her the boys would be grilling all afternoon.
"Nice first goal Christiansen," a male voice said. She looked over to see coach Westergard by the exit of the rink. He'd started calling her by her last name the instant she joined the team. Although he had loosened his tie, he still looked professional with his grey and red hair slicked back.
"Thanks Coach, hopefully the first of many," she replied with a grin.
He nodded.
"Hang around for a minute, I want to talk to the team," he said.
Anna responded by unslinging her bag and letting it settle on the floor against the wall. The chill of the concrete bled through her damp shirt as she leaned against it and for waited for everyone else. Rapunzel and Merida, the team captain, came out together, followed by Chloe, the alternate captain, and a few more. Punzie settled next to her and bumped shoulders lightly. Chloe, on the other hand, dropped her bag on the edge of Anna's sticks, causing them to jump up and clatter. Anna's heart skipped a beat; having to buy a new stick would definitely hit her meager finances hard.
"What crawled up her butt and died?" she thought.
The rest of the girls dribbled out in ones and twos. Finally, Coach Westergard placed his clipboard on a table and looked up at the assembled hockey team.
"Good first game, but we've got a long way to go," he said, "I know it's tradition, but try not to party too hard. We still have practice tomorrow."
"Don't worry coach, I'll keep an eye on them," Merida said in a thick Scottish accent Anna had yet to get used to.
The coach rolled his eyes.
"That's what I'm afraid of," he muttered, "See you all before evening classes."
With that, he collected his clipboard and returned to his office. Anna wavered between the knowledge she had to be responsible and be at her absolute best, and her need to experience campus life.
"It's just one party, the first one of the year," she thought, "having fun and getting to know people is the whole reason you wanted to live away from home, remember? What's the point of being on campus if you're going to hide in your room?"
Anna turned to Rapunzel.
"Kristoff, Hans, and a couple of the other brothers are having a barbeque at Alpha Delta Alpha. The men's team won too, so it should be fun," she said, "wanna come?"
Rapunzel flicked her long braid over her shoulder and smiled knowingly.
"I think most of the team's going to be there anyway, and we definitely have to celebrate," the blonde replied, "Merida's always fun at parties, too."
"Oh really? This I have to see," Anna said.
They left together and the blistering August heat had her sweating all over again. Several dark clouds teased shade, but none of them moved in front of the summer sun. They braved the scorching parking lot where there was no cover, hiked the sidewalk next to the main college drive, then past the quad with the lecture halls, the cafeteria, and up the hill to Castle One, their dorm. Anna wiped her face on her sleeve and considered another shower as she dumped her equipment onto the floor of her room to air out. Instead, she changed shirts and threw on sunglasses and sunscreen, shoved the puck Punzie had given her into her shorts pocket, then left to meet her at the lobby. Large glass doors led to a covered area outside where students could gather, and comfortable couches and coffee tables in oranges and browns sat off to the left of the entrance side. On the right, an RA sat at a counter, reading a textbook. Anna skipped over and came to a stop near Rapunzel.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Oi, Christiansen, LaFleur," a Scottish brogue followed them from further inside the building.
Anna turned to see Merida round the corner.
"Are you headed to ADA?" she asked.
"To… where?" Anna asked.
"Alpha Delta Alpha, the frat with half the men's team in it," Merida said.
"Oh, duh," Anna thought.
"Sure are," she replied.
"Most of the girls'll be headed there too. I'll go with you," the Scot said.
She stopped by the counter to the side of the doors and had a word with the RA on duty. While Anna and Rapunzel were both sophomores, Anna had commuted last year, so she was still more or less an outsider to campus life.
"Commuted… more like grudgingly dropped off and picked up by mom or dad," she thought, "when they remembered."
Merida, on the other hand, was in her final year. The party and celebration beckoned, and Anna bounced on the balls of her feet.
"It's your first year in the starting lineup, play it cool, go with the flow," she thought, but her heart raced with anticipation and she couldn't keep the grin off her face as they waited.
"Right, we're off," Merida said.
Rapunzel pushed through the glass door and Anna followed her back into the afternoon heat. Nestled in the hills of south-central New Hampshire, the campus of Arendelle University lay spread out before them, with miles upon miles of hilly green forest their left, and the town of Arendelle off in the distance to the right. ADA frat house sat downhill, nearer to the town side of campus, and Merida led the way. Steam rose off the road from a recent rain shower that had done nothing to alleviate the oppressive heat, and the late summer sun glistened off the asphalt. Rapunzel and Merida stayed on the road, while Anna tried to balance on the curb, and mostly succeeded. They walked the ten minutes downhill towards the town, past the lecture halls and the arts center, to fraternity row, a stretch of road with four houses on one side. On the other, a large soccer field currently played host to what looked like a pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee.
A giant of a man wearing dark sunglasses lounged in a lawn chair near the low fence which marked the border of the frat's property.
"Gaston, one of Hans' friends," Anna thought.
"Hey hey, the ladies are here," Gaston said, and he raised a glass mug in their direction, "where's the rest?"
"They're on their way, don't you worry about it," Merida said, "now, where can a lass get a drink around here?"
Gaston wordlessly pointed towards the front door, and managed to flex a single massive bicep in the process. The girls walked up the narrow stone path to the lime green two-story house, whose peeling frames and walls spoke of a desperately needed coat of paint or two. Rapunzel's new boyfriend, comb and mirror in hand, sat on the front porch, and she bounded up the steps.
"Flynn!" she said as he set the mirror down and stuck the comb in his back pocket. He stood up and she gave him a peck on the lips.
"They have you on door duty?" she asked.
"Only until eight," he replied, "Hi, this must be Anna."
He bowed low and Anna laughed at the overly dramatic gesture as he stood up and smirked in her direction.
"Hey there, Dunbroch," he said to Merida, "Go on in."
Anna followed Rapunzel into the comparatively dimly lit interior, and lifted her sunglasses to rest on top of her head. She spotted her boyfriend's shock of ginger blonde hair near a bar in the rear of the room; he looked to be in the process of tapping a keg of beer.
"Hey babe," he said as she walked over and hugged him tightly. He planted a kiss on her lips and she closed her eyes for the second and a half it took before he pulled away, and she gazed up into his green eyes. He looked like he was about to say something, but then a mane of curly red hair interrupted them.
"Alright you lovebirds, out of the way," Merida said as she pushed past them, a large glass mug in one hand, "some of us are thirsty."
She moved straight to the keg and poured herself a full glass.
"Make yourself at home why don't you, Dunbroch," Hans said.
"Don't mind if I do," she replied as she finished filling up, then took a long swig.
"Got any mixed drinks?" Anna asked.
"I'll get Eric to make one for you," Hans replied.
Twenty minutes later, fruit punch in an ice-cold glass, complete with paper umbrella and spiked with some concoction of alcohol in her hand, Anna found her way to a lawn chair in the shade of the house, settled in to watch Ultimate Frisbee, and waited to see who else showed up.
"There she is!" a familiar voice said. She glanced over her shoulder to see her best friend descending the steps.
"Kristoff!" she said. While not as big as Gaston, he definitely looked like he'd put on some muscle over the summer. She, Kristoff, and Rapunzel had attended Arendelle high school together, and while they were all friends, he and Anna had been almost inseparable. She went to punch him lightly in the shoulder, but he pulled away and put a hand up.
"Whoa whoa, not today," Kristoff said. Anna was about to ask if he'd been hit by a puck, when Gaston walked by and socked him in the bicep.
"Ow, son of a," Kristoff said with a wince. Anna looked at Gaston questioningly.
"It's tradition," Gaston replied, "least I didn't hit him hard."
"Yeah, hard enough," Kristoff said as he flexed his arm.
"What tradition?" Anna asked.
"He scored his first goal today," Hans replied as he walked over from the house, "everyone's gone through it."
"Anna scored her first goal today too!" Rapunzel said, "I taped the puck for her. It's in her pocket. Go on, show them!"
Anna's mouth dropped open and she turned to Rapunzel, eyes wide.
"No you didn't," she thought. Punzie only responded by covering her mouth, then letting her hands drop as she shrugged with a sheepish smile.
Anna closed her eyes and sighed, then worked the black puck out of her shorts pocket. Hans held up a hand and she tossed it to him so he could snatch it out of mid-air. Gaston looked over his shoulder.
"Well well well," Gaston said as he dropped one meaty fist into his palm, "you know what that means."
Anna's eyes widened even further. She looked to Hans, who merely shrugged.
"It is tradition," he said with a lopsided grin on his face as he held the puck up.
"Oh, come on," Anna said.
Merida slammed her empty glass on the table with a bang, put one converse sneaker up on a chair, and leaned forward to point at Gaston and Hans.
"Oi, you don't haze the ladies, or you're gonna have to deal with me," Merida said as she pointed her finger at both boys.
"Jesus Christ, Dunbroch, do you have to be so intense all the time? It was just a joke," Gaston said with an easy shrug, "Westergard wouldn't let me hit his girlfriend anyway."
"Damn right," Hans said as he took a sip. He winked at Anna and tossed the puck back to her.
"Don't get angry. Stay happy," she thought, and she put a smile on her face.
"Excuse me," a soft voice said from behind Anna.
She turned around and her smile froze as she came face to face with a blonde girl, her hair pulled up into a tight bun. A few bangs decorated her forehead above large, dark sunglasses, and a black, loose-fitting collared shirt over blue jeans completed the outfit.
"Sorry. I appear to have gotten turned around," the girl said, "which way to the administrative building?"
"Oh, you have to head back down that road, turn left, then walk uphill, you'll see the signs," Anna said as she pointed, "better hurry though, they like to leave early."
The blonde smiled, revealing perfect, straight white teeth.
"Thank you," she said, then turned around and headed back to the road. Anna watched her hips sway as she left. Silence reigned over the group.
"No one else wants to say it huh…. She was hot," Flynn deadpanned. Anna looked over just in time to see Rapunzel smack him on the back of the head.
"Not as hot as you though," he said without missing a beat, "come on, I'll mix you a drink."
"Should have offered her a drink," Gaston said as he squinted at the departing young woman.
"Pigs, the lot o' ye," Merida said, but she smirked as she said it.
Alcohol warmed Anna's belly as she mingled and chatted and drank. Whenever her glass ran low, she received preferential treatment at the bar; someone was always willing to fill her back up with more fruity iced concoction. Most of the girls' team arrived in twos or threes, and the game on the field evolved from Ultimate Frisbee to football as the sun drifted lower in the sky. Someone started grilling in the back yard, and, never one to pass up free food, Anna helped herself to two burgers and a hot dog. The temperature started to drop and the sky turned all shades of pink and purple. Her fingers tingled from the drinks, and she rubbed them together as she took a quiet moment for herself near the woods at the edge of the backyard to watch the fireflies come out. Hans called her over to the rear porch and invited her to a card game where people took turns ordering one another to drink. She was already well beyond tipsy at that point, and most of the rules went over her head, but the game seemed simple enough. She especially enjoyed ordering the rowdy frat brothers to drink, and they all seemed to get a kick out of it too. Hans won several in a row then declared himself king and made a new rule, which ended up with Kristoff having to drink a shot of vodka. Gaston produced a bottle of the clear liquor and poured it, and Kristoff stared down at the squat glass in front of him. Anna watched as he picked it up, swirled it around a bit, then tossed it back, only to sputter, cough and blink tears away. Hans pulled out a yellow beanbag flag and pegged him in the chest.
"Flag on the play," Hans said, "drink another one for being a pussy."
The rest of the brothers roared at the apparent joke, but Anna didn't really see what was so funny.
"Aye, another," Merida said, "we'll put some hair on your chest."
Kristoff held up a finger as he kept coughing, while Hans refilled the shot glass.
"Maybe he this is part of his initiation?" she thought.
Anna's friend looked up and made eye contact with her. He gave her a goofy drunken grin, and she gave him a thumbs up in return. Then he tipped the second shot back with no problem, to cheers all around.
"There ya go," Eric said as he clapped Kristoff on the back. Anna laughed and drank, drank and laughed, and kept pushing off the moment when she would have to stop. They traded seats at the end of the game, then traded seats again.
She swayed when she stood up to head to the bathroom, but shrugged off any offers for help. In a quiet moment on the toilet, her thoughts turned back to the mysterious blonde girl who'd asked her for directions.
"Must be a new student… I didn't even ask her name," she thought.
The night grew more muddled and hazy as drinks continued to flow. A beer pong tournament got going in the back yard, which she abstained from since she wasn't drinking beer, even when one of the brothers offered to drink on her behalf. At one point, she spotted Kristoff passed out on a couch while John wielded a black marker and carefully drew a pair of hairy balls and a large penis on his forehead. Hans and Gaston stood by and snickered. She weaved her way over to them.
"Come on, really?" Anna said.
"House rules, his fault for passing out first," Hans replied, "he'll get over it."
"You should have seen the one we drew on John last year," Gaston said as he elbowed the smaller kid in the ribs.
"Shut the fuck up and don't bump my elbow," John said as he continued to draw, "there, finished."
They gave each other high fives, then took turns posing for photos while Anna rolled her eyes.
"Hopefully that's the worst they do," she thought. Flynn and Rapunzel had disappeared, but she wasn't ready to go home yet. A small voice in the back of her head reminded her she had hockey practice tomorrow, and maybe she shouldn't drink so much. She resolutely ignored it.
"Hey Eric, make me another one of those fruity drinks," she said loudly.
The following morning, Anna's lids scraped over her eyeballs as she woke up in an unfamiliar room, and the sun streaming through window curtains. It took her a moment to realize she was in Hans' bed at the frat house, and she only vaguely recalled him escorting her up the steps. She looked around; he'd already left. She sat up and immediately regretted it as a wave of pain and dizziness swept through her brain.
She fumbled for the glass of water she usually placed next to her when she went to bed drunk, then her eyes widened and she patted herself down, then breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the puck still in her pocket.
"Punzie would never forgive me if I lost it," she thought as she guzzled the entire glass. She stumbled to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face in a vain attempt to ease the jackhammer in her skull. Her eyes widened in disbelief at her fiery red bird's nest of hair in the mirror, and she splashed even more water in a bid to smooth it back down. After some marginal success, she searched around until she found her sneakers, still tied, and shoved her feet back into them like slippers. Then she wandered about until she discovered Hans downstairs, ginger blonde hair sticking up in odd angles, still wearing the same green shirt from the night before. He sat at the kitchen table and stared at a half-empty glass of water. The smell of spilled beer and something else permeated the air, and Anna fought sudden nausea.
"Mornin'," she said as she gave him a peck on the cheek; his unshaven whiskers scratched her lips, "you look how I feel."
He grunted. She looked over to the living room and checked the couch where Kristoff had passed out, only to find it empty.
"Did Kristoff actually go to bed last night?" she asked.
A small smirk came to Hans' lips.
"Something like that," he replied. Then he winced and closed his eyes in pain.
"They did something to him for sure," she thought, "I'll have to find out what, later. Right now though? Shower. Stat."
She opened the front door, squinted into the morning light, then stepped down onto the dew-covered lawn. A suspiciously Kristoff-like figure stood in the middle of the field, dragging…
"Is that… a bed?" she thought.
She put one foot in front of the other and soon her shoes were soaked through with dew. As she drew nearer, it became apparent Kristoff was attempting to drag a metal frame bed, complete with mattress and sheets, back towards the frat house. His hair and clothes clung to him, also wet with dew.
"Hey Anna…" Kristoff said as she approached, "think you could give me a hand with this?"
She bit her lip to avoid snickering at the bold black penis outline on his forehead.
"Sure," she said as she picked up one end of the bedframe, the metal cool in her hand, "what happened?"
"Someone thought it would be funny to put my bed out in the middle of the field last night," he replied, "with me on it."
"It is kind of funny," Anna said, "how do you feel?"
"Tired. Hungover. I need bacon, water, and sleep," he replied. She grinned at that.
They made their way back to the frat house, but as they lifted the bed up to the porch and to the front door, the bedframe bumped against the doorframe and presented another conundrum.
"How the hell did they even get it out?" Kristoff muttered. Even tipped on its side, the bed was clearly larger than the door.
Hans appeared in the doorway with a mug of steaming coffee.
"You're a smart, college man," he said as he took a sip, "I'm sure you'll figure it out."
"Ha ha, very funny," Kristoff said, "where's the wrench?"
Eric arrived next to Hans and stopped as he caught sight of Kristoff's forehead. He blinked but managed to keep a straight face.
"I have a set of power tools, be right back," he said.
Hans frowned and shook his head.
"They're going too easy on you," he said.
"This is easy? I'd hate to see what difficult is," Kristoff said.
Hans shrugged.
"You can always quit," he said.
Kristoff smirked at Hans, then turned to Anna.
"Thanks, you don't have to stay," he said. Too tired and hungover to reply, she nodded.
"Where're you headed?" Hans asked.
"Home, shower," Anna replied.
"You can shower here," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, "could make it a fun one."
Kristoff rolled his eyes.
"No, I need my… stuff," she replied as she mimicked washing her hair.
"Also, hungover shower sex? No," she thought.
"Right, yeah, see you at breakfast?" Hans asked.
"Sure," she replied.
She waved over the top of the bed and started the long hike back to her dorm, and her thoughts turned again to the new blonde girl.
"Wonder if we'll have any classes together…" she thought.
The new girl was not in any of her classes, and that afternoon, Anna sat in the padded auditorium chair and tried to will her hangover away as Belle, president of the Drama Club, went over the scheduled events for the semester. The hockey player glanced left, then right.
"Wow, everyone's so different from the people at the party yesterday," she thought, "they seem so… wholesome."
As theater crowed joked and traded barbs with one another, it was obvious most of them were friends. No one talked to her.
"I don't know anyone," she thought as she slid slightly lower in her seat.
"So if you're interested in joining, sign up," Belle said, "meetings are Mondays at eight, and in addition to rehearsals, we try to have some fun, improv and roleplay games, activities like that. There's also a performance we'll be staging, which we'll be sharing more information about next week."
Anna mentally went through her calendar. She might miss a meeting or two due to games scheduled on Monday nights, but that probably wouldn't be an issue.
"If you're ever going to get onto a stage again, you need to keep acting," she thought, "Practice is going to start soon, you need to get your lazy ass to the rink. You're here, you're on campus, just sign up and you can figure it out later."
She scribbled her name and number on the signup sheet, then hurried to the back of the auditorium where she'd left her equipment.
"If I hurry, I should be able to just make it," she thought as she hefted the bag and pushed through the double doors and out onto the main quad.
Hans' father pulled no punches at practice that afternoon. Within five minutes of stepping on the ice, Anna was sucking wind, and sweat dripped from every pore on her body. It didn't matter how much water she drank, she had no jump. Normally at the head of the pack during suicide drills, Anna came in dead last and coach Westergard forced her to do another while the rest of the team watched. Her legs simply wouldn't work down the last half length, and she turned a circle to stop as she reached the goal line. Stich in her side, sweat dripping down her chest and back, she leaned over with her stick across her kneepads and saw stars in the ice. The bill for last night's fun had come due, and she was skating like crap.
"Oh no, what if he benches me?" she thought.
The blade of a stick slid under her skate and down she went, face first onto the ice. Luckily the cage caught the impact, and she rolled onto her back, chest heaving, to see Chloe and Jessica looking down at her. She wasn't certain which one had tripped her, but she was sure it was one of the two.
"Something wrong, Christiansen? Can't keep up?" Chloe asked.
Anna was too winded to respond, but, lying on her back, she spotted someone in what looked like a grey hoodie up in the darkness of the mezzanine level of the stands. Coach Westergard tapped her shinpad with his stick as he skated by.
"No breaks, on your feet," he said. By the time Anna got her skates under her, forced herself back to her feet, and looked up again, the mysterious observer had vanished.
"Did you-" she said, but Coach blew his whistle, and Chloe shouldered past her as the next set of sprints started. Anna raced to catch up, determined not to be last this time. Fortunately for Anna, Jessica lost an edge and went down, giving Anna a moment to catch her breath.
Seventy minutes, a few two-on-one drills, a few cycling drills, and way too many suicides later, Coach Westergard called them in near the bench, and they gathered round. Anna, worried she might fall over on someone, hovered near the back.
"Not bad," he said, "we've got a little bit of a lull now; the next game isn't for a week, so we're going to practice extra intense, starting tomorrow."
A collection of groans went up from the team, but Coach merely raised his voice and kept talking.
"Make sure you get plenty of rest, and everyone remember the minimum GPA requirements," he said, "You have to keep your grades up, or you're off the team. Alright, hit the showers, get out of here."
The huddle broke and the team chattered amongst themselves as they collected their equipment. The Zamboni started up with a rumble, and Anna limped off the ice and headed to the locker room. Her ankles ached inside her skates, and her legs felt like jelly.
"Ugh, I can barely walk," she thought. A good five minutes passed as Anna sat on the bench in front of her locker and attempted to muster the energy to unstrap her gear and unlace her skates. She finally got around to peeling off her equipment, but it wasn't until she collected her towel and wrapped it about herself that she realized something was missing.
"Where are my shower slippers?" she thought. New ones wouldn't be too expensive, but she was already pinching pennies everywhere she could. A quick search through her bag and locker turned up nothing. Most of the rest of the team were already in the showers; some of them had already finished.
"Son of a-…" she thought. She grimaced, then braved the walk across the padded floor with its streaks of ice-cold water, to the tiled bathroom.
"Ew, ew, ew," she thought as she walked on the outer edges of her feet, trying to let as little of her soles or toes to come into contact with the skeevy tiles as possible. Luckily, one of the stalls was open, and Anna hung up her towel on the hook provided and rinsed quickly, lathered up her hair to get the funk out of it, then stood under the cool stream of water for a few minutes. When she wrapped her towel around herself and made her way back to the changing room, she found her pink shower slippers right beneath her locker, as if they'd never gone missing. Standing next to her equipment, arms crossed, was a very non-plussed looking Rapunzel, already fully changed. Anna gave her a questioning look.
"It's normal, you know, first year player… I told them to lay off a bit," Punzie said.
"Thanks," Anna said with a grateful smile. The locker room had almost emptied, and Rapunzel pulled out her phone and started tapping away while Anna changed. Five minutes later, hair still wet and dripping down her back, bag slung over her shoulder, Anna followed her friend out past the empty rental counter. Halfway across the parking lot, she stopped, and Rapunzel turned around to look back at her.
"Derp, I left my water bottle on the bench," Anna said, "I'll catch up with you later."
Rapunzel rolled her eyes.
"You are such a space cadet sometimes," she said, "I'll see you back at the dorm."
Anna retraced her steps back to the rink, where the Zamboni had just finished shaving the ice and water still pooled, not yet frozen, on the surface of the rink. She stepped gingerly past the puddles on the bench and retrieved her favorite blue and red bottle squeeze bottle, the image of Supergirl long faded away. She tucked it into her bag and was nearly at the door when she heard a distinctive *clink*, not unlike a puck hitting a goal post. She turned around and glanced at both ends the smooth, pristine sheet of ice on the rink; no goals to be found.
*clink*
She looked around for the source of the noise.
*clink*
There, beyond the far side of the rink, where the goals were stored when not in use, someone fired a shot. The streaks and marks on the glass prevented her from seeing who, so Anna made her way back and stepped into the bench again to get a better look. There, facing the two goals that had been on the ice, was the stranger in the grey hoodie. Anna watched as they fired another puck at the goal.
*clink* off the post and in.
*clink* off the crossbar and in.
*clink* top shelf, off the post and in.
*clink*, *clink*, *clink*
"Whoa," Anna thought, "whoever that is might be an even better shot than Merida, but… too small to be a guy, is that a girl?"
Curiosity got the better of her, and she hefted her bag and started the trek around the rink to where the mystery shooter practiced. She passed beneath the stands, but when she emerged on the other side, the shooting gallery was empty except for a sheet of hard plastic on the ground, to simulate ice, a raggedy old hockey stick balanced against the boards, and thirty-odd pucks strewn around the inside of one of the nets. Anna looked around, but there was no sign of anyone.
"That was definitely the person watching us practice," she thought, "maybe it's a scout, from another team?"
That didn't make any sense though; Arendelle punched above their weight for sure, but they were a relatively small school and couldn't hold a candle to the likes of the really big programs like Boston University or Northeastern, and a smaller school didn't have a chance at the championship anyway, so who would be scouting them?
"Huh. That was weird," she thought.
As she stood alone in the deserted rink, a chill crawled up her spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She beat a hasty retreat to the bench side of the rink, only to run into Hans' father, coach Westergard, on his way out. He tucked his keys into his pocket.
"Christiansen, you're still here?" he asked.
"Yeah, I saw someone… watching practice, and then shooting at the net on the other side of the rink," she said, "whoever it was, they were really good… Is there something I don't know? Are we getting another player?"
Despite the concern about her tenuous spot as a third line winger and the implications for her scholarship should she be replaced, she forced a carefree grin to her lips, but Coach Westergard only shrugged.
"No, I don't think so," he replied, "there shouldn't be anyone else here while we're practicing though. I'll look into it."
Anna nodded. She looked up at him, and he stared right back.
"Okay, good luck with classes," he said, then turned and headed for the parking lot. Anna stood there in disbelief for a second, then hefted her bag again and started the long hike back to her dorm.
"Man, could have at least offered me a ride," she muttered.
She didn't mind though… it was the start of a new semester, her first one on campus. Despite having only spare change in her pocket in the way of cash, she'd made the team and scored a goal in her first game, joined the drama club, and survived practice after a night of heavy drinking at a real college party. Now she could head back uphill and use her start of term all-you-can-eat voucher to fill her belly at the cafeteria, then sleep until she woke up. The excitement of college life beckoned, and Anna couldn't wait to soak up every second.
A/N: This is an outline I've had for over seven years, and I figure it's time to 'give back' to the community, so to speak. Please leave me some comments, let me know what you like, what you don't like, and especially if the hockey is difficult to follow, because writing sports can be extremely challenging.