The Hockey Boy

Chapter 3

EASTON

November 11

It was 7:45 a.m. when I lugged my huge Easton duffle bag filled with all my hockey gear into the locker room.

"My aren't you early?" joked Mikko Koivu, the captain of the Wild.

"Hey, I decided to wake up ten minutes earlier. Can't a guy do that?" I defended as I began to put my gear on.

"It was just a question, West," Koivu almost spat. "I was just noticing your unusual earliness. Normally you don't show up for 8 a.m. pre-game practice until two minutes before. Don't be so defensive."

"Sorry, Koivu, I'm just a little on edge today," I said as I turned to face him and the other guys. When they saw my face, they all gasped.

"Dude, what happened?" asked Darcy Kuemper, one of our goalies.

"Your eye is basically swollen shut!" exclaimed Erik Haula, a center.

"Well, I uh..." I started, trying to make something up quickly. "My dog accidentally jumped on my face."

"Your dog jumped on your face?" questioned Devan Dubnyk, our other goalie, confusedly.

"Yeah, she's really big and her paw packed a big punch," I lied quickly.

"Well, I'm going out there," said Koivu, changing the subject. "You guys hurry up. You have two minutes!" All the other guys followed him except for Ryan Suter, a defenseman, and me.

"Easton, what really happened?" asked Ryan.

"I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled.

"Come on, I know your dog didn't really jump on your face. You don't even have a dog, do you?"

"Yes I do! She's a little Pomeranian..." I trailed off.

"A Pomeranian is not a big dog, certainly not big enough to give you a black eye," said Ryan doubtfully.

"Fine, I got whacked in the eye with a hockey stick," I muttered angrily.

"Who whacked you!" he exclaimed.

"Ty Brady."

"You mean that amazing hockey player from Blaine? He's amazing. He could probably make the pros, to be honest," Ryan said.

"He's a she," I said simply.

"Wait, Ty's a girl?" asked Ryan confusedly.

"Yeah, and she plays hockey better than most guys. Heck, she's probably the best high school hockey player in the country!"

"Whoa," said Ryan. "I would've never thought that she was a girl."

"Yeah, and she made me look like an i***t whenever Andover played Blaine. In her freshman year, she skated right by me and scored three times. Yes, three times!" I exclaimed as Ryan gave me a look.

"So are you going to call the police or something?" asked Ryan.

"No way! No one needs to know I got beat up by a girl, a hot one at that," I slipped.

"Wait, do you like her?" he asked.

"No..." I said, lying, but Ryan gave me a look. "Yes. Man, she's amazing. She's got this long, light brown hair and these piercing blue eyes. She's huge too! Not fat, but muscular, you know? Oh, and she's as tall as you!"

"Wait, she's 6'1"?" asked Ryan.

"Yeah, I said she's huge! She's only three inches shorter than me," I said.

"It sounds like you can't stop talking about this girl," observed Ryan.

"No, I can't," I admitted. "I'll probably never see her again, though."

"Why not? You know where she goes to school, right? You said Blaine. Why don't you just look up their hockey schedule? You could go watch some of her games," suggested Ryan.

"Man, you're a genius!" I exclaimed.

"And obviously you're not," muttered Ryan under his breath.

"Hey!" I protested.

"Suter! West! Get your asses out here before I come in there and drag them out!" yelled Mike Yeo, our coach.

"We'd better get going or Yeo will kill us," stated Ryan as he turned to leave.

"Hey, Ryan?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise you won't mention this to the other guys? I really don't want to be ridiculed for getting beaten up by a girl," I said.

"I won't tell them unless you do something really stupid," said Ryan.

"Thanks, man," I said as I got up to follow him onto the ice.

***

Three hours and a half hours later, practice was over.

"West, get over here!" yelled Coach.

"Yes, Coach?" I said as I skated over to where he was.

"What the hell happened to your face?" he asked.

"Do you want the truth or the story I told the guys?" I asked.

"The truth, what do you think?"

"I got hit in the face with a hockey stick last night at my autograph session at Total Hockey in Blaine," I admitted.

"By who?" he demanded.

"Ty Brady, that hockey player-" I started, but Yeo cut me off.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know who he is," he said.

"Uh, Ty's a girl. Her real name is Tyra, but she prefers Ty," I explained.

"What! You mean to tell me that one of our most sought-out draft prospects is a girl?" yelled Yeo.

"Yeah," I said calmly. "But, Coach, my question is if everyone is so interested in this hockey player, then how come no one knows that she's a girl?"

"I don't know, maybe she doesn't want people to know she's a girl," said Yeo.

"Well, if you want my opinion, I think that she's good enough for the NHL even though she is a girl. I'm going to go now, Coach, because the guys invited me to lunch. I'll see you at the game tonight," I said as I turned to leave.

"West, don't you walk away from me," said Yeo.

"Coach, I thought the conversation was done, and why are you mad at me? Just be glad I told you Ty was a girl before you made a fool out of yourself in front of somebody important," I snapped before skating to the locker room.

"Easton, what was that about?" asked Zach Parise, a left winger and alternate captain.

"He wanted to know what happened to my face," I said as I began changing.

"So are we all still on for lunch?" Koivu asked.

"Yeah," we all replied.

"Hey, have any of you guys heard of Ty Brady?" asked Ryan. I just glared at him.

"Oh, you mean that beast of a hockey player from Blaine? He's amazing," commented Darcy.

"Yeah, he is," agreed Jonas Brodin, a defenseman.

"He should really cut his hair though," chimed in Thomas Vanek, a left winger.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with long hair!" argued Erik, one of the players on the team that has longer hair.

"Guys, Ty's a chick," I cut in grumpily as I started taking off my skates.

"What!" exclaimed all the guys except Ryan.

"Yeah," I said.

"But how do you know that, Easton?" asked Ryan. I glared at him again, but decided it was better to come clean now rather than later.

"Guys, I lied to you. My dog didn't jump on my face, and she isn't huge, either. I have a Pomeranian," I admitted. Some of the guys burst out laughing, but they were shushed by other guys' elbows rather quickly. "I really got whacked in the face with a hockey stick. It was Ty Brady that hit me." Nobody laughed, which was something that I didn't expect. "Why aren't you guys laughing at me?"

"Dude, we've seen him, well, her I guess, play before. She's a beast. That must've really hurt," said Zach.

"It did," I admitted. "That girl has got muscles. Have you ever seen her up close? She's huge! She's as tall as Ryan!"

"Are you all right?" asked Devin.

"Well, it didn't feel good," I muttered. "But man, she was hot."

"Do you... like her?" asked Jonas.

"I don't know, man. I mean, she did whack me in the face and call me an asshole, so she can't be too fond of me," I laughed hesitantly. "She said I had a huge ego." Nobody said anything for a while after I said that. "Come on, guys. My ego isn't that bad."

"Well, you aren't very humble," Erik said hesitantly.

"Yes, West, you have a huge ego," Koivu said pointedly. "Now are we going to lunch or not, because if we aren't, I'm leaving."

"Yeah, let's go, guys. I'm hungry," stated Zach as he headed towards the locker room door.

"Okay, I'm coming," I said, zipping up my duffle bag. I may not like Koivu all the time, but I was glad that he had changed the subject away from my love life. I couldn't have the guys thinking I had gone soft. What scared me the most, though, was the thought that I actually had feelings for a girl for once, a girl that I had only just met, at that.