The Hockey Lie

Chapter 10

TY

October 17

"You nervous?" Seth asked me as we walking into Mariucci Arena. We had walked from our dorm building together. It was time for our first game of the season, my first collegiate game ever.

"A little," I admitted quietly.

"Don't worry about it, you'll be great. You're on the starting line your freshman year. Lucia doesn't normally start freshman. You're special," Seth told me.

"I don't know, Seth. I'm worried that I'm not really good enough to be here, playing Division I hockey with a bunch of guys. I'm worried that this game is going to show me that I'm actually a fraud. What if I'm actually not good enough?"

"Ty, you're definitely good enough. Lucia sees that, and I do, too. You deserve this. You've worked hard all of your life to get here. This is your moment to shine. Take it."

"I'll see you on the ice," I laughed, heading towards my own personal locker room.

"Oh yeah, that's right. I guess I should've figured you'd get your own locker room. What are you going to do for away games? I mean, you can't let the others teams find out you're a girl," Seth pointed out.

"I don't know yet. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. If all else fails, I'll just have to change with you guys."

"I wouldn't mind that," joked Seth, and I punched him in the arm. Hard.

"I hope you were joking," I said sternly.

"I was, I was, I promise," Seth whimpered.

"You'd better hope you were. I swear, if you or any of the other guys even looked at me while I was changing, I'd kick your asses, and you know I could," I threatened.

"I know you could. That's why if you do have to change with us, I've got your back. No one's going to try anything with me protecting you, not that they would try anything with you in general."

"And why's that?" I asked.

"Because you're a complete badass. You're playing college hockey with a bunch of guys. Plus, it's spread around the whole team that you're dating Easton West, so that's helped, too."

I laughed. "I guess you're right. Well, we'd better go get changed or Lucia will kill us. I don't want to be late for my first collegiate hockey game."

"See you in a few minutes," Seth called as we parted ways.

"See you!" I replied. I headed to the empty locker room that would become my own for the season. I changed into my hockey gear, then reached into my locker to grab my jersey. I took my brand new Gopher jersey off the hanger and held it in my hands. I examined every inch of my new jersey. I turned it over to look at the freshly-stitched number 55 and my last name.

I finally pulled the jersey over my head and went to the mirror by a sink in the locker room to put my hair up. The day before, I had went and gotten a haircut, so my hair was about two inches longer than my shoulders. I hoped that my shorter ponytail would cause people to not be suspicious.

I pulled my hair back into a low pony. It felt so weird to have shorter hair. I grabbed my helmet off of the bench and took one last look at myself in the mirror. I was about to leave the locker room when I heard a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" called the person behind the door.

"Yeah, you're good!" I called back. Coach Lucia walked through the door.

"Hey, Coach," I greeted him.

"Hey yourself. Are you nervous?" he asked, sitting down on the bench. He gestured for me to sit down by him.

"Yeah. Actually I'm really nervous," I admitted with a sigh.

"Well don't be. You're going to have a great game tonight. I believe in you," Coach said sincerely.

"Thanks, Coach," I replied with a smile.

"By the way, you look good in maroon and gold. I'm glad you decided to come to school here. You're going to be a great leader this season."

"I hope so. I hope I can live up to the standards you've set for me."

"You'll go beyond my "standards", Ty. You've got a lot of potential. Now it's up to you to use it. All right, the boys should be dressed by now. Let's head over to their locker room. Put your helmet on in case anyone is in the hallway," Lucia instructed, and I followed his directions.

When Seth saw me enter the locker room, he called, "Hey, it's our favorite hockey babe!" I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder.

The guys' locker room was very spacious. The room had maroon carpet with the university's logo in the middle of the room. The lockers were made of light-colored wood, and they doubled as the locker room's benches.

Lucia pointed to an empty locker in between Jared and Seth's and said, "Your locker's over there, even though you don't actually dress in here."

"Thanks," I replied and took a seat between my fellow alternate captains.

"All right, guys, it's the first game of the season. This is where we set what kind of pace we want for the year. Let's just go out there and play our game. We're on home ice tonight, so the crowd should help. Cullen, it's your turn," Lucia finished.

"All right, boys," Cullen said, surveying the room, "and Ty. I've got one thing to say. Let's git 'r done!" We all let out a loud chorus of whoops, then headed out to the ice. As soon as I stepped out onto the ice, my nerves melted away. I was at home.

"Feeling better?" Seth asked me.

"Much better," I replied.

Warm-ups went smoothly, and before I knew it, it was time to start the game. The announcer read the starting lines for Notre Dame first, and then he read our line. When my name was read, a chorus of cheers rang throughout the arena.

Seth, Cullen, and I, the starting forwards, skated onto the ice along with Jared and Mitchell Davis, the other starting defenseman. Our goalie, Adam Regan, was in the net and ready to go.

"Go get 'em, Ty," Seth said to me right before I entered the face-off circle.

"Thanks, Seth." I entered the face-off circle, and the ref started talking to us. I didn't hear a word he said since the nerves had returned.

"Be prepared to get roughed up, freshman," the player opposing me smirked.

"Right back at you," I replied with a smile. The ref dropped the puck, and I won the face-off, passing the puck to Seth. He in turn passed the puck back to Jared, and we were off and running.

My line had a good possession, but one of Notre Dame's defenseman stripped the puck from Mitchell. Mitch managed to get the puck back down in our defensive zone, and my line headed to the bench for a line change.

"Good possession, guys. We've got them next time, I guarantee it," Cullen said to Seth and me.

Cullen ended up being right. On our next possession, Jared took the puck up the ice and passed it over to Seth. I centered myself in front of the net, and Seth got the puck to me. I faked a shot and kicked the puck back out to Cullen, who shot the puck and got it into the back of the net.

As soon as the horn sounded, the arena roared in excitement. I skated over to Cullen and pulled him into a hockey hug.

"Nice assist, freshman," complimented Cullen.

"Nice shot, captain my captain," I joked, and he lightly smacked my helmet.

Our line and defensemen skated back to the bench, and we were warmly greeted by Lucia. "That's it, boys! That's what I'm talking about. Nice puck movement, Seth and Ty. Good assist!"

The rest of the game went pretty smoothly. Our second and third lines each scored once, making the final score 3-0.

After shaking hands with our own players on the ice, the team and I marched back to the locker room in triumph.

"Nice game, boys. You earned this win. All the lines did a great job moving the puck, and defending as well. Good shutout, Adam. Keep that up all season and I can see us making a run in the playoffs. Get showered up and head home. We've got afternoon practice tomorrow, don't forget," Lucia finished, slapping Cullen on the back on his way out.

Cullen stood up to talk to us. "Like he said, good win. After you get showered up and changed get back to your dorm and get some sleep. No parties tonight," he said pointedly, glaring at a certain junior. "We don't need anyone failing out of college or coming to practice tired tomorrow. All right, shower up."

I got up to leave the locker room, and Cullen stopped me. "Good first game. You played really well, especially for a freshman. Most freshman couldn't make the pass to me that you did tonight. Well played."

"Thanks, Cullen. I'll see you at practice tomorrow," I smiled.

"All right. Have a good night."

"I will, don't worry. I'll just be sleeping," I laughed.

"Good. I don't want to have to yell at you for excessive partying," joked Cullen.

"Well, you never know," I kidded. I turned from Cullen and walked out of the guys' locker room and back to my own.

I quickly showered and changed before looking at my phone. I had gotten a good luck text from Easton before the game. It was our routine to text the other good luck before a game, no matter how big or small. Now there was another text from Easton on my phone saying that he was waiting for me in the lobby of my dorm building.

I threw my hockey gear into my bag and headed out of my locker room. I walked back to my dorm building, and when I got inside, I spotted Easton in the lobby and ran over to him, jumping into his arms.

"You had a great game today, Ty. I'm so happy for you," Easton murmured into my ear.

"Thanks," I replied, not letting go of him.

"Aren't you going to get down?" he asked me pointedly.

"Nope. It's been too long," I said stubbornly.

"I love you," he told me, lightly kissing my forehead.

"I love you, too," I replied. "Should we go hang out in my dorm for a while?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he agreed.

We headed up a few floors to my dorm. Steph wasn't in there, so I assumed she was probably at a party with one of her other friends. "Well, here's my dorm in all it's glory. Again."

"It's perfect. Anywhere's perfect as long as I'm with you," he grinned.

"Quit being so cheesy," I said, lightly smacking his arm.

"I was trying to be romantic, but you just ruined the moment," he said defensively.

"Well quit talking and come over here and kiss me," I replied. He closed the gap between us and took me in his arms.

"I missed you so much," he breathed before his mouth met mine.

I broke the kiss for a split second, trying to say, "I missed you, too," but before I could finish, Easton's lips were back on mine.

A few minutes went by, and I heard a door open and close, but I didn't think anything of it. "Whoa, am I interrupting something?" we heard my roommate say.

"Oh, Steph," I said sheepishly, pulling away from Easton. "I didn't think you'd be home this early."

"Eh, the party was a bust. It wasn't any fun," she shrugged. "I can leave if you guys..."

"No, that's fine. I should probably be getting home anyways," said Easton. He turned to me. "We need to talk about seeing each other more often because this is ridiculous. We should go weeks on end without seeing each other since we live ten minutes apart."

"Yeah, we do. It's insane. Let's step outside a minute," I said, shooting a sheepish look at Steph. I closed the door behind me and turned to Easton. "I want to see you as much as you see me, but I never know when you're home or at practice or at one of the other guys' houses. We need to communicate better."

"Yeah, you're right. I guess we haven't been doing a very good job of that. I'm sorry," Easton apologized.

"I'm sorry, too. These past few months have been rough, but it'll get better," I assured him.

"Promise?"

"Promise," I confirmed. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he replied, leaning in for one last kiss. He pulled me in for a hug. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too."

"I'll text you when I get back to my apartment," Easton told me.

"All right. I'll see you soon," I said.

"I'll hold you to that," he smirked. "Bye."

"Bye," I waved. He began walking down the hall, and I headed back into the dorm.

"Dude, I'm so sorry. If I had known you two were in here, I..." Steph started apologizing, but I cut her off.

"Steph, it's fine. He needed to leave anyways. I should probably be getting to bed anyways," I assured her.

"Okay, good. I'm going to go shower. I'll see you in the morning," Steph said as she gathered her stuff.

"Don't wake me up too early!" I warned her.

"I'll think about it," she joked, leaving the room.

I rolled my eyes and sat on my bed to read a chapter for psychology. I still hated that class.

Finally, about ten minutes later, I got a good night text from Easton. I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed. I would definitely be getting a good night's sleep. Despite playing well that evening, I had taken my fair share of checks. I was bruised and battered but overall happy with my performance. It was going to be a good season.