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Excuse the mistakes

Dedicated to Annabellove. She was one of the winners of the stupid cupid oneshot

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“Take it down, Dane! Take it!”

Dane caught the pass from Alec and started skating up center ice and out of our zone. Both Alec and Greg, the other wing on their line, went up with him, and Owen and I brought up the rear. However, just as Dane crossed the red line, he was once again stripped of the puck by one of the opposing team’s wings.

“Crap,” I muttered, and I immediately shifted my weight and pivoted on my skates so that I was going backwards. I was a fast skater going either direction, but this team we were playing was probably the best we’d faced so far. We were a goal ahead, but that could change at any moment.

Currently, the game was a battle between the offense. Tony was off today, as was the other team’s goalie, and some easy goals were going in. That said, everyone else was on the ball, and this game had turned into an all out war. Each team had more than five penalties, and this period, which was the last, had gotten pretty dirty.

Unfortunately, because I was girl, I had become much more of a target. I was used to getting checked because I played a physical sport, but the cheap shots when the referees weren’t looking were getting pretty old. I’d managed to avoid a penalty, but that didn’t stop me from hitting right back. I was pretty good at timing, and I’d even gotten a slap on the back from Coach Hannover. He told me straight up he was glad I wasn’t taking shit from this team.

If you hadn’t guessed, my relationship with Coach Hannover had gotten much better along with my team relationships. He played me regularly now, and sometimes, Owen and I would be the starting defensive pair. Of course, he was still hard on me, but now I knew it was because he wanted to help me get better, not just to run me ragged.

Also, Dane and I were doing our best to keep our relationship, whatever stage it was at, a secret. I could tell that it bothered him that I didn’t want anyone on the team knowing, but Dane understood. That said, he’d taken me to an old movie theater for a midnight showing of Rocky Horror, which was my all-time favorite movie. We’d held hands, but there wasn’t a kiss at the end of the night. I’d wanted one, but I also didn’t want to rush something that was delicate to begin with.

“Kelsey! Watch the back door!”

The sound of Owen yelling a command tore me from my thoughts, and I immediately skated around the net and came up next to the wing waiting for a pass so that I was between him and the net. I tied his stick up in mine and started shoving him closer to the boards and farther away from Tony.

He started swearing at me with the usual names of “bitch” and comments like “get back in the kitchen” or “get off my ice”. I was so used to it at this point that nothing he was saying bothered me, and I just narrowed my eyes as I focused on the play.

Owen passed the puck up to Greg, who only had time to turn around and look up before he was checked cleanly into the boards. Then, the other team’s wing took the puck and passed it up the boards to the defenseman waiting at the point.

“Shot!” I yelled as he wound up, and a second later, the defenseman let the puck lose.

I shoved the player I had tied up with all the force I could muster, throwing him off his balance and getting him away from the net. A moment later, my head snapped around to see the puck bounce off of Tony’s blocker and hit the ice. As he dropped down to cover it, I turned to face out at the incoming players.

The referee blew his whistle, and less than a second later, I was shoved in the chest with enough force to send me falling backwards. I landed on top of Tony, who was still down in butterfly position covering up the puck, and I swore loudly as I scrambled to get up off of him. I’m normally solid on my skates, but that was a really hard hit.

“Watch yourself next time, bitch.”

My head snapped up to see that the guy who had hit me was the one who I had tied up in front of the net. Obviously, I’d caused him to miss the chance to screen Tony or tip the puck in, and he was pissed. The minutes in the last period had dwindled down to less than two, and the other team didn’t want to lose. Any missed opportunity was sure to piss them off.

I opened my mouth to say something back, which would probably have been along the lines of a very profane insult about his intelligence, but before I could, two players stepped between me and him. I saw the last names of Dane and Alec on the jerseys, and when I glanced behind me, Tony was already standing up and glaring at the guy who hit me, who had just been joined by some teammates.

I didn’t need a fight; not when this game was so close.

“Damn testosterone,” I muttered, and I pushed myself back onto my feet and shouldered my way between Dane and Alec so that I was between my teammates and the other team.

“Got yourself some bodyguards?” the guy who hit me asked, his voice incredibly condescending.

“No,” I quipped lightly, and then my eyes narrowed, “I have anger control, but some of my teammates don’t, so I suggest you back the hell off, Jackass.”

The guy’s eyebrows shot up, obviously showing that he hadn’t expected me to snap back at him so quickly. He probably didn’t like that I’d returned his condescending tone either, but I wasn’t really here to please him. I was here to beat him and his team.

The guy opened his mouth like he was going to spout some half thought-up comeback, but the referee clumsily put his hand on my chest and the guy’s and pushed us apart.

“Let’s keep this clean, guys,” he said loudly, “There’s only a minute and a half left and I don’t want to have to throw anyone out.”

No one said anything to the referee, but rather, all of us turned away and started skating towards out respective benches. Compared to the referees at our home rink, these ones were incredibly oblivious but still pretty fair. They didn’t catch many cheap shots, but I know that a few had been thrown by my teammates, and they weren’t getting called either. It was all balancing out.

“You know,” I said as I climbed over the boards and sat down next to Dane, “I can handle guys like that by myself. I’m fully capable.”

“I know,” Dane replied with a frown, “I just don’t like when other players harass my teammates.”

“Is it because I’m your teammates?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, “Or is it for the secret that I’m not going to name?”

C’mon; you know that I’m perfectly fine to handle physical altercations myself. The whole “harassing of the teammates” excuse probably would’ve been more readily believed if Dane and I hadn’t already been on two dates. However, because he’d never really stood between me and another player before, I was questioning if he was telling the truth.

Dane opened his mouth to reply, even though he looked pained, but Coach Hannover came over and tapped the top of his helmet. “If you two are done chatting over tea,” he growled, “I need Kelsey to get back out there with Owen. We need to keep them out of our end, and the other defense pair is doing jack shit.”

“Okay,” I sighed, and I stood up. I glanced over at Dane, whose mouth was set in a grim line. Hating to see him that serious, I grinned and winked at him before hurrying down the bench to where Owen was waiting for me.

“Ready to kick some ass?” I asked, and Owen grinned.

“You know it, Kels.”

*

“Tony, it was one win. I hardly think a rendition of ‘We Are the Champions’ is necessary.”

Tony rolled his eyes and flipped me off, and he continued singing the Queen classic about two decibels louder than before. I laughed and glanced over at Dane, who was grinning in amusement. On the ride over to Red Robin’s, Tony had gone through the song a good three times, but it was too off-key and hilarious to get irritating.

Yes; we’d won the game. Owen and I had managed to keep the opposing team from getting another clear shot on net, and we’d even managed to score another goal in the last thirty seconds. It was really fun to go through handshakes after the game because every single player on the other team, as well as the coaches, had scowls on their faces and they barely touched my hand.

Some people just can’t handle getting beat.

After the game, Tony announced that the team was going to Red Robin’s for burgers to celebrate the win. It was actually pretty important because it was a league game and helped us go up in the standings for our division. We were currently in the top three of our region, though I wasn’t sure which place we had.

I’d ridden with Tony and Dane, and I’d taken the back seat so that I could stretch my legs out. Dane and I had made eye contact quite a few times in his rearview mirror, but we had to be careful to make sure that Tony didn’t notice. If you haven’t noticed, he’s not exactly a quiet person, and I didn’t need him spouting off about Dane and me going on dates.

As we walked up to the front door of the restaurant, Alec and Greg walked out with a couple other teammates. “The wait is going to be about twenty minutes,” Alec stated, holding up a pager.

“That’s not too bad,” I commented, and Alec nodded. It was a busy night, so a twenty minutes wait for a table for about fifteen people wasn’t at all unreasonable.

I plopped down on the bench outside and wrapped my arms around my chest. As happy as I was that we won and were going out to dinner as a team, I was extremely tired and sore. A large part of me just wanted to go home, take a hot shower, and then fall into bed.

“You okay?” Dane asked as he sat down next to me.

“Yeah,” I replied with a small smile, “I’m just insanely tired.”

“I think we all are,” Dane said with a laugh, and my smile broadened. Dane started to say something, but suddenly, I heard an all too familiar voice.

“Well isn’t this a nice coincidence?”

Every single member of my team turned around to see Julian and a couple of his teammates walking up to the front of the restaurant from the parking lot. He was smirking, as were his teammates, and he was walking with what some people would call a swagger in his step.

I, however, couldn’t take him seriously due to the plastic brace on his nose. It was no doubt from when I broke it a little over a week ago, and I was still extremely proud of that fact. The asshole deserved what he’d gotten.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Julian said as he stepped up onto the curb.

“Likewise,” I replied before Dane could stand up and do his brooding, angry thing. “How’s your nose doing, Julian?”

Julian’s eyes narrowed at the dig, since word had traveled fast around the hockey community about me breaking his nose. He’d lost a lot of his intimidation quality because a girl had taken him down with one punch. I tried not to be insulted by the fact that me being a girl was the kicker, and instead, I just enjoyed his humiliation.

“It’s doing fine,” Julian stated through clenched teeth.

“Good,” I said with a giant, teasing grin, “Good, I’m glad. I wouldn’t want you to be permanently deformed or anything. That’s not a great panty dropper.”

“You’d know about panty dropping,” Julian shot back weakly, and I scoffed.

“If that’s your attempt at calling me a slut, you’re failing miserably,” I stated, crossing my arms over my chest.

Julian’s jaw tightened in anger, and I couldn’t help but relish the control I had over him. Ever since the encounter at the haunted maze, if we’d ever even caught sight of each other at any ice rink, I would usually wink or grin at him. It really pissed Julian off because I wasn’t acting like he was intimidating me, because he really didn’t. Once you take away a guy’s source of power, he’s pretty much got nothing.

Suddenly, I sensed Dane’s comforting presence next to me, and I glanced over at him. Sure enough, he was tense with anger, and I could see his hands clenched into fists. I didn’t want Dane to think about swinging a fist, so I angled my body in a way that I could reach back and take his hand and no one would know.

I immediately felt Dane relax slightly, and he said, “I suggest you pick another restaurant, Julian. This place doesn’t serve dirty animals.”

“You’ll regret that comment,” Julian snapped back with renewed fury, and he took a step towards Dane.

“Make me,” Dane shot back, shoving his way past me to meet Julian half-way.

“Alec; party of fifteen!”

“And that’s our cue!” Tony announced, butting his way between Julian and Dane. He then turned and glared at Julian. “I agree with Dane,” Tony said, “find a different restaurant, Julian. We wouldn’t want dear Kelsey here to have to break your nose again.”

Julian looked from Tony and Dane to me, and I nodded happily. “I wouldn’t mind doing it again,” I added, and Julian scowled.

Instead of coming up with a biting, or at least somewhat clever comeback, Julian turned to his teammates and pointed towards the parking lot. “Let’s get out of here,” he growled, “Obviously, if a restaurant serves their kind, I don’t want to eat here.”

Dane tensed up once again, and I reached back and grabbed his hand again. I squeezed it tightly for a second, and Dane sighed.

“We’ll see each other soon,” Julian stated, looking back at me and my teammates.

“Can’t wait,” I replied with a smirk. 

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I don't really have an author's note tonight.

Predictions for the future? What about when the Ice Devils and the Kings play each other?

I'm really tired and stressed about college, so I don't have much to say tonight... I hope you enjoyed the chapter... 

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