Who Do You Think You Are?

Alyssa sat on her bed, watching the clock tick by, minutes turned into hours and she grew tired of waiting. She looked down at her phone to see 12 missed calls, purposefully ignored. Then, someone came plowing into the room.

“Who do you think you are?” John growled.

“Wow, role reversal much?” Alyssa said, laughing.

“This isn’t a laughing matter, Als.”

“Oh, really? Like I need another person telling me how to act.”

John gave Alyssa a confused look.

“My dad is making me research every possible team we could face in the semi-final and final games. But that doesn’t matter. We need to talk,” Alyssa said somberly.

John’s face dropped, sitting next to Alyssa, not meeting her eyes.

“I…we…we need to…”

“Just say it already!” John bellowed.

“I don’t think we should see each other,” Alyssa said, her voice clearly strained.

“Who is it?”

Alyssa gasped, “What makes you assume that there’s someone else?”

“First, it was Team USA. Now, it’s Team Russia.”

“It’s no one,” Alyssa growled.

“I find that hard to believe,” John retorted, facing Alyssa with a cold stare.

Alyssa stared back, but felt herself breaking, the tears streaming down her face. John’s face softened, reaching out to wipe away the tears, but Alyssa swatted him away. “My stuff is packed, I’m switching rooms with Cody.” Alyssa stood up and walked out of the room, leaving John to sit alone.

Zack greeted Alyssa at the door; the swelling had gone down on his ankle so he was barely limping. Even though she was only moving to the room next door, it was needed; Alyssa couldn’t spend another day enclosed in that room with John.

“Zack?” Alyssa whispered, “What’s wrong with me?”

Zack looked at Alyssa; her eyes were bloodshot, hair was in tangles and wearing clothes two sizes too big for her petit body. Plain and simple, his friend was a mess. “Nothing’s wrong with you Als,” Zack said, as he pulled her in for a hug. “You just have some bad habits.”

“Like what?” Alyssa said, her voice sounding foreign.

“Well, you’re way too competitive, you act too much like a guy, you’re better than hockey than a girl should be, you have a habit of absent mindedly flirting with guys. I won’t go on.”

“I’m a horrible person!”

“No, you’re not. Everyone has bad quirks; you just learn to live with them. Now go to bed, we have practice tomorrow; bright and early.”

Alyssa drifted off to sleep, crossing her fingers that a certain someone wouldn’t find their way into her dreams.

John laid back into his bed, sighing at the fact he would be alone in his bed, Alyssa was in the room next door. Not that Cody wasn’t a good room-mate, but Alyssa was something special. And he had lost her forever.

“Stop stressing over Alyssa.”

“I can’t. I think of everything that she’s not, but somehow she keeps coming back into my thoughts,” John said, staring straight ahead.

“Then maybe she’s supposed to be there,” Cody said bluntly.

“Probably in theory. But we would never work out, two completely different people,” John said, before rolling over and facing the wall. He absent mindedly crossed his fingers, hoping that he wouldn’t dream of a certain girl.

Cody shook his head at how childish John was being; he pulled his phone out to text Zack in the next room.

We had two lovesick fools on our hands. – Cody

Zack’s phone started buzzing; he was quick to open it, afraid to wake either Alyssa or Jordan. He smirked at the text, quickly replying.

So very true. – Zack

The morning came all too quickly and Alyssa found herself on a bus with an all too enthusiastic team of hockey players. She nuzzled herself into Zack’s shoulder, hoping to get some more sleep, but when John scowled at her when he walked by, she resorted to lying back in the seat.

The bus was soon at the arena, Alyssa quickly pushed herself to the front; she needed off this bus now and on the ice. She decided against waiting for the team, her skates in hand; hesitating at the bench. Her body urged her to get on the ice, to be free; to be happy. Suddenly, someone was behind her.

“Hey Als,” a familiar voice said.

“Hey dad,” Alyssa responded, keeping her eyes on the ice.

“I know how badly you want to play –”

“Can we not talk about it, especially not here? I don’t want anybody knowing.”

“You don’t have to be ashamed of having hematoma.”

“Why shouldn’t I? I could die!” Alyssa screamed, collapsing on the bench. “I can’t do it,” she whimpered.

Pat took his daughter in his arms, whispering encouraging words; he wanted everything in the world for his daughter. Especially for her to play hockey, he knew how desperately Alyssa wanted to follow in his footsteps.

“Als,” Pat whispered. “Don’t let your condition beat you.”

Alyssa looked out on the ice, her eyes filled with determination. She nodded and laced up her skates, skillfully leaping over the boards. The team soon filed out onto the ice and practice was in full swing. Two hours later, the practice was slowing down; several of the players had already left for precautionary measures (mainly Zack). The remaining players had spilt up for 4-on-4 scrimmages. Alyssa was determined to be included.

“Als,” Pat growled, giving his daughter a hard stare.

Alyssa laughed, “I’m not going to let it beat me.”

Pat knew there was no way of convincing his daughter not to play, so he prayed that nothing would happen. The games were harmless, until John’s team faced off against Alyssa’s team. The play was fun, until John was battling against Alyssa along the boards. Neither wanted to seem weak to each other and to the team, that’s when it turned ugly. John became frustrated and checked Alyssa square into the boards. Alyssa didn’t get up.

Alyssa was groaning in pain, her shoulder was on fire; she knew it would be bleeding, internally, but she had no idea how bad. Someone had picked her up and was carrying her to the dressing room; she heard many pairs of footsteps behind her, so she knew the team was following. She prayed that the bleeding was minimal, but it wasn’t. Her jersey, pads and underarmour were peeled off, to reveal her right shoulder. It was completely purple.

After living with hematoma for almost 10 years, Alyssa was used to the gruesome bruises, but this one didn’t even compare. With one look, Alyssa groaned and lost consciousness. The whole team whipped around to stare at John, they weren’t mad, just completely confused at what had just happened.

Several hours later, Alyssa look up her bed, she tried to sit up, but her shoulder felt heavy and dead, preventing her from getting up. She turned to look around the room, Zack had fallen asleep, with a book on his chest; she stifled a laugh, but then an alarm went off. Zack instantly woke up.

“Oh good,” he beamed. “You’re awake.”

“How long has it been?”

“Almost 6 hours.”

“6 hours?!?! What else have I missed?” Alyssa shrieked.

“Well…Slovakia beat the US and Russia beat Czech.”

Alyssa threw her arm up in celebration, but recoiled it quickly. Her shoulder felt dead, a completely useless limb. “I can’t believe Slovakia beat the US, that makes me very happy.”

“I thought so, but now we have to focus on Russia.”

Alyssa’s face dropped, Canada was facing Russia to go on to the gold game. Russia, meant Nikita, Evgeni and the rest of the team she had met. “I-I have to go, I need some fresh air.”

Zack opened his mouth to protest, but Alyssa was already out the door; only wearing a pair of Team Canada sweatpants and a tank top. She slowly made her way to the elevator, whipping out her cell phone at the same time.

“Hello?” a voice said with a heavy Russian accent.

“Nik? It’s me. Can I come to your room?” Alyssa said, hurriedly.

“Uh, yah. We’re all in the same room as yesterday.”

Alyssa nodded, but then realized Nikita couldn’t see her. “I’ll be there in a jiffy.”

The walk to Russia’s floor seemed to take forever, but Alyssa soon found herself in front of Nikita’s door. Her hand hovering over the door, she couldn’t bring herself to knock. Suddenly, the door flung open to reveal Nikita, who was beaming after Russia’s win.

Alyssa smiled, and opened her mouth to say hello, but Nikita cut her off.

“Who did that?” he demanded.

Alyssa stood frozen, her mouth opened and closed like a guppy fish, but no sound came out.

“It was John, wasn’t it?” Nikita growled.

“Yes,” Alyssa whispered. “Please don’t hurt him tomorrow.”

“I can’t promise that,” Nikita said, before pulling Alyssa into his room.