Status: In the Making
Billet
Positions to Make the Playoffs
After my practice ended, Easton’s next pre-season game was quickly approaching. I had 30 minutes until puck drop. Since it was in the same building and just an ice pad over, I had time to drop of my hockey equipment in my car and grab some food from one of the concession stands. I texted my parents, asking where they were sitting and carried my burger and fries over to the seating area they indicated.
Only a few moments after I sat down, the game was underway. But it would’ve been better if it wasn’t.
The Blades were facing the Kings, a team that should provide an easy win. The Kings were a club who have had bad season after bad season. They haven’t been able to get out of a slump for years despite a change in management.
Five minutes in, Easton had a terribly sloppy play and gave away the puck right onto an opposing player’s stick. He tossed the puck onto the net from the blueline and scored through the goalie’s fivehole; he was caught off guard. Easton skated to the bench and slammed his stick against the boards. Coach yelled something at him and he put his head down. Levi beside him, bumped him on the helmet to let him know it was just a mistake.
Easton’s next shift was even worse. He had thought one of his teammates was in front of him, when it was really one of the Kings players. He made a clean pass onto his stick. The player saw it coming and fired a one timer above the goalie’s glove. As the player was celebrating, he yelled something to Easton who immediately approached him and ran his mouth as well. It was getting heated and some pushing ensued, but the refs broke it up before anything more could happen.
No penalties were given so Easton skated over to the Blades bench, not even looking up when coach expressed his anger.
He wasn’t given any more ice time after that.
The Blades lost 2-0.
Since we all arrived at the rink at different times due to our schedules, we had three vehicles at the arena. My parents drove together and Easton and I arrived separately. Knowing he needed some time to cool off, I sent him a text letting him know we would meet him at home.
When I arrived home, I went straight to my room to do some of my assigned readings. A mere few minutes later, I heard a soft knock on my door.
“Come in!”
My door opened, revealing Easton.
He walked into my room and sat down on my bed, with his hands covering his face. I turned my desk chair around to face him.
“What if they don’t want me anymore?” He whispered.
“Eas, it was one bad game. You’ve been playing so well. This won’t change their minds.”
“But you didn’t see coach in the dressing room. I want this more than anything and they could just send me packing so easily.”
“But they won’t! It’s just a pre-season game and you’ve been playing so well.”
“I don’t know Tier. I’m just scared. Yeah, it’s still the pre-season so these games don’t matter, but it makes it easier to cut players...”
I stood up and walked across the room, sitting beside him on the bed. I leaned my head on his shoulder, speaking quietly, “I swear to God, Easton, you are not going to be cut, lose the respect of anyone in that dressing room or anything else you may be thinking. It was a couple of bad plays. You need to calm down because things will be okay, I promise.”
He let out a sigh, lying his head on top of mine.
We sat in silence for a few minutes before he gave me a hug.
“Thanks, Tier. I really appreciate you helping me out.” His voice was still quiet, filled with anxiety, but better than before.
“You know I’ll always be here when you need something.”
A small smile appeared on his lips.
“Can we stop talking about it?” I nodded, “So how was your first day of practice?”
“Really good! We just ran drills, but it was so good to see everyone again and it looks like we have a good squad put together.”
“You guys all in shape? Or dying like us?”
“Decent split, but most of the girls are dying. It should be interesting because the first half of tomorrow’s practice is dryland.”
“Oh goodie,” he groaned, knowing how tough dryland typically was.
We sat up talking for a little longer until we both knew we had to go to bed in order to be refreshed for classes the next day.
The next morning, Easton was driving us to school. I was thankful it wasn’t my turn to drive, so I could finish up my readings on the way.
I walked into Biology and took my normal seat.
A few minutes later, Levi walked in sitting next to me. “Hey, we still on for tonight?”
I nodded. “I was thinking we could just meet up after practice and you could come along with us?”
Both of us had practice tonight but were going to study afterwards for our test the following day.
“Sounds good!”
Easton’s practice didn’t start until the same time as mine today, so he studied in the library until my final class was over. He then drove us both to the arena and we split up as we headed to our differing ice-pads.
I pushed open the door to the dressing room and tossed my belongings in my locker before stripping down to my underwear and sports bra.
“Hey, Wills!” Alexa called over from across the dressing room, “Someone’s been keeping in shape over the summer!” Her gaze went to my toned stomach.
“What can I say? I had to outrun all the fucking ice cream I ate. I practically lived at Chéri’s.”
The girls who were listening groaned, knowing how good the ice cream parlour was.
I tossed a pair of spandex shorts on and a baggy t-shirt on my body and sat down to tie up my running shoes.
“Any idea what the plan is for today Tier?” Karly, beside me asked.
“First half is dry land second is on ice. So we’ll probably start with some sort of running and fast feet, and then do skating drills like yesterday.”
“Fuck me,” She muttered.
Karly and I have had lockers beside each other for the past few seasons. She was a reliable stay at home defenceman who likely had a future in hockey as well.
Within a few minutes, there was a knock on the dressing room door. All of us were dressed and just finishing tying our shoes or pulling our hair back.
Coach walked in and was greeted by several of us shouting our hellos. He laughed before giving us our instructions for the day. “I want you guys up at the track pronto. We’ll start there before heading outside and then onto the ice. I don’t want to keep you all here too late, so be quick.” He headed out of the room, likely up to the track as well.
“For those of you who don’t know where you’re going, just follow one of us vets. I’ll head up now if any of you need help.” A couple of the rookies got up alongside me as did Lucy, one of my “A”s.
We shared some small talk as we headed across the concourse and up the stairs towards the main ice pad, where the Blades were practicing. The track surrounded their rink.
As we approached, our rookies grew interested in the boys on the ice. And the boys were distracted by the girls making their way towards them. I rolled my eyes slightly and Lucy chuckled. As much as I liked boy watching, we were here to practice and that’s what I intended to do. I hoped this wouldn’t prove to be a constant distraction for this part of our workout.
I heard a bang on the glass, so I looked up, curious. Easton was standing there with a mouth guard clad smile plastered on his face. I was glad he seemed in good spirits after the game yesterday, but needed to make sure he wouldn’t get in trouble by his coach for being over here. I glanced but it seemed that the team was just doing a warm-up skate. I mouthed out “loser” to him and he acted hurt, grabbing towards his heart. We both laughed and went on our way; him to do another lap and us over to our coach.
“He’s cute!” One of the rookies exclaimed, “How do you know him?”
“I live with him,” I laughed.
She looked worried as she replied, “Wait so he’s your brother?”
I shook my head, “Billet brother.”
She nodded but still looked uncomfortable. I just chuckled, hoping she would relax.
As we approached coach, he instructed us to start doing warm-up laps around the track. We started jogging in a group and I glanced over towards the ice to distract me. Just as I looked over, Jeremy was alongside me and blew a kiss. I laughed and pretended to catch it.
“Do you know all of them?” The other rookie with us asked. I’m sure I would get to know names soon enough.
I shook my head, “I only know a couple personally.”
We kept running laps as rest of the team joined us on the track. After a few more laps coach called us over and demonstrated the drills we were to do. We all chuckled as we followed along, looking ridiculous. No matter how many times you practiced these drills you couldn’t look less awkward. Just another reason we preferred on-ice practices.
Working alongside the Blades proved to make things even worse. They were distracted as were the girls on my team. Both of the coaches attempted to get their team’s attention to no avail.
Once we both began the harder parts of each of our practices though, players were too busy to focus on one another.
We began with 100m sprints, which we completed 4 of. Then we moved to 200m, completing another 4. Then we did 1 300m, 400m and 800m. With minimal rest in between we were left bent over gasping for breath.
But luckily, our time on the track was short lived as we headed outside for the next part of our training. Coach had us do a few different exercises with tires (jumps, agility and pulls) before sending us off on a 5km running loop. Luckily it wasn’t set up as a race or time trial, so we had time to regroup.
“I seriously think I may keel over,” Lucy groaned, coming up beside me.
“I feel like I’m going to puke...” Alexa panted, jogging on my other side. Just a few minutes later she stopped to empty her stomach.
“And that’s the first one of the year!” Karly shouted. We always made a big joke out of whoever puked during practice. We just did it to loosen up the atmosphere; not to make anyone uncomfortable. All of us had done it before. “Wasn’t even a rook. We should take that “A” off your chest!” Karly joked, but made her way to Alexa to make sure she was okay.
We were leading the pack, so we started up again once the other players caught up. Alexa was slow for a few minutes but picked herself up and began feeling better.
After our run, coach told us to put on our gear and meet him on the ice. Chattered spread throughout the dressing room.
“Is it always this bad?” One of the rookies anxiously asked.
I shook my head. “It’s obviously a competitive team,” girls from all over moved here or commuted to join, “But this week is by far the worst. Right now the conditioning will kill us but then we’ll focus a lot on plays and all that, so it’ll calm down.”
“Thank God!” Another rookie groaned.
Within a few minutes we were on the ice and ready (or at least as ready as we could be) for the next portion of our practice. Luckily since we did cardio beforehand, we didn’t have any suicides to complete on the ice. Coach focused on agility with a few passing drills as well.
By the end of practice, we had two more girls puke and the rest of us were getting pretty close.
After we had showered and changed into street clothes, coach came in to chat with us.
“Although I wasn’t impressed with how distracted you girls were at first, that was a great showing out there. You all seem like hard working kids and I’m happy with how you performed. Tomorrow will be an easier day. Have a good night.”
We bid each other farewell and slowly left the dressing room.
As I left the tunnel and was walking up through the stands, I heard my name. I looked over to see Easton and Levi sitting in seats a few sections over. We met halfway and walked the rest of the way into the concourse together.
“Fucking Hell Week,” I mumbled. Although Hell Week was the week of midterms in school, it was always the first week of practice in hockey.
“We saw the start, obviously, and the end of your practice and that was insane.” Levi exclaimed.
“Plus the damn tire drills and 5km run in the middle.” They both had shocked expressions on their faces, “It’s a really competitive team. Like you guys, we aren’t here for fun, it’s to get us somewhere in our hockey careers.”
Easton drove in his car while I rode with Levi to give him directions in case we lost Easton who was ahead of us.
Luckily when we arrived home, my parents had dinner ready. The three of us were exhausted and hungry. Platefuls of steak, potatoes and carrots were placed on the table.
“You are such a good cook!” Levi exclaimed to my mother.
She chuckled, “Oh gosh, is that going around?”
We all nodded. “Jere started it by talking about your cookies.”
“And now I’m going to have to make all you boys cookies sometime soon!” She sighed jokingly.
“Make some for the girls while you’re at it,” I winked.
After dinner Easton went to work on his own school work, while Levi and I went into my room to study for our test.
“How many Carbon Dioxides are made during the Kreb’s cycle?”
“2?” I asked nervously.
He nodded, “2 for each round though, so it’s 4 in total.”
I looked through my notes for a question to ask him, “Explain lactic acid fermentation.”
“Fuck me. First of all, I feel like that’s a long answer. Second, I have no idea.”
“To be honest, I don’t know how to explain it either.” We laughed and frantically looked through our notes.
We spent a few hours studying until we were both falling asleep. The perks of being a student athlete.
After yawning for the thousandth time, Levi finally cracked, “I’m sorry but I think I’ve got to head out.”
“No biggie. I should catch some Z’s too. I’m exhausted.”
We both put our books down and Levi packed up his belongings. As we made our way down the stairs to the front door, a loud sound was heard from behind us. We both looked up to see Easton hurrying down the stairs.
“Why the fuck are you still up?” I asked him, knowing it was well after midnight.
A guilty look spread across his face, “Procrastinating on social media and binge watching Criminal Minds.”
I rolled my eyes, “Obviously not school work like us two dedicated students.”
“Bu you two have a test in first period, unlike me!” He shot back. “Anyways, I just wanted to say goodbye to my favourite person.” He gave Levi a man hug.
“This bromance is too cute, it’s making me ill,” I laughed.
We both said goodbye to Levi and I locked the front door behind him. Easton and I made our way back up stairs, said goodnight and went to bed.
(...Well at least I did. He was probably still marathoning Criminal Minds).
Only a few moments after I sat down, the game was underway. But it would’ve been better if it wasn’t.
The Blades were facing the Kings, a team that should provide an easy win. The Kings were a club who have had bad season after bad season. They haven’t been able to get out of a slump for years despite a change in management.
Five minutes in, Easton had a terribly sloppy play and gave away the puck right onto an opposing player’s stick. He tossed the puck onto the net from the blueline and scored through the goalie’s fivehole; he was caught off guard. Easton skated to the bench and slammed his stick against the boards. Coach yelled something at him and he put his head down. Levi beside him, bumped him on the helmet to let him know it was just a mistake.
Easton’s next shift was even worse. He had thought one of his teammates was in front of him, when it was really one of the Kings players. He made a clean pass onto his stick. The player saw it coming and fired a one timer above the goalie’s glove. As the player was celebrating, he yelled something to Easton who immediately approached him and ran his mouth as well. It was getting heated and some pushing ensued, but the refs broke it up before anything more could happen.
No penalties were given so Easton skated over to the Blades bench, not even looking up when coach expressed his anger.
He wasn’t given any more ice time after that.
The Blades lost 2-0.
Since we all arrived at the rink at different times due to our schedules, we had three vehicles at the arena. My parents drove together and Easton and I arrived separately. Knowing he needed some time to cool off, I sent him a text letting him know we would meet him at home.
When I arrived home, I went straight to my room to do some of my assigned readings. A mere few minutes later, I heard a soft knock on my door.
“Come in!”
My door opened, revealing Easton.
He walked into my room and sat down on my bed, with his hands covering his face. I turned my desk chair around to face him.
“What if they don’t want me anymore?” He whispered.
“Eas, it was one bad game. You’ve been playing so well. This won’t change their minds.”
“But you didn’t see coach in the dressing room. I want this more than anything and they could just send me packing so easily.”
“But they won’t! It’s just a pre-season game and you’ve been playing so well.”
“I don’t know Tier. I’m just scared. Yeah, it’s still the pre-season so these games don’t matter, but it makes it easier to cut players...”
I stood up and walked across the room, sitting beside him on the bed. I leaned my head on his shoulder, speaking quietly, “I swear to God, Easton, you are not going to be cut, lose the respect of anyone in that dressing room or anything else you may be thinking. It was a couple of bad plays. You need to calm down because things will be okay, I promise.”
He let out a sigh, lying his head on top of mine.
We sat in silence for a few minutes before he gave me a hug.
“Thanks, Tier. I really appreciate you helping me out.” His voice was still quiet, filled with anxiety, but better than before.
“You know I’ll always be here when you need something.”
A small smile appeared on his lips.
“Can we stop talking about it?” I nodded, “So how was your first day of practice?”
“Really good! We just ran drills, but it was so good to see everyone again and it looks like we have a good squad put together.”
“You guys all in shape? Or dying like us?”
“Decent split, but most of the girls are dying. It should be interesting because the first half of tomorrow’s practice is dryland.”
“Oh goodie,” he groaned, knowing how tough dryland typically was.
We sat up talking for a little longer until we both knew we had to go to bed in order to be refreshed for classes the next day.
The next morning, Easton was driving us to school. I was thankful it wasn’t my turn to drive, so I could finish up my readings on the way.
I walked into Biology and took my normal seat.
A few minutes later, Levi walked in sitting next to me. “Hey, we still on for tonight?”
I nodded. “I was thinking we could just meet up after practice and you could come along with us?”
Both of us had practice tonight but were going to study afterwards for our test the following day.
“Sounds good!”
Easton’s practice didn’t start until the same time as mine today, so he studied in the library until my final class was over. He then drove us both to the arena and we split up as we headed to our differing ice-pads.
I pushed open the door to the dressing room and tossed my belongings in my locker before stripping down to my underwear and sports bra.
“Hey, Wills!” Alexa called over from across the dressing room, “Someone’s been keeping in shape over the summer!” Her gaze went to my toned stomach.
“What can I say? I had to outrun all the fucking ice cream I ate. I practically lived at Chéri’s.”
The girls who were listening groaned, knowing how good the ice cream parlour was.
I tossed a pair of spandex shorts on and a baggy t-shirt on my body and sat down to tie up my running shoes.
“Any idea what the plan is for today Tier?” Karly, beside me asked.
“First half is dry land second is on ice. So we’ll probably start with some sort of running and fast feet, and then do skating drills like yesterday.”
“Fuck me,” She muttered.
Karly and I have had lockers beside each other for the past few seasons. She was a reliable stay at home defenceman who likely had a future in hockey as well.
Within a few minutes, there was a knock on the dressing room door. All of us were dressed and just finishing tying our shoes or pulling our hair back.
Coach walked in and was greeted by several of us shouting our hellos. He laughed before giving us our instructions for the day. “I want you guys up at the track pronto. We’ll start there before heading outside and then onto the ice. I don’t want to keep you all here too late, so be quick.” He headed out of the room, likely up to the track as well.
“For those of you who don’t know where you’re going, just follow one of us vets. I’ll head up now if any of you need help.” A couple of the rookies got up alongside me as did Lucy, one of my “A”s.
We shared some small talk as we headed across the concourse and up the stairs towards the main ice pad, where the Blades were practicing. The track surrounded their rink.
As we approached, our rookies grew interested in the boys on the ice. And the boys were distracted by the girls making their way towards them. I rolled my eyes slightly and Lucy chuckled. As much as I liked boy watching, we were here to practice and that’s what I intended to do. I hoped this wouldn’t prove to be a constant distraction for this part of our workout.
I heard a bang on the glass, so I looked up, curious. Easton was standing there with a mouth guard clad smile plastered on his face. I was glad he seemed in good spirits after the game yesterday, but needed to make sure he wouldn’t get in trouble by his coach for being over here. I glanced but it seemed that the team was just doing a warm-up skate. I mouthed out “loser” to him and he acted hurt, grabbing towards his heart. We both laughed and went on our way; him to do another lap and us over to our coach.
“He’s cute!” One of the rookies exclaimed, “How do you know him?”
“I live with him,” I laughed.
She looked worried as she replied, “Wait so he’s your brother?”
I shook my head, “Billet brother.”
She nodded but still looked uncomfortable. I just chuckled, hoping she would relax.
As we approached coach, he instructed us to start doing warm-up laps around the track. We started jogging in a group and I glanced over towards the ice to distract me. Just as I looked over, Jeremy was alongside me and blew a kiss. I laughed and pretended to catch it.
“Do you know all of them?” The other rookie with us asked. I’m sure I would get to know names soon enough.
I shook my head, “I only know a couple personally.”
We kept running laps as rest of the team joined us on the track. After a few more laps coach called us over and demonstrated the drills we were to do. We all chuckled as we followed along, looking ridiculous. No matter how many times you practiced these drills you couldn’t look less awkward. Just another reason we preferred on-ice practices.
Working alongside the Blades proved to make things even worse. They were distracted as were the girls on my team. Both of the coaches attempted to get their team’s attention to no avail.
Once we both began the harder parts of each of our practices though, players were too busy to focus on one another.
We began with 100m sprints, which we completed 4 of. Then we moved to 200m, completing another 4. Then we did 1 300m, 400m and 800m. With minimal rest in between we were left bent over gasping for breath.
But luckily, our time on the track was short lived as we headed outside for the next part of our training. Coach had us do a few different exercises with tires (jumps, agility and pulls) before sending us off on a 5km running loop. Luckily it wasn’t set up as a race or time trial, so we had time to regroup.
“I seriously think I may keel over,” Lucy groaned, coming up beside me.
“I feel like I’m going to puke...” Alexa panted, jogging on my other side. Just a few minutes later she stopped to empty her stomach.
“And that’s the first one of the year!” Karly shouted. We always made a big joke out of whoever puked during practice. We just did it to loosen up the atmosphere; not to make anyone uncomfortable. All of us had done it before. “Wasn’t even a rook. We should take that “A” off your chest!” Karly joked, but made her way to Alexa to make sure she was okay.
We were leading the pack, so we started up again once the other players caught up. Alexa was slow for a few minutes but picked herself up and began feeling better.
After our run, coach told us to put on our gear and meet him on the ice. Chattered spread throughout the dressing room.
“Is it always this bad?” One of the rookies anxiously asked.
I shook my head. “It’s obviously a competitive team,” girls from all over moved here or commuted to join, “But this week is by far the worst. Right now the conditioning will kill us but then we’ll focus a lot on plays and all that, so it’ll calm down.”
“Thank God!” Another rookie groaned.
Within a few minutes we were on the ice and ready (or at least as ready as we could be) for the next portion of our practice. Luckily since we did cardio beforehand, we didn’t have any suicides to complete on the ice. Coach focused on agility with a few passing drills as well.
By the end of practice, we had two more girls puke and the rest of us were getting pretty close.
After we had showered and changed into street clothes, coach came in to chat with us.
“Although I wasn’t impressed with how distracted you girls were at first, that was a great showing out there. You all seem like hard working kids and I’m happy with how you performed. Tomorrow will be an easier day. Have a good night.”
We bid each other farewell and slowly left the dressing room.
As I left the tunnel and was walking up through the stands, I heard my name. I looked over to see Easton and Levi sitting in seats a few sections over. We met halfway and walked the rest of the way into the concourse together.
“Fucking Hell Week,” I mumbled. Although Hell Week was the week of midterms in school, it was always the first week of practice in hockey.
“We saw the start, obviously, and the end of your practice and that was insane.” Levi exclaimed.
“Plus the damn tire drills and 5km run in the middle.” They both had shocked expressions on their faces, “It’s a really competitive team. Like you guys, we aren’t here for fun, it’s to get us somewhere in our hockey careers.”
Easton drove in his car while I rode with Levi to give him directions in case we lost Easton who was ahead of us.
Luckily when we arrived home, my parents had dinner ready. The three of us were exhausted and hungry. Platefuls of steak, potatoes and carrots were placed on the table.
“You are such a good cook!” Levi exclaimed to my mother.
She chuckled, “Oh gosh, is that going around?”
We all nodded. “Jere started it by talking about your cookies.”
“And now I’m going to have to make all you boys cookies sometime soon!” She sighed jokingly.
“Make some for the girls while you’re at it,” I winked.
After dinner Easton went to work on his own school work, while Levi and I went into my room to study for our test.
“How many Carbon Dioxides are made during the Kreb’s cycle?”
“2?” I asked nervously.
He nodded, “2 for each round though, so it’s 4 in total.”
I looked through my notes for a question to ask him, “Explain lactic acid fermentation.”
“Fuck me. First of all, I feel like that’s a long answer. Second, I have no idea.”
“To be honest, I don’t know how to explain it either.” We laughed and frantically looked through our notes.
We spent a few hours studying until we were both falling asleep. The perks of being a student athlete.
After yawning for the thousandth time, Levi finally cracked, “I’m sorry but I think I’ve got to head out.”
“No biggie. I should catch some Z’s too. I’m exhausted.”
We both put our books down and Levi packed up his belongings. As we made our way down the stairs to the front door, a loud sound was heard from behind us. We both looked up to see Easton hurrying down the stairs.
“Why the fuck are you still up?” I asked him, knowing it was well after midnight.
A guilty look spread across his face, “Procrastinating on social media and binge watching Criminal Minds.”
I rolled my eyes, “Obviously not school work like us two dedicated students.”
“Bu you two have a test in first period, unlike me!” He shot back. “Anyways, I just wanted to say goodbye to my favourite person.” He gave Levi a man hug.
“This bromance is too cute, it’s making me ill,” I laughed.
We both said goodbye to Levi and I locked the front door behind him. Easton and I made our way back up stairs, said goodnight and went to bed.
(...Well at least I did. He was probably still marathoning Criminal Minds).
♠ ♠ ♠
This is going to be a long author's note, so brace yourselves.1. Thanks so much to Thatmom for her regular comments! It's much appreciated! On the same note, I have quite a few readers and subscribers so it would be great to hear more from you, even if it's just a word or two!
2. While I was posting this chapter, I saw that it's been 2 YEARS since I posted the first chapter! And it's been ~5 years since I started planning this story (although the storyline has been altered quite a bit). That's insane! I can't believe it's been so long, but I'm so happy I've got back into it because I'm thoroughly enjoying writing it!
3. I really hated studying cellular respiration...can you tell? Please say that some of you other bio students feel my pain.
Okay, I think that's all! Remember to comment and recommend this story! It's much appreciated!