Double Trouble

I was walking through the halls of Mosby Elementary and I could see Avery and myself sitting next to each other drawing. We were drawing our heroes, Avery was trying to draw a picture of Wayne Gretzky; we were in fifth grade so that was a bust. I kept thinking who would be my hero and I closed my eyes trying to imagine who it was and when I opened my eyes, I grabbed the pencil and started drawing. By the end of art class I was nearly done and-

The alarm clock rang. I groaned looking at the what time it was, eight in the fucking morning damn it, I just laid there trying to get myself out of the bed; it took ten minutes. Once dressed and refreshed I looked over to the drawing of my hero, Dale Hunter, that I had drew in fifth grade. It was the first time that I had ever drawn a picture of a person and being a Caps fan well I would draw something related to them. I started making breakfast, Avery strolled into the room smiling.

“That smells good, what are you making?”

“Food,” I stated.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course, but what specifically.”

“Some blueberry waffles, with some french toast and eggs sunny side up and orange juice.”

“That sounds good, so what are you doing today?”

“I have to go and teach an art class for about an hour or so and then after that I’m free.Do you have practice today?”

“Nope, Coach Q. let us have a day off, but knowing me I will go still. Hey want to go to the rink and skate a bit. Maybe play some hockey?” She smiled.

I thought about it. “I guess, just make sure that you don’t whine when I beat you. We both know that I’m the better hockey player,” I teased.

Ave laughed. “Sure, I mean that’s why you’re in the NHL.”

“Shut up, well I have to go so meet you at Johnny’s Ice House?”

“Yeah meet you there.”

I grabbed my keys and then was on my way to the Chicago National Art Center. I was teaching kids today and I was glad, they always had the biggest imagination and passion reminding me of when I was a little girl. I showed them how to do the basics and then just went around helping anyone who needed it. When I looked at the clock I was surprised at how fast time had passed. I immediately went to the the practice rink. Avery was there just skating around and dancing, just being all relaxed; you’d think she were an innocent girl, but I knew that wasn’t true. I walked up closer to the bench and grabbed her sportsbag, took out the extra pair of hockey skates and then grabbed a hockey stick. I went onto the ice and seeing that she was too distracted, I smiled evilly. Slowly creeping forward I made it all the way to her back and then I yelled out.

“Avery are you ready for this?”

Ave screamed and lost balance falling flat on her back and I started laughing uncontrollably.

“You’re horrible,” she pouted.

I just shrugged. “So ready to play or not?”

“Oh it’s on,” she said. Avery skated to her bag and took out three pucks, and her iPod. “Now lets find some speakers around here...” She said wondering off to where the control systems would be. A few seconds later I could hear her music through the speakers.

“I approve.” I said to her with a smile.

“Gotta bring back the good old days.” She replied as she skated back towards me. “Now, you ready for this?”

“Damn straight. Now, drop that puck.” Avery tossed the puck up in the air and right as it hit the ice, the both of us were going after it. The songs that were playing kept changing just as the possession of the puck did.The song changed to one of our favorites, Take Me On The Floor by The Veroncias began to play. Avery and I grinned at each other and began singing along. I had the puck and skated towards the net, only to have Avery glide by and steal it.

“Come on Alina. Didn’t you say that you were going to show me up.” I glared at my younger twin and sped toward her, perfectly hipchecking her to the glass and stealing the puck.

“Now, we’re getting somewhere.” Avery said as she skated after me. Abruptly the music stopped and we both stopped skating.

“What the hell?” Both Avery and I said in unison.

We looked over to see who it was that had turned off the music and interrupted our game.

“Jonathan,” I said. “Why did you turn off the music?”

“Yeah, Jonny,” Avery whined. “Why did you turn off the music?”

“That was a nice hipcheck,” was all he said.

“Really? You stopped an epic, erotic song, and our awesome game, just to say ‘nice hipcheck’?” Avery asked him. “Man, you need to get your head checked or something.”

“What else am I supposed to say?” He asked.

Ave responded. “I don’t know.. Maybe something like ‘Whoa, why are you guys playing hockey?’ or ‘Damn, that’s hot’ or something along those lines. Honestly, if any other guy walked in and saw that they’d be poppin’ boners.”

“I think I’m fine with his response, honestly if he would have said any of those things this would have happened.”

I took possession of the puck and gave it a nice hit that went over to Toews and went through five-hole. He looked at me with wide eyes.

“What was that for?” He yelled out.

I shrugged, “Nothing just proving a point. Now that you have interrupted us, tell me why are you here?”

I saw Patrick Kane enter in my field of vision and I was curious.

“Alright, I can imagine why Taze is here, but why Kaner I mean I’d think he’d be sleeping or something close to it.” Ave said.

“Well, I would have but Tazer here dragged me out of bed so that we can come to the ice rink and practice.” Kane yawned.

“I have an idea,” I said. “Let’s have a small competition. Avery and I against you two.”

Toews raised his eyebrow. “Really and what exactly are we doing in this competition?”

I smiled. “Oh you’ll see.”

Avery smiled. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“If you mean two on two and whoever loses has to what the winners want?”

"Damn straight little sister," I respond smiling evilly.

"You really think that you can beat Kaner and I?" Jonathan scoffed.

"Never go against twins, we're dangerous. An example would be the Sedin twins." I said.

" But you're chicks," Kane said.

“So? My sister’s on your team, and she hipchecked you the other day, and you complained like a five year old. Now are you just too scared to take on two girls, Patrick Kane?” I asked him with a smirk.

“Oh I’m not scared, I’m just afraid that you will hurt yourself.” Kane said.

“We’re not going easy on you just because you’re Avery’s sister. We’ll play as if it were a normal two on two with the guys.” Toews warned me. “And we’re going to play this as if you both were around 5’11 and 210 pounds. No going easy.”

“Are you sure you two want to do this?” Kaner asked.

“Bring it.” Avery and I said.

Toews and I were the ones that were going to face off. Once the puck hit the ice, I took possession of it, immediately skating towards the net; I saw Kane coming towards me and Avery behind me. I passed it to her when Kane’s body hit mine and I fell hard onto the ice feeling a bit of pain from an old wound. I got up, wincing lightly and started skating towards Avery. The whole game was a tug of war with the puck, each of us had scored at least once and were tied two to two. This was going to be the game breaker and the winning goal, I took a deep breath and looked over at Avery silently communicating what I had in mind. She nodded knowing exactly what I thinking. I won the faceoff once again and started speeding towards the net and I could see that Avery was open and Jonathan sped towards me; I kept moving as if I were going to the net and then at last second I passed it to Avery. I have no idea if she had it or not because next thing I know my body hits the ice and a sweaty Toews is on top of me.

“Well this is awkward,” I said laughing.

I heard a screech of victory from Avery indicating we had won. I looked over at Jonathan and saw him just staring at me, I was starting to get a bit uncomfortable; I mean come on a 208 pound man on top of me, yeah heavy.

“Uh, you can get off now.”

His eyes widened. “Right, shit I’m sorry here.”

He got off and then proceeded to help me get up. I saw that Avery was dancing in joy and laughing at Patrick who was groaning. We heard a clap come from the benches and all four of us turned to see Coach Q. there with a big smile on his face.

“Well isn’t this something, both the captain and our best forward were beaten by female twins. I have to say I’m very impressed. You must be Alina,” he shook my hand. “Avery had told me about you. I have a question have you ever considered joining the NHL?”

I was shocked. “Uh, I mean it’s great to play and all-”

“Would you like to join and be part of the Blackhawks.”

Now that was unexpected. Avery came up to me with the same expression I had disbelief.

“Coach?”

“Look, it may seem crazy, but seeing you two play and the communication that needed no words at all, I have a feeling that you two can get us far to win the Stanley Cup again.”

I looked at them and was just, I couldn’t even describe it; but I knew that I could not play hockey. I knew the main reason was because of art being my main passion but also my injury I had gotten when I was in high school; also I wanted Avery to be the one that everyone looked up to and this was her thing not mine.

“That’s very nice and all Coach Q. but I’m not interested. I’m sorry I have to leave, I have to go to work soon if you’ll excuse me.”

With that I quickly skated towards the bench and took off all the gear, grabbed all my stuff and left, driving towards the apartment.