Hurricane Jenny

Chapter Eleven
"Nice Staal, nice!" Coach said as I blocked all the one on one shots that my teammates shot at me. I felt like a ping pong machine in this net, moving back and forth, high and low, these pucks were being shot everywhere, "Keep it up!"

Three weeks have gone by and it was time for training camp to get ready for the upcoming season that began in another two weeks. We received our game schedule the other day, and I saw that our first game was going to be an away game against the Houston Aeros, followed by another away game against the Texas Stars, Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford Ice Hogs and so on and so forth.

The whole month of October, all nine games that we were to play, were away, our first home game in November was going to be against the Chicago Wolves, that was always and interesting game. I noticed on the schedule that we were never going to play against Providence, and when I asked Coach why, hoping that if I couldn't play on the same team as my brother, then I would at least be able to play against him, he said that the conferences had changed and we weren't in the right area anymore.

Once practice was over I showered and changed, saying bye to my teammates and then walking out of the rink, heading over towards my car.

"So I hear you gave up my room to a dog!" I heard and then turned around to see my brother leaning against his car and smirking.

"Your back or visiting?"

"I'm back," he said and I smiled brightly, dropping my bag, and then running over towards him.

"I've missed you! It's not the same at the house without you!"

"See, I told you that I keep it interesting!" Jared said and as he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up off of the ground, "Saw you practice, you all right?"

"Yeah why?"

"You just seem a little off," he said and I smiled.

"I was just missing you, I'm happy you're back on the team, it's hard with these new rookies, I at least knew that you had my back," I said and Jared nodded his head.

"You got that right," he smirked and I hugged him one last time, "I'll see you at home, I have to go and talk with Coach."

"I'll right," I said and then patted my brother's shoulder and walked over towards my car and headed home.

When I got home I saw that I had two messages on my answering machine. One from my mom asking if Jared was there yet and for him to call them when he got there, and then one from Jared saying that he was on his way back, both I missed because I was at practice.

I decided that I was going to get a little cleaning done before Jared got home. I hated to clean, so the only way I knew to make it somewhat enjoyable, was to blast some music and believe that I was a great singer.

-Jared-
"Glad to have you back on the team, son," Coach said as he stood and shook my hand, "I know your sister will be happy to have you back."

"She already saw me, I wanted to surprise her, but that didn't happen," I laughed and he nodded his head.

"Drive safely."

"Will do," I said and then left the office and then headed out of the rink.

I made my way home and when I pulled into the driveway, I heard loud music. I smirked when I looked through the window to see Jen jumping around, '...Must be cleaning...'

I grabbed my bags out of the trunk of my car and then walked towards the door and into the house. When I walked in, Jen was mopping the kitchen and dining room floors. I smirked because she didn't even realize that I was there. I walked over towards her, not bother to sneak up, because she couldn't hear me anyways because the music was so loud.

She had turned around and I jumped behind the wall so that she didn't see me. I peaked my head around to see that she was walking this way. When she walked passed me, I wrapped my arms around her and heard her scream and felt her jump in my arms.

"Jared! You ass!" she yelled and pushed me away and I had a smirk on my face. Jen walked over towards the TV and turned the volume down and then looked at me and shook her head, I was still laughing, "God! When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago," I laughed and she shook her head, "So where's this dog?"

"She's outside, I didn't want her to be in here when I had music blasting," she said and then walked into the kitchen and to the back door, "Candy!"

"Candy?" I asked, "A stripper name?"

"Shut up! Jordan said that too!" she whined and I smirked and then saw Jen close the door, "Come on girl."

Jen walked out of the kitchen and I heard the dog walking through the kitchen. I burst into fits of laughter when I saw the dog because she was so tiny and I never expected Jen to get a small dog.

"Stop laughing at her!"

"That's not a dog!"

"Shut up! She's a dog!"

"I expected you to have like a German Shepherd or a lab, retriever, anything!"

"Leave her alone, she's so cute!" Jen said as she bent down and picked the dog up, "She doesn't shed, she doesn't lick, although her bark is loud, she's a good dog."

I shook my head, "I'm going to need to get a big dog to look manly around this thing."

"Leave her alone! I take it back, you go back to Providence!" she yelled and I laughed and shook my head.

-Jennifer-
'...Why didn't he just put me in the net to begin with?...' I thought as I traded on the ice with John Muse, "Not your night man, it's all right."

"Sorry," he said as he pounded his fist with me as I skated over towards the net.

Two weeks have passed and it was the first game in the season, we were up against the Houston Aeros and we down by three in the beginning of the second period. Once the third puck had gone through only a minute into the second period, Coach got fed up and decided to put me in the net.

The face off was to the left of me, I crouched in the corner of the net and didn't take my eyes off of the puck. Houston's #18, Jake Dowell faced off against Carolina's #7 Bret Sutter. We won the face off, but the puck was automatically stolen and shot at me. Block. The puck bounced off of my protective gear and was picked up by Houston, another shot. Block. I caught the puck and the whistle was blown, the ref came over and grabbed the puck out of my glove and I looked up to see that they were heading over towards the faceoff circle, Jared was facing off against Houston's #20, Chad Rau.

-Jared-
"It's all right, we'll get them next time," Coach said as we walked into the locker room.

We had lost are game against Houston with the score being three to two, we had run out of time in the game.

After Jen stepped into the net, Houston wasn't able to score, and between the half of the second period and the whole third period, she had deflected fifteen pucks. I looked over towards Jen to see that she was stripping her gear off, leaving herself in spandex shorts and a sports bra, I rolled my eyes when I saw my teammates looking at her like she was a piece of meat.

After everyone showered and changed, we all left to get onto the bus and head back the hotel. Most of us didn't feel like going out, Jen and I being some of those people.

I walked to my sister's hotel room that she was sharing with the female trainer, Lori. I knocked on the door and Lori answered, "Hey Jared, come on in, I'm just heading out."

"All right," I said and then watched as she left the room and I walked into the room to see that Jen was laying on her bed talking to someone on her phone.

"Well I'm glad you won, because we didn't," she said and I sat on the other bed and looked at her, "No, I came in, in the second period- NO!" Jen laughed and I looked at her strangely, "Shut up!"

'...Who is she talking to?...'

"When are you coming down?" she asked and then looked at me and held up her finger to tell me to wait, "No, our schedule is pretty booked too," Jen said and then got up out of her bed and walked over towards her bag, "Not till next month, the whole month is away games."

'...What is she up to?...'

"Our schedule completely sucks," Jen whined and then walked over towards the bed, "All right," she sighed, "Talk to you later, Beau. Bye."

"Who's Beau?" I asked when Jen hung up her phone and collapsed onto her bed.

"Beau Bennett, we met at Jordan's wedding, we hit it off and went to Florida together with some other people a few weeks ago."

"You two a thing?"

"I don't know what we are," she said and then sighed.

"Whatever."