Face-Off

by Michael Betcherman

  He put a fresh blade in his razor and stared at himself in the mirror. Are you ever going to get laid?

  “Shit,” he said aloud a moment later. A thin line of blood was trickling down his cheek. The video had warned him to pay attention. He stuck a piece of Kleenex on the cut and finished shaving. This time he kept his eyes on the mirror, but his thoughts kept straying.

  Alex opened his locker and put the books he’d need for the day in his knapsack. Lara caught up to him as he was walking to English class. She looked different. It took Alex a few seconds to figure out what had changed.

  “You cut your hair,” he said. “It looks nice.” She looked better than nice. She looked fantastic.

  Lara beamed. “Thanks. I like your new look, too.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “You’ve got a piece of Kleenex on your face.”

  He couldn’t believe he’d left the house like that. “Cut myself shaving,” he said. He felt a slight tug as he pulled the tissue away from the cut. That was dumb. They warned him not to do that on the video.

  “Now you’re bleeding,” Lara said, shaking her head at his stupidity. She took a Kleenex from her bag and dabbed Alex’s cheek. He felt his body tingle as she brushed up against him. He had an overpowering urge to kiss her. Lara handed him the tissue. “Just pat it,” she said. “Don’t leave it on, or the same thing will happen again.”

  Her phone rang. She checked the display. “Talk to you later?” she said to Alex in a tone of voice that made it clear she wanted to take the call in private. He nodded and walked away. “Hey, Jason,” she said into the phone, her voice rising with excitement. If there had been any trouble between her and Jason, they’d clearly worked things out. When he saw the smile on her face Alex felt a pang of … a pang of what? And what was that all about? he asked himself, referring to his desire to kiss her. But he knew the answer to both questions. He just didn’t know what to do about it.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Alex’s fear that the team wasn’t ready for Hollyburn was well founded. The Cougars came out flat and if Alex hadn’t been as sharp as he had been, they would have been out of the game by the end of the first period. As it was, with five minutes left in the game, they were down 3–1 and their prospects looked bleak. Then Mike Leonard banged home a rebound and suddenly the Cougars were within a goal of tying the game. But less than a half-minute later, Doug Harvey was sent to the penalty box for hooking.

  Alex pounded his stick against his pads, his eyes focused on the puck as if it were the only object in the universe. If Richmond gave up a goal on the power play, it was game over.

  For the next two minutes the Huskies swarmed around the Richmond goal, but Alex managed to hold them off. With thirty seconds left in the power play, Bill Kelly intercepted a pass and hit Mike Leonard at the blue line, catching the Hollyburn defencemen out of position. Leonard put on a burst of speed, broke in on the Hollyburn goal, and fired a shot past the Huskies’ goalie to even the score. His Richmond teammates erupted in cheers.

  With a minute left in the game, and the teams at full strength, Leonard converted a nifty pass from Kenny Nelson to give the Cougars a 4–3 victory.

  Leonard’s three goals in a row gave him a rare natural hat trick, and one old-school fan threw his hat onto the ice to celebrate it. Alex had seen it done at NHL games but this was the first time it had ever happened in a game he played in. Stevie Ryan picked up the hat and gave it to Leonard. He put it on and skated off the ice as the Cougars fans cheered.

  Leonard’s heroics had saved the day and the big forward was the man of the hour in the locker room after the game. Alex collapsed onto the bench in front of his locker and watched the celebration. He was tired but it was a good kind of tired. He took off his jersey. It was drenched with sweat.

  “I’ll take that,” Neil Daniels said.

  Alex handed the shirt to him. “Thanks, Neil.” Alex hadn’t called him Pie ever since the day he saw him crying in the washroom.

  “You’re welcome,” Neil said. He had never said anything about it but Alex knew he appreciated the gesture. Alex watched as Neil approached Mike Leonard. Leonard handed Neil his shirt without a comment. He had pretty much ignored Neil ever since the farting incident. Alex was beginning to think that Leonard realized he’d crossed the line. At least that’s what he was hoping. He’d made a promise to himself that he would do something the next time Leonard bullied Neil, but it was okay with him if he was never called upon to honour it.

  “Listen up,” Coach Hampton said as he walked into the locker room. The noise died down. “That was a lucky win. We played like crap. We got away with it tonight but I hope you all got the wake-up call. We need to get back to what got us here. Everybody giving 100 percent effort, 100 percent of the time. Agreed?” Hampton looked around the room. Everybody nodded. They knew he was right. “Okay, then,” he said. “One other thing. Don’t make any plans for the holidays because we’ve been invited to play in the Hollyburn Invitational.”

  Everybody cheered.

  Alex felt excited even though the tournament was a month away. Bill Henry’s words reverberated in his head. You got some serious game. He looked at the University of Minnesota hockey sweater hanging in his locker. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be wearing the real thing next year.

  “Any other teams from our league get invited aside from Hollyburn?” Paul Arizin called out. As the host team, Hollyburn got an automatic invite.

  “Just West Van,” Coach Hampton said. Just West Van. The same scouts Alex was hoping to impress would also be taking a look at Stefan and none of them were going to recruit two goalies. No, they’re not, the Voice agreed. Alex felt a twinge of sibling rivalry but it didn’t last long. If Stefan played in the tournament the way he’d been playing the past few weeks, Alex knew he didn’t have a thing to worry about. And if Stefan didn’t pass chemistry it wouldn’t matter how well he played. Not that he wished either of these misfortunes on his brother. Of course not, said the Voice.

  “Practice tomorrow at six,” Hampton said before disappearing into his office.

  The announcement that the team had been invited to the Hollyburn tournament set off another round of celebration. Mike Leonard strutted through the locker room, wearing his hat and waving his jockstrap over his head. He walked up behind Neil Daniels, who was cutting up oranges to give out to the players.

  “Hey, Pie. You get a hat, too,” he shouted as he put his jockstrap over Neil’s head and then pinned his arms to his side so he couldn’t take it off.

  “Get away from me,” Neil yelled. Leonard laughed and released him. Neil tore the jockstrap off and threw it on the floor. He looked close to tears.

  “Gonna squirt a few, Pie?” Leonard mocked. He coughed the word faggot. As usual, half the team laughed and the other half stared at their skates.

  Oh shit, Alex thought. Time to put up or shut up. He got to his feet. “Cut it out, Mike. Stop being such a prick.”

  Leonard drew himself up to his full six feet three inches and looked down at Alex. “What did you say?”

  “Leave Neil alone,” Alex said. His voice was firm even though his insides were quaking.

  “Me and Pie are just having some fun.”

  “His name’s Neil,” Alex said.

  “Pie knows I’m just joking around, don’t you, Pie?” Leonard put Neil in a headlock, pulling his head toward his bare sweaty chest. Neil squirmed but he couldn’t get free.

  “Let him go,” Alex said.

  “Make me.” Leonard glared at Alex.

  “C’mon you guys, relax,” Don Herron said.

  “Shut your face,” Leonard yelled at him. He approached Alex, backing him up against the wall. “What are you going to do about it, Petrovic?” Alex pushed him away. Hard. Leonard rushed at him and punched him in the jaw. Before he could hit him again, a few of the other guys grabbed him and held him back.

  Coach Hampton burst into the room. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. He look
ed at Alex and then at Leonard. It was pretty clear what was going on.

  “Nothing, Coach,” Alex said. Hampton looked at Leonard.

  “We were just fooling around, Coach,” Leonard said. Hampton turned to Alex.

  “Just fooling around,” Alex echoed. He could feel his jaw swelling up.

  Hampton nodded but Alex knew he wasn’t buying it. “You guys get dressed and go on home,” he said and then stomped out of the room.

  “This isn’t over, Petrovic,” Leonard said.

  “Don’t be a jerk, Mike,” Doug Harvey said.

  “Screw you,” Leonard said.

  “Stop being such a moron,” Bill Kelly said.

  “Faggot,” Leonard said, using his fake cough, trying to defuse the situation. This time nobody laughed. He looked around the room for some support but even Stevie Ryan turned away.

  “You guys are a bunch of babies,” Leonard said without conviction. He sat down and finished dressing. The normal locker room chatter slowly resumed.

  “Hey, Neil,” Doug Harvey called out. “Are there any more oranges?”

  “I’ll take one too, Neil.”

  By the time Alex got home, his jaw was throbbing. He put some more ice on it and took a couple of aspirin but it still hurt like hell.

  He’d never felt better in his entire life.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Alex didn’t know what he’d done to piss Lara off but he must have done something because there she was, in the middle of the ring, staring at him with the determined look on her face that generally spelled trouble for anyone unlucky enough to be in there with her.

  “You asked for it, Petrovic,” she said, as she slowly advanced toward him. The next thing he knew, Lara had him pinned on the canvas. “You asked for it,” she said again. But instead of raining blows on him, she lowered her face toward his. Their lips were about to meet when the bell rang, signalling the end of the round. It rang and rang.

  It kept ringing until Alex realized his alarm was going off. He reached over, turned it off, and then lay back on his bed, thinking about the dream. You didn’t have to be a shrink to figure it out, as Lara would have said. He wasn’t exactly sure when his feelings toward her had changed, but there was no denying they had. Too bad he had no idea what to do about it, but at least he had a couple of weeks to figure it out. Today was the last day of school before the winter holidays and Lara was going to Mexico with her parents.

  Last day of school, Alex repeated to himself with a smile as he got out of bed and started doing his push-ups. The prospect of two weeks without classes must have energized him because for the first time ever he was able to do one hundred push-ups. He collapsed on the floor when he finished, completely spent but completely satisfied. He rested for a minute and did his sit-ups before heading to the washroom. Stefan was coming up the stairs.

  “Last day of school, dude,” Alex said.

  “Yeah.”

  “You nervous?”

  “What do you think?” Stefan snapped. “Sorry,” he quickly added.

  “That’s okay,” Alex said. Stefan had good reason to be on edge. The report cards were being handed out today. Stefan thought he’d done well on his chemistry exam, but he didn’t know if he got the 66 percent he needed and it would be another six hours or so before he found out.

  “You’ll be fine,” Alex predicted.

  “We’ll see,” Stefan said with a shrug. “Mom wanted me to remind you that we’re having dinner at Lombardo’s. I’m picking her up here after I get Dad so I can get you, too, or we can meet at the restaurant.” Boris was coming to Vancouver today to spend the holidays with Stefan.

  “I’ll meet you here … It’s great Boris can stay for so long.”

  “It won’t be so great if I flunked chem.”

  “You’re the one who’s always telling me to be positive.”

  “You’re right … Nice win last night,” Stefan said. Richmond had defeated Abbotsford 3–1, upping its record to a perfect sixteen and zero. “Are you guys ever going to lose a game?”

  “Not planning on it.”

  The Cougars had come together off the ice as well as on it in the month since Alex’s fight with Mike Leonard. Leonard had stopped bullying Neil Daniels, and without that divisive element in the locker room the team’s morale had skyrocketed. The entire team had hung out for an hour in the locker room after the game, just chewing the fat. It was the kind of intangible that could translate to a championship.

  Alex had played another good game against Abbotsford, but he would have had a shutout if he hadn’t misplayed a rebound that led to the Miners’ lone goal. It was a harmless mistake—there were only a couple of minutes left in the game, and the Cougars were up 3–0 at the time—but it still rubbed him the wrong way.

  Alex went back into his room and logged on to his computer. He didn’t expect any news about the Stork and the Snowman and there wasn’t any. It had been a month since the Berovian government had upped the reward to $500,000 and nobody had come forward. They could raise the reward to a million dollars, Alex thought, or even ten, and it wouldn’t make any difference. He would just have to accept the fact that the men who murdered his father would never be brought to justice. Just thinking about it made his blood boil. He would never be able to accept it, he realized. He clicked on nhl.com to check last night’s scores. All he could do was try not to think about it.

  Alex walked out of English class at the end of the day feeling free as a bird. The hallway was full of students in full celebration mode. Alex took his books out of his knapsack and put them in his locker. Won’t be needing these for a while, he thought. The only thing he kept was his report card. Anna would be pleased. And so was he. He was a little disappointed he hadn’t done better than 72 in English, but his 78 average was the highest he’d ever had.

  Stefan hurried up to him. The smile on his face said it all. “Made it by the skin of my teeth,” he said, handing Alex his report card.

  “Fifty-three percent,” Alex said, looking at his brother’s chemistry mark. “That means you got …” He started to do the calculation.

  “Seventy-three on the exam,” Stefan said.

  “Way to go, bro,” Alex said. “You did it.”

  “Thanks to you,” Stefan said, his face serious. “I owe you.”

  “Big time. And don’t you forget it,” he joked. He returned the report card to Stefan. He noticed that his brother’s average was a respectable 73, well above the 67 he needed to qualify for a scholarship to a U.S. school.

  “I mean it, man. If I hadn’t passed … oh man, I don’t even want to think about what would have happened then.” He sighed in relief, as if he’d had a near-death experience. “I got to go. I’m meeting Mom at the store to get the car and then I’m going to the airport to get Dad.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you at the house.”

  Alex was locking up when Kenny Nelson came over. “Did you see the draw?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “Do you know anything about Kelowna?” The Hollyburn Invitational Tournament was starting the following week and Richmond was playing the Kelowna Rangers in the opening round.

  “Just that they won their league championship last year, and they’ve only lost one game so far this year.”

  “They’re going to be tough.”

  “They’re all going to be tough … We’re going to need to bring our A game if we’re going to win.”

  There was more than the tournament championship at stake, Alex thought. A lot of college scouts would be there. If he was going to impress them, he’d need to bring his A game. He had a hunch Stefan would be bringing his.

  When Alex got outside he saw Lara standing on the sidewalk. He was reminded of his dream. He wondered what she’d say if he told her about it.

  “When do you leave for Mexico?” he asked.

  “Tonight at seven. My mom’s picking me up and then we’re getting my dad and going straight to the airport.” She didn’t sound very excited about
it. She didn’t look very excited about it either. In fact, she looked downright sad.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes … No. Jason and I broke up.”

  “What happened?” Alex asked.

  “I saw him with another girl.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they were just friends.” He wondered if it was the redhead from the gym.

  “They were friendly, all right. He had his tongue halfway down her throat.”

  Told you so.

  “Don’t say ‘I told you so,’” she warned.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “And don’t say you’re sorry.”

  Alex nodded. Sorry was the exact opposite of how he felt. Probably not a good idea to cheer, he thought, but that’s what he felt like doing. It took all his self-control not to tell her how he felt about her, but he knew it would be a mistake to spring it on her now.

  “He’s such a prick. I can’t believe it took me this long to find out. I’m such a fool.”

  “He’s the fool,” Alex said hotly. “He doesn’t know how special you are.”

  Lara smiled. “What a nice thing to say.”

  “I mean it. He doesn’t deserve you.”

  “You’re sweet.”

  An awkward silence followed. It ended when Lara’s mother drove up.

  “See you later,” Lara said as she got into the car. “Happy holidays.”

  “You, too.”

  Alex watched them drive away. At least Jason is out of the picture, he said to himself. That solved one of his problems. The other problem was what Lara would say when he told her how he felt.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  “I’m starving,” Boris said after they were seated at Lombardo’s.

  “Didn’t they feed you on the airplane?” Anna asked.

  “They gave us a tray of something. I’m not prepared to say it was food. We’ve got a saying about Air Maldania,” Boris said. “We’re not happy until you’re not happy.” It took Alex a few seconds to get the joke.