Play On

by Heather C. Myers

  Emma didn’t care. Her eyes focused solely on Kyle Underwood. She watched as he skated the traditional circle on the Gulls’ side of the ice before reaching the center line. He was more than just good looking, she realized at that moment, watching him pay homage to a song he probably was indifferent to due to him being from Canada. He was… What was the word that described attractiveness but also showed that it was a special kind of attractiveness that Emma believed only she saw in him?

  Which was absolutely ludicrous.

  Jesus Christ, Em, get a grip on yourself. You’re twenty-two years old, not fifteen.

  She shook her head, shook her thoughts of Kyle Underwood, and instead, went over the counts of her dance routine in her head so she could regain some focus. She only stopped once the game started, and then her eyes naturally found Kyle once again.

  As per usual, the start in this game wasn’t exactly exciting, save for the fact that center Matt Peters won the drop and passed it to Kyle. She had no idea what he felt when he skated on the ice, when he played a sport he obviously loved, but it seemed as though he didn’t even recognize that people were watching him. Nothing else mattered except the game. It reminded Emma of how she felt when she danced, and she couldn’t help but allow herself to be interested in him a little more than she already was.

  A shot on the Seagulls’ goal snapped Emma out of her thoughts on Kyle Underwood as her heart jumped at the thought that the San Francisco Sharks would score first, but Brandon Thorpe reached out and caught the puck, making it seem as easy as breathing. What a save. And yet people were still booing him.

  It still didn’t seem fair.

  Seven minutes into it, the young defenseman that seemed promising – what was his name? Michael something? Number 5. – managed to intercept a pass from the Sharks’ offense. The crowd cheered, along with Emma herself. Yeah, it was preseason but the way he skated, how fast the kid was, caused goosebumps to break out onto her skin.

  Once he crossed into the neutral zone, he passed it to Matt Peters, who happened to be open dead in the center of the ice. Thanks to overheard conversations and a quick check on the official Newport Seagulls message board, Emma paid close attention to the captain. Apparently, the guy was notorious for not shooting despite having the opportunity. And it would seem that his reputation wasn’t without merit.

  Matt was opened. All he had to was spin around, push the puck in front of him just barely, and using that momentum, place on in the back of the net. But he didn’t. He held on to the puck, his brown eyes searching.

  But for what? For an opening? He obviously had the shot. Even the audience saw it; they started shouting “Shoot.”

  But Matt didn’t listen, and two defensemen were working their way over to him.

  He was wasting time. Why wouldn’t he shoot?

  Matt managed to skate around one of the Sharks’ players, keeping control of the puck, and before Emma could take a breath, he passed it to Alec Schumacher.

  The problem was that Alec didn’t have the shooting lane Matt had just given up.

  But Alec only had the puck for a couple of seconds at best. He skated closer to the net and crossed it to Kyle. Emma was surprised that she hadn’t noticed him before, standing almost idly by, waiting patiently for the puck to reach him. He reached the black rubber just in time and reached his stick out – it really looked that easy – in order to shoot the puck into the right corner of the net.

  And just like that, the Gulls scored.

  Emma couldn’t stop herself from jumping to her feet, cheering and clapping. Her father, a man who normally showed his enthusiasm whenever his team scored and was therefore on his feet as well, was startled, but smiled. At that moment, to Emma, it looked as though he didn’t even care if she was learning about hockey for a guy because they were both cheering. They were both happy. They were bonding.

  “What a shot,” he told her, increasing the level of his voice so that it carried over the cheering of the crowd. “See? Underwood’s the one we have to watch. You’ll see.”

  Emma felt ecstatic. She couldn’t really explain the feeling except that she wasn’t just happy that her team scored and that they were ahead, but she was happy for Kyle himself. Because looking at him right now showed just how happy he was. His fellow teammates skated over to him, pulling him into a tight hug, and the announcer seemed particularly enthusiastic when announcing the goal, which of course just caused the fans to start cheering once again.

  But the celebration was cut short. The coach changed players so those that were so recently on the ice could have a quick break, and the puck was dropped at center ice. The game resumed. But Emma’s eyes lingered on Kyle, and even though she probably looked silly with that goofy smile on her face, but she didn’t care. She was just so happy for him. It didn’t matter that in the scope of things, the goal didn’t count, the game didn’t count. But his happiness at it seemed to elevate her own.

  And just like that, he locked eyes with her. (CHANGE!)

  At first, Emma thought that perhaps she was seeing things. She was sitting across the ice, and even though she had good eyesight, it was still hard to decipher if he was looking directly at her. It was her body, however, that revealed that yes, he was. Because her heart stopped and she felt a sickly sweet blush start to crawl across her face. And she could make out those crystal blue eyes so vividly. He was looking at her. She couldn’t help it, but she smiled even more than she already was. And then he smiled too.

  It was a moment.

  Booing caused her to look away and over to Thorpe who had just made another save. She felt her brow furrow, starting to get seriously annoyed with these fans. They all jump to their feet when Kyle scored a goal for their team, but when Thorpe made a save, they boo him.

  It didn’t make sense.

  Her eyes drifted over to Seraphina and Katella Hanson, seated in their usual places just above the home team’s box. Seraphina seemed to be annoyed just as much as Emma was about everyone’s reaction to Thorpe while Katella’s sole focus was that of her boyfriend. The fact that both sisters were here, especially Seraphina, after everything that happened last night, after the papers announced Alan Brown, their uncle, as the main suspect, showed just how strong these two really were.

  “I think I like Seraphina Hanson,” Emma told her father.

  “Oh yeah?” His eyes were on the ice, only giving Emma half his attention. “What makes you say that?”

  “She’s young and she has to deal with so much, but looking at her right now, you would never know it. She carried herself with… class.” Did that make sense? Was that the right word? Emma decided that it sounded right. “Yeah, class. Both of them do. And I think that that makes them admirable.”

  “I have to agree,” her father said. “The fact that she’s here, now. It shows her dedication. That this team is her priority even if she doesn’t quite know how to handle it yet.”

  The period ended with more saves and more boos. Neither side scored, which meant the Gulls retained the lead as the team headed to the locker room.

  Emma leaned back in her seat. The timer on the scoreboard said her body had seventeen minutes to relax before got all tense again thanks to how drawn in she was becoming with each passing second.

  “I’m going to get some food,” Jeremy said, standing up. “Do you want anything?”

  “Yeah, can you get me a hot dog with ketchup and mustard and some water?” Emma asked, batting her eyelashes.

  “You and your appetite,” he muttered with a knowing smile on his face. “Well, I guess I should be grateful you have one, considering you’re a dancer and all.”

  “Oh ha, ha, Dad,” Emma called after him. “You’re a real comedian.”

  She smiled and leaned down to her bag, pulling a book out rather than watching the intermission activity. She was about halfway through it, and carried a second book just in case she finished the first and had nothing else to do. Despite her twenty-two years, her genre of preference was YA nov
els. For whatever reason, the female protagonists were more relatable and well-rounded in comparison to their older, literature genre counterparts, the exception of course being any main character from a Jane Austen novel. But Jane Austen always seemed to be an exception to many things.

  This particular story was dystopian which meant that the setting normally took place in the future but instead of society progressing, it seemed to have regressed into a controlled dictatorship or something along those lines. It was about a girl forced to marry a king she wanted overthrown in order to save her family from dying of poverty. In a complete twist, she found herself not only falling in love with him but also with her husband’s best friend and right hand man who is secretly leading a rebellion against the king. It was the first in a trilogy and even though the love triangle plot was a predictable and tired plot point, Emma wished the second book would be released now so she didn’t have to wait to find out who Ella, the main character, would end up choosing.

  However, one thing she didn’t quite understand about a love triangle was the whole being in love with two guys at the same time. Maybe it was because she was an all-or-nothing type of girl, but the mere thought of being in love with two people at once seemed impossible, exhausting, and stressful. If it was true love, could it really be with two people? In all honesty, she just believed the girl was either infatuated with both choices but confused the feeling for love, or was in love with one and infatuated with the other.

  Not that Emma had to worry about that. She was in love with no one.

  Her father returned and Emma gleefully took the hot dog and water and wolfed it down before the second period began.

  When the third period buzzer went off, the fans cheered. The score ended up being five to two in favor of the Gulls. Kyle didn’t score again, but a defenseman did – two of them, actually, as did Matt Peters. Emma stood, but her father pulled her back down.

  “I can’t believe you forgot,” he said. “They bring out the top three players.”

  “Even during preseason?” Emma asked in confusion, sitting back down.

  “It’s kind of a Gulls tradition,” Jeremy said. “Even though it’s not the actual season, people at the game vote for the top three players and they come out and get recognition. Ken wanted to make sure that the fans appreciated the players and the players, in turn, appreciate the fans.”

  After a few more minutes, a narrow, crimson carpet rolled out from the corner entranceway of the rink, and the Gulls Girls lined up on other side, waving a small, navy blue towel, cheering.

  “Number three player of the game,” the announcer began, causing the room to get quiet, “as voted by you is Kyle Underwood!”

  The crowd cheered as Kyle emerged onto the carpet, waving to the crowd. He skated over to where Emma stood, pointed at her, and then gently tossed his hockey stick over the glass to her. She caught it with ease, her face no doubt matching the carpet. She didn’t even hear the announcement that Brandon Thorpe was voted number two, along with both cheers and boos, and Chad Westwicke was voted number one, due to the two goals he scored in the second period. In fact, her eyes looked down at the smooth stick, taking in the plain design, the scrawl that was Kyle’s signature. Above it, written in black felt pen, was a question.

  Dinner tomorrow? 7 at the Canary?

  Emma’s breath hitched. He asked her out. On a stick, yes, but Kyle Underwood, hockey player, had asked her out.

  What should she say? Well first, she needed to figure out if she wanted to go out with him. Emma didn’t know much about Kyle, but she knew she wanted to get to know him more. And The Canary was her favorite sushi joint in Newport Beach. It wasn’t totally exclusive, but it was trendy and normally got busy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Luckily, tomorrow was Tuesday, so maybe it wouldn’t be too crowded.

  She looked at Kyle, who was looking at her, and she nodded once before looking away.

  “Wow,” her father said as they started to leave. “Nice souvenir.”

  Emma recognized her father’s tone of voice. Like she knew her interest in hockey was all Kyle’s fault. But at that particular moment, she didn’t care.

  15. The next night, Madison, along with her fellow Gulls Girls, was currently at Sea Side Ice Palace, called together for a meeting by none other than Katella Hanson, sister to new Gulls owner Seraphina and granddaughter to original owner Ken Brown. She stood next to Amanda, who was going on about her awkward run-in with her ex at school.

  Amanda was a senior at Cal-State Fullerton. She actually lived in Anaheim, but made the drive up four days of the week. She was double-majoring in business and performing arts because, according to her, she couldn’t make a decision by the deadline so she just chose both. And though the load was hectic, she found that it was fun. On top of school and working as a Gulls Girl, she apparently had one hell of a social life. The many stories Amanda had already shared with Madison involved numerous guys that Madison couldn’t keep track of, even if she tried, parties, shots, and the like. She was bubbly and approachable, and everyone seemed to like her except those who were jealous of who she was. It was like her life was one big party, and yet, she was sweet and warm and obviously kept her grades up in order to stay on the team.

  Madison was always amused by Amanda’s stories, especially when they involved a good amount of gossip, but she knew she could never be Amanda. Madison wasn’t exactly a party girl and she rarely if ever drank, save for maybe a beer every now and then. She didn’t take on more than she could handle when it came to her job and school work. Instead having tons of friends, Madison had Amanda and Rhine and Stephanie from back home. And possibly her two younger sisters, if they counted. Yet somehow, the pair of the red head and the brunette seemed to work. Amanda never pressured Madison to party or to drink and Madison never teased Amanda for her flightiness.

  “What are we doing here, exactly?” Madison asked once Amanda had finished her story about how she smiled and waved at her ex, but refused to go up and speak to him due to the fact that they only broke up a couple of months ago, and while she wanted to be the bigger person, she also didn’t want to revert back to the pain she experienced immediately after the goodbye. “We don’t have a game until tomorrow, right?”

  “I don’t know,” Amanda said. “Surprisingly enough. All I know is that while technically, Lara called us all together, Katella’s actually going to be running the meeting.”

  “That’s what I don’t get, though,” Madison murmured. “Why? She’s not the owner, and besides being Seraphina’s sister and Peters’ girlfriend, I don’t understand how she has any authority on calling a meeting.”

  “Ooh, someone has it out for her,” Amanda said with a grin.

  “No, that’s not it at all,” Madison said, shaking her head. “I don’t even know Katella. She actually seems really nice. I just don’t get why we’re here. Did we do something wrong?”

  “You need to calm down, Maddy.” Amanda gave her friend a pointed look. “Seriously. Who cares? The only thing I might get upset about is the fact that the gas is so expensive right now. What’s the problem anyways? Got a hot date?”

  Madison laughed at the ridiculous claim, but that didn’t stop her face from turning red.

  “Spill,” Amanda said, pouncing on the telltale blush. “Right now. Is he a player? Oh my God, is it Alec Schumacher?” She whispered the last part, ensuring that the surrounding Girls didn’t overhear.

  “What?” Madison asked. “Oh, God no. No. It’s definitely not Alec Schumacher. Why would you say it’s Alec Schumacher?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s just, he always seems to find a way to interact with you, even though technically, he’s not supposed to. Be careful. I already told you about his reputation but…” She let her voice trail off and took a step closer to Madison so Amanda’s pink lips nearly reached Madison’s ear. Whatever Amanda was about to say was going to be big. “At the end of the last season, Faye hooked up with him.�
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  “Gaye?” Madison whispered, surprised. “The captain?”

  “Shhhh!” Amanda looked at the person they were talking about, but as far as the two girls could tell, Faye didn’t overhear them. She seemed to be wrapped up in her own conversation with two Girls Madison recognized as Erica and Kim. “Yes. Nobody’s supposed to know about it. I only know because, well it’s a long story, but to shorten it, she was hoping for something more serious, he wasn’t, and somehow I was in the only other Girl in the locker room when they ended things. Faye looks really strong and is no doubt definitely a bitch, but when she told me everything and I comforted her, she seemed… broken.”

  “But I thought everyone knew his reputation,” Madison said. “Shouldn’t she have known better?”

  “Well, yeah, but every girl wants to be that girl, you know? The girl that gets a guy to commit or to get off drugs or to get over himself. Rarely does it ever happen, and that’s what heartbreak is all about. But for whatever reason, Faye truly believed she could be Alec’s One, and he pretty much rejected her.”

  “When you say hooked up…” Madison let her voice trail off, but she didn’t have to finish the sentence for her question to come across.

  “Yeah, they had sex,” Amanda said with a curt nod. “The thing is, Faye admitted that Alec told her that he wasn’t interested in anything serious but Faye thought that after they did it, he might change his mind, you know? When Alec stopped taking her calls, she went over to his place and confronted him, only to find him with another girl. Not a Gulls Girl, mind you. But still.”

  “I mean, yeah it sucks that he likes to play the field, but at least he was upfront about it.” Madison crossed her arms over her chest. “I feel like girls sometimes think guys play games with them or will change their mind, but when they say something, I always tend to believe it. It’s high school all over again. I don’t have any patience for mind games. I feel like they’re a waste of time. It was stupid for Faye to have sex with him after he told her he wasn’t interested in anything serious, and she had no right to go over to his house. They weren’t ever exclusive.”