"What?" Disappointment flashed across Hadley's face. "It's early. We can't leave yet."
"You can't leave." Jesse stuck his lip out in a pretend pout. At least, she hoped it was pretend.
"Give us a moment," Hadley said to Jesse. "I need to talk to my girl."
With a shrug, Jesse skated to where he'd left his gear on the bench and retrieved his stick.
Hadley turned to Charlotte. "I don't want to go."
"Hads—"
"No, Charlie. I said I wanted you to have fun for a change. Well, this is what fun looks like."
"Hanging out with the hockey team?"
"Yes. Hanging out with anyone. It's Friday night, and I know you'd rather be home, but please, for me, let's stay."
Charlotte scrubbed a hand over her face and glanced down at her stick. If she made them leave, she'd be a terrible friend. Hadley had always been there for her. It was long past time she returned the favor.
"Fine." She sighed. "But I'm not playing."
"You don't have to. We can watch." Hadley lunged forward to hug her, knocking Charlotte off balance. She fell back, the force of her body hitting the ice sending a jolt up her spine. Hadley landed on top of her. That was going to bruise.
Hadley pushed herself off with a sheepish grin. "Sorry."
"S'okay." Charlotte groaned as she sat up and rubbed her back where she hit the hardest. A hand appeared in front of her face, and she lifted her eyes to Jesse.
"Never thought I'd see the ice princess fall."
Charlotte pushed his hand away and climbed to her feet. "I don't know where you got this idea in your head that I'm perfect, Jesse Carrigan."
"No one is perfect."
She stared at him for a moment. His deep blue eyes pierced into her in a way she wasn't sure she was comfortable with. She dropped her gaze and skated toward the bench, hoping for some kind of escape from his scrutiny.
"Jess Jess," someone called down the tunnel.
Charlotte groaned. Jesse was bad enough. Now she'd be subjected to a night of Roman Sullivan.
Roman stepped onto the ice followed by a stream of other guys. His voice boomed across the ice. "Hadley, didn't expect to see you here."
Hadley giggled. Yep, actually giggled, the sound grating in Charlotte's ears. She hated how her friend changed around these guys.
Damien Lee, one of the few capable wingers on the team skated toward her. He was a sophomore and kind of cute for a younger guy. Red rose in his cheeks as he approached. "H-hey, Charlotte."
"Hi, Damien." She smiled. The underclassmen didn't make fun of her the way her peers in her classes did, so she didn't dislike them as much.
"I-I didn't expect to see you here."
"I didn't know the team was coming." She glanced behind him at the mass of guys huddled around Roman and Hadley. Her eyes met Jesse's for a brief moment before she returned her attention to Damien.
"I don't have to play." He looked anywhere but at her. "I can stay here and hang out with you."
Charlotte wasn't well-versed in guy. She knew now her dad forbid his team from dating her—not like she'd date any of them—but Damien seemed to either not know or not care.
Her expression softened. "That's okay. I—"
Jesse's holler cut her off. "Damien, stop flirting and get your butt over here. We're choosing teams."
Damien sent her an apologetic smile and skated off. Did these guys do whatever Jesse told them?
She pushed open the swinging door and sat on the bench, not paying attention to whatever was happening on the ice.
Before long, she heard something she wished Hadley would take back.
"My girl can out-skate anyone from your team."
It was as if time froze. Charlotte's heart pounded in her chest, and all eyes turned to her.
She rubbed sweaty palms against her pants. She could out-skate them, no doubt, but now they were looking at her.
Roman laughed. "A figure skater cannot beat a hockey skater."
Those words did something to Charlotte, emboldening her somehow. It was anger more than courage.
She stepped back onto the ice, skating with a purpose as she approached Roman. "Say that again."
Roman looked to Jesse, but Jesse only put his hands up and stayed out of it. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're a girl. You don't have the power in your legs to skate as fast as one of us."
She narrowed her eyes. "If any of you could skate fast, you'd win a game every once in a while." Her mom would kill her for getting into this situation, especially with a competition in a few weeks. She was only supposed to skate in training so she didn’t get injured. But she was here now, and she refused to back down.
Roman's jaw clenched. "Winning a hockey game isn't quite as easy as winning those little medals by dancing around out here."
"Rome," Jesse said. "Come on, man."
Roman ignored him. "A race."
She nodded. "Four laps. No funny business, only skating. You ready?"
"Oh." He laughed. "I won't be racing you." He grinned. "My man Jesse has that honor. Best skater on the team."
She shifted her eyes to the man in question. Jesse gave a helpless shrug. "Fine. The rest of you, get off the ice."
"She's bossy." Roman turned to the rest of the team. "Coach doesn't find out about this. She wasn't even here with us."
They all nodded.
Charlotte bristled at that. Her dad's rule was stupid, but she'd learned long ago she couldn't change her parents.
Roman led the other guys to the benches, giving the ice to the competitors. Hadley hugged Charlotte. "Kick his butt."
"This is your fault."
She pulled away but kept a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, Charlie, have fun." With a thumbs up, she skated away.
"You don't have to do this." Jesse left his stick laying at center ice and she followed suit.
"Afraid I'll win?"
"No." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But you don't have to prove anything to them."
"That's the thing, Jesse. I do. None of you take me seriously. I'm not an ice princess. You have no idea what it's like when you're not at the top of the food chain." She shook her head. "The sad thing is I'm a better athlete than any of those guys. And they call me princess."
"Char—"
"Let's just race, okay?"
He nodded and followed her to the edge of the blue line where they'd start.
Hadley straddled the half-wall in front of the bench with her arm in the air.
Charlotte sucked in a deep breath, calming herself like she did before every competition, pushing the nerves from her mind. In ice skating, there was no room to be nervous, to wonder if you'd land your next jump. The line between perfection and injury was as thin as the blade of her skate.
But this time, she wasn't competing for any judges. No one would score her every move. No, this time she competed for herself.
Hadley's arm dropped, and Charlotte took off, only vaguely aware of Jesse beside her. His strides were shorter than hers, choppier, but he had power.
And so did she.
They stayed neck and neck for the better part of the first two laps. Charlotte’s legs burned as she started to pull away, to go faster. She was trained to endure almost five minutes of jumps and spins. Four laps around the rink was child's play.
Jesse didn't slow, but he struggled to match her speed, falling behind a little at first. But as they rounded the end of the rink, she widened her lead.
Hadley screamed her name, her voice rising above the guys cheering on their teammate.
A teammate who was going to lose to their so-called "ice princess." When she made it to the blue line after her final lap, she skated to a stop and bent over to catch her breath, looking back at Jesse who was half a lap behind her.
She'd done it.
Adrenaline pumped through her, more exhilarating than any of the competitions she'd done in months. A grin stretched across her lips as Jesse made it to her, his chest heaving.
"Dang, y
ou're fast." He wiped a bead of sweat from his cheek. His eyes latched onto hers, but she glanced away. "Look, I have an idea. I don't know if you're going to like it, but—"
Hadley reached them, interrupting Jesse's words as she threw her arms around Charlotte. "You did it!"
"Of course, I did." Charlotte laughed. "I've been in skates longer than any of these guys."
Roman clapped Jesse on the back. "Tough break, bro." He turned to Charlotte and bent at the waist. "I bow to the ice queen."
It was better than ice princess, she guessed.
The rest of the team crowded around them, ribbing on Jesse and congratulating Charlotte.
She managed to squeeze her way out of the scrum and away from the uncomfortable attention. They continued to yammer on, but she skated away, needing a quiet moment.
It wasn't until she bent to pick up her hockey stick that she realized Jesse followed her.
"Are you sure you won't play?"
Right, the hockey game, the reason they'd come to her parent's rink late at night. She shook her head.
"I could really use someone like you on my wing."
The one thing she knew about the team was that the first line was competent, unlike the rest of the team. "You have Roman and Damien for that."
One corner of his mouth curved up. "But you're better than them." He dropped his voice. "Don't tell them I said that. They know you're fast, but if they saw what you could do with a puck, they wouldn't question it."
"I'm sorry." She turned away from him. "I can't."
She skated past the team to the tunnel and found the pink skate guards she'd left. Snapping them on, she stepped off the ice and walked toward the girls’ locker room. She wasn't meant for crowds and attention.
At least when she was among the masses at competitions, she wore her serene skater's mask for the cameras, never letting anyone see a crack in the veneer.
But when it was just her, just Charlotte, she wished they'd leave her be.
In the locker room, she flipped on the lights and removed her skates. Hadley would realize she'd left and eventually find her here.
She turned the shower on and undressed before stepping under the steaming spray. After skating, she always took blazing hot showers to loosen her muscles and clear her mind.
Only, it wasn't so effective this time.
Because when she stepped out and dried off, Jesse Carrigan was still on her mind.
"You're better than them.”
No one other than Hadley even knew how good Charlotte had become at hockey, that when her parents weren't home, she spent too much time in the basement shooting pucks and decking pretend defensemen.
Because she loved it.
And she could never tell anyone quite how much.
Charlotte Morrison was a figure skater, she'd always be a figure skater. She had a competition to prepare for. There was no time to think about anything else. So, she did what she always did.
She ignored the things that bothered her.
Acted as if none of it mattered.
Pretend. Pretend. Pretend.
Maybe then she'd win another competition she cared nothing for.
Hadley barged into the room as Charlotte finished getting dressed. "There you are!"
"Here I am."
"The guys have started playing, so I'm bored. We can go." Translation, they stopped paying attention to her. But Charlotte would take it.
"Perfect."
They didn't pass by the rink on their way out, instead leaving down the long hallway from the locker rooms, away from the guys who got to suck at playing the sport she loved.
7
Jesse
They lost. Again. Sunday's afternoon game started out great. For the first time in months, the Gulf City Hurricanes scored the first two goals of the game.
Then everything started to fall apart.
First, Damien got hurt. A player from the other team hit him in the corner, and he went into the boards. The full arena—because people still came even though they sucked for some reason—went completely silent until Coach and a trainer helped Damien off the ice.
After that, the guys got reckless, hitting everything that moved and taking penalties as if their lives depended on it.
It took a grand total of ninety seconds for the game to be tied. Jesse wanted to forget about everything that happened after that. He'd expected a quiet locker room after the game, but the guys talked and joked as if their play hadn't even mattered.
Damien ended up with a nasty bruise that would hurt for a while, but he didn’t have a concussion.
Jesse ended up with the hopeless feeling that nothing would change. He had to do something.
The plan he'd started to form as soon as he'd seen Charlotte skating began to seem like an impossible one. She'd never agree.
But he had to try. Right?
He walked into Chem on Monday to find Charlotte sitting by herself. She didn't look up when he stopped at her table.
"Where's Hadley?" he asked.
She traced an invisible image on the black tabletop with her finger. "Sick."
Studying her for a moment longer, he slid into Hadley's normal chair at her side.
She finally looked his way. "What are you doing?"
"Sitting next to you."
"Obviously. But what are you doing?"
He chuckled at that. "I want to talk to you."
"Why?"
He hated the uncertainty in her voice. Were people at this school really that awful to her? Hadley was so sweet and bubbly. There had to be a reason she’d attached herself to Charlotte's hip.
"Charlie—"
"I told you that's not my name."
"Except for friends. I know. But I want to be friends."
"Again, why?" She drew out the word.
"I need your help."
She shrank away from him and pretended to flip through her notebook. "I don't think I'm the person you want."
"You're exactly who I want, who I need. Charlie—"
"Class," Mr. Thompson called as he walked in. "We're watching a video today that will prepare you for our experiments next week. I'm handing out a worksheet I want you to complete during the video." He walked down the aisles passing out their work.
"Charlie." Jesse tried again.
She held a finger to her lips and pointed to the screen where the video started. Mr. Thompson turned off the lights, throwing the room into darkness.
"Psst," Roman whispered from behind them.
Jesse half-turned in his seat. "Hey, man."
"Why are you sitting with her?" He didn't seem offended Jesse chose Charlotte's table over his, only curious.
"I'll explain later."
He turned back around but couldn't focus on the work in front of him, not with hockey on the brain.
"Charlie." He leaned toward her. "I want you to work with my team on our skating."
Her pencil froze mid-air, and she turned to look at him with wide eyes. "No." She resumed watching the video, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear just to have something to do with her hand.
"Why not?" he whispered.
"Because I'm not an instructor."
"But you could be. Come on, just think about it."
"Jesse," Mr. Thompson said. "Charlotte, we do not speak during videos."
"Sorry, Mr. Thompson," Charlotte squeaked.
She went back to scribbling notes on her worksheet as if she hadn't heard Jesse at all.
With a sigh, Jesse turned to his own work. He'd always been okay at school, never great. Just like most things.
He glanced down at the time on his phone thankful class was half-over. These videos were awful. Their teacher only put it on so he didn’t have to teach them about the phases of matter himself.
With another look at Mr. Thompson, who'd distracted himself in the back of the room, Jesse tapped Charlotte's worksheet with his pencil.
"Please."
She didn't respond for a long moment. "Why d
o you want my help so badly? You can skate."
"Not like you."
"You have a coach, Jesse. I call him Dad."
This was getting nowhere. "Yes, but he's the coach. Some of the guys don't respond well to being coached. I want you to work with us."
She shook her head. "I can't. Even if my dad would ever allow me around his team—which he wouldn't—I don't have the time. I'm sorry."
To his surprise, she actually sounded sorry.
"Just—"
She shook her head. "You're going to get us in trouble. Stop talking."
He couldn't give up, not after what he saw this girl do on the ice.
"Just one day. Come to a practice. I'm sure your dad won't mind."
Coach would do anything to help his team. Jesse had to believe he'd let his daughter come. It wasn't like the guys were going to hit on her right in front of him. Most of them were too scared to even approach her.
She sighed. "My dad might be convinced. Mom... never. I can't waste my time with a hockey team when I have a competition coming up."
Waste. That should have bothered him, but he didn't believe that was how she truly felt. He'd seen the smile on her face as she handled the puck. She loved the game. He'd never have guessed it until the moment he saw her on Friday.
Charlotte "ice princess" Morrison had a secret love affair with hockey.
He glanced at the video before leaning back toward her. "We have a game in two weeks against our biggest rival. We haven't beaten them since my Freshman year. Just one game, one time this year, I'd like us to win."
"Jesse, I—
"Miss Morrison," Mr. Thomspon snapped. "I don't expect such disobedience from you."
He paused the video, and every eye in the class turned to them.
Charlotte gripped the edge of the table, her hands shaking. Jesse had been in school with her since they were kids and couldn't remember a single time she got in trouble.
"Mr. Thompson." He stood. "It's my fault. I was distracting her."
Mr. Thompson ran a hand over his bald head and sighed, his tone softening. "I'm afraid I have to send you both to the principal's office." He pointed to the door.
Charlotte sat frozen in disbelief for a long moment before gathering her books and running from the room. Jesse chased after her.
Jesse and the Ice Princess (Gulf City High Book 1) Page 5
