Page 25 of Ice Princess

Watson starts singing‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’and the other guys join in, singing so robustly that Max pokes his head out of a window in the second floor admin section to see what the racket’s about.

“What’s going on?” our team manager yells.

Chance looks at Max with a shrug.

Theilan spins around to yell at our team manager, “Gunner and Rebel are dating.”

“That’s nice,” Max says. “What does that have to do with you guys?”

Watson shakes his head. “You and Chance didn’t grow up in Lucky Falls, so you don’t know. But Rebel Hart is a legend around here.”

“Rebel Hart?” Max snorts.

I frown at him.

The team manager looks at me in surprise. “Is her last name actually Heart? As in ‘Brave Heart’?”

“It’s Hart without the ‘e’,” I grumble. “H-A-R-T.”

Theilan protests, “Nah, spell that correctly. It’s Rebel K-I-N-S-E-Y now.”

Laughter breaks out from the team.

I roll my eyes.

If they knew how hard I had to work just to get Rebel topretendto date me, they’d know the likelihood of her changing her last name to Kinsey is as good as aliens descending on Lucky Falls and playing against us on the ice.

“My older brother told me this once,” Theilan’s voice drips with a gossipy undertone, “that so many guys were leaving her love letters and trying to get with her, that it started fights in PE and on the basketball court. Even the teachers had to get involved.”

Chance swings around, his eyes wide. “Is that true?”

I squirm. “There were only a few fights…”

Chance’s eyes double in size.

Watson takes up the story. “From then on, Rebel swore that she’d never date a guy from Lucky Falls. She’s only ever dated out-of-towners. No matter how hard anyone tried, she’d turn them down flat.”

At first, I open my mouth to argue but, on second thought, I wonder if they have a point. I didn’t notice before, but each time I heard of Rebel dating someone, it wasn’t a native of our town.

“I should have known that if anyone in Lucky Falls could do it, it would be a Kinsey.” Theilan points to me and starts applauding.

Max purses his lips, impressed. “Not bad, Kinsey.”

“It’s not like that,” I mutter.

But no one hears me nor do they care.

I give Chance a helpless look.

He clears his throat and motions to the team. “Enough chit-chat. Where’s coach? Everyone’s got so much energy today that I’ll suggest we do suicide drills.”

Groans break out from the guys.

I hold back my laughter when Theilan begs, “Are you punishing us for being single?”

“Yeah, now that you two have girlfriends, you’re ganging up on us,” Watson whines.

“I’m happily single.” Renthrow pats Watson on the shoulder. “Leave Gunner alone and let’s get started. I have to hurry home.”

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