Page 51 of Playoff
Chapter 22
I’m the Ponzi guy
Alek
* * *
I didn’t know who pulled strings, but when I arrived for practice on Monday there was a jersey with ALEK on the back in my stall. No one commented. JJ ignored me when he came in, so I didn’t know if he was aware yet or not.
The first time Coach called “Alek,” JJ’s head whipped around looking for the new guy. I was the only one who skated over, so he caught on. The way he glared at me made it obvious he wasn’t impressed. This idea was going to backfire, and I’d get the blame for it.
It was a good thing we’d improved our play over the last couple of games, because this practice was a gong show. I was called Den-Alek more than anything else, and a couple of times I missed it when someone called me by my first name. I’d been Denny for years, even off the ice. Guys didn’t respond correctly when Alek was called, and it unsettled people enough that even the coaches were missing things.
Coach called us in at the end of practice. His frustration was obvious. “Okay, home game tomorrow. I hope like hell you do better at morning skate because we can’t afford to keep losing.”
He skated off the ice and JJ came right at me. “What the fuck?”
I thought he was going to drop the gloves, but this was a practice, for fuck’s sake.
Cooper pushed between us, shoving the angry JJ back. “Settle the fuck down.”
JJ shot him a furious glance but skated back a couple of feet. “Is this some kind of joke? He’s trying to hide who he is?”
Yep, the blame game was headed my way.
Fitch moved in on my other side. “This isn’t on D-Alek. It’s another of Ducky’s ideas.”
JJ whipped his glare over to Fitch. “What is?”
“You and Alek. Ducky’s not even here and he can see the problem. This issue between you two is bleeding into our games.”
I had no idea what to say, surprised by Fitch coming in on my side. JJ’s eyes dropped and his shoulders folded in. “I’m working on it.”
Cooper tapped him with his stick. “We get it. Ducky figured the name was a trigger, so if we used Alek instead, you could maybe forget what happened and just focus on hockey. At least while we’re playing.”
JJ pulled off his helmet and swore. “I’m sorry. I thought I was past all this shit.”
Cooper looked at me. “Are you past it all, Alek?”
I snorted. “Couldn’t be if I wanted to.”
Cooper turned back to his linemate. “So maybe we can’t forget about it, but we can try to set it aside here, on the ice. And one way to do that is with the name change, at least for now.” He tapped JJ’s shin with his stick. “Alek is willing to try. Are you?”
JJ didn’t answer for a moment. “Is this gonna fly with the league?”
Cooper shrugged. “We’ll find out. We’ll blame it on a mistake with an order somewhere, let it go as long as we can.”
As long as I wasn’t getting dinged for it. I hadn’t lived down the illegal stick call.
“I should have known this was a Ducky thing,” JJ said. “Guy thinks he’s a psychiatrist now.” He looked at me again, as if testing me for something—sincerity?—then skated away.
“You okay?” Cooper checked on me as well, for god knew what.
“Sure.” What did he expect? If using my first name would help the team and as a result my stats improved, I was in. As long as I wasn’t left to take any blame for it on my own. It would be nice to have a team I could relax with.
“Want to do lunch?”
I didn’t need a babysitter. JJ was the guy with the problem. “I’m skipping the meal here, since I need to find a vehicle.”
