Page 47 of Rookie Season
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” I tell Sasha gently. “You’re a great dancer, and you’ve got the rest of theroutine down pretty darned perfectly. You’ve just gotta keep your chin up, keep trying.”
“But what if I still can’t?”
“You can.” I pull back from her far enough so I can meet her eyes. “Do you want to hear how I know that?”
Sasha nods her head, and I smile and tap my chest with my index finger. “I know that because it’s already in here. You have the desire and the motivation in your heart to make it happen—you’ve just gotta keep on fighting through the hard days where it feels impossible. When it feels like you’re going to fail, you just keep on trying. And just like that, it will happen.”
“Really?” Sasha pulls off her glasses to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Really,” I promise, and I’m rewarded with a big smile.
“Thank you, Miss Ally.”
“Anytime, sweetheart. I’m proud of you,” I say, and I mean it. It fills my heart to see Sasha walking over to greet her dad with her head held high. There’s confidence in her steps, like she’s filled with a new sense of determination to succeed.
I smile to myself as I watch them leave together, before I turn away and start cleaning the mats we used for our end of class stretching session.
My phone pings with a text, and I slide open a new message in our “Loft 3B” group text chain that Fisher insisted we start.
Fisher
Ally, we’re headed out to the arena here in a minute, so I just wanted to check if you’re still coming tonight?
Ally
I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Just finished up my last lesson for the day, I’ll start walking home from work soon to change and then Uber over to the arena. Good luck to all of you!
The boys are playing at home tonight, and I’m going to go to the game with Andie, who invited me to sit with her and her girls.
I’m excited to watch the guys play again…they had a game in LA a couple of days ago, and I watched it on TV. I found myself missing them. The loft felt strangely empty without all their banter and laughter and noise.
Fisher
Ally
I’m not even going to ask. I’ll see you guys after the game.
Penn
I wanted to have a bit of a party at our place after, but that chick downstairs might officially lose her pucking mind if we make too much noise.
Fisher
Ha, did you even autocorrect puck to puck in your phone?!
Fisher
I mean puck
Fisher
Puck
Fisher
Puck!
Noah
