Page 36 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
I take in the chaotic scene in front of me: five elementary-school-aged kids are decked out in winter wear and ice skates, racing around the frozen pond like they each have a death wish.
Exactly one minute ago, I led the group of kids out here and started going over the drills I wanted them to try out, but as soon as they got their skates on, the kids took off.
My heart races as I watch two of them nearly collide while flying across the pond at lightning speed. Another pair is playing tag and giggling as they bump into another kid who’s standing in the middle of the pond staring up at the sky.
The nerves I managed to ward off earlier in the morning are back in full force, like a rogue wave annihilating a shoreline. Fuck. We’re not even five minutes into the day and I’m on the verge of losing every single one of these kids to some catastrophic accident.
One kid attempts to jump two of the orange cones but trips and falls face-first into the nearby snow bank. I start to rush over to check on him, but Maya beats me over there and pulls him out of the snow bank. When I see the kid giggling, I let out a breath of relief. I need to get this under control now.
“Stop!” All the kids freeze at my monster shout. Five pairs of eyes look at me, clearly frightened. Shit. I was way too harsh with that.
I clear my throat and force a smile that, judging from the still freaked-out faces of all the kids, looks more deranged than friendly.
“Who’s ready for some hockey drills?” I say in the most awkward fake cheery tone I’ve ever attempted.
Dead silence. Even Maya is looking at me with a confused expression.
“I’ve got some cool activities planned today for guys,” I say. “First, we’ll do laps around the pond, then I’ll teach you how to shoot a goal, and then we’ll…”
One of the kids—the one who fell head-first into the snowbank—raises his hand.
“Uh…” It takes a second for me to remember his name. “Yeah, Parker?”
He sniffles before wiping his nose with the back of his mitten. “But…I wanna dive in the snow some more.”
“You do?” I ask, dumbfounded.
He nods.
“Okay, um, maybe we can save that for—”
“I wanna do spins,” says Annabelle, my teammate Dylan’s stepdaughter. She’s wearing a hot pink glittery stocking cap and matching gloves. “Mommy and Dylan said I could do all the spins I wanted if I came here today.”
“Oh. Well, that’s…”
“Mommy says that hockey is a cash cow and that once Daddy retires from playing, he’s screwed. Is that true?”
I stand there with my mouth open at the random-ass question the kid standing next to Parker just asked.
“I don’t know if that’s—”
Just then Maya comes up and stands next to me. “How about we kick things off with a fun skate? You guys keep skating around the pond however you want. Just be careful to give each other enough space so you don’t bump into each other and get hurt. Does that sound good?”
All the kids tell her yeah.
“And then after that, we’ll have snacks and rest time and Theo will show you some cool hockey tricks. Do you wanna see his super cool trick shot?”
The kids offer a resounding “yeah!”
She smiles and flashes a thumbs-up before telling them to go ahead with fun skate. They go back to playing and laughing and screeching.
All I can do is just stand there and look at her in complete awe. In less than a minute she completely turned this disaster around. And she did it in a way that was appealing and fun-sounding to the kids. No way could I have managed that.
I think back to the brunch with her family all those days ago, how her brother Tyler made those comments about her acting unfocused and aimless in her job history. He’s got the wrong idea about her because there was nothing aimless and unfocused about how she took control of this situation.
I let out a breath and turn to Maya. “I guess it was a good idea for you to bring me on after all,” she teases.
“That’s an understatement. You saved my ass.”
