Page 5 of Heart Check
I hope they have the worst season of their careers.
3.DAWSON
“Have you checked your email?”
I squint at the bright square of light from the hallway, silhouetting Alex’s familiar stocky, muscular build. After an hour in the dark, empty classroom, my eyes take a minute to adjust.
“How did you—?”
“Find My Friends. And it’s a good thing, too. You haven’t checked it, have you?”
I shake my head, still in a trance. But I pause the video playing on my phone and pop my headphones out. Only a few days into the season and I’m already scrambling for time. I had a spare hour after class, so I holed up here to map Dad’s training schedule onto Coach Red’s and to watch some film of last year’s games. Every time I pull up the Northview match that cost us the season, it makes my stomach knot with nausea. I still can’t quite figure out how it happened—they’re good, especially their center, Jack Petrov, but we’rebetter. All our stats outmatch theirs. But it was one of the toughest games I’ve ever played, checked within an inch of my life and outskated in a way I’m not used to.
Dad had been just as confused. I know because he got quiet, almost silent that whole night and weekend. The same silent he got when we watched the Stanley Cup finals every year, even though he’d never miss it. It was an intense quiet. The quiet of someone trying to figure out how to make a story end differently.
When he’d spoken again, it was to say:Work hard enough and you’ll beat them next time.I did my best to match his expression, shoving down the unfamiliar shame. Neither of us can control the luck, but the hard work is always in our grasp. Like it or not, I need to study Northview’s every move before we have another matchup this year.
Alex hops from one foot to the other with frantic energy. I’ve never seen him frown so deeply, and nerves gather in the pit of my stomach. “What’s the email about?”
“Coach Dan said we have a team meeting. In the auditorium.”
“Coach Dan?” My brow furrows too. Dan never calls our meetings. I clamber to my feet. “I’m supposed to work, and I already asked Harper to cover for me once this week.”
My whole body aches from the increase in training since the season started. It’s getting increasingly difficult to fit in shifts at the diner with the extra conditioning and lifting I want to do.
God, I’m so tired of Harper glaring across the room and sniping at me about the hours she’s had to pick up. When she first started working at the Lakeside Diner (not actually lakeside, but my parents had thought it sounded good) freshman year, I’d been basically useless for a full week. She was just really… distracting. Her gigantic green eyes tracked myevery movement as I trained her, and I totally forgot how to operate the fryer when she put her hair up into a ponytail—it was more than just brown, it was so many shades of mahogany and auburn, and it looked so soft…
I’d made a promise to myself two years ago not to date during the school year. Hanging out over the summer was okay as long as there were no strings, but once the season started, girls just pulled my focus. Dad always reminded me I had to stay locked in if Red was going to invest in me. And clearly I needed the rule, because my resolve was getting tested fast.
Luckily, it only took a few days for the curiosity in Harper’s eyes to turn to disdain. She was all hands on hips, raised eyebrows, and questions that implied I wasn’t trustworthy or something. And when that turned into a vendetta against the hockey team last year, filing weekly petitions asking for our funding to get redistributed, I decided the smartest thing was to keep my distance as much as possible.
I can’t wait to leave the restaurant behind next year.
All the better if it shows her I earned every bit of recognition I get from this school. I don’t know why her derision worms its way so far under my skin. Maybe because her words sound familiar. Like they could be coming from my own brain.
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Alex glances over his shoulder, itching to move. He hates being late, or anything else that threatens the peace on the team. “This shit seems serious. I had to cancel on Max, and I’ve barely seen him since he got back from visiting his great-aunt in Tokyo. I promised to take him to the bookstore, so you can imagine how well bailingwent over. The least you can do is ask to trade shifts. Harper always says she needs the money, right?”
I sigh, bracing myself for the wrath of Harper Braedon as I swipe open my phone.
Can you cover my shift this afternoon? Last minute hockey stuff.
The little typing bubble pops up immediately. I can almost see her thumbs flying across the keyboard as she reams me out.
Which is more important than anything the rest of us have going on??
I can’t help myself.Probably.
You’re so lucky I need the money. And you owe me.
I give her last message a thumbs-up and pocket my phone, turning back to Alex, who’s still vibrating with nerves in the doorway.
“Let’s go.” I grab my bag. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
When we get to the auditorium, the first thing I see is Coach Dan standing next to Principal Castillo. Dan’s pasty-white skin is even paler than usual. Like he’s nervous. I freeze midstep, and Alex crashes into me from behind. “Bro, what’s your prob—” When he sees what stopped me in my tracks, his gulp is audible. “What is theprincipaldoing here?” he hisses.
I head slowly down the aisle, mouth dry. “Nothing good.”
Because not only is the principal here, but Red is conspicuously absent.
