Page 71 of Heart Check
And one saysTRUST YOUR TEAM.
I have to swallow down the lump in my throat.
Red had it all wrong. It’s not just about being the best and not wasting your talent.
It’s about showing up for people. Like the community is doing for us today. Because that’s what communitydoes.
Harper always knew that. In the car after Skate Night, she was trying to get me to see how amazing my team is—how special it is to have the guys on my side no matter what, always having my back. What it meant to have community support like this. Because she wasn’t used to getting the same treatment.
I knew I was lucky, but I’ve kind of been taking it for granted. Almost forgetting the most important thing Dad taught me.
That talent’s not worth anything if you don’t use it for the guys on your team.
25.HARPER
The entire town must floodthrough the doors of the hockey facility and past my merchandise table. Their excited voices echo off the gleaming tiles, and all the blue hurts my eyes. Many of them wear jerseys with their favorite players’ numbers—a sea of 47s, and every time I have to catch my breath like it’s Dawson himself standing before me.
Get a grip, Harper.You have work to do. He’s moved on, and you should too. Man your merch table, avoid the rink, and try not to think about hockey players.
That used to be so easy. Surely it can be again.
“Spirit bracelets for sale!” I call. “Support your Hamilton Lakes Hawks!”
After my run-in with Noah, I had a moment of panic at the idea of selling bracelets outside the game where the whole school would be screaming Dawson’s name. But I couldn’t flake. Even if Dawson and I never speak again, spending time with him has shown me how much heart and soul goes into the games I used to mock. There’s no way I’m letting Noah discourage me from playing some small role in it.
And this is definitely good for business. With Marissa’shelp, I managed to put together a huge stock of spirit bracelets. I made some simple, just school colors; some with players’ numbers on them; and my favorite, the ones with little charms. All the things that now make me think of hockey season. Sticks and skates and pucks, hot chocolate and pom-pom hats. I even found a little Zamboni driver in the depths of the internet that I rush-ordered to get here in time.
If anything can give my grant application the last pizzazz it needs, it’s a tiny silver Zamboni driver. I mean, come on.
Sabrina and Marissa are by my side, taping up posters advertising the merch and pricing. Sabrina is a Michelangelo with glitter paint. Marissa… not so much. But she snuck us in to use the newspaper’s copier, and that alone is worth its weight in gold.
“Thanks for your help,” I say, smiling gratefully at them both. “I’m not sure I could do this without you. Not everyone is so excited to see me.”
As if on cue, a group of girls walking past gives me a criminal side-eye. One of them mutterstraitor; the other says Dawson’s name in a dark tone, but I can’t catch the rest.
My stomach flips. My moment of belonging was short-lived—whoever saw me with Dawson at Skate Night is surely clocking the way we’ve been avoiding each other ever since. Who knows what he’s been saying.
The trouble is, this time I deserve it all.
“Just wait until they see your bracelets,” Sabrina says. Raising her voice, she calls, “Spirit bracelets! Spirit bracelets for sale!”
I’d sell my left kidney for a quarter of her confidence. And I’d give her my right one out of gratitude. Without her support, I doubt I’d be sellinganything.
Well. Her support and Ryan’s. That menace of a manwhore (affectionate) stopped by the table and bought a whole arm’s worth of bracelets before the game, promising to distribute them to the rest of the team. He complimented Marissa’s puffball sweater, and she expressed her shock that he hadn’t customized his hockey uniform to include some sort of paisley print.
To Sabrina, he’d raised an eyebrow and asked, “So when are we doing that foosball rematch? We have some unfinished business from Thanksgiving.”
“Already drawing up a bracket for winter break,” Sabrina said, raising an eyebrow right back. “You’re going to have to get in line.”
For once, Ryan didn’t have a flirtatious comeback to that one, and I swear a blush rose on his cheeks. Kind of nice to seehimflustered for a change.
But I can’t pry further, too busy wondering what distributing bracelets to the “rest of the team” means. Does that include Dawson? Will he wear one?
Regardless, between the jocks and the Spirit Committee, this might actually work. Sabrina was right about Hamilton Lakes athletics bringing people together. Liv and Miguel even file in wearing Hawks gear and chatting animatedly with students from the jazz band.
“Excuse me, can I purchase one of these fine creations?”
I look up, grinning, at the familiar voice. Lindsey’s standing in front of the table in a cute pink puffer vest, insulated travel mug cupped in her hands. “For you, they’re on the house,” I say.
