Page 9 of Unbreakable
“No, it’s like every line is a different team. It’s every man for himself.”
“It’ll be alright, guys. Florida’s a tough team,” Colton said, and the room quieted to give the captain room to talk.
I firmly disagreed with that sentiment. Having had three seasons of captaincy under my belt, it was hard for me not to pipe in. But Leroy made his distaste known with a scoff.
“We’ll have to push harder next time, get on the forecheck,” Colt went on.
I snapped. “That’s not it. Every one of you is holding the puck too long.”
“Oh, it’s the expert again,” Garner chimed in with a teasing tone.
“Yeah, Pickles. How’d they do it on your last team?” Yevgeny Dotsenko, or Dottie, made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t fond of me. Here he propped his chin in his hand and his elbow on his knee like he was really listening to me. In other words, he was being a complete shithead. Fortunately, we weren’t on the same line, but he took any opportunity to put me in my place.
But me staying in my place wasn’t making the team win any games.
“No, let him finish,” Colton said, waving Dottie off. “Go ahead, Picksy.”
“If you’re not moving it on to someone else in three seconds, it’s already dead. You’re holding out for the perfect opportunity, and they’re getting the chance to swarm you. Then on defense,we’re hanging in the corners too much instead of staying tight on the net.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Dottie said.
“Alright, Coach,” Garner said, adding to the efforts to mock me.
“Do you want to win or not?” I asked. “How many more games like tonight’s do you want to have? Do you think Florida’s that much better than us? Or does Florida just play like a unit instead of like twenty guys who only give a fuck about themselves?”
“The fuck,” Dottie said, popping his jaw. “Colt, you’re gonna let him talk over you like that? I don’t know how the fuck you got to be captain?—”
Coach stalked into the locker room at that moment. “Sorrento’s right,” he said. “And the sooner you can start acting like professionals, the sooner we’ll start winning. No more bullshit excuses.”
He launched into a review of our mistakes and the plan for our next practice. But after that, no one spoke to me or even looked my way.
FOUR
JEANINE
NOW | NOVEMBER
We’re going to *have the time of our lives*
(pic)
RACHEL
OMG Dyl looks so sleazy
Please do the pose thing before you get drunk
“Wait,what are you supposed to be?”
It was the weekend after Halloween, which was the first day the team could have a party around the holiday. We were at Dylan’s teammate Gavin Korowski’s house, who hosted with his wife Lacey.
Lacey held the role I did back in L.A. As the captain’s wife, you’re responsible for holding the WAG group together, welcoming new members, and hosting a lot of parties.
And technically, she wasn’t the captain’s wife. The Rusties’ captain, Colton Jones, was notably single, and it was determined that Lacey, as alternate captain Gavin Korowski’s wife, would head the WAG group.
Kinda like the Vice President’s spouse being the First Lady or First Man.
Still, Lacey held the crown with grace, even though she tried to play it off like she was small potatoes. Her easygoing, friends-with-everybody personality suited her perfectly to the role. I wasn’t sure “drama” was in her vocabulary, or at least from what I could tell.
