Page 88 of The Bro-code

More importantly, our defense is on point tonight.

Cole and Jagger are an impenetrable wall in front of Tucker and work like a well oiled machine to defend our crease.

It’s a shutout, we win five-zero and I score a hat trick.

By the third period, Bridgeport has given up, and in front of their goal it’s practically a siege.

Jagger is in particularly great shape tonight and even gets to score a goal with a slap shot that makes our supporters erupt with chants of his name.

We return to our locker room exhausted but in high spirits, a far cry from the last two games.

“This.” Coach Harrison bellows. “This is what I was fucking talking about. THIS, is the team that took the championship last year and will defend our title this year. Well done, ladies.”

It’s the first time I see Coach smile since I came to campus. Even when I met with him last year when I decided to transfer here from South Carolina, all the Cove Knights coach had to offer were curt nods and a stony expression.

Now he looks around the locker room at each of us with an ear splitting grin.

“I don’t know what the fuck you guys did compared to last week,” he says, slapping Cole’s back so hard that the poor guy almost loses his balance, as he’s still in his skates. “But don’t you dare change one thing. I don’t care if what you did is sing the university anthem in a circle jerk, or eat food in one color only for the entire week. Just keep doing it. See you tomorrow bright and early for practice. Seven am.”

With those words and a few more slaps on random people’s backs, Coach Harrison leaves the locker room.

My teammates are all laughing and roughhousing as it’s clear that the celebration has already started, but I’m a little confused.

“What’s up, dude?” Cole asks. “You’re awfully quiet for someone who just scored a motherfucking hat trick.”

I run my hand through my sweaty hair. “I’m not sure I understood what Coach just said. Did he mean he’d see us on Monday morning at seven?”

Cole sighs. “No, you heard him right. Coach Harrison doesn’t believe in giving us a day off after a W. He might just have us stretch and watch some tape tomorrow because he isn’t an idiot and he doesn’t want to injure any of us, but the guy is intense.”

Topher intervenes with a loud laugh before I can say anything. “Intense? Let’s just call a puck a puck, and just say that Coach Harrison is a fucking psychotic asshole.”

Well, then.

Cole had warned me that Topher was salty about being suspended from the team last year, and about my recruitment since I took his starting spot. I didn’t expect him to be quite so vocal about it.

“We all know you and Coach don’t see things eye to eye,” Cole shrugs. “But yeah, between the stick and the carrot, Coach prefers the stick as a motivational tool.”

Tucker chimes in. “Yeah, if with stick, you mean a hockey stick jammed deep where the sun don’t fucking shine. Or am I the only one who remembers last year’s bag skating session?”

“Bag skating?” what the fuck did I get myself into?

“Yeah,” Topher confirms. “Some idiotic plan to teach us a lesson on how to be a team.”

Great.

I hope I didn’t leave a collegiate program with an asshole as a coach just to join a worse one.

“To be fair,” Jagger intervenes. “Coach might not be all warm and fuzzy, but last year we deserved every punishment he issued.”

By the way he’s looking at Topher, I guess he means Topher deserved it. Interesting.

But I have no chance to find out if my hunch is right, because Topher turns to Jagger with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

I don’t know Topher Mumford that well, but based on the few brush-ins we had in high school, I recognize that smile as his phony one. The Gamma president has always had this friendly veneer to cover his mean streak. For what I can remember, he played the same way on the ice, always tripping or hitting his opponents when the referees were distracted.

I’m ready for one of his douchy replies, but rather than sparring verbally, Topher pulls Jagger into a headlock.

“Let’s leave last year in the past, where it belongs,” Topher chuckles. “Come here, you horny motherfucker and tell us why we won tonight.”

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