Page 71 of Ice Mechanic

“Call Theilan and Watson inside.” I tell Bobby. “Then stay out of sight for a bit.”

“Aye-aye, captain.”

The phone clicks off.

On screen, Gunner and Renthrow stop in front of the door to the locker room. Gunner is the first to notice my ‘Changing Room for the Jumping Diamonds’sign. He points to the paper and says something to Renthrow.

“Isn’t there a way to get audio?” I click around the security feed program, but none of the icons make sense. I went to school for hockey, not cyber security.

To be fair, I don’t know how to do the thing Ididtechnically get a degree for. Studying business administration was a way to keep mom off my back while I partied for four years.

How I scraped by in those classes that I never showed up for is a mystery that Icouldsolve… if I checked dad’s bank transactions. But some secrets are better left buried.

I’m determined to at least get a decibel of audio going but my phone rings, distracting me.

Thinking it’s Bobby, I answer without looking.

“Not yet, Bobby. I’ll call you when we get to phase three.”

“What’s ‘phase three’ and who’s Bobby?” Mom demands.

I startle and nearly drop the phone on the desk.

“Hello?” Mom squawks. “Chance?”

Gingerly, I hold the phone properly to my ear. “Mom?”

“What mischief are you getting into over there?”

“Me? I… I was… ah,” I cough loudly, “mom, I’m in the middle of something. Why’d you call?”

“Can’t a mother check on her son, the underwear model?”

I groan loudly. I’ve been so focused on April, the team, and doing everything I can to get back to the league, that Ididn’t think of what would happen if those pictures reached my parents.

“You saw?” I cringe.

“I waited and waited, thinkingsurelyChance will call with an explanation on why he’s parading around with his buttocks ablaze, butnooo,” she stresses, “I’d no choice but to pick up the phone and call you myself.”

“There was a bit of an accident…” Something on the screen distracts me. Theilan and Watson have joined Gunner and Renthrow in the hallway. They’re all heading to the second locker room.

“Accident? What accident?”

“Nothing too serious. But unfortunately, it happened in front of a news team.”

I set a six minute timer. I’ve been observing the WWW all week. On average, they only take about six minutes to shower.

Putting mom on speaker, I navigate to my messenger app and type out new instructions for Bobby. After I press ‘send’, the monitor picks up Bobby’s location. He’s on the ice, taking pictures of the dancers. The girls crowd him, pushing their cell phones at him and flashing practiced smiles.

“A news team? We should sue them! There’s such a thing as citizen’s privacy, you know.”

Bobby, answer your phone.

“Put your lawyers away, mom,” I mumble, checking the monitor. “We don’t need to sue anyone.”

“As a mother, it is my job to protect my son’s buttocks?—”

“Mom, can youstopsaying ‘buttocks’?Please?” I swipe my phone from the desk, sneak out of the security room and look both ways.

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