Page 16 of Unlovable Player

He sits back in his chair and smooths out his tie. “I’d like to try something for our game against Harvard, shake things up a little.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to try Huntington on the first line with you and Gray.”

Hayes shoots forward. “But Coach,I’mfirst line, that’s the line, me, Gray and Donno, you can’t change it now.”

Coach stays calm like always, his voice low and even. “It’s just an experiment Hayes. Good practise for when you’re playing pro next year.”

Hayes huffs and slumps back in his chair. If he bothered to look at me, he’d see me giving him the signal to calm the fuck down, even though I wanna go off just as much as he is right now.

Coach excuses Hayes and he practically storms out of the room, just short of slamming the door.

“Coach,” I say when he’s gone. “Is this some sort of punishment, because-”

“It’s not a punishment Donoghue, you’ll be playing in the NHL some day.”

I drop my eyes, because nothing is guaranteed, and he knows that, surely?

“This is just something you’re going to have to learn to deal with. You have to fight for your spot on the first line every game.”

“I know Coach.”

“I have faith in you as team captain to keep moral up, remind those gentlemen why we don’t get complacent.”

“Yes Coach.”

Hayes isn’tin the locker room when I go back in. The guys are looking to me for some sign of what was said in there. I ignore them for now and put my stuff in my bag with my back turned.

“What’s wrong with Hayes?” Jordan pipes up eventually.

“Yeah,” a few other guys chirp in.

“Coach wants to change up the first line, that’s all, just an experiment for our game against Harvard this Saturday.”

“What do you mean, change it up? Who’s he putting in? Is Hayes out?” Our second-line left-winger, Silver, asks.

“No one’s ‘out,’” I say. “Coach wants to give the new guy a chance to prove himself, that’s all.”

“New guy?”

Huntington’s head shoots up. “Moi?”

I had been silently praying he wouldn’t be a dick about this but… who was I kidding?

Everyone starts talking at once and I’m about to tell them all to calm the fuck down when Coach comes in and says one word. They all fall silent.

“I suppose your captain told you about our little experiment for the Harvard game on Saturday?”

A few tentative nods.

“Good, now everybody hurry up and get out, you don’t want to bump into the women’s team on their way to their locker room, they’ll only taunt you about their 5-0 win last night.”

We all do as Coach says and clear our shit out.

I have a business class,and unless he decides not to show up, Yale is gonna be there, probably sitting in my favorite seat.

I catch up to him just outside the building. I’m sure he pretends he doesn’t hear me calling his name.Asshole.

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