Page 124 of Brace and Chase

Eagle stumbles on his skates—something I’ve never seen him do—when Silas and Gab step onto the ice, carefully since they don’t have skates on.

I remember how Eagle greeted Charlotte—Silas’ older sister—and what happens this time couldn’t be more different.

Eagle’s face crumbles with too many emotions and then he shuts down and he’s like a statue. I’m not even sure he’s breathing while Gab gives the same introduction to the whole team. When they leave, Eagle goes over to Laney and talks too quietly for me to hear, but he rushes off the ice when Laney nods, and Nik goes after him.

Laney doesn’t protest, or tell Nik to come back, so I guess everyone knows something I don’t?

“They were best friends their whole lives,” Spiderman comes over and tells me. “Then Silas shattered his knee and Eagle went off to the Juniors without him. All we know is that Eagle hates talking about it or him.”

That makes things clear, I think sarcastically, but keep my mouth shut.

It’s none of my business.

After all, who knows if I’ll even be playing hockey next year?

We’ve been backin Vegas for two weeks, and since it’s April, shit is getting real with the playoffs getting closer.

Nik and I are good, solid as a wall on the ice, and just as in sync off it.

The whole team has been buzzing all day as we got ready for our game against Phoenix. If we win tonight, then we’ll have clinched a playoff spot for good.

I repeat the words as Spiderman lines up for a face off on our side of the ice. Sweat beads down my face but I tell myself just five minutes more.

Just five more and we can officially say we turned a losing season into another chance at glory.

The center forward for Phoenix slaps the puck to the net the second it hits the ice, and I watch in horror as it flies toward the top left corner.

Bear’s glove bats it away and then we’re off to the other side of the ice when the puck lands in front of Nik’s stick.

They stop us, so we rush back, then we stop them, and Laney calls a time out and sends the first line out. They battle for a minute, neither team getting any luck, and then it’s our third line out there, Brick doing a fantastic job, but it still doesn’t help us get any closer to finishing this.

Then Laney sends the first line back out, and I see the play forming in my mind before it actually happens.

Bates steals the puck right from the left wing’s stick and flicks it over to Jules, who barely catches it as he has adefenseman all over him. But he manages to send it to center ice where Benny is waiting.

And man, does that boy fly across the ice. It’s him and the goalie, no time for anyone else to get there since he somehow managed to shake off the defenseman who was trailing him.

It’s simple and beautiful, right in the five hole but so fast you can barely see it.

Benny jumps about a foot in the air and then he’s buried under our teammates.

“You two,” Laney shouts, and drags my attention away from the celly. He’s pointing at Nik and me. “You better impersonate a fucking wall in front of Bear, you get me?”

“Fuck yeah,” I shout, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

There’s only one minute left on the clock, and Phoenixwants it.

They go hard on the attack right away, but we stay put, not letting them get near the net, and our baby forwards are all on defense too.

The crowd of our fans start counting down the seconds, and I can already taste the victory when they get to two seconds and Phoenix’s right wing slaps the puck beautifully to the right side of the net.

Bear’s too far away, having just defended the left side, and so am I.

I see it happen in slow motion, the puck flying so fast that no one could ever stop it, but then I see Nik, crossingover to stand right in the puck’s path. He crouches and lifts his stick to try and bat it away, but he’s not fast enough.

The puck bounces off his helmet and lands right by Milkman’s skates when the horn goes off and the game is over.

Nik’s on the ice.

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