Page 1 of Much Ado About Hockey

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JETT

“This is messed up, bro…”

Jett hung his head to calm the painful rumblings of his stomach, drawing in deep breaths to keep from puking on the park bench where he had taken refuge.

They cut him!

They cut him and another player from the team with zero notice. The coach said it was due to his ‘lack of enthusiasm on the ice’– but how were you supposed to get ‘enthusiastic’ about your team sucking?

They sucked – hard.

It wasn’t funny either.

Suckity-sucked…

He could think of so many other words, but he was trying to clean up his act for his younger brother. That phone call from his mother long ago had left him rattled and a changed man deep-down inside.

It was tough enough to hear your mom was pregnant when you were twenty-one and just starting your career. Knowing that his mother was getting her ‘freak’ on with her boyfriend was notthe details he needed – much less knowing it was going to turn an only child into an older sibling.

They had a heckuva age gap.

Jett just celebrated his twenty-ninth birthday and Elton (because his mother had a thing for the song ‘Bennie and the Jetts’)had just turned eight years old. He remembered getting picked on for his first name as a kid, so he always called his little brother ‘Big-E’ or ‘E.J.’ because the kid didn’t look like an ‘Elton’ any more than he looked like an airplane.

“I know you are upset, Jett…”

“I’m devastated,” Jett admitted, swallowing back bile as he spoke to the one person whose responsibility it was to get him another job quickly. He could not tell his younger brother that he’d been fired – not after hearing from his mother about how Elton was idolizing him and had posters all over his bedroom of his big brother. Apparently, the first day of school had E.J. wearing Jett’s hockey shirt and the silver chain that he’d given him.

He didn’t know what to get a young boy for his birthday – but making them ‘twins’ had done the trick, and neither Jett nor Elton took off their chains. It was a ‘bro-code’ between them.

“Look, this couldn’t come at a better time…”

“This is awful,” Jett nearly yowled – sounding between a cat about to bring up a hairball and one that just got his tail stepped on. He reared back from the phone, stunned disbelief pushing his words forward in a rushed manner. “Maybe you didn’t hear me, Julian? I gotcut…fired… ‘instantaneous unemployment’…tres mal! No more-o dinero,Comprende?”

… And heard his agent chuckle before the man spoke.

“Oh, I understand you,” Julian replied; his voice was a bit too perky for Jett’s raw emotions right now as he tried to figure out how he was going to let his little brother down. It wasn’t the money… well, itwas- but itwasn’t. The slight against theActon name publicly - ouch. There would be no hiding any of this as soon as the news broke… and nearly missed his agent’s next words. “So your Spanish is non-existent, but how is your French?”

“My French?” Jett parroted in disbelief – and groaned. “Maaaaan, did someone tell the media about my nerd award in high school? That’s really not cool – we’re talking salt in the proverbial gushing-wound…”

“Wait– you actuallydospeak French?”

“Four years of honor society in high school and a fat scholarship paid for my first two years of college – but I prefer to focus on hockey, bro. Hockey pays the bills for both of us, and I wasn’t cut from theFrenchteamtoday but a…”

“No, I know,” his agent interrupted quickly.

“Oh… then why did you ask if I could speak French?”

“There’s a new team in Quebec…”

“SAY WHAT?” Jett shouted, jumping to his feet. “I’m in, bruh! I can be on the next plane to Nova Scotia or wherev’s… you just send me the deets, and I’m there, dude. Can we announce it immediately? Whatcha need me to sign?”

“That’s my boy!” his agent crowed. “I’m so proud of how willing you are to make a change.”

“Heck yeah, bruh. Let’s do this. I’m outta here! Deuces!” Jett said, kissing his first two fingers on his free hand, holding it up like a middle finger toward the arena in the distance, and then pressing it on his cheek with an exaggerated motion. “I’m gonna mop them up on the ice when I play ‘em… and then show them what ‘enthusiasm’ freakin’ looks like.”

“Wonderful,” Julian laughed in approval and began to talk rapidly. “I’ll send you the contract right now, and we’ll go over anything you have a question about.”

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