Page 212 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
Coach K
JP has food poisoning and is being taken to emergency. I need you down here.
Now.
Me
Yes, Coach
AJ’s head whipped around and I stood. “What’s wrong?”
Oh fuck. But I was a professional, and this was my job. Sometimes you had to work with asshats. It was a part of life and I’d have to suck it up.
The chance of me playing was slim-to-none, anyway, so I pushed those butterflies away.
“JP’s sick. I have to go down in case Dean gets hurt. Which I hope he doesn’t.” I winced as Tenzin got slammed into the boards, then shoved the offending player hard.
I’d lost count of all the firsts, hits, and penalties. It was only the end of the second period.
AJ gave me a hard alpha stare. “You’ve got this. If you go in, show that fuckhead thatyou’rethe one who belongs in the PHL, not him.”
“Absolutely.” This would end like every other time–with me eating snacks in the equipment office. Part of me wanted to whack Austin with my stick. I wasn’t going in though. There’d never been a two-EBUG game, and we weren’t going to start tonight.
And I was okay with that.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Gwen
“In case you need to tape your stick.” Silas came into the family room, where I’d set up, and handed me some hot pink tape. Smirking.
“Thanks.” I had momentarily forgotten that I didn’t have the gear I usually brought to Knights’ games. I didn’t even have my ratty practice stuff.
No. I had my brand new hot pink gear. Because I thought today was a good day to be a smartass. I also didn’t have a stick, since my dads hadn’t bought me one, so for practice today I used the one I always did and kept there.
At least my pink gear passed Silas’ inspection. It was good stuff and while I wasn’t as comfortable in it as my usuals, at least everything had been broken in a bit. He’d been nice enough tofind new base layers and socks for me, so I didn’t have to wear my nasty shit.
Ty had forgotten hismasktoday. So I didn’t feel so bad about not having a stick. The one Silas had for me was nice. Itwasn’tpink. Hence the tape, I was sure.
I sat in the family room, partially dressed, doing my usual warm-ups. It was now intermission, and I didn’t want to disturb anyone and the snacks were better.
As I talked to some of the MASOs, I taped my stick up with the pink tape and watched the mascot entertain the crowd on the TV, in the corner. I might as well be pink and sparkly if I went out. Then again, the likelihood, even with JP in emergency, was slim.
At least JP would be okay.
Coach Kirov came in. “Get fully dressed. Coach Atkins wants you on the bench. Youareup for this?”
I gulped. Coach wanted me on thebench?What? I’d never gotten to sit on the bench before.
“Put me in, Coach.” This was my job. I could sit on a bench and wave at kids. I’d stuff some snacks into my pads.
“Good. Oh, you’re going to need this.” With a grin, Coach K tossed a bundle of black and silver fabric at me and left.
“I get to put one on?” I sucked in a breath,
AJ saw the bundle and put a hand to his heart. “Baby’s first jersey?”
I nodded and unfolded it, hands shaking. It was still warm from someone ironing the letters. My eyes teared. While I’d partially dressed out before, I never got to the point where I’d get to put the jersey on, let alonesitting on the bench.
